Friday, June 18, 2004 | 11:14 a.m.
Praise Detroit.
Other than some long-shot gamblers, there was possibly no one in Las Vegas happier that the Pistons had dethroned the Los Angeles Lakers in just five games than CineVegas Film Festival President and founder Robin Greenspun.
Games 6 and 7 of the NBA finals, while not in direct conflict with CineVegas events tonight and Saturday, certainly would have competed for Jack Nicholson's attention at this evening's tribute dinner for the multiple Oscar winner.
The tribute is the highlight of a busy closing weekend for the festival.
The Bouchon (Venetian) dinner for Nicholson will be hosted by CineVegas creative board Chairman Dennis Hopper, and will be followed by a private fete hosted by Hopper and George Maloof at the Palms.
Also expected at the tribute dinner are Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn and Holly Hunter, who will get Half-Life Awards for achievements "amassed ... at a young age," and Bruce Conner, David Lynch and Julian Schnabel, who were tapped for CineVegas Vanguard Director honors.
Dean Stockwell gets the inaugural Changed My Life award.
On Saturday is the CineVegas Closing Night Gala, which takes place poolside at Skin, the Palms' outdoor nightclub venue and is hosted by Movieline's Hollywood Life magazine.
The evening begins with a screening of the acclaimed film "The Notebook," a love story starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams.
Celebs expected at the Skin bash include all the bold-faced names mentioned above, plus many others attached to CineVegas entries, including Val Kilmer, Robert Duvall, James Woods, Taye Diggs, John Leguizamo, Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis, Jeremy Piven, Melissa George, Ethan Suplee and David Boreanaz.
Small world
As they sort of said in "The Lion King," how about that circle of life.
Upon closer examination, all the news about "Avenue Q" and Hugh Jackman coming to Wynn Las Vegas has a decidedly Vegas twist.
Seems the lawyer repping the show's composers/lyricists, Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez, is former Vegas resident Jodi Peikoff. Her stage connection dates to her stint in the chorus in a 1980s Meadows Theatre production of "Fiddler on the Roof" that featured her mother, Arlene Blut, and was directed by Blut's longtime friend, and former Henderson schoolteacher, Philip McKinley.
McKinley now directs Jackman in "The Boy From Oz" on Broadway, just down the street from "Avenue Q."
"I love the full-circle series of events bringing together longtime Las Vegas success stories," Blut said.
Strike benefit
Who says bowling isn't cool?
Dozens of jocks will come together at the Texas Station Bowling Center on Saturday afternoon to raise money for the Urban Youth Scholarship Fund.
The national charity benefits inner-city youths who otherwise would not have the means to pursue their goal of higher education.
Organizers say that confirmed athletes include Steve Young, Greg Anthony, Jason Sehorn, Tracy McGrady, Junior Seau, Antawn Jamison, Carson Palmer, Jermaine O'Neal, Kordell Stewart, Elton Brand, Clyde Drexler, Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Warren Moon, Warrick Dunn and Kerri Strug.
There's also a party that evening at Light (Bellagio) to celebrate the charity.
Show add
Another producer from the Emmy-winning team at "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" has joined "The Vegas Show."
Lawrence Williams, who was onstage with colleague Hedda Muskat when the show won its best daytime talk show trophy last month during ceremonies in New York, is now part of the new team assembled by "Vegas" co-producers Howard Lefkowitz and Rick Garson.
Now, he joins Muskat in Dicetown.
The show debuts, live, on Monday on KVVU Channel 5 at 10:30 a.m. with Sheena Easton and new co-host Brian McKnight.
Free tickets to be part of the studio audience are available through the box office at the Golden Nugget, where the show is taped. For more info, call the hotel at (702) 385-7111.
Got billions?
Casting agents for "The Billionaire," a new Fox reality series, will be at the Virgin Megastore (Forum Shops at Caesars) on Saturday.
On the show, billionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson will send a group of go-getters on a whirlwind world tour to test their mettle. Along the way, the contestants will relive some of Branson's own colorful adventures, from hot-air ballooning to race car driving.
Bunim-Murray Productions (MTV's "Real World," Paris Hilton's "The Simple Life") are looking for "male and female adventurers aged 21 and up from all backgrounds, education levels and experiecne who are ready for the challenge of a lifetime."
The show is slated for a fall debut. The network has yet to say what the winner will receive.
VegasBits
Party: Duvall, dressed in an Adidas track suit, was joined by Hopper and Lynch Wednesday night at OPM (Forum Shops) to celebrate Duvall's CineVegas entry about entertainer Billy Jo Shaver. Also in the house: Paul Gleason, who played school principal Richard Vernon in the '80s movie classic "The Breakfast Club" ...
Cool: The outdoor Lagoon area of the Summerlin club Plush opens to the public tonight at 7. Plush is the local branch of Key Club, the white-hot Los Angeles celeb magnet ..
Birthday: Film critic Roger Ebert, whose reviews appear regularly in the Las Vegas Sun, is 62 today, as is former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney ...
New home: Siegfried & Roy protege and former Mirage afternoon headliner Darren Romeo debuts his new show tonight at the Welk Resort Theatre in Branson, Mo.
From Sun wires
Madonna becoming Esther?: So on the one hand, she wears a Jewish star, says she attends synagogue, performs with a version of the prayer accessory known as tefillin and with Hebrew letters flashing across a screen, and has let it be known that she won't have concerts on the Jewish Sabbath; Madison Square Garden will be dark Friday night and Saturday.
But on the other hand, Madonna is not Jewish. And her name is the least of the problem, although she appears to be addressing that issue as well. In an ABC interview that will be broadcast tonight, she says she has taken on the Hebrew name Esther. But her spokeswoman denied that she was dropping the name Madonna.
Clinton slept on couch: Bill Clinton says in his new autobiography that his wife looked as if he had punched her in the gut when he finally confessed to his affair with Monica Lewinsky, and he spent at least two months sleeping on the couch after that.
In "My Life," a copy of which was obtained by the Associated Press, the former president wrote that the affair with the White House intern revealed "the darkest part of my inner life." He said the sexual relationship was immoral and foolish.
He said he and his wife began counseling one day a week for about a year.
Ripa on board again: Kelly Ripa will be a "Live" star for five more years, according to the syndicated TV entertainment show "Extra."
Ripa, who landed her co-host role beside Regis Philbin in February 2001, reportedly will be paid about $40 million under her new "Live With Regis and Kelly" contract, or $8 million a year.
Philbin, 72, has two more years on his current contract.
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