Friday, April 16, 2004 | 10:31 a.m.
You know it is a special day when you deal with two separate Michael Jackson lawyers on two separate Vegas-related stories.
First, we got a conference call from Michael's father, Joseph Jackson, and Jackson family attorney and spokesman Brian Oxman.
They were looking to get in touch with Vegas pawn shop owner Jim Reid. We reported on Monday that Reid had come into possession of some rare Beatles footage from a woman who was a friend of the Jackson family. Reid is unloading the booty on Internet auction Web site eBay.
The woman told Reid that Joe Jackson had given her the tapes. But Jackson claims that the woman stole them from him, and he wants them back.
Oxman said they were likely going to move to stop the eBay auction, and try to get Jackson back the precious tapes. The auction began April 10 and is scheduled to close Monday.
Second, as he told VegasBeat, another Jackson family attorney, Steve Cochran, dismisses as "absolute trash" a story being circulated by Scott Thorson -- Liberace's former companion -- that Thorson had an affair with the pop star.
The New York Daily News, Foxnews.com and other outlets reported this week that Thorson passed a polygraph test and is ready to testify in the singer's child-molestation case about his relationship with Jackson.
Thorson says he could prove useful to prosecutors if Jackson's lawyers assert that their client is heterosexual and thus would have no interest in boys.
Thorson claims he met Jackson in 1979 in Las Vegas, when Thorson was involved with Liberace.
Thorson and Jackson's alleged homosexual relationship began in London while Liberace was appearing at the Palladium
"Michael begged me to leave Liberace. I had to say no," the Daily News reported Thorson as saying.
No clue
Las Vegas' favorite new parlor game: speculating about what really caused the Bellagio power failure.
Several readers have e-mailed comments such as (and we are paraphrasing here) "The entire Northeast went dark last summer -- and yet power was restored in 12 hours. Why was the Bellagio dark for three whole days?" Conspiracy theories abound.
Among the causes we have heard include a computer virus, water seepage, cheap cables that were used to save construction dollars, a carefully orchestrated casino cage theft, a rich tycoon who ordered a Monet theft so he could add paintings to his collection and a large rodent nibbling through some cable.
That last one, by the way, is not as ridiculous as it seems. In places such as Boston, Chicago and Philly, rats and squirrels have caused all kinds of electric and gas-line problems through the years.
Officially, hotel officials say no cause has yet been determined.
Family tree
In his Flash! political newsletter the other day, Las Vegas Sun political scribe and TV commentator Jon Ralston referred to "the mayor's aide and surrogate daughter, Stephanie Boixo."
The word "surrogate" may soon have to be dropped and "in-law" added. For several months Boixo, the mayor's chief of staff, has been romantically involved with Eric Goodman, the attorney son of her boss, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.
Eric Goodman is a former clerk for District Judge Lee Gates, and is now in private practice. Among his clients are disgraced former pol Dario Herrera.
Last fall before she hooked up with Goodman, Boixo fetched $1,800 at a charity bachelorette auction.
In 1994 she was the first woman elected as UNLV's student body president. She started working for Goodman after he was elected in 1999. Before that, she managed the Luxor account at R&R Partners, a prominent Las Vegas advertising agency.
Shop top
The District at Green Valley Ranch opened Thursday after a VIP party on Wednesday night. (Disclosure: This newspaper and American Nevada Company, which developed The District, are both owned by the Greenspun family.)
Jazz music by local artists 2-A-T played throughout the shopping area, while about 600 guests including Sen. Harry Reid, Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson and Tim Cashman wined, dined and shopped.
The urban-themed retail and residential complex immediately had one transplanted New Yorker -- this one -- feeling right at home.
We didn't immediately have a chance to check out all the new women's apparel and home furnishings shops, but plenty of others did.
Instead, we focused on all the specialty food shops, including Al's Garage, Ben & Jerry's, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Elephant Bar, Ethel M Chocolates, Kennedy Tavern, King's Fish House, La Salsa, Lucille's Smokehouse Bar-B-Que, Panera Bread, P.F. Chang's and Tacone.
And that's why we need to go on a diet.
VegasBits
Flush: James McManus, author of the best-selling Vegas-centric poker tome "Positively Fifth Street," has a book signing scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at the Reading Room, the gem of a bookstore inside Mandalay Place ...
Talk: CNN en Espanol national business anchor Gabriela Frias will be in Las Vegas today from Atlanta to speak at the Latin Chamber of Commerce luncheon at Texas Station. She was invited to speak by Cox Communications ...
Story: CNN newsman Wolf Blitzer and family had dinner the other night at AquaKnox (Venetian). Also enjoying the fresh seafood was director Brett Ratner ("Rush Hour") ...
Meet: "Las Vegas" stars James Caan and Josh Duhamel had lunch Monday at The Verandah (Four Seasons). Later they had a press conference at the hotel, where they met some members of the the European media. Seems everyone loves Las Vegas these days ...
Meet: Las Vegas homemaker Susan Corker-Stevens will appear onstage with Oprah Winfrey in San Diego on Saturday. She won an essay contest sponsored by Winfrey's O magazine. Corker-Stevens wrote about Suzy Portz, a Las Vegas woman who befriended her when Corker-Stevens was a single mom with only $20 in her pocket. Today, Corker-Stevens is back on her feet; she and husband Chris Stevens (a Mandalay Bay bartender) are the proud parents of Emily, 4, and Amanda, 9.
From Sun wires
Bill Rancic gets the job: When Bill Rancic aced "The Apprentice," Donald Trump gave him a choice of two plum jobs: managing a Trump-owned golf course in California or overseeing a 90-story building project in Chicago.
Chicagoan Rancic was happily homebound and his fellow finalist Kwame Jackson was fired as the hit NBC series aired its live finale on Thursday.
Rancic, a street-smart 32-year-old Internet entrepreneur, had edged out Jackson, the laid-back 29-year-old New Yorker and Harvard MBA, for what Trump described as the "dream job of a lifetime" and a $250,000 year's salary.
Love to stand trial: A judge in Beverly Hills, Calif., Thursday ordered rocker Courtney Love to stand trial on felony drug charges after hearing testimony alleging that she gave police officers a baggie full of pills. Love was ordered to appear for arraignment April 30.
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