VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: Fur fashion not pretty to Pink

Friday, Aug. 8, 2003 | 4:53 a.m.

Pink thinks fur stinks.

The Grammy-nominated pop star and Las Vegas resident has fired off a letter to Vogue editrix Anna Wintour urging the magazine to stop promoting fur.

The letter, made available to the media by the animal rights organization PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), was sent to coincide with the fashion mag's September issue, which traditionally features fur coats, jackets and accessories available in the winter.

"Many designers have sent me fur in every shade of pink, unaware of my respect for animals," she wrote. "I've learned how animals are trapped, drowned and even beaten to death ... and hideously electrocuted and strangled on fur farms.

"If your readers knew the horrors that these animals go through ... Won't you use your unique position to help fashion evolve rather than rot?"

A Vogue spokesman had no comment on the letter.

PETA has a long history of using celebrities and public pressure to try to provoke Vogue (and other media) to alter its fur policy, dating back to a 1993 incident when Kate Pierson of the B-52s was arrested for storming the Vogue editorial offices in New York.

Playboy's Miss August, Las Vegas veterinarian Dr. Colleen Marie, has a September engagement. She is hosting a party at Prana, the nightclub that is part of the restaurant Crustacean, after the Oscar De La Hoya-"Sugar" Shane Mosley fight Sept. 13.

The raven-haired doctor -- beauty and brains -- was the standout in a room full of standouts at the taping of Robin Leach's "Penthouse Vegas" at a Las Vegas Hilton penthouse suite Thursday night.

Gloria Estefan is following in Celine Dion's footsteps in more ways than one. In addition to playing her showroom, The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, in October, Estefan is also set to star in a live-from-Las Vegas network television special on CBS.

Negotiations are in progress between the show's producer, Bernie Yuman, and the network.

Dion's special the night her show opened in March was highly rated and later was nominated for an Emmy Award.

He's too young to gamble legally, but teenage "Malcolm in the Middle" star Frankie Muniz can still enjoy some things on the Strip.

He and several pals were at ESPNZone inside New York-New York on Thursday night, watching baseball on the big screens and munching on nachos and chicken wings.

The show is filming this week in Las Vegas.

On Friday Olivia Newton-John, Chef Gustav Mauler and a top USDA food safety official are hosting an event at the John D. "Jackie" Gaughan Boys & Girls Club on Cottage Grove Avenue.

There will be a demonstration of how to safely pack a school lunch and there will also be appearances by the USDA's costumed food safety characters, Thermy (a meat thermometer) and BAC (an ugly green bacteria).

Richard Femenella, CEO of the Charlie Palmer Group, and Jimmy Foster of Blue Man Consulting in Las Vegas, have created a new social and professional networking group, B.U.S.E. (Business Professionals, Up & Comers, Socialites & Entrepreneurs).

The inaugural B.U.S.E. event is Tuesday at The Stirling Club.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers, regular headliners at The Orleans, turns 63 today.

The "Dealertainer" program at the Imperial Palace has been such a smash that the property is looking for more celebrity impersonators willing to be trained to work as blackjack dealers.

If you look like someone else and feel you have got what it takes, apply in person, dressed in character, weekdays after 9 a.m.

There is an extended profile on New York Giants glamour-boy tight end Jeremy Shockey in a recent Sports Illustrated.

Shockey painfully recounts recovering from some Las Vegas binges.

"You've got to pace yourself," he reasons. After his first trip to Vegas, Shockey tells the national glossy, "I'm like, 'Aw, that won't happen again.' But I'm telling you: I found myself waking up at 4 o'clock in the morning, doing push-ups and sit-ups half drunk. I feel so guilty."

We know the feeling.