Tuesday, June 10, 2003 | 10:42 a.m.
Eggheads.
Princeton University alums range from Jimmy Stewart to Bill Bradley, Aaron Burr to Carl Icahn, Woodrow Wilson to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jeff Bezos to Donald Rumsfeld.
Certainly, an impressive collection.
But such folks apparently don't spend much time in Las Vegas. They were completely taken in by Neil Diamond impersonator Jay White.
White appears during the week at Le Bistro Theatre at the Riviera, but takes weekends off to do the lucrative outside and corporate gigs. He was invited to perform at the Tigers' alumni gathering in Princeton, N.J., last weekend. And he tells VegasBeat people refused to believe he wasn't the real thing.
"The microphone was not on when they announced who I was, so when I came on and started to play, a large percentage of the people there thought I was the real thing," White told VegasBeat on Monday.
"People were coming up to me and saying, 'I saw you in Chicago five years ago,' thoroughly convinced I was the real deal. It was both outstanding and surreal."
He was hired to perform for about 500 people, under a tent, for the class of 1963.
"But kids from 2003 and 1998 came over and started dancing onstage and singing songs that came out before they were born. The older people -- from the 1963 class -- really seemed to enjoy the girls in their 20s dancing with them."
"Everyone was calling out requests, and there must have been 2,000 people there at the end."
Carey on
Who says those Divas can't get along?
It turns out Mariah Carey will become Diva Las Vegas when she plays The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in late July.
Carey is often compared to the theater's primary tenant, Celine Dion, in terms of their dazzling vocal range and even more dazzling commercial success. There had been reports here and elsewhere that Dion didn't want to have another female performer take her stage.
But an insider confirmed Monday that Carey is indeed coming to Caesars Palace. And despite such well-publicized failures as "Glitter," the end of her marriage to Tommy Mottola and her stay at Silver Hill, the tony Connecticut rehab, Carey remains a top-selling recording artist with a talent second to none.
Tickets are expected to go on sale this weekend for the planned July 25 and July 26 shows.
In person
Mickey Rooney. Howard Keel. James MacArthur. Ken Norton. Tippi Hedren. Margaret O'Brien. Virginia Mayo. Alan Young. Rose Marie. Mike Connors. Rod McKuen.
Those legends will not be in concert.
But they are the real deal, and they are all scheduled to come to Las Vegas to meet their fans, sign autographs and reminisce about the good old days.
The StarStruck in Las Vegas festival takes place the weekend of June 21 at the Alexis Park Resort on East Harmon Avenue.
Canary
Veteran Vegas entertainer Nelson Sardelli is leaving town -- but he'll back.
On Wednesday he is embarking on a summerlong European singing tour.
"Mainly Germany and Italy. No France," the patriotic performer said.
Sardelli will also be visiting the various local gendarmes. He is the son of a police officer and has an extensive collection of cop memorabilia.
"I have hundreds of badges, patches, hats, leg irons and two prisoners -- but they are very nice girls," he joked.
Thanks
The Nevada Ballet Theatre is having a little soiree Wednesday to honor some of its many local benefactors.
Among the honorees at the private event at the Donald W. Reynolds Cultural Center in Summerlin will be Donna Baldwin, Shelly Bonner-Carson, Denise Cashman, Laurence Lombard and Lee Medick for their volunteer work; the Liberace Foundation; Park Place Entertainment; and donors Charlie Horky, Victor and Toni Chaltiel, Louis and Donna Castle, Fred and Harriet Cox and Jerry and Maryanna Herbst.
Chef Gustav Mauler will receive an award for being an Outstanding Community Partner, and Drs. Ted and Parvin Jacobs and Marjorie Barrick will receive the Founder's Award.
VegasBits
Bay watch: When the NBC show "Fear Factor" returns to Las Vegas for production in the fall, one of the stunts it has lined up, we hear, involves a helicopter, a thin wire and the open patio of the Foundation Room atop Mandalay Bay ...
Love fest: Comic Carrot Top bum-rushed the stage during Robert Schimmel's show Friday night at Monte Carlo. The red-haired comedian gave his fellow funnyman a hug and a kiss after Schimmel told a joke about him ...
Old Vegas: Lots of classic entertainers were on the stage at the Golden Rainbow's "Ribbon of Life" AIDS benefit at Paris Las Vegas Saturday night. Nick Navarro, Vassili Sulich, Sal Angelica, Michael Darren, Kurt Spoul, Robin Solim and David Wright were joined by a current crop that included Clint Holmes, Jimmy Hopper, Rita Rudner, Robin Leach, Breck Wall and "Mamma Mia!" star Tina Walsh.
Dinner time: Tony Curtis was the House of Lords restaurant (Sahara) on Monday night. He was there to eat, of course, and do a segment on Les Kincaid's "Tableside du Jour" radio show on KDWN 720-AM. Curtis told stories about earlier trips to the famed restaurant, often with Dean Martin ...
Still dinner time: Comic Sinbad and several friends had dinner at Spago before heading over to see Dion at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace Sunday night ...
From Sun Wires
Actress Kate Winslet and director Sam Mendes have married, a spokeswoman said Monday.
A statement released on the couple's behalf said they wed last month during a holiday in the West Indies. Winslet's daughter and three close friends attended the private ceremony.
It's the second marriage for "Titanic" star Winslet and the first for Mendes, director of "Road to Perdition."
She split from first husband Jim Threapleton in 2001 after three years of marriage. Their daughter, Mia, is 2.
Winslet, 27, has been nominated for three Academy Awards -- as lead actress for "Titanic" and as supporting actress for "Sense and Sensibility" and "Iris."
Mendes, the 37-year-old former artistic director of London's Donmar Warehouse theater, won an Oscar for his first film, 1999's "American Beauty."
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