VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: LV might have Madonna in its palms

Thursday, April 10, 2003 | 10:39 a.m.

Who's that girl?

It's Madonna -- and she might soon strike a surprise pose at a Las Vegas club near you.

If you live near the Palms, that is.

The Material Mom's new album, "American Life," is set for an April 22 release.

She will perform live that day at MTV's Times Square studio and then take questions from an audience made up of contest winners.

The publicity blitz is over the borderline -- after MTV she'll appear on "The Late Show With David Letterman," "Dateline" and "The Today Show."

As VegasBeat reported Wednesday, her record label, Warner Bros., has already booked the Palms nightclub Rain in the Desert for a release party on April 24.

Now, according to sources at Madonna's Maverick Records and at the N9NE group (which runs Rain in the Desert), plans are being made for her to express herself before a live audience at Rain.

"Nothing is final until she takes the stage, but it looks like it'll happen," a Los Angeles source told VegasBeat. A N9NE group executive said he would not confirm or deny that Madonna would be taking a working holiday in Las Vegas.

Nor was it immediately clear if the audience would be invited guests or if tickets would be sold to the general public.

Also that evening, Madonna might take in the NBC sitcom "Will & Grace." She makes a guest appearance on that night's episode. In it, she kisses one of the lead female characters.

Stage show

Daniel C. Van Epp presented a $12,500 check from the Howard Hughes Corporation to the Nellis Family Support Team this week.

Van Epp is president of the Hughes Corporation. The Nellis Family Support Team is a private organization that supports the airmen and families of the base.

The jingle will be used to buy a portable stage, which will enable the base to take advantage of numerous offers for free shows from Vegas entertainers.

Welcome back

Freddie "Boom Boom" Washington is coming to town.

Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, one of the co-stars of the old sitcom, "Welcome Back Kotter," is scheduled to attend the premiere of the independent film he stars in, "The Streetsweeper," at Brenden Theatres at the Palms tonight.

"Streetsweeper" tells the story of a promising opera singer who gives up that career to support his family as a street sweeper. The executive producer is Las Vegas resident Tony Carro.

It'll be the second red-carpet gala at the Palms in less than a week. Last Friday night George Maloof hosted a screening of the new FX show, "Lucky," starring John Corbett.

Bar belle

Stranger things have happened, but not many.

Sun sports columnist Ron Kantowski was watching CNN Wednesday and had a terrific idea of what to do with the statue of Saddam Hussein that was toppled in Iraq.

"You know (the Mandalay Bar bar) Red Square? It has the headless statue of Lenin? Someone ought to open up a bar next door called Half in the Bag-hdad and put up the Saddam statue."

New Vegas City

The New York restaurant and nightclub invasion into Las Vegas continues.

Food Network Chef Bobby Flay is planning to open a Vegas restaurant in the fall, possibly at Caesars Palace. And club and restaurant guru Steve Hanson is about to strike a deal to open a place at MGM Grand as it pushes forward with its new hip, happening night-scene whirl.

And another

Food & Wine magazine's May issue has its annual compilation of the nation's top 50 restaurants.

Of course, Las Vegas is represented. Julian Serrano's Picasso at Bellagio and Alex Stratta's Renoir at The Mirage are on the list.

So is "Wolfgang Puck's millionth restaurant," the newest Spago, at Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea in Hawaii. The venerable culinary mag calls the place a "stunner," referring to both its "audacious" sea decor and its "fabulous" Pacific Rim menu.

One thing about Puck -- he might have a lot of restaurants (including five in Las Vegas), but he sure seems to work hard to keep the quality sky high at all of them.

VegasBits

Britney Spears didn't sit near Jeffrey Katzenberg when they saw Celine at Caesars last week. But they did hook up afterward for drinks at Terrazza ...

Rodney Dangerfield has finally sold his third-floor Regency Towers apartment, for $275,000 ...

The first show of the season at the Skin Pool Lounge at the Palms will be on May 16, featuring former Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir and his new band, Ratdog ...

MGM prez Terry Lanni says that he is, in fact, building a new home in Las Vegas, not buying an existing abode, as misreported in another newspaper ...

Casting call: John Robert Powers on West Charleston Boulevard is holding auditions this weekend with Joseph Middleton for a secret upcoming film project. Middleton has cast talent for "Legally Blonde" and "American Pie," among other films. Call 878-7300 to schedule an audition time ...

Longtime Caesars Palace public relations representative Margaret Kurtz is out. Neither Kurtz nor Park Place were talking about it Wednesday ...

Jackie Gaughan is gone, but obviously not forgotten. VegasBeat referred to him, instead of son Michael Gaughan, as head of Coast Casinos in Wednesday's column.

From Sun wires

Low-carbohydrate diet promoter Dr. Robert Atkins remained hospitalized in extremely serious condition following surgery for severe head injuries he suffered in a fall on an icy sidewalk, his spokesman said.

A colleague rushed Atkins, 72, to New York Weill Cornell Medical Center after he slipped and fell Tuesday outside the Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine, spokesman Richard Rothstein said.

"He was negotiating the snow and ice and failed in that negotiation," Rothstein said.

The extent of Atkins' impairment was unknown, he said.

"He's in recovery now, and the doctors are telling us that it will be a day or two days or three days before we have the answers to these questions," Rothstein said.

Atkins is the author of the best-selling "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution."