VegasBeat — Columnist Timothy McDarrah: Baer eyeing Carson City locality

Friday, Dec. 12, 2003 | 5:15 a.m.

VegasBeat appears Sunday through Friday in the Las Vegas Sun. Timothy McDarrah can be reached at tim@lasvegassun.com or at (702) 259-4096.

WEEKEND EDITION December 13 - 14, 2003

Max Baer Jr. has gone to court in an effort to make his dream come true -- to build a casino based on his old show, "The Beverly Hillbillies."

In a petition filed in Carson City last week Baer stated he has a legal right to develop his property, despite restrictions barring development of places of "recreation or amusement" at a mall in Nevada's capital city.

According to a deal made in 1993 between the three major tenants at the time -- Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney and the Glenbrook Co. -- the restrictions limit the mall's use to purposes "normally found in a shopping center."

Baer owns part of the property and wants to build a 30,000-square-foot casino adorned by a 200-foot flaming oil derrick. He was not an owner when the clause barring recreation or amusement developments clause was enacted.

"This is an issue that is ripe for judicial determination," Baer said in court papers.

That certainly wasn't Jethro talking.

Why wait until spring? Clean out the closets now.

On Friday, Fletcher Jones Mercedes, showgirls from Bally's "Jubilee!" and Santa Claus are all coming together for a charity event benefiting Opportunity Village.

They are asking people to bring donations of clothes and toys to the West Sahara Avenue car dealership between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.

VegasBeat was cruising past the billboards on the way out of McCarran International Airport after picking up a friend the other day.

All the usual suspects were being advertised. Celine Dion. Steve Wyrick. Jerry Seinfeld. Clint Holmes. Anderson Cooper.

Huh? Anderson who?

Well, he is actually Gloria Vanderbilt's son, but that is not why his face hangs high above the roadway, competing for attention with Strip headliners.

The 36-year-old newscaster is CNN's latest try for young viewers.

Cooper hosts a nightly one-hour news show on the 24-hour news network. To reach its targeted audience, it features magazine-style stories and the music of such rock acts as White Stripes being played out of commercial breaks.

"It was a marketing decision, obviously, to try and attract to Cooper's show the same desirable audience that attends those entertainment shows," a Turner Network spokeswoman told us. Though there is a Cox Communications logo on the advertisement, the company does not choose what goes on all their billboards.

Potty encounter: Restaurant public relations representative Elaina Bhattacharyya reports on her restroom meeting with Paris Hilton at ghostbar last week.

The two met in front of the mirror and began re-applying makeup, side-by-side.

At the end of their five-minute conversation, Bhattacharyya says she told Hilton that despite what the tabloid press says, most of America loves her, especially after watching her on "The Simple Life," the new reality show on Fox starring Hilton and Nicole Richie.

"That's the nicest thing I've heard anybody say to me in a long time," Hilton said before hugging Bhattacharyya.

"I got the vibe from Paris that she's a sweet girl who is shell shocked by everything going on and, understandably, is seriously guarded," Bhattacharyya told us. "When it hit her that I was just talking to her chick-to-chick, she relaxed and seemed pleasantly surprised to have a normal conversation with somebody.

"I think that's pretty rare for her these days."

And speaking of Hilton: That was her on the rides at the Adventuredome at Circus-Circus on Thursday night.

Who will take over the late-night slot at the Flamingo Showroom when Amazing Johnathan leaves at the end of the month?

We hear it will be comic George Wallace. But Park Place spokesman Michael Coldwell would only say that no new act has yet been confirmed.

There was a large and diverse turnout for the Children's Miracle Network fund-raiser Thursday night at the new Caffe Giorgio (Mandalay Place).

Broadcasters John Overall, Shelley Brunner, Mitch Truswell, Kori Chambers and Robin Leach were on hand, as was rapper Chopah, Beach Boy Billy Hinsche and personal injury attorney George Bochanis.

It never ceases to amaze how many fund-raisers take place in Las Vegas, most of them well-attended.

Good for us.