Friday, April 4, 2003 | 5:26 a.m.
The most expensive seat in town isn't for Celine or "O" or any other stage show. But it is for a good cause.
One of the year's most eagerly anticipated, best-attended and celebrity-filled Las Vegas events is the May 7 Alzheimer's benefit at the Postrio restaurant inside The Venetian.
Tickets are $1,500 each, and it is already sold out.
The star of the show will be Muhammad Ali. Kitchen duties that night are being handled by two of the most high-profile chefs on earth, Alain Ducasse and Wolfgang Puck.
Mirage President Bobby Baldwin, Kenny Epstein, Maddy Graves and Larry Ruvo are organizing the soiree.
Vegas fixtures such as Angie Dickinson, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Paul Anka and Dr. Ruth Westheimer are on the list of invitations.
Robin Leach will host a live auction. When he did a similar event in Arizona last month he coaxed bids of $250,000 for four Celine tickets, $100,000 for a tennis lesson from Andre Agassi and $120,000 for a dinner with comic Robin Williams; the winning dinner bids came from baseball stars Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson.
Leach and Billy Crystal brought the house down with their hilarious back-and-forth put-downs.
Look for similar bidders, items to bid on and famous faces in VegasBeat.
The evening's beneficiaries include the Las Vegas Alzheimer's Association, Keep Memory Alive and the Lou Ruvo Alzheimer's Center.
Apparently, Celine is pretty insecure for a woman who has sold 150 million records.
We hear from a Park Place source that there is a clause in Diva Las Vegas' contract that prohibits Caesars Palace from booking any other female singers while she is in residence.
A Team Celine member told us contract details were private, and would not confirm or deny anything regarding Celine's deal with Caesars.
There were lots of famous foursomes out at the Royal Links Golf Club on East Vegas Valley Road Friday for the "Angels for Babies" benefit tourney.
One particularly Vegas-centric group was made up of comic Sandy Hackett, producers Joey Battig and Jonathan Scott and Jeff Lester -- who is Susan Anton's husband.
Other celebs spotted on the fairway: "Saving Private Ryan" star Tom Sizemore, George Lopez, Kevin Dillon, Daniel Baldwin, Jackee Harry, Kevin Sorbo and Ron Harper.
The event was a benefit for the Several Sources Foundation, which operates five shelters for at-risk teens in New Jersey.
"We're now focusing on opening a teen shelter in Las Vegas," event chairman Stephen Baldwin told VegasBeat at the pairings party at The Mirage Thursday night. "That is why we are all here this weekend. This was our first Vegas event, but we plan to make it a regular thing."
In addition, Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joe Mantegna, Tobey Maguire and Richard Kind were expected at the awards dinner Friday night, where Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt was to present the charity with a proclamation.
April, er, March Madness concludes Monday night. Unlike the Super Bowl, which is celebrated in Las Vegas with a party on every corner, there seems to be a dearth of viewing parties for the NCAA hoops final.
The only event we saw advertised is at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel. Its "Big Dance Finale" party, complete with cheerleaders and a betting window, starts at 5 p.m.
When you look good, you tend to feel good. When you feel good, all kind of positive things can start to happen.
That was Roni Josef's thinking when the owner of the self-named salon at the Stratosphere this week gave several thousand dollars worth of goods and services to Safe Nest.
The donation was an early Mother's Day gift to the facility, which offers a variety of assistance to victims of domestic violence.
Vinyl!
At the Vanity Fair-sponsored benefit for CineVegas at Tod's inside the Forum Shops at Caesars Thursday night, VegasBeat saw actual records being played once again.
The evening's disc jockey, Vegas scenester Michael Shulman, even brought along a vintage copy of Monti Rock III's 1975 classic Disco Tex & His Sex-O-Lettes album that had Rock's top-selling "Get Dancin' " single.
But, for a change, it was a Las Vegas party where Rock himself wasn't in attendance.
Drats. We were hoping for a singalong.
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