Columnist Kate Maddox: Houston up for PETA showdown

Kate Maddox

Tuesday, June 19, 2001 | 8:26 a.m.

Kate Maddox's column appears Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 259-2309 or kmaddox@lasvegassun.com.

Whitney Houston isn't backing down from her scheduled appearance at tonight's BET Awards show. The singer, who will face a red-carpet PETA protest outside Paris Las Vegas, plans to beat the animal rights' group at their own game.

Well, kinda.

According to the New York Post, Houston will be sporting a waist-length mink coat to the event -- one that has already been treated with spray paint.

Now I don't know when designer graffiti became all the rage, maybe I was sick that minute, but apparently it is. Houston's fur ensemble will be covered with blue, pink and purple paint, in a nod to urban chic.

The "genius" behind said ruin-the-mink idea is hot new designer Paul Chan, who has named the thing the "PETA Coat." Something tells me this will be a red carpet showdown worthy of paparazzi frenzy. The celebrity arrivals begin outside the hotel, under the Arc de Triomphe, at 4:30 p.m. If you're interested in joining PETA's brigade, show up by 4 p.m.

Wayne Baruch can tell you there is life after Las Vegas. Baruch, who brought "Notre Dame de Paris" to Paris Las Vegas in January 2000 only to see it close seven months later, has just landed a job as chief operating officer of the Recording Academy (also known as the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences).

Baruch, a die-hard champion of the dismal "Notre Dame" (love story or not, it was a dull, monotonous production -- trust me, the two times I suffered through it I thought my head was going to explode), will now have a hand in who wins Grammy Awards.

With Baruch's new career move, we can only hope that rumors of a "Return to Notre Dame: The Bell Tower Sequel" will die just like poor old Quasimodo.

Julia Roberts reportedly found something she liked here after all of her recent Las Vegas movie shoots: deluxe RVs. The Academy Award-winning actress is rumored to have fancied a number of high-end road trekkers, so much so that she and beau Benjamin (don't call me Ben) Bratt apparently came back to town to pick up one themselves.

See, I can't really picture one of Hollywood's royal couples tooling around the United States in a custom RV, but a source in Los Angeles hears that this is how the duo are really going to spend part of their summer vacation.

Pricewise it might make sense. Roberts was reportedly asking after the top-of-the-line models -- with Jacuzzis, stereo systems and gold-plated trimmings. And those aren't your grandpa's RVs. The newer models start at around $300,000 and can top out at over $1 million. Happy trails.

Sean Combs/Puff Daddy/P-Diddy/No One Cares Anymore was in town this weekend. The Puffster stayed at one of the Rio's fancy Palazzo villas with a high-rolling pal. Combs played it low-key, reportedly still smarting from his break-up with J-Lo -- a moniker he gave the actress/singer before she dumped him for one of her backup dancers. Poor Puffy Wuffy/Piddy Diddy.

Even the losers get lucky sometimes. Tom Petty added nuptials to his recent Las Vegas list of things to do. Petty, who performed two shows at the Hard Rock Hotel earlier this month, spent his third evening in town getting hitched to longtime girlfriend, Dana York.

Petty's official website described the wedding as a "small, very intimate" 'do with just family and close friends.