Columnist John Katsilometes: How Hugh Hefner is pleased with the ‘new’ adult Las Vegas

Monday, Nov. 7, 2005 | 8:49 a.m.

Fabulous Las Vegas runs Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday in the Las Vegas Sun. Reach John Katsilometes at kats@lasvegassun.com or at (702) 259-2327 or (702) 812-9812.

Hugh Hefner is excited.

"The opening of the club here is quite exciting and I love what is happening in Las Vegas," the 79-year-old said Saturday as several hundred Friends of Hef lined up at the Forum Shops at Caesars for copies of the latest Playboy signed by the magazine's founder and his three girlfriends, Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson (all featured in a pictorial in that issue).

"The timing has finally come back to the adult-entertainment crowd," Hefner said, straining to be heard as fans shouted the first syllable of his surname. "There was a period of time, about 10 years or so, when that was not embraced here. I remember it well. I did not like it."

Hef is no fan of family theme parks, evidently.

Hefner was in town take part in events pegged to the Palms' fourth anniversary Saturday night. The first Playboy club to open since the last of the clubs were closed in 1991 will open at the Palms' Fantasy Tower next spring.

Roberto Cavalli has redesigned the Playboy Bunny costume to a more sexually aggressive look with S&M overtones, which The New York Times described as "more Donatella Versace than Barbie." Hefner's latest ventures are said to be targeting the 18-to-34 demographic, but we guess that older gentlemen might have their interest piqued, too.

NoteMart

More Hef: As Hefner spoke near the front of the Playboy Concept Boutique, he acknowledged that his girlfriends all have distinct personalities -- on the E! reality show "The Girls Next Door," Bridget is known as "Beauty and Brains," Kendra "The Wild One" and Holly "The Sweet One."

"I was not seeking out those types of women; it was just the way things happened," he said, grinning ...

Solid foundation: Kevin Spilsbury is a third-generation Southern Nevadan who is successful in the construction industry and has many capable friends. So when his son was born visually impaired, he said he "waited for a bus full of a people to help out."

But there was no nonprofit program in place in the state to specifically help blind or visually impaired children, so Spilsbury, with the help of professional researcher and general troubleshooter/problem-solver Cyndy Ortiz, organized the Nevada Blind Children's Foundation.

The foundation held an open house on Saturday at CCSN. Its mission is "to provide information and services to families, health care professionals and the community to understand and meet the unique needs of infants and children who are blind or visually impaired."

This is a new and needed organization. For information go to www.nvblindchildren.org ...

He has a dream: She's a great waitress at Capital Grille at Fashion Show mall who has been known to buckle at the sight of Tony Orlando. He's an entrepreneur who looks at a laptop and sees opportunity.

Tanya and John Thomas are (maybe) a typical Las Vegas couple. He's launched what he calls "a small business with a big idea," Custom LapTop Covers. The big idea is to wrap laptops with personalized vinyl covers that can depict any image -- from a tie-dye pattern to vacation photos of the family. It's the same concept used to wrap CAT buses. Go to www.friendlycomputers.com to eyeball these things -- they look pretty cool ...

Fab development: I attended two shows this weekend -- U2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena and The Fab at The Club at the Cannery. At one of those I could not find a seat -- The Fab. The show at the Cannery drew a spillover (in more ways than one) crowd that I'm sure was almost entirely local.