Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2003 | 10:52 a.m.
Scoot over, Suzanne Somers. And take your Thighmaster with you.
Make way for "THIGHagra" -- a new video workout from a Las Vegas chiropractor and Strip producer, who says his methods give showgirls, and anyone else who tries them, "the firm buns and thighs that Vegas is famous for."
"I used to be the chiropractor for Lance Burton's show," Dr. Scott Lewis told us. "And a lot of my other patients were always asking me how the girls in his show -- and the other shows -- got such awesome bodies. This video shows how."
Lewis uses five showgirls -- three he met through Burton, a 40-year-old fitness instructor and Ruta, the model who appears in Studio 54 ads -- to demonstrate the special workout they use to keep their lower bodies tight and their audiences ogling.
Samples of the video can be viewed at Thighschool.com.
While the workout is targeted to women, Lewis assures us that "men won't mind watching."
Lewis may be a doctor and a producer (Bourbon Street's "Shock!" is his show, and he also produces the nightly 10 p.m. hypnosis show at the Riviera), but he isn't a businessman -- the $24.95 video doesn't go on sale until after Christmas.
Rumor
We're hearing increasingly loud reports of a vintage Strip entertainer -- still a rotating headliner -- who recently discovered as much as $5 million missing from his coffers.
Charges against the suspected culprit have not yet been filed and may never be, as the performer "is more emotionally hurt than financially damaged," his spokesperson told us.
Music man
Las Vegas resident Fred Nassiri, a wholesale clothing mogul, has dropped his first name and switched careers -- and he's taking ads out everywhere from "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to "The CBS Evening News With Dan Rather" to get the word out about his new project.
The two-minute infomercial-style ads are promoting "Love Sees No Color," a music video he made this summer at Valley of Fire with scores of area school kids. It is the title track to a 15-song CD.
Nassiri, now a songwriter and musician, says, "the exotic tracks of dance songs, love songs and inspirational music will take you on a musical journey that will leave you fulfilled, refreshed and asking for more."
He'll use proceeds from CD and DVD sales to assist children who are victims of poverty and war.
He's spending more than $1 million of his own money to advertise the disc.
Free speech
Groundbreaking comic Lenny Bruce was granted a pardon by New York Gov. George Pataki on Tuesday for a nearly 40-year-old obscenity conviction prompted by an expletive-laden, onstage political rant.
You know, like Dennis Miller's usual act.
While Bruce was generally viewed as a pariah in the 1960s, he is now regarded as a ground-breaker who totally changed the stand-up comedy business.
In addition to Bruce's surviving wife and daughter, the most prominent backers of the pardon bid were Rio headliners Penn & Teller.
They actively recruited fellow Vegas headliners The Smothers Brothers and Phyllis Diller and comics such as Robin Williams and Conan O'Brien, all of whom signed a petition letter Penn wrote to Pataki.
They also paid for full-page ads in some New York papers calling for the pardon.
During a November 1964 performance at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village, Bruce used more than 100 then-legally obscene words, according to undercover cops planted in the audience.
He was convicted after a sensational six-month trial. He died of an apparent drug overdose in 1966, with his conviction still on the books.
Music woman
Celine Dion came in at No. 2 on Pollstar's annual list of top-grossing concert acts, which was released Tuesday.
She pulled in $80.5 million, coming in behind Bruce Springsteen's $115.9 million.
Almost every other act on the list played Vegas in 2003, including the rest of the top 10: Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Cher, Simon & Garfunkel, Aerosmith and Kiss, Dixie Chicks, Billy Joel and Elton John, and Metallica.
VegasBits
Browser: Mandalay Resort Group honcho Glenn Schaefer was spotted checking out all the new stores Monday in his Mandalay Place development, stopping for lunch solo at Caffe Giorgio ...
Tan man: Actor George Hamilton, Turnberry Place developer Don Sofer and Charlie Palmer restaurant exec Richard Femenella had a quiet lunch Tuesday at the Stirling Club ...
Big Day: "American Idol" and various award shows host Ryan Seacrest turns 27 today. He'll be back in town next week to host the Fox New Year's Eve show live from the Strip ...
Day, II: Old-time Las Vegas resident and mogul Howard Hughes was born on this day in 1905 ...
Blitz: ABC has started a promo blitz for Las Vegas resident Robin Leach's "Life of Luxury" show, which airs Monday at 8 p.m. Profile subjects include Sharon Osbourne, Donald Trump and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. The show airs locally on KXNT Channel 13 ...
Honor: The Southern California Motion Picture Council has awarded KJUL 104.3-FM personality Duke Morgan its Gold Star Halo Scroll for his outstanding achievement as a broadcaster ...
Auld: MGM Grand headliners Tom Jones, Carrot Top and the cast of "Stomp!" will be Jay Leno's guests on his live New Year's Eve broadcast ...
Happy Christmas: We're off to Disneyland for a holiday visit. VegasBeat returns Monday. May Santa Claus fill your gossip stockings with all kinds of delicious tidbits.
From Sun wires
The VH1 special about the making of Warren Zevon's final album, "The Wind," will be released on DVD in March.
The album, which includes a cover of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," was released to critical acclaim shortly before the singer-songwriter's death in September. Zevon died at age 56 after a yearlong battle with lung cancer.
Jordan Zevon, executive producer of "The Wind," says the DVD will show things that wouldn't fit in the VH1 special.
Warren Zevon has been nominated for five Grammy Awards including song of the year for "Keep Me in Your Heart." The Grammys will be presented Feb. 8 in Los Angeles.
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