VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: Odd coupling: Dion in McDonald’s camp

Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2003 | 10:35 a.m.

Call it Mickey C's.

Celine Dion is going to McDonald's, the one at 2650 W. Sahara Ave. She will not be behind the counter, but she will be providing service.

Diva Las Vegas is participating in World Children's Day on Thursday. Her contribution to the effort to raise money to buy library books will be to read to kids at the restaurant.

A percentage of profits from salad and french- fry sales from Thursday through Sunday will go to Ronald McDonald House Charities.

Dion will be at the Golden Arches for an hour or so, starting at 4:30 p.m.

"We got involved in the charity last year when we were living in Florida, and it really means a lot to us," Dion's husband, Rene Angelil, told VegasBeat on Monday.

Celebs around the world are also participating. Justin Timberlake will work behind the counter at a Milan, Italy, restaurant; Venus and Serena Williams will be at a New York store; and gymnasts Kerri Strug and Dominique Dawes will be in Washington, D.C.

Also, Dion won a big honor at the American Music Awards on Sunday night. She was selected as Favorite Artist -- Adult Contemporary Music. The awards were selected by a survey of more than 20,000 music listeners.

Suit king

Count Las Vegas as another target of the litigious Catherine Zeta-Jones.

She sued the Brit mag Hello! because it used unauthorized photos from her wedding to Michael Douglas three years ago. Then she sued Neiman Marcus and a French cosmetics group for allegedly using her endorsement in advertising without her permission.

Last week Zeta-Jones sent a pre-emptive "cease-and-desist" letter to the media in case it is reported that she is a follower of the Atkins diet. She isn't.

Now word comes that she has sued Turnberry Place, the luxury Paradise Road condo community.

Seems that Caudalie, a high-end spa near Bordeaux, France, claimed in its ads that Zeta-Jones was a happy customer. But it was actually Catherine Deneuve who was a customer.

And since Turnberry in Las Vegas opened (and has since closed) a Caudalie spa in 1999, it was named by Zeta-Jones in a court filing.

Vegas King

CNN talk-show host Larry King sure loves Las Vegas.

Sunday night he had Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte as a guest. Laliberte said the new Cirque show coming to MGM Grand would be opening in July.

King has had Siegfried Fischbacher as a recent guest on his internationally broadcast interview program, and Siegfried & Roy's longtime manager, Bernie Yuman, has sat with King.

Also, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin's son, Ricci Martin, were on last month, talking about Vegas.

On Thursday King will be in Vegas, hosting a "Rock for the Cure" fund-raiser for the Nevada Cancer Institute at the Siegfried & Roy Theatre at The Mirage.

Celebrity guests scheduled to appear include Siegfried, George Foreman, the Eagles and Jimmy Hopper. It would be Siegfried's first appearance at the theater since his partner, Roy Horn, was seriously injured Oct. 3.

Minute king

VegasBeat hears that the folks at Vegas.com are negotiating with several major airlines to make new promotional "Vegas Minute" commercials a regular part of their video presentations on flights in and out of McCarran International Airport.

Brandi Williams was just hired to host the short bits. She and her cameras were on the red carpet Saturday night at the Palms' second anniversary party to ask the celebs what they thought of Vegas.

Radio king

Talk radio eminence Rush Limbaugh returned to the airwaves Monday.

The bombastic broadcaster spent the last five weeks in an Arizona rehab center receiving treatment for an addiction to painkillers.

Locally, Limbaugh airs from 9 a.m. to noon on KXNT 840-AM, which expected a ratings boost with his return.

"We are also hoping that the show immediately preceding his will gain some listeners, too," said Heidi Harris, whose morning drive-time show with Alan Stock airs immediately before Limbaugh.

"I am just glad to see him back. The road to recovery from drug addiction is a long and hard one," Harris said.

"His listeners are very, very loyal," Stock said. "People who love Rush will continue to do so no matter what. He is the Elvis Presley -- The King -- of talk radio and his listeners will welcome him back with open arms."

Jeff Burkett, the station's acting program director, said that Limbaugh had some very good guest hosts, such as Internet sleuth Matt Drudge and Fox News anchor Tony Snow, "so the ratings did not really dip in his absence."

Limbaugh, his ego unbruised, addressed his absence on his show Monday, saying his ordeal would not affect his broadcasting future and that treatment had not turned him into a "linguine-spined liberal."

VegasBits

Computes: Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates hosted a dinner for about 50 of his nearest and dearest at Aureole (Mandalay Bay) Sunday night, after he gave the opening keynote Comdex speech at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts ...

King of Pop: After a few weeks of shopping, making appearances and picking up awards in Las Vegas, Michael Jackson is finally settling down to do some work. Today he'll start working on music videos at a soundstage recently built by CMX Sports & Entertainment at its new Petra Avenue facility between Flamingo Road and Tropicana Avenue, just east of Decatur Boulevard ...

Public: On Friday night at Terrazza at Caesars Palace, Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants steered his host away from sitting him at a private table, preferring to sit in a public area on the terrace overlooking the pool. The often-moody superstar was reported to be a delightful guest, signing autographs and posing for photos with some young fans ...

Sporty: Las Vegas native and baseball star Greg Maddux hosted his annual charity golf tourney at Park Place's exclusive Cascata course on Sunday. His guests included Bonds, Luke Wilson, Lance Armstrong, Pete Sampras, Ray Romano, Kenny G, Terrell Davis, Butch Harmon, Wally Joyner, Rollie Fingers and Scott Phillips of the band Creed.

Aces: On Saturday night Bonds, Sampras and Wilson broke bread together at Bradley Odgen's restaurant at Caesars. Wilson, Sampras and Sampras' wife, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, had dinner Friday night at Spago.

From Sun wires

Michael Douglas will get the Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement at the Golden Globes on Jan. 25, more than three decades after his father, Kirk Douglas, won the honor in 1968.

Douglas is the first second-generation actor to receive the DeMille award. The decision was announced Monday by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which hosts the annual ceremony.

Anderson has clothing line: Add Pamela Anderson to the crowded list of celebrities with their own clothing line.

"The Pamela Collection" will include jeans, T-shirts, sweaters, jewelry, lingerie and fragrance. The collection is expected to be in stores in fall 2004.

Anderson will debut the line Feb. 24 in Las Vegas, where she'll meet with buyers and retailers.

Spears gets star: Part of Hollywood Boulevard is now "In the Zone" of Britney Spears.

The pop star received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday before nearly 2,000 screaming fans.

The event took place one day after her corset-jiggling appearance on the American Music Awards and a day before her latest album, "In the Zone," arrives in stores.

At age 21, Spears tied with former "Little House on the Prairie" actress Melissa Gilbert for being the youngest person to accept a Walk of Fame star.