VegasBeat — Columnist Timothy McDarrah: Sammy show doesn’t shop Vegas

Friday, Jan. 2, 2004 | 5:43 a.m.

VegasBeat appears Sunday through Friday in the Las Vegas Sun. Timothy McDarrah can be reached at tim@lasvegassun.com or at (702) 259-4096.

WEEKEND EDITION

January 3 - 4, 2004

Sammy Davis Jr.'s widow is looking for an actor to portray her late husband in a new stage production.

Strangely, she is not going to look in the one place that likely has more Davis impersonators than any place on Earth -- Las Vegas.

Altovese Davis and JTR Entertainment are having auditions in January in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta to find slight, black entertainers "who can sing, dance, act and do impersonations, all at the same time," said Gerry Dedera, who will direct "Mr. Bojangles: The Ultimate Entertainer."

But a staffer at Chicago-based O'Brien/Louer Casting said if they didn't find who they were looking for, they'd possibly stage a Vegas audition.

The show is set for a spring debut and will tour major casinos around the country, producers say. No Vegas dates -- or any others -- have been set.

"The show will focus on Sammy's triumph over his own doubts and fears, and will re-create the once-in-a-lifetime experience of seeing Sammy live," Dedera said.

For their New Year's Eve dinner, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez -- and 20 friends and family members staying with them at the Hard Rock Hotel -- ordered delivery from Craftsteak (MGM Grand).

On Sept. 5 we wrote about football prognosticator Wayne Allyn Root, who lives in Anthem and has a national Fox Sports network television show.

His main prediction for 2003: "A disaster of a season for the Washington Redskins," culminating in the dismissal of coach Steve Spurrier.

Spurrier was not dismissed, but he quit the 'Skins on Tuesday after a 5-11 campaign.

Best New Year's Eve house parties: The ones hosted by Jeff Jonas, who operates the high-tech security firm SRD, and politico Tom Letizia and his wife, Marla.

Coincidentally, the parties took place a few blocks apart in the posh Queensridge development.

The former event drew more than 500 revelers, including a mentalist, a fire eater, a couple of guys on stilts and three former Cirque du Soleil performers hired to do a synchronized swimming show in the estate's massive pool.

The latter party was more subdued and dotted with many of the city's movers and shakers.

VegasBeat gets a lot of grief for writing about Robin Leach so often.

But what other Las Vegas resident had a prime-time television special last week -- one that won its time slot?

Across the country, Leach's ABC special "Life of Luxury" opened with a 7.7 rating and a 12 share in the 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. time slot, according to MediaWeek television maven Marc Berman.

A single ratings point represents 1 percent, or 1,055,000 households. Share refers to the percentage of television sets in use tuned to a specific program.

Nationally, the show topped its competition, NBC's "Fear Factor," a pair of CBS sitcoms, Fox's "Malcolm in the Middle" and the WB's "7th Heaven."

Leach said that agents, lawyers and the network are already talking about future installments of the show, which is a voyeuristic look at the lives of the unimaginably wealthy.

As the sports pages reported the other day, former NBA star Dennis Rodman has signed to play with the Long Beach Jam of the new American Basketball Association.

If we don't see him sooner, Rodman visits Vegas when his new team plays Master P (Percy Miller) and the Las Vegas Rattlers on Jan. 20 and Jan. 21 at the Las Vegas Events Center on East Sunset Road.

Alert the tattoo parlors.