Jack Sheehan notes how we take stars for granted in Las Vegas, then he wines and dines with one

Sunday, May 27, 2007 | 7:12 a.m.

When you live in a household like ours, which operates much like the Cleaver family of old-time TV, with kids in school, neighbors and friends always dropping by, and Ward and June facing their own little daily issues, it's easy to forget at times that Las Vegas is one of the top two or three celebrity hangouts in the world.

We're far more concerned on a daily basis with meeting the constant challenge of providing the necessities of life, and the occasional special treat for our children, than wondering which professional athletes are hanging out in our casinos or restaurants or nightclubs, or whether the latest "it" girl is seen snuggling with the hot new actor in a corner booth at Pure or Studio 54 at 3 in the morning.

We'll leave those concerns to the Eddie Haskell, who lives down the block.

Neither I nor anyone I know originally came to Las Vegas so we could gawk at famous people. And that partly explains why so many celebrities enjoy coming here. In addition to enjoying all the amenities the Strip provides, I would assume , the rich and famous appreciate the degree of privacy afforded them by those of us who are basically indifferent to their activities.

I remember , while growing up in Spokane, Wash., that if a celebrity ever popped into town it was treated as a major event. When the boy who starred on Lassie (his name was Tommy Rettig) once came to the Crescent department store downtown, about 500 people, including yours truly (age 7), breathlessly waited in line for his autograph. Just the fact that someone who appeared regularly on national TV could be seen in the flesh was viewed as a big deal in our tucked-away corner of the country.

Immune to celebrity as we may claim to be, my wife , Carol , and I were excited when we received an invitation from our good friends Andrew and Belinda Donner to attend a private dinner at their home with special guest Jason Alexander, the fine actor who played George Costanza on "Seinfeld." The dinner was purchased by the Donners as an auction item to benefit the Lili Claire Foundation, which offers medical and social services free to families of children with neurogenetic conditions.

We were even more pleased when we discovered that we were to be seated at the same table as Mr. Alexander. In addition to being feasted by the talented Executive Chef Sean DiCicco and his staff from Mandalay Bay, we were privileged over the next several hours to hear several stories about how the "Seinfeld" show made it to the air. It was a rare peek inside a series considered by many to be the greatest television comedy of all time.

Although we certainly didn't plan on asking Jason any of those questions that one might ask in a formal interview, the subject of his big break came up later in the evening. After the ice had been broken and we had discussed more important stuff, like how his children were doing in school and whether his 11-year-old son had the same level of interest in girls as our 11-year-old did, the subject of his big break in show business casually came up. Jason was asked at what point in his life he knew he wanted to be an actor.

"I can tell you the exact moment," he said, his eyes twinkling with the memory.

"I had wanted to be a magician from the time I was 6 years old and had practiced magic tricks every day for six or seven years. One day, I just realized that I wasn't good enough to make it as a big-time magician. And then in 1972, when I was 13 years old, my parents took me to the Broadway musical 'Pippin,' with Ben Vereen, and I was transfixed. I realized that theater was just a big illusion, like magic, and that acting was something I could do. I started taking acting lessons that very week and immediately fell in love with the craft."

Jason was then asked whether he had to audition for the role of George Costanza, or whether it was offered to him based on the quality of his previous work.

"Oh, no," he said, "I was one of a large number of actors who was asked to do a taped reading in New York, which would then be submitted to Jerry Seinfeld and the staff of writers in Los Angeles. And I'll tell you that you never ever get a television pilot off a filmed reading. But it's one of the things you have to do when you're forging a career as an actor."

Jason said that when he read the script he thought the character of George felt a lot like Woody Allen, so he read it that way, even impersonating Woody's voice.

"I was surprised when I got a call to come to L.A. and do a live reading for them," he says, "because that meant I'd made it beyond several hundred other actors who had read for the role."

But when he saw that the only other actor being considered for the part was comedian Larry Miller, who happened to be Jerry Seinfeld's best friend, Alexander again thought he had no chance to get the part.

"There were just Jerry and the chief writer, Larry David, when I walked into the room for my reading," Jason said. "I told them I was used to a bigger audience, having done some plays on Broadway. So I asked if they could invite all the secretaries and others in the building into the audition. Well, they filled up the room, I did the reading, and the rest is history."

Whether this story of Jason Alexander's final audition for a role that redefined his life can be found in the mountains of material written about the "Seinfeld" show wasn't important to those of us at our table. The fact that he was willing to share the pivotal moment with us as though he were telling it for the first time was what made it so special.

The evening was one of those occasions when our city taps us on the shoulder and reminds us that Las Vegas is indeed a special place.