VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: Anniversary strikes a chord in LV

Wednesday, June 23, 2004 | 10:31 a.m.

As Elton John says, remember when rock was young?

We don't. While the folks did drag us to Woodstock, we were too young to remember anything. (Of course, those who were there and who were older don't seem to remember much of it either ...)

Regardless, there are several events going on in Las Vegas to mark the 50th birthday of rock 'n' roll.

The Hard Rock Cafe, with its world-renowned collection of rock memorabilia, is bringing several special pieces to Las Vegas to mark the five decades since Elvis Presley recorded "That's All Right" at the legendary Sun Studios in Memphis on July 5, 1954 -- a date which many rock fans regard as the birth of rock music.

Among the items on display locally will be the guitar that Presley played during his 1968 comeback special, a pair of his black-and-white shoes from the 1950s on loan from Graceland, and items ranging from a favored guitar of the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir to a red tuxedo from Van Halen's 1984 "Hot for Teacher" video.

For a month, starting July 2, the Hard Rock Cafe is also paying tribute to the King by featuring some of Presley's favorite dishes, including pork chops with gravy, peanut butter-and-banana sandwiches and apple pie and ice cream.

On the actual birth date at 12:30 p.m., Hard Rock Cafes and dozens of radio stations nationwide will further pay tribute to Elvis by playing "That's All Right."

Top celebs

Several Vegas names are on the Forbes magazine Top 100 Celebrities list.

Celine Dion comes in at No. 26, followed by Andre Agassi (33), David Copperfield (35), Siegfried & Roy (58), Paris Hilton (70), Michael Flatley (75), Wolfgang Puck (85) and Prime (Bellagio) restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongrichten (100).

Mel Gibson, powered by the hundreds of millions garnered by his "Passion of the Christ," tops the list. He is followed by Tiger Woods and Oprah Winfrey.

In the "How Fast Things Can Change Department," on last year's list, Jennifer Lopez was No. 5 and Ben Affleck was No. 7.

Neither appear on this year's list.

The rankings combine standings in five categories -- money earned; Web mentions on Google; press clips compiled by LexisNexis; TV/radio mentions compiled by Factiva; and how many times a celebrity's face appeared on the cover of any of 16 major consumer mags.

Major media

Newsweek in its current issue mentions a $1,475 necklace-and-earrings set that was presented as a gift to veep Dick Cheney.

The jewelry was presented to Cheney earlier this year by Pam Brown, wife of Joe Brown, a prominent local Republican attorney and senior partner at Jones Vargas. She designs and produces the jewelry under the name Stoneprints, and pieces are available at the Fashion Show branch of Neiman Marcus.

Time, meanwhile, has a long feature called "Viva Las Vegas -- The small screen heads to Sin City for weekly orgies of crime and punishment, sex and repentance."

The article recaps all the TV shows that are set in Vegas, from "CSI" to "The Casino."

Finally, GQ this month writes about "a great debut from the Killers, a young Las Vegas band."

Cookin' good

Michelle Lynn Morgando is the 2004 valedictorian at The Art Institute of Las Vegas. She graduated this week with an associates degree in Culinary Arts.

But she cooks outside of the classroom as well.

Morgando has been an administrative law judge since November 1995, when she was first appointed by Gov. Bob Miller.

She told us she felt "honored to learn from one of the best," the school's resident Master Chef Raimund Hofmeister, and that she hopes to one day have her own restaurant.

VegasBits

Fans: Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Sean Penn and Norm MacDonald were all spotted (separately!) at one of David Spade's Mirage shows over the weekend ...

Dad: Joe Jackson (Michael's father) had dinner Saturday night at Aureole's Swan Court (Mandalay Bay) with a large group of friends ...

Congrats: New York-New York headliner Rita Rudner performed her 1,000th show at the hotel on Saturday night ...

Glide: NBA legend Clyde Drexler, dressed in a snazzy black-and-white checkered shirt, happily posed for photos with fans at McCarran International Airport after he debarked his Continental Airlines flight from Houston on Friday afternoon ...

Names: U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow addressed a real power crowd at a Nevada Hotel & Lodging and Nevada Restaurant Associations breakfast at the Las Vegas Convention Center the other day. The group included Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson, Felix Rappaport (prez, New York-New York), (Wynn Resorts veep) Richard Cotter, Don Snyder (Boyd Gaming boss), Jonathan Boulware (veep, Primm Valley), Carlos Silva (prez, Memphis Championship Barbecue Restaurants), Mark DiMartino (prez, Synergy Restaurant Group), Sam Facchini (prez, Metro Pizza) and Bob Ansara (prez, Ricardo's Restaurants) ...

New gig: Red-carpet fashion critics Joan Rivers and daughter Melissa Rivers are leaving E! to go to the TV Guide channel. In addition to their red-carpet interviews, the two will host a variety of lifestyle shows and holiday specials. Mom Rivers opens a four-night engagement tonight at the Stardust ...

Horses Mouth: Hear about the blockbuster MGM MIRAGE-Mandalay Bay deal from the inside. Today on "Face to Face With Jon Ralston," the guest is Mandalay Resort Group President Glenn Schaeffer. Thursday's guest is MGM MIRAGE President and Chief Executive Terry Lanni. The show airs on Las Vegas ONE (Cox cable channels 1 and 19) at 4:30 p.m., and then is rebroadcast several times during the evening.

Circus: Nicolas Cage must be quite a Cirque du Soleil fan. He attended "Mystere" (Treasure Island) on Saturday, "O" (Bellagio) on Sunday and "Zumanity" on Monday. He arrived at the latter with his brother Lee and girlfriend Alice Kim in tow ...

Tapestry: Grammy-award winning singer/songwriter Carole King will end her Summer 2004 Living Room Tour on Aug. 21 at The Colossuem at Caesars Palace. Tickets, priced from $65 to $100, go on sale on July 2, not this Friday, as previously announced ...

From Sun wires

Olsen seeks treatment: After months of speculation about her emaciated appearance, Mary-Kate Olsen has entered treatment for an eating disorder, her publicist said Tuesday.

The actress is undergoing treatment at an undisclosed location. The publicist could not say what type of eating disorder Olsen has, but Us Weekly says it's anorexia.

Lollapalooza canceled: The Lollapalooza music festival tour has been canceled because of poor ticket sales, according to its Web site.

The tour, featuring Morrissey, Sonic Youth and The Flaming Lips, had been set to begin July 14 in Auburn, Wash., and continue through August.