Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2004 | 10:49 a.m.
Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony.
Celine Dion, Hilary Duff and Avril Lavigne.
Yada yada yada.
Josh Groban, Alicia Keys, Patti LaBelle, Usher, Whitney Houston, Michael Douglas and Seal.
Blah blah blah.
Pamela Anderson, Brian McKnight, David Copperfield, Heidi Klum, Kelly Clarkson, Kobe Bryant and the tennis-playing Williams sisters.
No big deal.
Nicky Hilton? Borrrring.
While all of the above are expected to be at the World Music Awards tonight at the Thomas & Mack Center -- and most were in attendance Tuesday night at Clive Davis' exclusive pre-show get-together at Crustacean (Desert Passage at the Aladdin) -- the real buzz about the WMAs is about someone different. Very different, as a matter of fact.
Michael Jackson. Will he show up?
Aside from court appearances, the King of Pop has been a virtual recluse since he was indicted earlier this year on charges of committing a lewd act with a child, administering an intoxicating agent, conspiring to commit child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion.
Jackson is free on $3 million bail. His trial -- sure to be a circus that would make O.J. Simpson and Martha Stewart cringe -- is set to begin Jan. 31.
Published reports -- in Liz Smith's syndicated column and elsewhere -- are hinting that Jackson will attend tonight's festivities, and possibly perform.
Producers say that they simply don't know if he is going to attend, and his reps aren't talking.
We'll all find out tonight. The show airs locally at 9 p.m. on KTNV Channel 13.
One thing we do know, however. If Jackson does show up, he and the rest of the celebs will eat well. The ARK Las Vegas Restaurant Corp. (Lutece, Gallagher's Steak House, Tsunami, etc.) will be catering the food on the red carpet, at the VIP afterparty, and in the green room and celebrity suites at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Finally, Roy talks
This is why TiVO was invented.
At the exact same time this evening as the WMAs are being broadcast on ABC, on NBC, Maria Shriver hosts "Siegfried & Roy: The Miracle."
The highly anticipated and heavily promoted show features Roy Horn's first public remarks since the onstage tiger attack that abruptly ended Siegfried & Roy's long-running show at The Mirage.
It airs at 9 p.m. on KVBC Channel 3. Along with Horn, Shriver speaks with Siegfried Fischbacher, Horn's doctors and many people in the audience the night of the attack on Oct. 3, 2003.
"There was quite a consensus that they found it to be eerily calm, that there was no great attack," Shriver told an interviewer from Scripps Howard News Service. "They thought it was part of the act until Siegfried came out and said the show was over. Only two ... know what happened -- Roy and Montecore -- and one of them isn't talking."
The program starts with a close look at the night of the attack, and continues on to document Horn's battle to regain his motor skills after the blood loss and subsequent stroke left him in a wheelchair.
"I started working on putting it together in March, and we started filming at the end of May," Shriver said. "I've seen (Horn) every week for several months."
Shriver, the daughter of former vice-presidential candidate Sargent Shriver
and the wife of California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger, said that her 20-year friendship with the illusionist duo helped her secure the exclusive interviews.
Also, the fact that "Father of the Pride" airs on NBC probably helped.
"I found these two men to be incredibly inspirational," Shriver said. "It's a great story for anyone who finds themselves disabled or in an accident. Life can go on. It may be different, but it can go on."
Horn is eager to become more independent, Shriver said. "He's up and talking and dreaming and planning and working toward the future. Is he the same Roy as a year ago? Absolutely not. But in his mind, he's a better Roy."
Immediately after the attack, Horn urged that the tiger not be hurt.
"Roy is adamant that this was not the tiger's fault," Shriver said.
Spin art
Five of the Monets in the blockbuster Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art show are leaving town. But the rest of the show, which had been slated to close this week, is staying up for a while longer.
The five paintings, owned by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, are leaving because of previous commitments to exhibitions in Zurich and Baltimore.
But the MFA is replacing the five with works by Edouard Manet, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissaro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Cezanne.
"The exhibition is still all about Monet but think of it as a 'prequel,' " the gallery's Matthew Hileman told VegasBeat. "The show will now begin with five of the artists who had the most influence on Monet's work and who thus had a hand in making him Monet.
"After a visual introduction to impressionism, visitors will then journey through Monet's career via 16 paintings spanning nearly his entire career."
The new show, still called "Monet: Masterworks," will be up until Jan. 9.
Poker players
Our new poker buddy Ben Affleck and former World Series of Poker champ and Mirage boss Bobby Baldwin are co-hosting a benefit poker game Thursday night.
The 100-person, invitation-only, $2,500 buy-in charity tourney, sponsored by Bulgari, benefits Keep Memory Alive, the Alzheimer's research charity headed by Larry Ruvo and Donna Baldwin. It is taking place at Esquire House in Beverly Hills, Calif. Vegas players include Jeff, Michael, Barry and Allyn Shulman, all of Card Player magazine.
VegasBits
Munch bunch: Six local "American Idol" final contestants celebrated their good fortune by sharing the nine-pound Big Daddy Barrick Burger on Sunday at the downtown Plaza Diner. They sang for the guests and apparently caused quite a stir. Final "Idol" call- backs are set for today at The Orleans.
From Sun wires
Gold arrested: Former "Growing Pains" actress Tracey Gold was arrested after her sport utility vehicle flipped on Highway 118 in Moorpark, Calif., injuring her husband and two of their children. An infant was unhurt.
Gold, 35, was booked for investigation of felony drunken driving after the Sept. 3 crash, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said.
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