VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: Billboard shindig a passable success

Monday, Dec. 9, 2002 | 9:33 a.m.

VegasBeat appears Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the Sun. Timothy McDarrah can be reached at tim@lasvegassun.com or at (702) 259-4096.

It is so hard sometimes to get a good mix of people to come to your party.

So, straight from the desk of the "If You Want Something Done Right, Then Do It Yourself" department," VegasBeat is proud to present Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst.

Sunday night at Studio 54 inside the MGM Grand, during the pre-party for tonight's "Billboard Music Awards," we came across a late-arriving Durst literally carrying a stack of invitations to a little private post-Billboard soiree he's tossing at ghostbar.

On Saturday night Durst and Wes Scantlin, Paul James Phillips, Doug Ardito and Greg Upchurch of Puddle of Mudd -- the first band Durst signed to his new Flawless label -- were doing the same thing at Rain and a few of the restaurants at the Palms.

Most of the invitations went to drop-dead gorgeous women; others went to passing celebrities they saw shuffling around the Palms, including Roger Clemens, Nelly and JC Chasez, who were eating at N9NE.

Whenever a female would rebuff an invitation, Scantlin and Durst would laugh and sing "She Hates Me," Puddle of Mudd's smash hit single.

It didn't happen too often.

Also at Studio 54 on Sunday, Moby was on hand to accept a pair of early awards, for Best Electronic Artist and Best Electronic Album.

Nickelback, Ashanti, Nelly and Puddle of Mudd also nabbed early statues. The highlights for the rockin' crowd -- which included Montel Williams, Barry (Greg Brady) Williams, Tia Carrera (touting her January Playboy magazine cover appearance), Jillian Barbarie, Ryan Seacrest, Raven Symone, Primary Colors, Chyna, Nivea and Tyson Beckford -- were a pair of special performances.

One was when Darryl McDaniel -- DMC from the groundbreaking rappers Run-DMC -- took the stage with Moby.

Joseph "Run" Simmons is expected to appear with McDaniel at the Billboard show tonight (it airs on KVVU Channel 5, tape-delayed at 8) for a tribute to Jay Mizell, the third member of their group, who was recently shot to death in a New York recording studio.

The other was a performance by t.A.T.u., a pair of teenage lesbians from Moscow -- real names Lena Katina and Julia Volkova -- who perform dressed as Catholic shoolgirls.

Everyone in the room raised their drinks and hollered when the girls embraced and passionately kissed onstage during one of their songs.

"That has to be illegal," opined Robin Leach, who had just walked into the club after completing his red-carpet duties for Fox.

Illegal? Underage Russian lesbian roommates (we asked) in short red plaid skirts making out on a stage in front of an alcohol-soaked celebrity crowd inside a Strip casino?

That's not illegal. Baby, that's Las Vegas!

George who?

Gianna and James "Bucky" Buchanan hosted their annual Toys for Tots holiday party at their spectacular Sunrise Mountain home Saturday night.

He, of course, is one of the nation's most respected criminal defense attorneys and the missus is a Nevada deputy attorney general.

With friends like theirs, it was natural that the talk turned to politics.

The best of (many, many) rumors VegasBeat heard making the rounds: Republicans are again going to back Bush for president in 2008.

Jeb Bush, that is -- son of one President George Bush and brother of another.

The Florida governor is riding high after winning re-election in November. The president's approval rating, meanwhile, is starting to drop as the economy falters, and the crisis in Iraq with Saddam Hussein and in the caves of Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden remain unresolved.

Strange things do happen in politics.

Out of Puck

The phrase "staying on message" usually applies to politicians. But no one did it better last week than Wolfgang Puck.

When VegasBeat asked Puck about his wife and business partner Barbara Lazaroff filing for divorce in a Los Angeles court over the Thanksgiving holiday, Puck was somewhat reticent to discuss it.

His spokesman, David Beckwith (he used to be Dan Quayle's mouthpiece) later said it was an amicable parting and that both would continue to work together in their $300 million food empire.

"It's not going to affect their business," he said.

However, Puck would not shut the oven door, so to speak, when it came to talking about his new cookbook and the 10th anniversary of Spago in Las Vegas.

Puck penned personalized greetings to more than 2,500 fans who last week attended book signings for "Live, Love, Eat!" at his original Las Vegas eatery, the Spago branch at the Forum Shops at Caesars, as well as events at Postrio (The Venetian) and the Wolfgang Puck Cafe (MGM Grand.)

(Puck was too polite to say that when Emeril Lagasse was in Las Vegas for a book signing last month, newspaper ads warned fans that Lagasse would not personalize books -- he'd just scribble his name on the cover page.)

Puck also found time to film a new commercial for Vegas.com's new marketing campaign.

After a big private party at Spago on Wednesday night to mark his 10th anniversary, Puck heads off to the Spago at the Four Seasons Resort in Maui, Hawaii, to finish his publicity tour.

VegasBits ...

Today is the 8th Annual Lexus Southern Highlands First Tee Celebrity Classic golf tourney, hosted by the new Milwaukee Brewers pitching coach -- and Las Vegas resident -- Mike Maddux. Joining him to benefit junior golf in the Las Vegas Valley will be Garry Goett (who helped secure use of the course), Fletcher Jones Lexus general manager Bobby McCrary, past and present ballplayers Greg Maddux, Rollie Fingers, Duane Ward, Wally Joyner, Ryan Klesko and Tyler Houston, who was the 1989 USA Today High School Player of the Year after hitting .485 for Valley High School in Las Vegas ... Conceptual artist Jeff Koons speaks at UNLV Tuesday night at the Judy Bayley Theatre as part of professor Robert Wysocki's enlightening Visiting Artist Program. The talk is free and open to the public ... An editorial cartoon by the S un's award-winning Mike Smith was reprinted in the Sunday New York Times as one of the best that appeared anywhere in the nation last week. The panel focused on the controversy surrounding the exclusion of female members at the Augusta National golf club ... Political type Uri L. Clinton demonstrating he is not a one-trick pony as he knowledgeably discussed modern art at the Steve Kaufman show at the exclusive Stirling Club on Sunday afternoon ... E! Channel hostess, calendar girl and swimsuit designer Brooke Burke was up late Friday night playfighting with Ultimate Fighters Josh "Baby Face" Barnett and Chuck Liddle and then flirting with Chi McBride, the tough-guy principal on "Boston Public," at ghostbar.