VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: Teller Penns rave review of Jillette’s book

Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2004 | 10:42 a.m.

Penn Jillette hit a publicity home run over the weekend when a laudatory essay about his new novel,"Sock," appeared in the prestigious and widely read New York Times Sunday Book Review.

Even better, it was written by Teller, his shorter, quieter, fellow Rio headliner.

"The book is an explosion. It bursts out and races across the pages. 'Sock' is funny all the time; even the sad stuff is funny," Teller said.

The paperback is an opinionated thriller, to coin a term, narrated by a philosophical, slightly twisted and often-angry sock monkey called Dickie, who is owned by a member of the New York City police scuba diving unit.

At the end of Teller's full-page paean to his professional partner, he offers a disclosure.

"In the interest of full disclosure: six times a week onstage in Las Vegas, Penn fires a .357 Magnum revolver at my face. It's a trick. I end up alive and healthy with the bullet neatly caught between my teeth," Teller writes.

"I survive, in large part, because Penn always does his part of the trick correctly. I assure you, however, this would never skew my view of Penn's literary achievement."

Club reality

Spike TV has ordered 10 episodes of "The Club," a reality series from "The Restaurant" producers Ben Silverman and Robert Riesenberg.

Filming starts this week at ICE Las Vegas (the former Drink and Eat Too) at the corner of Koval Lane and Harmon Avenue, the club's Marc Jay tells us.

"ICE is really one of the only independent dance clubs in Las Vegas, so it's very much a David-and-Goliath story," Riesenberg told The Hollywood Reporter. "The gaming hotels are the Goliaths and ICE is the equivalent of David, so there's a lot of built-in drama and tension as a result."

To increase the star power, producers are importing Los Angeles club promoter Allison Melnick to toss some parties.

Melnick had a farewell party at the L.A. club Concorde on Friday night that drew Lindsay Lohan and Wilmer Valderrama, Randy Jackson, JC Chasez, Shane West and Cris Judd. Look for a similar crowd to find its way to ICE.

And following in the product placement-heavy footsteps of "The Restaurant," Heineken and Allied Domecq Spirits (Beefeater gin, Sauza tequila, Kahlua, Maker's Mark bourbon, Canadian Club whiskey, Teacher's scotch, Malibu rum) have signed on as major sponsors and will provide all of the booze for ICE.

The show is scheduled to premiere at 10 p.m. on Oct. 12.

Hard to digest

If iconic Chef James Beard were alive right now, he'd be reaching for some Pepto-Bismol.

According to several published reports, the James Beard Foundation is in "delinquent status" with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer after failing to file its financial disclosure forms for 2003.

Beard trustee George Sape, citing the organization's rapid growth over the past few years, said an internal inquiry is under way to determine what happened.

Las Vegas chefs have done well in the Beard awards recently. Caesars star Bradley Ogden won Beard honors this year for having the nation's top new restaurant, and Luciano Pellegrini won best in the Southwest for Valentino (Venetian).

Wheely good

When you want to get your product's name out there, what better way than to have a famous rapper, a 300-pound casino headliner and his midget sidekick endorse your product?

Las Vegas Trikes, a custom motorcycle place on Banburry Cross, near Summerlin Parkway and Town Center Drive, made up a custom three-wheeled chopper with Hard Rock Hotel comic headliner Jeff Beacher's face on one side and Lil Tim Loomis emblazoned on the other.

Then on Friday, Ice-T and Hard Rock prez Kevin Kelley rode it around the parking lot and up and down Harmon Avenue. Then Beacher and Loomis made some figure 8s.

Beacher already owns a tricked-out ambulance that he drives around to promote his "Beacher's Madhouse" show, and tells us that he is about to buy a used firetruck to add to his collection.

"We'll drive that one around with girls dressed only in fireman slickers dancing on the roof and hanging onto the ladders," Beacher said.

Sad ending

A couple of weeks ago Sam Solovey ("The Apprentice") was in front of Caesars Palace, selling $1,000 cups of lemonade.

He was there to support Alexandra Scott, an 8-year-old cancer patient who started a lemonade stand near her Philadelphia home to raise money for cancer research.

Sadly, Alexandria died Sunday.

She was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of cancer, before her first birthday. She later decided to set up a lemonade stand to raise money for treatment.

In June lemonade stand fund-raisers were set up in all 50 states, as well as in Canada and France, and Alexandra and her family appeared on Oprah Winfrey's show and on the "Today" show.

The little girl hoped that her Alex's Lemonade Stand charity would raise $1 million this year for cancer research. The effort has reached about $750,000, and Volvo of North America has pledged to hold a fall fund-raising event to assure that the $1 million goal will be reached, according to her father, Jay Scott.

VegasBits

Sunny: Spotted at Rehab, the Hard Rock Hotel's Sunday afternoon pool party: Ice-T, NBA star Jermaine O'Neal and bad-boy rocker Vince Neil, who was hobbling around on crutches and being trailed by a VH1 film crew. Neil broke his foot last week while exercising ...

Talk: Nevada Supreme Court Justice Michael Douglas -- the first black to fill that post in the court's 140-year history -- is the guest speaker at tonight's B.U.S.E. (Business Professionals, Up and Comers, Socialites and Entrepreneurs) event at the Stirling Club ...

Fan: Kenny Loggins and several pals took in Blue Man Group (Luxor) Saturday ...

Eat: Adam Carolla (formerly of "The Man Show") was at Nobu (Hard Rock) on Saturday night ...

Eat, 2: Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and his wife, Carolyn, had an early dinner Thursday night at Simon Kitchen and Bar (Hard Rock Hotel). Had they stuck around, they would have seen Jessica Biel, who had a late dinner with friends ...

Eat, 3: Drew Carey had dinner by himself Saturday at the counter at Mr. Lucky's, the Hard Rock Hotel coffee shop ...

Show: Barbara Lazaroff -- Wolfgang Puck's business partner and also his estranged wife -- celebrated her birthday with her children over the weekend. They went to see Penn & Teller on Friday and Blue Man Group on Saturday ...

From Sun wires

Arnold settles: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has settled a lawsuit against an Ohio firm that produces bobblehead dolls in his image.

The former Hollywood actor, who is fiercely protective of his image on the stump and on the screen, sued Ohio Discount Merchandise Inc. in April to halt production of the $19.95 plastic dolls that featured a gun-toting Schwarzenegger in a business suit.

Under the new agreement, Ohio Discount can produce Schwarzenegger-the-politician dolls -- without the gun. The company also agreed to donate a portion of sales to the Arnold All-Stars after-school program in Los Angeles.