VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: Vegas has a brush with Crest

Friday, Dec. 20, 2002 | 4:48 a.m.

In a culture where there are celebrity chefs, hairstylists-to-the-stars and designer nursery schools, why shouldn't terminal diseases have bold-faced names attached to them, too?

Nowadays if you don't have a celeb -- usually a paid endorser -- attached to your cause, it is increasingly challenging to hold a successful fund-raiser.

Debbie Reynolds champions relief from bladder disorders, while Danny Glover's cause is anemia. Rob Lowe gets paid to make febrile neutropenia (a form of cancer that affects children) a household term and Ben Affleck does likewise for ataxia-telangiectasia.

Sometimes celebrities work with causes for no charge, generally in cases they have a personal interest, such as Michael J. Fox with Parkinson's disease or Loni Anderson with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (her parents both died from the affliction).

Refreshingly, Olive Crest offers little in terms of paid Hollywood clout, but plenty in terms of providing actual help to a group in need.

The Los Angeles-based organization that offers support to abused children and their families had a low-key coming out party at The Rio last week as part of a push to become more active in the Las Vegas Valley.

Doug Sanderson, the vice president of Olive Crest's Board of Trustees, was joined by Las Vegas names Clint Holmes and Christine Scinta, and Theresa and David Foster -- a couple who have taken in 15 foster kids -- in announcing the agency's first Las Vegas fund-raiser would be a June 21 golf event at Rio Secco Golf Club in Henderson.

It'll be called "Fore the Children."

Next time he goes out, it doesn't matter if Mike Tyson leaves home without it -- because American Express is suing him for not paying his bill.

In a suit filed Monday in Clark County District Court, American Express claims the former world heavyweight champ -- and current Las Vegas resident -- stopped paying the monthly minimum on his account.

So now the company is after the full balance, or $35,995.80, plus late fees, interest and court costs.

A spokesman for Tyson did not immediately return calls, nor did Reno attorney Bridget Robb Peck, who is American Express's lawyer of record in the suit.

About two dozen local celebrities are going to be on Barbara Kenig's radio show "Deep Dark Secrets" on KLAV 1230-AM tonight.

Such folks as Butterbean, Nate Tannenbaum, Monti Rock III, Cantor Daniel Friedman and Playboy playmate and "X" star Rebecca Scott will share their secret holiday wishes.

David Copperfield is working on a new trick.

He told VegasBeat on Friday that he is working on a unique illusion: He plans to pluck a female from the audience, impregnate her and then have her give birth onstage 90 minutes later. He'll debut the trick "in about nine months," he said.

Copperfield will be at the MGM Grand's Hollywood Theatre from Tuesday until Jan. 1, doing as many as four shows per day.

He is introducing an illusion based on his grandfather's dream of winning the lottery. At one point there may be copious amounts of cash onstage.

"I create my magic based on people's dreams, such as the lottery. Few people I know wake up and dream of making an elephant disappear," Copperfield told us.

Light co-owner Andrew Sasson is back in Las Vegas.

He was in New York this week for a dinner party tossed by his old flame, publicity princess Lizzie Grubman. He broke bread at Cipriani 42nd Street with guests Bianca Jagger, Naomi Campbell, Ivana Trump and Carson Daly.

Now Sasson is planning a birthday party for Marklen Kennedy, one of the engines that make the club at Bellagio one of the most exclusive in town.

Kennedy's birthday is Dec. 31, which is of course New Year's Eve. So his party will take place after midnight on Dec. 30.

That way, he can have the party on the right day but not interfere with New Year's Eve revelry.

Tough life, that party crowd.

The Three Amigos are in Las Vegas today.

Former Denver Broncos players Vance Johnson, Ricky Nattiel and Mark Jackson -- John Elway's favorite targets in the mid 1980s -- will be at the Caesars Palace Race and Sports Book to meet and greet bettors.

I am not surprised to see that no former New York Jets are part of the series of visiting superstar athletes from that era.