Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: Martin relationship not on the rocks

Two kids down, five to go.

Deana Martin, the youngest daughter of Vegas icon, Rat Packer and TV star Dean Martin, has penned "Memories Are Made Of This: Dean Martin Through His Daughter's Eyes" (Harmony, $24). It hits bookstores next month.

Two years ago one of Deana's six siblings, brother Ricci Martin, published "That's Amore: A Son Remembers Dean Martin."

An early review of the latest Martin tome in Publisher's Weekly, the respected book industry journal, is generally good.

"Perhaps Martin forgives her emotionally detached father too quickly, as when he doesn't show up at her first live theatre performance. ('I guess Dad felt that with so many children, if he did it for one, he would have spent his whole life doing it for the others.')," the review says.

"In this evenhanded biography of her famous father, Deana Martin acknowledges that Dean 'wasn't a good father, but he was a good man.' In the end, hers is a heartfelt and honest portrait of a mysterious father," the review concludes.

Boy toys

Cast members of the Luxor's male revue, "Thunder From Down Under," will be co-presenters of an award at Wednesday's World Music Awards at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Their co-presenter will be Pamela Anderson.

A show rep tells us that "Thunder" will be the only Las Vegas show to be on stage presenting.

The WMAs air at 9 p.m. on KTNV Channel 13 (see Spencer Patterson's story previewing the show on page 1E).

The festivities get under way tonight at a private dinner at Crustacean at desert Passage (Aladdin) hosted by record industry king Clive Davis. Jennifer Lopez, Whitney Houston, Michael Douglas, Avril Lavigne, Josh Groban and many others are expected to attend.

Davis hosts a similarly star-studded pre-event dinner every year before the Grammy Awards.

Boss time

After a successful summer run at "Legends in Concert" in Myrtle Beach, S.C., the world's leading Bruce Springsteen impersonator, Las Vegas resident Matt Ryan, returns home to his tribute show, "Bruce in the USA."

The Las Vegas-based act kicks off a West Coast tour Friday at the Grove of Anaheim in California. And, we hear that the tour might include a meeting with the real Boss.

Springsteen once dedicated a five-song set to Ryan at Giants Stadium, and is known to be a fan of his work. So, since "Bruce in the USA" will be paying homage to Springsteen on his 55th birthday on Sept. 23 at a gig at B.B. King's in Universal City, there is talk that the real Boss may stop in for the show that night.

He'll be in the area anyway -- his wife, Patti Scialfa, has a gig the next night at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip.

Look for the Bruce clone show to make a return Vegas appearance sometime in October.

Sacca deal

Wi-Fi TV Inc. -- a cutting-edge online content provider -- has announced that "Inside Entertainment -- Las Vegas Style" will launch this month on the Web site www.wi-fitv.com.

The show, hosted by Tony Sacca and produced by Sacca and Darlene Mea, has been a late-night local television staple for nearly two decades.

It reports on a wide variety of Vegas entertainment -- celebrities, production shows, special events, new artists and more -- Las Vegas style. It is shot entirely on location.

Explosive scene

Look for numerous local sightings in the coming weeks of Vanity Fair magazine cover girl Keira Knightley ("King Arthur," "Pirates of the Caribbean").

She stars in "Domino," which starts filming this month -- Valley of Fire and Stratosphere are two spots being used for filming. The action thriller, directed by Tony Scott ("Top Gun," "Spy Game"), is based on the life story of Domino Harvey, who ditched a career as a Ford model to become a bounty hunter.

In the film, she is assigned to solve the kidnapping of a TV reality show host, played by Ian Ziering of "Beverly Hills 90210" fame. Other "90210" cast members appear in the fake reality show as well.

Harvey is also the daughter of late actor Laurence Harvey -- who starred in the original version of "The Manchurian Candidate" -- and the stepdaughter of Hard Rock Hotel magnate Peter Morton.

We look forward to the movie's closing scene, which we hear may feature the explosion of the top of the Stratosphere.

"It is a Tony Scott action movie, so there will be a lot going on," Strat spokesman Michael Gilmartin told us. "We are very excited that they are going to be filming scenes at our property."

The film is slated to open next April 23.

VegasBits

See: "American Idol" judge Paula Abdul will be making a noontime appearance Thursday at the Sam's Club at 8080 W. Tropical Parkway. She'll be promoting her new jewelry line. On Wednesday, Abdul and fellow "Idol"' judges Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell will be at the Las Vegas Convention Center viewing local hopefuls for the show's upcoming season ...

Friends: Among the famous faces at the Palms on Sunday night for the Maroon 5 concert and George Maloof's 40th birthday festivities were Shannon Elizabeth, Lance Bass, Gabrielle Union and Traci Bingham ("Baywatch") ...

New: Reps for Wolfgang Puck have been exploring opening another Las Vegas restaurant, this time at The District, the new faux urban retail area adjacent to the Green Valley Ranch Station Casino.

From Sun wires

Winfrey surprises audience: Oprah Winfrey celebrated the premiere of her 19th season Monday by surprising each of her 276 audience members with a new car.

"We're calling this our wildest dream season, because this year on the Oprah show, no dream is too wild, no surprise too impossible to pull off," Winfrey said on the show that aired Monday.

Making sure the audience was kept in suspense, Winfrey opened the show by calling 11 audience members onto the stage. She gave each of them a car -- a Pontiac G6.

She then had gift boxes distributed to the rest of the audience and said one of the boxes contained keys to a 12th car. But when the audience members opened the boxes, each had a set of keys.

The cars, which retail for $28,000, were donated by Pontiac.

She added that Pontiac will pay for the taxes and the customizing of the cars.

Winfrey said the audience members were chosen because their friends or family had written to the show about their need for a new car.

Kimmel to host: Jimmy Kimmel will host the American Music Awards for the second consecutive year when the three-hour special airs live on ABC Nov. 14.

"It is an honor to be nominated and I promise that my duet with Christina Aguilera will be a performance that will not be soon forgotten," Kimmel joked Monday.

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