VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: Wynn is ahead of the curve

Friday, March 26, 2004 | 4:43 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

March 27 - 28, 2004

It isn't exactly McDonald's golden arches, or the Nike "swoosh."

But if things go according to plan for Steve Wynn, his product -- hotels -- will have something that is as instantly recognizable: its design.

Last week a completed scale model of Wynn's planned Macau hotel and casino arrived at Wynn's Las Vegas office. It looks exactly like Wynn Las Vegas, the curved brown glass structure going up in the middle of the Strip, according to Las Vegas Sun In Business Las Vegas reporter Jeff Simpson.

Seems that Wynn, who recently changed the name of his new Vegas resort from its working name of Le Reve to Wynn Las Vegas to help establish his name as a brand, is also going for a uniform look for his brand name.

Wynn told us Friday that the design is going to be his new signature look. He added that more will be soon be revealed.

Some celebrities are not always so recognizable in person. When Keanu Reeves, for example, was walking through Bally's to a ShoWest awards presentation at Paris Las Vegas late Thursday, he was virtually unnoticed.

When Fred Willard walked a similar path, some heads turned, but it seemed to be more of a "Who is that guy? I recognize him from somewhere ... " type of thing.

However, when Warren Beatty came through there were shrieks of recognition.

Upstairs, downstairs.

David LaChappelle started his partying Thursday night with his "Red Piano" collaborator Elton John at Sir Elton's private 57th birthday party in the Caesars Palace penthouse suite where he bunks when he is in residence at The Colosseum.

Then around 2 a.m. Friday, LaChappelle and fellow guests Jack and Kelly Osbourne (but without Ozzy and Sharon, who stayed behind) went downstairs to the Forum Shops nightclub OPM for another birthday party.

Corpulent Hard Rock Hotel comic Jeff Beacher and three friends were celebrating their quartet of birthdays.

Unlike John's fairly sedate affair, Beacher's bash featured men on stilts, a midget performing karaoke, live monkeys and a man who balanced a stove on his chin.

Robin Leach even put down his champagne to get a look at that one.

Master Chef Gustav Mauler is cooking at a private dinner tonight to introduce the 1996 vintage Dom Perignon. The invitation to the swish event includes a box of sparklers.

Get it? Sparklers, and sparkling wine? Took us a minute also.

Las Vegas restaurateurs Piero Selvaggio (Valentino, Caffe Giorgio), Charlie Palmer (Aureole, Charlie Palmer Steak) and Emeril Lagasse (Emeril's Fish House) are talking a road trip.

They are all cooking at "A Night to Remember," a charity event Thursday in Napa Valley, Calif., hosted by "Wine Spectator" Publisher Marvin Shanken and vintner and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola.

Selvaggio's new spokeswoman, Ann Marie Kluza, told us that the others on the dinner committee of the beneficiary, the Prostate Cancer Foundation, include Rush Limbaugh, Rudy Giuliani, James Gandolfini and Rick Pitino.

Invitations for the 13th annual "Chefs for Kids" event are in the mail.

The April 24 Four Seasons fund-raiser honors Carolyn and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.

A joint venture of the Fraternity of Executive Chefs of Las Vegas and the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, it allows local chefs to travel into the community to serve healthy breakfasts to high-needs schools.

When we broke the news about the May 29 Madonna show at MGM Grand, tickets were priced from $75 to $350.

But a website just set up by the Material Girl, madonnavip- tickets.com, makes it seem like she is scalping tickets to her own concert.

She is offering Platinum Ticketing Packages for $800 -- but the so-called packages offer little more than "prime" floor seats in the first 20 rows, or "lower level" seats that could be almost anywhere in the 16,000-seat arena.

In addition to a single ticket, for the eight large you also receive a tour poster and a VIP laminate, which gets you into ... well, it gets you into nothing and access to nowhere. But it makes for a nice souvenir.