VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: Vegas parties: They can’t be stopped!

Thursday, Nov. 20, 2003 | 10:49 a.m.

It's another dull weekday evening on the Vegas party scene.

As if!

Today at 7 p.m. CNN talker Larry King is hosting a cancer benefit at The Mirage, where the Eagles are scheduled to perform and Siegfried Fischbacher is expected to make his first appearance at the theater where his partner, Roy Horn, was attacked by a tiger last month.

At the same time, at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel, Daryl Hannah and Kelsey Grammer head a list of celebs scheduled to attend a benefit screening of the new movie "The Big Empty."

At the same time, at Regal Cinemas Village Square 18 on West Sahara Avenue, "Sex and the City" star Ron Livingston hosts a screening of his new film, "The Cooler," which also stars Alec Baldwin and William H. Macy.

At, yes, the same time VH1's Save the Music Foundation is hosting a "Shop Like a Rock Star" event at Saks Fifth Avenue at the Fashion Show mall. The cable music channel is hinting that several A-list rockers will make appearances.

At, yes, the same time the new Godt-Cleary Gallery at Mandalay Place mall is hosting a reception to celebrate its inaugural exhibition, prints by the celebrated California pop artist Ed Ruscha.

And for those too tired to go out, there is an ABC News special with Peter Jennings at 9 p.m. It is about the JFK assassination. One of the featured guests is Breck Wall -- whose Flamingo Las Vegas show "Bottoms Up" made its debut in Dallas in 1959.

One of Wall's closest friends back in the day was Jack Ruby, who killed accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald at a Dallas police station -- and on live national TV -- two days after the president was killed (see Jerry Fink's story about Wall's days with Ruby on page 1E of today's Sun).

Ticket wait

On Monday promoters announced that Bette Midler's "Kiss my Brass Tour 2004" was making a stop at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Feb. 14, and that tickets would be on sale Saturday.

Minutes later, the promoters made another announcement: Never mind.

VegasBeat spoke to a Clear Channel exec, who told us tickets will not go on sale this week.

We'll keep you posted.

Hoppin' mad

Paris Las Vegas headliner and animal rights activist Olivia Newton-John is calling for a kangaroo act to be bounced out of a circus playing in Las Vegas.

The Aussie singer and member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wrote a letter to Las Vegas Animal Control Supervisor Roger Van Oordt calling for the UniverSoul Circus to remove a kangaroo boxing act.

"I find it appalling that tethered kangaroos are taunted into defending themselves as an oddity," she wrote.

The circus, which features a hip-hop theme -- musically and otherwise -- began a two-week Cashman Center run on Tuesday.

Van Oordt told VegasBeat on Wednesday that he had circus officials into his office this week, "and we talked about the act. I told them that if they hit an animal in any manner, shape or form, then we will cite them and shut them down.

"They know they are being monitored."

UniverSoul spokesman Hank Ernest said: "Olivia Newtown-John is certainly welcome to her opinion, but our fans love our circus and part of the reason is that we treat animals with love and respect.

"It is a comedy act, and the kangaroo is not being struck."

Pace setter

For those keeping track, and we certainly are, why did the world media assemble outside a Petra Avenue production facility on Tuesday? To look for Michael Jackson, of course. And how did everyone know that Jacko was shooting a video there? VegasBeat, of course.

In Tuesday's paper, which was going to press at the same time his Neverland Ranch was being raided, we were the first outlet anywhere to name the CMX Sports & Entertainment studio as the locale where Jackson was making a video.

Newsman out

When one of the biggest stories in the country was breaking in Las Vegas -- the Jackson fiasco -- what were the suits at KVVU Channel 5, the local Fox affiliate doing? They were dumping their embattled news director, Marc Weiner.

In an e-mail, station General Manager Susan Lucas confirmed the personnel move to VegasBeat.

Weiner has been publicly criticized by MGM MIRAGE officials for what they call Channel 5's sensationalized coverage of the Roy Horn attack. Also, Nielsen ratings show that the Fox morning news show has slipped behind KTNV Channel 13's revamped Action News morning edition.

No replacement has been named.

VegasBits

King of Queens: Frank Marino, the longtime star of "An Evening at La Cage" at the Riviera, turns 40 today ... Also, frequent Las Vegas Hilton headliner Dick Smothers turns 64 today ...

USO: Stardust headliner Wayne Newton is back in Kuwait on a USO tour. Travel partners this time include Chris Isaak, Neal McCoy, Gary Sinise and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. They're expected to stay through Thanksgiving ...

Give: Blockbuster is hosting a used DVD drive to benefit the Nathan Adelson Hospice's Comfort Care Program. It is asking people to drop off used discs at the store at 7135 S. Eastern Ave. (near Warm Springs Road) between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday ...

Singer: Enrique Iglesias plays The Joint on Feb. 28. Tickets, priced at $53 and $88 (before tax and service charges), go on sale Monday ...

Watch: VegasBeat talks about the Jackson story on "Access Hollywood" at 7:30 p.m. today on KVBC Channel 3. Also, we're back with Tom Kelly on KMZQ 100.5-FM (LITE FM) on Friday at 7:30 a.m.

From Sun wires

Authorities are investigating whether Rush Limbaugh illegally funneled money to buy prescription painkillers, a law enforcement source who spoke on condition of anonymity said Wednesday.

In his third day back on the air after rehab, Limbaugh responded with a blanket denial of the allegations first reported Tuesday by ABC News.

"I was not laundering money. I was withdrawing money, for crying out loud," Limbaugh said in his three-hour broadcast.

Hazzard, King honored: Author Shirley Hazzard won the fiction prize at the National Book Awards on Wednesday night in New York and clashed with honorary winner Stephen King, who urged the audience to pay more attention to writers such as himself.

Hazzard was cited for her novel "The Great Fire," a romance set just after World War II.

Although critic Harold Bloom and others criticized King's selection, the 56-year-old author received a standing ovation as he walked stiffly to the stage, four years after being struck by a van while walking near his home in Lovell, Maine.

King urged the gap be closed between "the so-called popular fiction and the so-called literary fiction."

Earlier, Hazzard told the audience, responding to King's call to read popular writers: "I don't think giving us a reading list of those who are most read at this moment is much of a satisfaction."

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