Friday, Oct. 4, 2002 | 9:27 a.m.
The Internet is hardly a bastion of reliability or good taste.
There are several new websites with local themes which do little to add to the online canon.
Example: Oddsmakers in Las Vegas post numbers on everything from sporting events to presidential elections. One topic that is generally taboo is thermonuclear war. Not anymore, thanks to the Web.
A new site allows surfers to enter a pool as to when the United States will bomb Iraq. Two dollars -- Visa and MasterCard accepted -- allows you to submit a date and time. If you win, you get the pot. It was several hundred dollars as of Thursday night.
The site's prediction is midnight on Nov. 6, which is a fairly good guess (if one had to make one) as that is the day following Election Day.
Then there are several sites focusing on candidates for various Nevada offices that are full of information -- and images -- that give new meaning to the word "scurrilous."
The most entertaining and least offensive is probably Internethitman.com (motto: "Taking back America one politican at a time").
Another Web address features sexually explicit images -- likely created in Adobe Photoshop -- of a certain female candidate for Nevada lieutenant governor.
Finally, while I don't remember much from the First Amendment law class Benno Schmidt and Tony Lewis taught at Columbia University, I do know enough not to reprint the staggering list of alleged broken commandments by Dario Herrera and Jon Porter that are on a pair of websites featuring the 3rd Congressional District candidates.
Carted off
Michael Jackson has been at Four Seasons for an extended stay, but he had to change rooms this week when fans started showing up at his door.
Apparently tired of hoofing it from place to place inside the hotel, Jackson also had a golf cart delivered for his personal use.
Problem is, according to a hotel source who preferred keeping his job to allowing VegasBeat to use his name, the delivery folks could not keep quiet about it.
"They told people exactly where Jackson was staying, and people started to sneak up to his floor," the source said.
"So after the first fan showed up, it was decided that he move for security purposes."
And since Jackson, his children and his entourage take up several rooms, the move ended up being an all-day production.
Officially, the hotel does not confirm or deny who might or might not be registered, and it didn't when I called asking them about Jackson and his golf cart.
Good golly
Comedienne Rita Rudner has been called many things, but until now, mother was not one of them. Well, as she says, not just mother.
Anyway ...
Rudner and her husband/producer Martin Bergman, have adopted an infant daughter, Molly.
The child is the couple's first, although they do have a sheepdog mutt they adopted, Bonkers, a one-time star of the Strip show "Sooper-dog." They took the pup in after it was hit by a car 12 years ago.
"We thought that Bonkers would be sort of jealous of the new addition, but he has adjusted magnificently," Rudner told VegasBeat.
Rudner is still performing nightly at New York-New York.
Meanwhile, her husband's Halloween-themed improv show, "Boo!" is offering a special two-for-one admission this month for Nevada residents and those with a military ID.
Full plate
Had someone wanted to do severe damage to the Las Vegas restaurant scene, he should have been at Roy's on East Flamingo Road on Wednesday for the Epicurean Awards introductory luncheon.
Among the dignitaries who took time out from a busy afternoon to join Las Vegas Life Publisher Rick Becker to roll out the ballots for the fourth annual contest were: Nobu's Joanne Takahashi; Maureen Crampton of the Forum Shops at Caesars; Kirk Offerle of Jazzed Cafe; Mercedes Warrick of Ethel M; Prime's Perry Bruno; Roy's General Manager Roy Saunders; Bellagio master mixologist Tony Abou-Ganin; Desert Passage's Wendy Albert; Todd Clore from Bally's Sterling Brunch; Mary Jane Jarvis and Andre Rochat from Andre's and Alize; Renoir's Alessandro Stratta; Gregory Verge from Marche Bacchus; Tom Kaplan, managing partner of the Las Vegas Wolfgang Puck eateries; Kerry Simon, Michael McGraw and Elizabeth Blau from Simon at the Hard Rock Hotel; the Rosemary's Res taurant contingent of Wendy and Michael Jordan and Maggie Bock; and Linda Robinson, wife of Uni! versity of Nevada, Las Vegas football coach John Robinson.
Ballots with 21 categories, ranging from Best Wine List to Best Restaurant to Best Service to Best Power Lunch, are inside copies of Las Vegas Life. Winners will be announced in the February issue.
Yes, Las Vegas Life and the Sun newspaper you are reading are members of the Greenspun Media Group. However, there is little debate that the Epicurean Awards have evolved into one of the most prestigious culinary prizes in the state.
Hard to swallow
Tom Gamboa, the Kansas City Royals' first-base coach who was assaulted recently by two crazed fans in Chicago, wasn't able to put up much of a fight when he was taken by surprise.
But that's not to say he is anything less than a real man.
When he was a roving instructor with the San Diego Padres a few years ago, Gamboa joined Las Vegas Sun sportswriter Brian Hilderbrand and then-Las Vegas Stars play-by-play man Ken Korach (now the voice of the Oakland Athletics and the UNLV men's basketball team) for a local golf outing. After several holes, Gamboa asked his partners if they had any chewing tobacco, because he had left his back at the hotel.
When they said no, Gamboa bought a couple of stogies from the clubhouse -- and then proceeded to unravel them and stuff the tobacco between his cheek and gum.
Now that's a tough guy.
Diva training
Kelly Clarkson got a taste of the flip side of fame when she left Las Vegas for Los Angeles after the "American Idol" concert taping.
According to the Oct. 14 and Oct. 21 double issue of US magazine, which hits newsstands today, she stormed off a jam-packed Southwest Airlines flight when she couldn't sit next to her two closest friends from the show, Justin Guarini and Tamyra Gray.
Flight attendents then reportedly shut the door behind her, but as the plane was about to leave the gate the door was reopened and the airline made an announcement asking if anyone wanted to change seats because "we have three passengers who need to sit together."
After some shuffling, Clarkson reboarded, to a chorus of boos from the other passengers.
Radio waves
VegasBeat today begins a regular fortnightly gig on KNUU 970-AM (K-NEWS). Set your alarm clocks for 3:30 p.m.
This afternoon, we're on right after "Taxi" legend Tony Danza -- who continues to headline through the weekend at The Orleans.
Don't touch that dial.
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