Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

VegasBeat —Timothy McDarrah: Brenner at home with charitable cause

Vegas headliner David Brenner does not kid around when the topic is homeless people.

"I have never been homeless, but when I was 8 1/2, we were evicted from our home in Philadelphia," the veteran comic told us at Las Vegas City Hall on Tuesday, where he made an appearance with Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman to raise funds for HELP USA, which is building a third local facility to house homeless people.

"We moved into a place that had no furniture. I slept on the floor for months. That horror and the agony of poverty that I suffered as a child are the main reasons I am here today -- to work to forever eradicate homelessness."

Brenner was downtown to announce a cross-promotional offer with Kenneth Cole, the celebrity clothing designer, whose brother-in-law Andrew Cuomo founded HELP USA, which builds affordable housing nationwide.

Starting today, if you spend $100 or more at one of the three Cole stores in Las Vegas, you receive a free ticket (with one paid ticket) to see Brenner's show at the Westin Casuarina Hotel on East Flamingo Road (formerly the Maxim).

Or, bring a Brenner ticket stub to Cole and get 30 percent off all purchases.

Brenner also took a shot at Las Vegas.

It is more than a little disappointing, he said, that officials can find money for a new zoo, but not for the homeless.

"They can spend $30 million to put animals in cages, but nothing to take people out of the invisible cages of poverty and homelessness," Brenner said. Goodman stood silently next to Brenner as he made those remarks.

Of course, Brenner can't be serious for too long.

"When I tell people the name of the new hotel I am playing, they think it is a Mexican restaurant."

Paws for thought

Mirage headliner Danny Gans is not performing for the next three weeks so he can recover from an accident he suffered at his home.

Gans stepped on his dog, fell, banged his head and suffered a concussion.

"Danny was going to the bathroom in the middle of the night on Friday when he stepped on his dog," Kadie, a black lab, Gans' manager Chip Lightman told us Tuesday afternoon.

"Danny jumped right up -- like anyone would do after you step on an animal -- and slipped and fell and smacked the back of his head on some knobs in the bathroom.

"When he woke up in the morning there was blood everywhere."

Gans spent Saturday night in the hospital, where he was treated for a concussion. Doctors needed 12 staples to close the wound.

Kadie was uninjured.

Lawyer up

Clad in a royal blue suit and blue shades, attorney Johnnie Cochran breezed into town Tuesday to announce a plan to merge his firm, The Cochran Firm, with Las Vegas personal injury law firm Mainor Eglet Cottle, Las Vegas Sun and In Business Las Vegas reporter Alana Roberts told VegasBeat.

The new firm will be called Mainor Eglet Cottle in Partnership With the Cochran Firm. Robert Eglet, a partner, said the merger will give the firm the resources to take on bigger cases.

Cochran said Las Vegas' rapid growth rate made the merger attractive.

"I've always been inspired by the growth here. It's one of the fastest-growing communities," Cochran said.

Movie rocks

"Shade," a new movie thriller, is having a star-studded, red-carpet premiere at the Hard Rock Hotel on March 22.

The film is set in the shady atmosphere of an underground gambling club in Los Angeles, where three hustlers (Gabriel Byrne, Stuart Townsend and Thandie Newton) are looking for a big take before they retire.

The trio teams up with "The Dean" (Sylvester Stallone), and they succeed in ripping off a wealthy gangster (Jamie Foxx) -- but the gangster comes after them looking for vengeance.

The flick also features Melanie Griffith and Hal Holbrook as a team of grifters.

Townsend; his Oscar-winning girlfriend, Charlize Theron; Griffith; her husband, Antonio Banderas, Foxx; Newton; and the film's director, Damian Nieman, are all expected at the Hard Rock event.

Security check

Rio headliner Ronn Lucas threw the Secret Service for a loop by bringing his friend Scorch the Dragon to perform for President Bush at a Ford's Theatre gala in Washington, D.C., over the weekend.

Apparently, no one had ever brought a $100,000 robotic dragon into the same room as the president of the United States.

The motors controlling the puppet's amazingly lifelike facial expressions (not to mention the "pyro-breath" of the fire-breather) piqued the interest of Secret Service agents, who proceeded to treat Scorch like a suspect at an airport security checkpoint, with a thorough cavity search.

But the show went on without any hitches.

"An American Celebration at Ford's Theatre," hosted by "Frasier" star Kelsey Grammer, is scheduled to air over the July 4 weekend on ABC. Also performing: Jessica Simpson, Michelle Williams from Destiny's Child, Patti LaBelle, Gary Sinise, David Spade and country stars Brad Paisley and the band Rascal Flatts.

VegasBits

Favorite: Defeated boxer Shane Mosley and a party of five had dinner Sunday at Charlie Palmer Steak (Four Seasons) -- his third dinner there in one week ...

Staff: About 20 members of the Las Vegas Gladiators Arena Football League team, including quarterback Clint Dolezel, are expected to join Chef Roy Yamaguchi in the kitchen of his Roy's restaurant on East Flamingo Road on Thursday afternoon ...

Birthday: Rob Lowe turns 40 today. He was in and out of Las Vegas at least twice in the last two weeks as his new CBS show, "Dr. Vegas," gets ready to tape its pilot.

From Sun wires

Congress may honor Spain PM: Given Sunday's election in Spain, there may be not be much of a silver lining for Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar in his ruling party's cloudy defeat following last week's terrorism attack. But there may be a Congressional gold medal.

The House committee today was set to consider a bill sponsored by Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. -- pending since last May -- to strike a gold medal to honor Aznar for demonstrating that he is a "staunch and steadfast ally of the United States of America."

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