Monday, March 5, 2007 | 7:19 a.m.
For more than three hours late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, Kevin Federline smoked cigarettes, munched on free food (jelly beans were in the buffet), swilled Grey Goose vodka and loudly chatted up an odd assortment of friends that included Jeff Beacher and his tiny sidekick, Wee Matt.
That was about the extent of Federline's duties as host of "Let it Be" night at the Beatles Revolution Lounge at the Mirage. He strode in at midnight and ducked into a VIP area behind a sheer silver curtain, where he remained until shortly after 3 a.m.
Federline did not spin any music - that was best left to the qualified - but he did sway and bounce to a wide selection of rock, hip-hop and R&B mashes, including samples from his own rap release, "Playing With Fire." (Not to belabor the point, but this is the second time I have visited Revolution and I have yet to hear a Beatles song, or a sample of a Beatles song, or even a bartender humming a Beatles song.)
Guests in the club, which was busy but not brimming, were allowed to snap photos of the curiosity behind the curtain. Several female revelers were decked out eerily to resemble a pre-shaven Britney Spears - at times the place looked like an audition for "Legends In Concert." A particularly aggressive young blonde nearly bowled over KirvinDoak PR rep Adrianne Offerman while trying to plow her way inside the roped-off area, where Federline and his posse were yo-yoing around on stuffed white sofas.
Naturally, Federline was paid more than booze and beans to lend his name and mystifying star power to the event. Though club reps refuse to disclose appearance fees, MSNBC.com has reported Federline's asking price is $20,000 per night (or morning). He has reportedly earned $700,000 in the past four months playing off his celebrity as the anchor of the fractured Federline/Spears family. Most intriguing was the appearance of Beacher, the master promoter always willing to pounce on the strangely famous. Federline would fit in well in the new Hard Rock Hotel version of "Beacher's Madhouse" - if Beacher can afford him.
NoteMart
For the New York Post Headline Hall of Fame: "Britney Feeling AA-OK - Field Trip To Alkie Session," above a story Thursday about Spears' visit to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Malibu, Calif. ...
The NBA All-Star Game aftermath is entering overtime. NBA columnist Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News wrote in Sunday's editions, "... since returning from the most controversial All-Star weekend in NBA history, (NBA Commissioner) David Stern has begun to privately express reservations about venturing into Vegas with an expansion team or one of his current teams." The league's concern, says Lawrence, is what type of fans would descend on Vegas not for a regular-season game, but for the biggies - the playoffs and NBA Finals.
To add to the fallout, on Thursday Rafer Alston of the Houston Rockets was quoted in the Houston Chronicle as saying, "I was very uncomfortable (in Las Vegas). I didn't leave my hotel until I was headed to an event. I didn't even leave to go to eat. I ate in my hotel. It was the overall atmosphere. The whole feeling didn't feel safe. Then when the weekend cleared, you started to see unbelievable numbers of arrests and things that went on. You think, 'If that happened, what's to happen in New Orleans?' " Alston is referring to the site of the 2008 All-Star Game, where security is already under scrutiny. ...
Subtitles? Not exactly a Vegas item (but it is now), but worth noting is that on March 12 the Ronettes (Estelle Bennett, Ronnie Spector, Nedra Talley) will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Keith Richards. ...
First service: After Marat Safin committed 36 unforced errors in a 7-5, 6-1 loss to Lleyton Hewitt on Saturday in the semifinals of the Tennis Channel Open, there was a scarcity of volunteers offering to drive the sometimes prickly former No. 1 player back to his hotel room. That responsibility fell to Vegas PR vet and longtime tennis fan Bruce Merrin, who provided Safin a lift from the Amanda & Stacy Darling Memorial Tennis Center to the Mirage. During the drive Merrin noticed Safin speaking Spanish to a traveling companion. Merrin, too speaks Spanish fluently, much to Safin's amusement, and the ride concluded with everyone speaking the same language. ...
Pause for thought: One of the guests at "Phantom - Las Vegas Spectacular" co-lead Brent Barrett's 50th birthday party Saturday night at the House of Blues Foundation Room at Mandalay Bay was Paige O'Hara of "Menopause The Musical" at the Las Vegas Hilton. O'Hara mentioned she is an avid sports fan - the fact that she was concerned about Miami Heat star Dwayne Wade's injured shoulder cemented that claim - and that her dream job would be as an anchor on ESPN's "SportsCenter." Crafting a couple of catchy home run and 3-point calls would be a good place to start. ...
For the first time in many years I have received an actual typewritten letter. No name attached, but the sender reports a vanity plate, CIGAR 1, on an old Lincoln Town Car. The letter says the driver was smoking an enormous stogie.
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