Thursday, Oct. 30, 2003 | 10:42 a.m.
MGM MIRAGE suits are now firing away at the local Fox affiliate, KVVU Channel 5, for its coverage of the Roy Horn tragedy.
"They really ought to be ashamed of themselves," Alan Feldman, senior vice president of public affairs, told VegasBeat from Montreal, where he was scouting the MGM Grand's incoming Cirque du Soleil production.
"That station is putting marketing itself way, way ahead of substance. (Fox 5 News Director) Marc Weiner has been more concerned with telling viewers that Fox has the story than actually getting the story, and getting it correct," Feldman said.
Feldman said the station, and other broadcast outlets, was guilty of relying on unnamed sources to report inaccuracies regarding Horn's medical condition.
Feldman said that the Fox station "has not been alone, but has in my view been the most aggressive" practitioner of the art of "self-cheerleading."
Part of the reason, surmised Feldman, is that Las Vegas has become such a competitive media market, with seven locally produced newscasts -- CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, UPN and WB affiliates plus the cable news channel Las Vegas ONE.
When contacted by telephone and then by e-mail, Weiner chose not to respond to Feldman's comments.
Also, Weiner denied rumors that Robin Leach has left the station.
Despite a deafening crescendo of stories indicating otherwise, Weiner insisted that Leach, the veteran entertainment reporter and "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" figure, was a "happy and active member" of his team.
Leach, usually a fixture on the morning show and the station's 10 p.m. newscast, has not been on the air for more than a week.
For perhaps the first time ever, Leach did not return phone calls on the matter.
Strike
Official new cool Vegas trend: bowling. An alley is part of the new bachelor suite at the Hard Rock Hotel -- George Clooney rolled a few frames a couple of weekends ago.
There are a pair of lanes inside the sleek silver shell of an old Winnebago at the revamped Shady Grove lounge at the Silverton, and a couple of relatively hip friends of VegasBeat just signed up for private bowling lessons.
Personal trainers are so five minutes ago.
Society visit
Virginia Kraft Payson, one of the nation's true aristocrats, is visiting friends in Las Vegas this week and toying with the idea of establishing a local residence, she tells us.
Payson is well known in society circles as the Sports Illustrated editor who married industrialist Charles Shipman Payson in 1977. The couple established their own horse breeding farm, racing stable and training center.
Her Long Island, N.Y., home (one of several) is on the market for about $50 million. The 1902 Stanford White-designed mansion sits on 13 acres and has 1,500 feet of prime Long Island Sound waterfront.
The Gold Coast residence was the inspiration for the home of Tom and Daisy Buchanan in "The Great Gatsby," which F. Scott Fitzergerald wrote when he was a houseguest of a previous owner, New York World Editor Herbert Bayard Swope. (Swope was also the first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism.)
Other guests at the home have included Groucho Marx, Ethel Barrymore, Winston Churchill and Dorothy Parker.
Late night
The Scintas offered up a private midnight show in their Rio theater for their colleagues in the Vegas show community Tuesday night.
Both the concept -- an old-style late-night gathering of entertainers -- and the response were terrific. There were cast members representing such shows as "Second City," "Lord of the Dance," Celine Dion's "A New Day ...," "Shock!" and "Legends in Concert" and local stars such as Frank Marino, Sonny King, Anthony Cools, Clint Holmes, Breck Wall, Tina Walsh and Sandy Hackett in attendance.
Radio daze
George Maloof and his brothers Gavin and Phil are scheduled to appear on Howard Stern's syndicated radio show next Thursday. Among other topics, they'll be talking about the Palms' second anniversary party on Nov. 15.
The Stern show is heard locally on KXTE 107.5-FM (Xtreme Radio).
In far-less-significant radio news, VegasBeat is back on KNUU 970-AM (K-NEWS) at 4 p.m. today for our regular weekly visit with "Las Vegas Today" host Andy Vierra. Also, catch us at 7:30 a.m. Friday with Tom Kelly on LITE FM, KMZQ 100.5-FM for a heads-up on all the weekend celebrity activities.
VegasBits
Supporter: President Bush is coming to Las Vegas next month for a fund-raiser. It'll be a $2,000-per-plate luncheon at The Venetian, hosted by hotel head Sheldon Adelson ...
Replacement: Melissa Rivers has canceled her scheduled Saturday hosting duties at a Las Vegas Comedy Festival event at Stardust. Former MTV personality "Downtown" Julie Brown will now emcee the Plastic Hangar Awards ...
Concerts: Two top acts hit the area on Dec. 20. Kenny Rogers plays Buffalo Bill's Star of the Desert Arena in Primm, and Mariah Carey, we hear, takes the stage at the Aladdin Performing Arts Center the same day ...
Still kicking: For the third straight year, Elvis Presley is at the top of Forbes magazine's dead celebrity earnings list. The money mag says The King cleared $40 million last year. No. 2 on the list was "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz, at $32 million.
From Sun wires
Paul McCartney's wife, Heather Mills, has given birth to a girl, the couple said today.
Beatrice, the couple's first child, was born Tuesday at a London hospital and weighed 7 pounds, her parents said in a statement.
"She is a little beauty. We couldn't be prouder," the 61-year-old former Beatle McCartney and Mills, 35, said, adding that they were "ecstatic."
A spokeswoman for the Hospital of St. John and St. Elizabeth said Beatrice Milly McCartney was born three weeks premature and delivered by Caesarean section.
Spokeswoman Claire Hornick said the baby and mother were doing "very well," and added that Mills and McCartney were still in the hospital today.
The Daily Mirror newspaper had reported earlier today that the child was a boy.
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