Friday, July 18, 2003 | 5:48 a.m.
WEEKEND EDITION
July 20, 2003
VegasBeat appears Sunday through Friday in the Las Vegas Sun. Timothy McDarrah can be reached at [email protected] or at (702) 259-4096.
It was pretty hot in the new downtown lounge Ice House at its opening bash Thursday night. There were way more guests than the air conditioning system could keep cool.
Jay Thomas (Eddie LeBeck on "Cheers" and Jerry Gold on "Murphy Brown") spent most of the evening sipping bottled water with Rita and Dr. Frank Herbert, whose son Martin W. Herbert is the new club's director of operations.
Fred "The Hammer" Williamson quizzically raised his eyebrows when Allen Fawcett, the host of the old lip-sync show "Puttin' on the Hits," passed by. Williamson seemed to recognize Fawcett, but wasn't entirely sure why.
Also keeping cool: Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who nursed a single martini for more than an hour, Sheriff Bill Young, television personalities Jim Snyder, Dana Wagner and Darren Emory, Gavin Maloof, power lawyer couple Gianna and James "Bucky" Buchanan, VEGAS Magazine Publisher Michael Carr, architect Deborah Bergin, city councilmen Lawrence Weekly and Michael Mack and about 1,000 other guests.
Vice President Dick Cheney will be in Las Vegas on Monday. He'll be at the Spanish Trail home of Southern Nevada Wine & Spirits boss Larry Ruvo for a fund-raiser.
About 200 local pols and the politically active, including Sig Rogich, Sen. John Ensign and state attorney general Brian Sandoval, are expected at the $2,000 per-person event.
Cheney has no scheduled public appearances during his visit.
Old punks never die: Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook turns 47 today.
Tickets for the fabled punk group's Sept. 5 show at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel went on sale Saturday.
According to the Detroit News, Chrysler might be done with Celine Dion as its TV pitch woman.
As VegasBeat reported last week, some dealers and analysts have criticized the campaign for not boosting sales enough. The car maker paid $14 million to co-sponsor her Caesars Palace show and for her to serve as a corporate spokeswoman.
"The question is whether Celine Dion is the right vehicle for building longer-term aspirations for the Chrysler brand or not," DaimlerChrysler spokesman Joe Eberhardt told the News. "It's probably one of the biggest subjective issues and taste issues out there."
Asked by the paper if Dion would appear in future Chrysler TV ads, Eberhardt said: "I don't know yet."
Penn & Teller's Showtime series "Bull----" received two Emmy nominations this week, for theme music and title design.
Heidi von Beltz was a 24-year-old stuntwoman who was paralyzed from the neck down after a 1980 car crash just outside of Las Vegas on the set of "Cannonball Run."
The initial prognosis was she would not live for more than five years. But she left Sunrise Hospital after a year and has continued to defy the odds along with medical science.
Last week, breathing on her own and now walking haltingly, she and her sister Christie von Beltz took a phone call from "Superman" Christopher Reeve. They discussed Heidi von Beltz's treatment plan and recovery.
Christie von Beltz said Reeve had reached out to them after his own health began to suffer. One source reports his liver shut down earlier this month.
Von Beltz, whose primary residence is now Los Angeles, has been treated with success by Swiss Dr. Richard Versendaal, who has an office in L.A. and whose Contact Reflex program includes large doses of nutrients.
The two accident victims -- von Beltz and Reeve -- were brought together by Robin Leach, of all people, who met Reeve at a benefit for the disabled in New York City.
Von Beltz has written her autobiography, "My Soul Purpose," which was published in 1996.
The life of a Las Vegas entertainer can be challenging sometimes. Look at actress/singer Kellie Karl.
She plays Kaye, the big sister, in "The Taffetas" at Las Vegas Little Theatre. The performance is a musical revue set in 1956 and features big wigs, pastel colors and medleys of 1950s tunes.
"The Taffetas" plays at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Karl also appears as Sadista, in the show "Shock!" at Bourbon Street. For that performance, she vamps around in ripped fishnets, leather shorts and a sneer.
"I have about a half hour to make the transition from one part to the other," Karl said. "Needless to say, it isn't easy. But it is an awful lot of fun."
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