VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: The Oscar (party) goes to … Caesars

Thursday, March 13, 2003 | 9:08 a.m.

Eight-for-eight.

Once again, Caesars Palace and the Arthritis Foundation of Southern Nevada have snagged Las Vegas' only Oscar party that will be sanctioned by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

The Academy lends its name and prestige to only one event in 38 American cities on Oscar night.

"We first hosted the event eight years ago and I guess the Academy is still satisfied with us," Arthritis Foundation official Sloane Arnold told VegasBeat.

The society hosts this year are Sandy and Roger Peltyn and Lisa and Joseph Heck.

The masters of ceremonies are KTNV Channel 13 anchors Cathy Ray and Ross Becker, joined by the ubiquitous Robin Leach.

The evening starts with a silent auction. Among the items up for bid are tickets to a Washington Redskins home game (and roundtrip air fare), a diamond watch from FRED Paris, several Steve Kaufman paintings, an IGT slot machine, a package of Wolfgang Puck restaurant gift certificates and books, and VIP cabanas at Hush atop Polo Towers and at BiKiNiS at The Rio.

Then it is a Taste of Caesars, with food prepared by some of its resident name chefs, including Bradley Ogden and Jean-Marie Josselin.

Finally, guests will watch the Oscar telecast.

They can keep track of the awards with the same event program that will be distributed at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood during the event.

There will also be a predict-the-winner contest, but not for entertainment purposes only. Some pretty impressive prizes are going to be offered.

Also, guests can escape to the Montecristo Rum cigar bar during some of the longer acceptance speeches, or during the commercials.

Some tickets to the March 23 event, which cost $225, are still available by calling the Arthritis Foundation at 367-1626.

Wole player

If there was March Madness for the academic realm, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas would be in the Final Four.

It has lined up four pretty impressive speakers for its first Libraries Dean's Associates reception on March 27.

Leading off the event, which is being held at architect Frank Dumont's Desert Shores home, is 1986 Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka.

The following speaker is "The Liar's Club" author Mary Karr.

Then comes UNLV history prof Hal Rothman, who penned "Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century." Finally it's UNLV manuscripts librarian Su Kim Chung.

Quick exit

Rick Plummer made an abrupt exit last week from his job as spokesman for the University Medical Center.

On the afternoon of March 5 he was there, dutifully answering media queries.

The next morning he was doing the same thing as the new director of public relations at smaller Mountain View Hospital on Tenaya Way.

UMC has been all over the news over the past few months for a variety of less-than-flattering reasons, including being subjected to an audit, malpractice insurance concerns and the possibility of the closing of its trauma center -- the only one in the Las Vegas Valley.

"We certainly had no problems with him. UMC was in no way upset with his job performance," Cheryl Persinger, Plummer's successor at UMC, said.

"I think they just offered him more money."

Plummer said he gave the troubled hospital the usual two weeks' notice, and leaves with "nothing but good thoughts" for UMC.

In the air

Calm down, patrons emerging from Bellagio.

You were not on a bad acid trip. Those really are 15-foot mechanical butterflies being installed at the hotel.

The new spring display at the conservatory includes several overscaled mechanical butterflies, completely covered in flowers.

There is also going to be a live butterfly display, shooting water sprays and a replica of the Temple of Love at Versailles.

The butterflies officially start flying Saturday and continue through May 31.

Merica rules

The big winner at last weekend's Las Vegas Advertising Federation Awards was the Merica Agency.

It bagged 30 of 77 total awards, including the top Best of Show honor.

"I am lucky to be surrounded by such outstanding creative types as Troy O'Brien, James Adams, Doug Hentges and Sal Munoz," agency veep Scott Robertson said.

Among the clients they created prize-winning campaigns for were Fashion Show mall, All Star Bail Bonds, Nevada Ballet Theatre and Crown & Anchor.

VegasBits

It has been 17 weeks since Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman started his weight-loss program. He told VegasBeat Wednesday that he has lost ... 17 pounds, or a consistent one pound per week ...

Rapper and "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit" star Ice-T will star in and co-produce "Mr. Whale," a film that takes places in a Las Vegas casino ...

Ah Sin and Risque officially open tonight. The former is a new Asian eatery, the latter a new hipster lounge, both at Paris Las Vegas ...

She's everywhere! Several local movie theaters are running Celine Dion's Chrysler commercials -- the ones in arty black-and-white -- before the previews ...

Danny Gans canceled his Mirage performance again Wednesday. He missed quite a few gigs last month with a rare shoulder infection, which was operated on ...

Because of popular demand -- there were supposedly inquiries from Al Pacino, Oliver Stone and Cameron Diaz -- impressionist Andre-Philippe Gagnon is back at Le Theatre des Arts at Paris Las Vegas ...

The famous male revue Chippendale's celebrates its one-year anniversary Thursday with a special performance at The Rio.

From Sun wires

Doctors have implanted electrodes in Christopher Reeve's diaphragm in an experiment designed to enable the paralyzed actor to breathe on his own, hospital officials said today.

Reeve and Drs. Raymond Onders and Anthony DiMarco planned to talk about the Feb. 28 procedure later today at University Hospitals of Cleveland, hospital spokesman Eric Sandstrom said.

Reeve, the third person to undergo the procedure, can currently breathe for more than two hours without the respirator, compared to 10 minutes before the surgery. As his diaphragm muscles get stronger, Reeve is expected to be able to do away with the respirator entirely.

Over time Reeve will also be able to speak more normally and to breathe naturally, Onders told The New York Times.

Hitting a low note: HBO has suspended filming of "The Sopranos" because of a contract dispute with the show's star, James Gandolfini, newspapers said.

Network executives told cast members that work on the fifth season of the hit show about a New Jersey mob family has been postponed indefinitely, the Daily News and the New York Post reported today. Filming had been scheduled to begin on March 24.

Gandolfini is reportedly seeking upward of $1 million an episode, while HBO has offered $800,000. Gandolfini currently earns about $400,000 an episode.