Monday, Sept. 16, 2002 | 9:31 a.m.
VegasBeat appears Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Reach Timothy McDarrah at (702) 259-4096, or by e-mail at [email protected].
Inside the Media Center at Mandalay Bay Events Center before the Oscar De La Hoya vs. Fernando Vargas fight on Saturday night, I was trying to decide between a second Dove Bar or Haagen Dazs.
On the overhead TV, sportscaster Jim Lampley was saying that tickets for the fight were so hard to get that even Jack Nicholson had been turned away.
Then, during the prefight celebrity introductions from the ring inside the Events Center, the last name called was ... Jack Nicholson.
I didn't see him anywhere.
I asked some of the famous faces around ringside if they had spotted the Academy Award-winning star.
Since Jack is a Lakers fan, I tried hoops legend Jerry West. Nope, he hadn't seen him.
Then came the boxers. "I love Las Vegas -- but I haven't seen Nicholson," George Foreman told me. John Ruiz, Evander Holyfield and Sugar Ray Leonard also did not see Jack.
(I also asked Eddie Murphy if he was contemplating a "Pluto Nash" sequel. He pretended not to hear me.)
I figured supermodel Giselle Bundchen wouldn't who know Jack was, so I just stared at her for a while.
After the fight I asked promoter Bob Arum where Jack was. But Arum had to go tend to Vargas, who was about to be taken away in an ambulance.
Then I wandered into the post-fight party at the Border Grill. Pop superstar Brian McKnight hadn't seen him.
Neither had Damon Wayans, who graciously posed for pictures with hundreds of fans.
Drew Carey wanted to talk about his laser eye surgery -- he doesn't wear those black horn-rimmed specs anymore.
No one had seen Jack. OK. Hyberbole at a prizefight. I am used to it.
Enough reporting, then -- time to have some fun.
I spied a breathtaking woman in the requisite little black dress. She was sitting alone near the buffet table and had clearly had a few drinks.
"Excuse me -- mind if I sit down here?" I gingerly asked the raven-haired beauty. She looked sort of familiar, but so does everyone at events like this.
The woman turned, and looked me up and down.
"Sure, sit right here," "Practice" actress Lara Flynn Boyle said, patting the seat next to her.
"Jackpot!" I thought. Boyle was Nicholson's most recent girlfriend. If anyone knew Where Waldo Was, it was her.
We chatted about her disappointment that Vargas had lost, and she related many of her sightings of De La Hoya at Los Angeles nightclubs.
I tried to get her to tell me the fate of "Practice" colleague Lindsay Dole (Kelli Williams), who is District Attorney Helen Gamble's (Boyle) best friend on the show and was convicted of murder in last season's finale. No dice.
I was scared to ask her about Jack out of fear she'd storm off.
I really wanted to ask her for her phone number.
"Lara, can I ask you something?" I stammered. I contemplated a marriage proposal.
"Why is it that in the introductions they mentioned Jack Nicholson -- and he isn't even here -- and they didn't mention you?"
She cocked her head and her piercing eyes started to bore through me. Then she started to laugh.
"Jack who?" she asked.
Debbie says
Have a question for entertainment goddess Debbie Reynolds? Ask her Tuesday when she appears on Ira David Sternberg's popular radio show, "Las Vegas Notebook," on KDWN 720-AM.
She appears for an hour starting at noon.
Key-ed up
Siegfried and Roy are heading to New York this week to lead Saturday's 44th annual German-American Day Parade on Fifth Avenue.
They are also slated to get keys to the city from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and will celebrate mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral with Cardinal Edward Egan.
E!-gads
Anyone else astounded after watching Anna Nicole Smith Sunday night on E!?
That show was certainly what Philo Farnsworth had in mind when he invented the boob (pun greatly intended) tube in 1927.
Several episodes were filmed earlier this year at The Rio, which with Harrah's is smartly turning reality shows into a cottage industry.
Harrah's and Rio just waved a happy goodbye to producers of "Elimi-Date," a syndicated show that taped five shows in Las Vegas.
The camera followed the nubile young contestants around to such Rio hot spots as the VooDoo Lounge and Club Rio, and View at Harrah's.
Can't buy national exposure like that, short of spending six figures on prime-time commercials.
And the shows tape during off-peak periods, so they don't displace any guests.
The Rio is also hosting "Oblivious," a "Candid Camera"-type show on TNN hosted by comic Regan Burns, and is in negotiations with several other production companies.
In other reality TV news, "Real World Las Vegas" debuts Tuesday night on MTV; the episodes were filmed across the street from The Rio, at the Palms.
Isn't that special?
The brilliant Dana Carvey is coming to town. But it is opening act Stephen Sorrentino who has his work cut out for him.
Now starring in his own show, "Voices In My Head," at Riviera, he'll literally have to jump in a car after his own show and speed over to the Paris, where Carvey opens Nov. 15.
"I did a similar thing when I opened for Patti LaBelle a few weeks ago," Sorrentino told us.
"I have an assistant who drives very, very fast. Don't worry, I'll make it, man," said Sorrentino, who does a killer Elton John impersonation.
That's Italian!
Rio headliners The Scintas -- Frank, Joe, Christine and honorary Scinta Peter O'Donnell -- were named Italian Family of the Year at the 22nd annual San Gennaro Italian Festival in Las Vegas over the weekend.
Growing up as I did a few blocks from the real San Gennaro Festival on Mulberry Street in New York's Little Italy, a visit to the local festival did serve to alleviate the occasional pangs for home.
Check out ...
Oscar Goodman roaring down the Strip on Saturday morning atop a three-wheel Harley-Davidson, to mark Las Vegas Bike Fest ... Carl Bell of the band Fuel, who just bought a house in Green Valley, describing it in detail to bandmate Kevin Miller at Miller's private birthday party at Studio 54 at MGM Grand ... Local entertainers Clint Holmes, Sheena Easton, Bob Anderson, Pat Caddick, Lance Burton, Bill Fayne and Jonathan Hunt all breaking bread together late-night at Rosemary's ...
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