Monday, March 24, 2003 | 10:33 a.m.
If you looked hard, you could find some signs in Las Vegas over the weekend that there was a war going on. But not too many.
At the Hard Rock Hotel, two executives confirmed to VegasBeat Saturday night that owner Peter Morton has banned the French waters Evian and Perrier from the property.
We saw Light owner Andrew Sasson -- a Brit -- hanging three flags, a Union Jack, the Stars and Stripes and the Australian flag, over the dance floor at his club.
And after filmmaker Michael Moore made his controversial remarks during the Academy Awards telecast, Robin Leach took the microphone at the academy-sanctioned Oscar party at Caesars Palace Sunday night and offered a pointed rebuttal.
Other than that, as Wayne (or was it Garth?) used to say, it was Party On.
At Simon Kitchen and Bar at the Hard Rock on Saturday night, Chef Kerry Simon was fending off advances from Trista Rehn, star of the hit ABC series "The Bachelorette."
Across the Simon dining room, Stephanie Boixo, the chief of staff to Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, was celebrating her birthday with her boyfriend and a gaggle of city staffers.
At Carmel, N9NE group executive Julie Cane was also celebrating her birthday with a group of beautiful young women that put the "Bachelorette" posse to shame.
Also at Bellagio, Frasier Crane, er, Kelsey Grammer, hosted a bash for his television show colleagues Saturday night.
I saw that the race and sports book at the Las Vegas Hilton was jammed to the rafters with NCAA Basketball Tournament bettors.
And when Dan Rather appeared between overtime periods of the Arizona-Gonzaga thriller, people seemed to use the opportunity not to get a war update. Based on how fast the seats emptied, it appeared that they were either visiting the betting window or the restroom.
Here she is
Amber McCarthy is the new Miss Las Vegas.
The flute-playing Las Vegas College (a trade school on Flamingo Road) grad beat out seven other contestants Thursday night.
Last year's Miss Las Vegas, Teresa Benitez, went on to become Miss Nevada and finished third in the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City.
Thumbs up
OK, now back to Celine news.
The first reviews of "A New Day" are in.
Siegfried & Roy liked it.
Las Vegas royalty, present and future, merged the other night when the act that Celine surpasses as the biggest on the Strip -- the German tiger-tamers and illusionists Siegfried & Roy -- attended a preview of her new show.
"The Celine Dion experience is extraordinary," Roy told VegasBeat.
Added Siegfried: "The originality of the spectacular is overwhelming and her talent is awesome -- a defining moment in entertainment history.
"A diva has found a home at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip."
Celine told the dynamic duo that she was "humbled and flattered" by their kind words.
"The affection and admiration is genuine -- they really have no issue with her," said a friend of the longtime Strip performers. "If someone comes to Vegas to see Celine, and stays for a weekend or a few days, they are going to see some other shows -- shows like 'Siegfried & Roy.' "
Plus, the guys are apparently thrilled that the marquee with their faces on it is still the largest on the Strip -- although a new sign in front of Caesars, with Celine's name appearing about 800 percent bigger than it used to be, went up on Sunday.
Afterward the quartet -- they were joined by Celine's husband, Rene Angelil -- spent about an hour together walking through The Colosseum.
Celine showed her visitors how all the technical aspects of her show come together, and they discussed how they hoped the war would not have a negative effect on any Vegas shows.
Then the foursome went to Bradley Ogden's new restaurant, just a few slot machines away from the entrance to The Colosseum.
If war developments don't pre-empt it, you can get a sneak peek of "A New Day" on today's "Oprah Winfrey Show" (on KTNV Channel 13, the ABC affiliate, at 4 p.m.).
Super charities
We take another momentary break from our 24/7 Celine coverage to say that there are lots of celebrities coming to Las Vegas for some events that do not involve Diva Las Vegas.
A trio of national charities are having blowouts at the Las Vegas Hilton this weekend: the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, the National Breast Cancer Foundation and the Reggie Johnson Foundation, an official NFL charity.
Talk show hosts Conan O'Brien and Caroline Rhea are hosting the Starry Night Gala with Reeve on Friday night.
Nearly three dozen soap stars -- including Las Vegas resident Kimberlin Brown from "The Bold and the Beautiful," Josh Duhamel and Catherine Mathison from "All My Children," and stars from "Days of Our Lives," "The Young and the Restless," "Guiding Light" and "As the World Turns -- will appear at a Fan Breakfast on Saturday.
On Sunday dozens of NFL players hit the links at Cascata, the spectacular private Park Place course, for the Johnson charity.
Johnson was a former Florida State tight end who spent eight years on several NFL teams, then set up a charity that helps underprivileged youth bridge the computer divide.
Yea, yea, yea
A Las Vegas institution, comic Marty Allen turned 81 on Saturday.
Allen is still working on his autobiography. He just wrote up the part where he and Steve Rossi were the act following The Beatles after the Fab Four made their debut on the Ed Sullivan show in February 1964.
Crystal beat
On Sunday we wrote that Bally's/Paris Las Vegas oddsmaker Johnny Avello was betting that either Jack Nicholson or Daniel Day-Lewis would cop the Best Actor Oscar.
I wrote: "My pick is Adrien Brody, who is listed at 4-to-1 for his star turn in 'The Pianist.' Nicholson was simply playing himself. Day-Lewis was good, but Brody was very good. Plus if Brody wins, I can say that one of my childhood friends won an Oscar."
As I have previously written, Brody's mother, photojournalist Sylvia Plachy, worked for many years with my dad at the Village Voice newspaper.
After Brody pulled off an upset for the ages, and seeing the two of them crying on television Sunday night -- Plachy was her son's date for the event -- well, it was a touching and beautiful thing.
Well deserved, too.
From Sun wires
Nick Nolte, who made headlines last year when he was arrested for driving under the influence of drugs, says he's now clean and sober but still finds himself drawn to "criminal" characters.
"I'm not a fan of real life," Nolte told the New York Daily News, adding that he has publicly "fabricated" many stories from his private life. "Real life's got some strange kind of rules."
Nolte, 62, who has appeared in nearly 50 films and received two Oscar nominations, is trying to mend his career with a starring role in a remake of the 1955 French film, "The Good Thief."
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