Monday, Oct. 9, 2006 | 7:32 a.m.
Visitors to Kelly Clinton's Celebrity Karaoke party on Mondays at the Bootlegger Bistro have long noticed how teenager Erika Avila seems uncommonly suited to the stage. She rarely glances at the prompter scrolling the song's lyrics and seems to be imagining that she's performing for thousands.
On Saturday night, she was, as the winner of the Grand Slam to Stardom competition for the 11th annual "Andre Agassi Grand Slam For Children" benefit concert at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Avila was among three finalists selected from a field of 12 and was flown to Los Angeles to audition for producer David Foster, the music director for all of the Grand Slam fundraisers.
"I heard about the contest from Kelly, actually," Avila said during her first of what could be many trips down the red carpet. "She encouraged me to enter. It all started at the Bootlegger, yes."
Before an MGM Grand Garden crowd of about 8,000, Avila let loose with "I Have Nothing," which Foster wrote with his then-wife Linda Thompson for Whitney Houston in the early '90s. If she was nervous it didn't show, and the audience responded with a standing ovation for the 2006 graduate of Sierra Vista High School.
Before the show. Foster said he wanted all three finalists from Vegas - including 25-year-old J.T. Aguirre and 15-year-old Josh Keating - to perform. "It just didn't work out (but), I was judging on what would be the most exciting for the audience She has a more urban-sounding voice, and she owes a lot to Celine (Dion) and Whitney. in a very youthful way."
Avila says she's not leaving the Bootlegger behind, though. "I'll be back, I'm sure," she said.
NoteMart
To appreciate the wide spectrum of newsmakers at the Grand Slam for Children gala (which over the years has pulled in more than $60 million), one quick pass around the perimeter led me to Luxor President Felix Rappaport, Southern Wine & Spirits of Nevada exec Michael Severino, County Commissioner Rory Reid, Siegfried & Roy and Gordie Brown manager Bernie Yuman (as usual, wearing his green and orange Miami Dolphins tube socks under a midnight-black suit), former Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald, Aid for Aids of Nevada Executive Director Caroline Ciocca and Liberace Museum Executive Director Darin Hollingsworth and Cox Communications Vice President Steve Schorr. It was a crowd thick with locals; when Ellen DeGeneres asked how many of the estimated 8,000 in attendance lived in Vegas, most roared
A couple of good gambling lines from DeGeneres: "I know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. I worked at the Gap." And, "I gambled once. I wore acid-washed jeans I lost."
In the face of so-so reviews for the strident "Sam's Town," the Killers have an ally in Phil Collins, who said he heard some of the band's new CD after his 17-year-old daughter, Lily, bought it and, during an interview before Saturday's show, "What I've heard, I love." On this trip to Vegas, Collins said he regretted that he would not be able to visit "Love," at the Mirage. His interest in the Beatles dates to when he was paid 15 pounds to scream at the Fabs during the filming of "A Hard Day's Night."
A favorite old Vegas haunt is in for a makeover: Skinny Dugan's, the longtime sports bar on West Charleston Boulevard long favored by fans of the N.Y. Jets, Giants and Nebraska football, has been sold and is undergoing a guts-out renovation. Brothers Fred and Bob Keck, who owned the pub since 1973, have sold to Fred Gluckman and Margot Aiken of Del Mar, Calif., who plan a full-scale upscale (yet retro, which is why the name will not be changed) remodeling of the bar that should be finished by January. Before Skinny Dugan's, the parcel was the site of Embers, one of the fancier steak houses in Las Vegas. (Construction workers tearing out the walls have uncovered vintage red-velvet wallpaper.)
This must be someone: On an aqua-colored Mercedes Benz CLK, the vanity plate MIMIC.
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