Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: Football betting show takes root in Vegas

Are you ready for some football?

Wayne Allyn Root is. The noted football prognosticator taped the first episode of his nationally broadcast show Thursday in Las Vegas. The show was based in Los Angeles for its first three years.

"Las Vegas is the center of the sports gaming universe, so it made sense for us to be here," Root told VegasBeat during a break from the taping at the Players Network Studios on Polaris Avenue.

"Wayne Allyn Root's Winning Edge" reaches an estimated 87 million homes. It airs Saturday mornings through the Super Bowl; locally it appears at 8:30 a.m. on Fox Sports West (Cox cable channel 49).

Root shares screen time with NFL Hall of Famer and Super Bowl MVP Randy White, Emmy Award-winning national radio host Chet Coppock and a spokesmodel from gentlemen's club Sapphire on Industrial Road.

The appeal of the show, explains Root, is that while many other similar broadcasts appeal to fans, he appeals to "point-spread players."

The show also features some Strip locale shots, and Thursday's taping also included a Groucho Marx impersonator on the set. Hey, it's Vegas.

Predictions for the coming season? White predicted good things for his former team, the Dallas Cowboys.

"Bill Parcells has installed some discipline and really turned that place around," White said. "No more Ping- Pong tables, no more goofing around. It may not be reflected in their record until next season, but you watch. America's Team will come roaring back."

White and Root also predicted a disaster of a season for the Washington Redskins, starting with a loss Thursday night in the NFL season opener against the New York Jets.

"Vinny Testaverde has done it before, and he has more than enough in him to do it again," said White. "And, the Skins have no defense."

Echoed Root, a native New Yorker: "Don't let the fact that he is a 40-year- old backup enter into it. Vinny is the man. I am taking the Jets."

Well, if he was getting three points, which was the line at most sports books, it was a push; the Redskins nipped the Jets, 16-13.

Love match

Another prominent couple is joining the Las Vegas scene.

VegasBeat has learned that Elaine and Steve Wynn's oldest daughter, Kevyn Wynn, is engaged to Temple Beth Sholom Cantor Daniel Friedman.

Friedman, a one-time Broadway entertainer, appeared in productions of "Les Miserables" and "Cats" before finding his higher calling.

Lending an ear

The episodes that were recently taped in Las Vegas of "Ask Rita," the syndicated advice show hosted by New York-New York headliner Rita Rudner, start airing today.

Rudner describes it as "a show in which I meddle in the lives of people I have never met. We handpick a crack team of celebrities who know nothing and aren't afraid to share it.

"We won't feel your pain, but we will point at it!"

The show airs weekdays at 10 a.m. on KVBC Channel 3.

Among the guests on the Vegas segments, which run for the next two weeks, are David Brenner, Joan Severance, Jackee Harry and Connie Stevens.

Nominee

The Clint Holmes musical "Comfortable Shoes," which played a limited run in Chicago, has been nominated for several Black Theatre Alliance Awards.

Holmes and collaborator Nelson Kole are up for Best Writing, Musical. Several of the performers are also up for awards.

The ceremonies take place in Chicago on Sept. 15.

Also, Holmes, Kole, and producers Steve Wilson, Rory Rosengarten and Karen Leahy have been nominated for a prestigious Jeff Award in the Best New Work category.

The 35th annual Joseph Jefferson Awards ceremony -- they are known as the Chicago Tony Awards -- takes place Nov. 3.

Hot spot

The new Nightlife at the Stirling Club was mobbed at its inaugural evening Thursday.

Gianna Buchanan, socialite and consumer lawyer with the state attorney general's office, was celebrating her birthday. Dealmaker Joey Battig was huddled with Gianni Russo, who plays the Suncoast this weekend.

Sheena Easton and Clint Holmes did short sets onstage, and as we were leaving, Eagle Glenn Frey was walking in; he was in town for a corporate gig, and is friends with Richard Femenella, chief executive of the Charlie Palmer Group, who put the evening together.

VegasBits

Knockout: Sugar Ray Leonard was part of a party of five at Charlie Palmer Steak on Wednesday night ...

Knockout, cont'd.: Every head in the place turned when Las Vegas native and porn princess Jenna Jameson walked into Simon Kitchen and Bar at the Hard Rock Hotel for dinner Monday night ...

Send off: Several local sports and media types are expected at Tommy Rocker's restaurant on Industrial Road tonight to celebrate longtime KTNV Channel 13 Sports Director Ron Futrell's move to morning news anchor. The new gig, with co-anchor Rikki Cheese, starts Monday. Futrell and Rocker are threatening to jam onstage for a couple of songs ...

Famous: The popular online Citysearch guide has Bellagio at the second most celebrity-frequented hotel in the nation. Top of the list was 60 Thompson in New York City ...

New boss: Angela Pilmer has been tapped as the new producer of "DayONE Las Vegas," the morning news program on cable's Las Vegas ONE ...

Dine: Skateboard patriarch Tony Hawk had dinner with friends Thursday night at N9NE ...

Gamers: Spike TV's "Video Game Awards" show is going to be taped at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Dec. 2, the broadcast trade mag Electronic Media reports.

From Sun wires

Actor Johnny Depp said he intended no "anti-American sentiment" in comparing the nation to a dumb puppy and blamed news reports for misrepresenting his opinions.

Depp apologized in a statement to those "who were offended, affected or hurt by this insanely twisted deformation of my words and intent." He was quoted by the German magazine Stern as saying that "America is dumb, is something like a dumb puppy that has big teeth -- that can bite and hurt you, aggressive."

Cosby boosts morale: Comedian Bill Cosby was greeted by Baylor's marching band and 20,000 people at a pep rally to boost morale at a university shaken by heartache and scandal Thursday in Waco, Texas.

Sporting a yellow "Baylor Track & Field" T-shirt, Cosby said he wanted to build up the students following the shooting death of basketball player Patrick Dennehy.

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