Wednesday, June 18, 2003 | 10:50 a.m.
It brings an entirely new meaning to the words "cleaning up."
There are several noteworthy events taking place in Las Vegas this week in connection with the International Hotel and Restaurant Show, including Tuesday night's Epicurean Affair at Caesars Palace, appropriately called "The Decadent Bacchanalia II."
But the event that VegasBeat considers to be the backbone, the heart, the meat of the show is ... the Housekeeper Olympics.
This afternoon about 250 local housekeepers will put their skills to the test when they go head-to-head in four action-packed competitions at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Among the competitions:
Tossing buffer pads onto the handles of toilet plungers at a distance of 20 feet.
Timed bed-making.
Heaving Johnny mops into a toilet bowl from across the room.
Vacuum relay -- putting together a disassembled Hoover, cleaning off a confetti-covered floor and then pushing the vacuum across a finish line.
According to the organizers -- James Healey, the director of hotel operations for New York-New York, and Blanca Maltez, executive housekeeper at Stratosphere -- favorites in the competition include Cassandra Trujillo and Darling Miller from Green Valley Ranch Station Casino, Roma Aronov and Alberto Garcia from MGM Grand and Mari Lou Null, Peggy Frawley and Raul Ramirez from Boulder Station.
Winners get a variety of prizes including dinners, show tickets, a new bed for the winner of the bed-making contest and a new vacuum cleaner for the vacuum relay champion.
Unleashed
PETA, the animal-rights group known for such stunts as tossing fake blood on runway models wearing fur coats, visited Las Vegas on Tuesday.
Activist Kayla Rae Worden painted her nude body to resemble a tiger and chained herself inside a cage at high noon to protest the arrival of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the Orleans Arena later this week.
The stunt took place on a public sidewalk in front of The Mirage. There is a lot more traffic there than on Flamingo Road, where The Orleans is located, and attention is what the media-savvy folks at PETA are all about.
In addition to Worden on display, there was a graphic video shown of abused circus animals which PETA claimed was taken at a Ringling facility.
In a statement, Ringling Bros. said it is committed to the highest standards of animal care, and has been for 130 years.
"We invite the people of Las Vegas to see our animals and the people who care for them when we perform at The Orleans Arena" from June 19 to June 23, the statement said.
Respect
Comedy institution Rodney Dangerfield, who had scheduled a July 19 performance called "One Night Only" at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, canceled the show Tuesday afternoon.
Speculation immediately started that recurring health issues had resurfaced; Dangerfield recently underwent life-threatening brain surgery.
"We are disappointed that the show has been canceled," MGM spokesman Scott Ghertner said. "No reason was offered, but we have no reason to believe anything is wrong, and we look forward to scheduling him for a new date."
Calls to Dangerfield's reps in Los Angeles were not immediately returned Tuesday.
Celeb city
An impressive list of celebs is expected at a pair of events this weekend.
Former NFL star Warren Moon is hosting the Sports Dream Bowl 2003 -- which literally is a bowling party -- to raise funds for a variety of charities.
Jason Sehorn and Angie Harmon head a long A-list of stars including Olympians Kerri Strug and Janet Evans, Jerry Rice, Elton Brand, Ray Lewis and Ronnie Lott, who are all expected to appear at the Gold Coast Bowling Center for Saturday night's fund-raiser.
At the same time, and right across the street, CineVegas has its closing bash at the Palms.
In addition to the people we've already reported on who are in town for the festival (Hunter S. Thompson, Jeff Goldblum, Dennis Hopper), organizers say that Sean Penn, Josh Hartnett, Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro, Darryl Hannah and Taye Diggs will walk the red carpet.
Comfort zone
Ever since "Gilligan's Island" ended a few decades ago, Tina Louise has never been comfortable with her role as the show's sexpot Ginger, the object of countless adolescent fantasies.
She has avoided a reunion and walked out on interviewers (including this one) who bring up the topic of the pop-culture fascination with the question, "Ginger or Mary Ann?"
But now she is apparently coming to terms with her association with the character -- after years of refusing, she has inked a deal to lend her voice and image to a "Gilligan" slot machine.
It is slated to make its debut in Vegas casinos before the end of the year.
VegasBits
Wrong date: Vanna White will be appearing at Harrah's Carnival Court on June 28, not this coming Saturday, as VegasBeat reported Tuesday. We r-gr-t the error ...
Wake the kids: Teen pop sensation Aaron Carter has been added to the schedule at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel. He plays an all-ages show July 27 ...
Movie man: Film critic Roger Ebert, whose reviews appear in the Las Vegas Sun on Fridays, turns 61 today. Oddly enough, he's the exact same age as Paul McCartney ...
Look sharp: Clint Holmes is having a new design and logo made up for his Harrah's show. The creator is Las Vegas designer Ruby Mazur, who made an indelible mark on pop culture with his Rolling Stones "Lips" logo ...
Reverse migration: The brainy and beautiful Lindsay Fredricks is leaving Kirvin-Doak Communications, the powerhouse Vegas publicity firm. She is going to be a PR manager for Bloomingdale's in New York City. Her last day with Kirvin-Doak is June 27 ...
Melting: The opening of the new club Ice, on the corner of Harmon Avenue and Koval Lane (the site of the old Drink and Eat Too), originally scheduled for Memorial Day, has been pushed back to August. Makes sense -- that's when we'll really need some ice around here, eh?
From Sun wires
Sixth sense: Tony Soprano -- or at least the HBO series that bears his name -- will be sticking around awhile longer.
HBO announced that it has agreed with producers of the award-winning mob drama for a sixth season. The cast is wrapping up production on the fifth season, which will begin in March 2004. The sixth season will consist of 10 episodes.
archive
