Strip Scribbles: Garth Brooks tickets sell out amid cyber war

Scott Harrison/Retna/www.harrisonphotos.com

Garth Brooks and Steve Wynn.

By Robin Leach (contact)

Monday, March 1, 2010 | 11:33 a.m.

MGM Mirage

Terry Fator with a group of aspiring magicians.

MGM Mirage

Terry Fator with a group of aspiring magicians at dinner in Kokomo's.

Al Powers

Lance Moore and Pierre Thomas of the New Orleans Saints at Lavo in the Palazzo.

Al Powers

Pierre Thomas and Lance Moore of the New Orleans Saints at Lavo in the Palazzo.

Samantha Fisher

Jimmie "Dr Robert" Cervera, Holly Madison and Robin "Walrus" Peters backstage at Love in The Mirage on Feb. 25, 2010.

Ash Hopkins

Actor and Dancing With the Stars finalist Gilles Marini at Prive in Planet Hollywood.

Ticket scalpers resorted to a cyber war in the continuing bid by Garth Brooks and hotel mogul Steve Wynn to prevent them from getting tickets to his show and profiting from marked-up prices. Steve’s executives said the scalpers were merciless in besieging the computer systems with cyber attacks that slowed the ticket sales and booking systems. However, the tickets for the second series of 20 concerts at Encore Theater in the Wynn were sold out in only 4 hours, from 8 a.m. to noon, on Saturday.

The Wynn’s phone lines received more than 75,000 calls and the Web site more than 2.1 million page views. The new concerts take place March 26, 27 and 28; April 9, 10 and 11; June 25, 26 and 27; July 16 , 17 and 18; and Aug. 6, 7 and 8. Ticket buyers should not pay in excess of Wynn’s official price of $125, plus a $5 service charge and a $13 tax, for a maximum total of $143.

New dates will be announced in the next few months, but fans still have a chance to obtain tickets for sold-out concerts. Returned, unclaimed and confiscated tickets will be released to a stand-by line that forms at the box office on show days.

*Master magician Lance Burton helped kick off a week of magic for the youth program of the World Magic Seminar at his castle in Henderson when he hosted a luncheon and meet-and-greet for 53 budding magicians with Siegfried Fischbacher and Criss Angel. The World Magic Seminar is based at The Orleans this week, and Lance invited many of the young magicians to his show at the Monte Carlo. It’s the 20th year of the convention in Las Vegas, with more than 1,000 attending. Lance said, “Can you imagine being a young magician coming to Las Vegas being able to meet one-on-one with some of the world’s most famous magicians? It’s a major international event.”

*The Mirage headliner Terry Fator invited a group of young magicians from the College of Magic, a nonprofit group based in Cape Town, South Africa, to his show and then picked up the tab for all of them for dinner at Kokomo’s. The kids are in Las Vegas representing their country at the World Magic Seminar. The college teaches young people from impoverished shantytowns the art of magic, puppetry, juggling and ventriloquism. It’s a six-year learning course on magic, and they have performed for Nelson Mandela.

*Congratulations to a new guest visiting the Hard Rock Hotel for the first time. John Slaughter of Los Angeles hit a $877,061.50 Wheel of Fortune 25-cent progressive jackpot on a machine that he’d put only $100 into!

*Phantom -- the Las Vegas Spectacular star Tina Walsh, who plays Madam Giry, reads to classes at John Tartan Elementary School today as part of our local PBS efforts for literacy. Since the opening of their show, Phantom cast members have supported the annual Nevada Reading Week, which kicked off today. Established in 1987 by the Nevada Department of Education, Nevada Reading Week celebrates reading through shared thematic activities.

STAR SURVEILLANCE

*Actress Nicole Kidman and country king husband Keith Urban enjoyed a Zero Gravity weightless-flight experience at McCarran over the weekend. The flight was a Christmas gift from Keith to Nicole, and they traveled here specifically for the space adventure that included flying upside down, doing acrobatics while weightless and chasing floating M&Ms. Their post-flight celebration was at the Four Seasons at Mandalay Bay. Nicole and Keith dined with all of the flyers and talked about how much they enjoyed their time flipping and floating. Our spywitness reported, “The A-list couple were low-key but still super chic in vintage Chuck Taylors and jeans. Throughout the entire experience, they mixed and mingled with all the Zero-G guests.”

*Running back Pierre Thomas and wide receiver Lance Moore of Super Bowl XLIV champions the New Orleans Saints dined at Lavo in the Palazzo. After dinner, they relaxed at their VIP table upstairs in front of the DJ booth with Ace of Spades champagne and then mingled with fans dancing to the sounds of DJ Cobra. The athletes hit Tao on their second night in town. Also at Lavo, Hunter Parrish of Weeds and friends enjoyed dinner and pitchers of pomegranate lemonada. Hunter led the group upstairs to the nightclub after dinner. Shaun Sipos of Melrose Place dined with a friend before watching Jersey Boys.

*N9NE Steakhouse in the Palms was packed with celebrities including Dustin Keller of the New York Jets, director and producer Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, UFC fighter Chuck Liddell and MLB legend Pete Rose in separate groups. Upstairs in The Playboy Club, Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler was at a table with friends enjoying Ketel One cocktails before heading upstairs to Moon. Jay also checked out Rain and ordered Dom Perignon at Tao the next night.

*NASCAR driver Ryan Newman enjoyed dinner with 13 friends in the private dining room at Strip House in Planet Hollywood. … Emmy Award-winning actress Susan Lucci enjoyed dinner at First Food & Bar in the Palazzo. … Avatar heartthrob Sam Worthington dined with a female friend at the Dos Caminos bar in the Palazzo and sipped on El Camino margaritas and Coronas. … Former Baltimore Ravens star Jamie Sharper enjoyed DJ Homicide’s set at Vanity in the Hard Rock Hotel’s new HRH tower. Corey Harrison and Rick Harrison of Pawn Stars attended The George Wallace Show at the Flamingo with friends and crewmembers and afterward chatted with George outside the showroom. … American Idol’s “Pants on the Ground” sensation Gen. Larry Platt had dinner at B.B. King’s Blues Club in The Mirage and posed for photos with diners before jumping onstage to jam with the band. Fortunately, as we say in Merry Old England, he kept his trewsers on!

TONIGHT’S TIPS

Platinum blonde beauty Holly Madison premieres the new-look launch of Peepshow at Planet Hollywood. … The 33rd Annual World Magic Seminar continues at The Orleans with 12 global magicians entertaining our local imperial illusionists Siegfried & Roy, Lance Burton and Jeff McBride. … CariDee English of America’s Next Top Model fame hosts a party at Prive in Planet Hollywood. … Captains of Industry Graham Funke and Stone Rokk host at Jet in The Mirage.

TOMORROW’S TEASES

It’s a real-life CSI as the famous celebrity homicides of Hollywood go on show at the Palms in an extraordinary LAPD exhibit featuring Charles Manson, O.J. Simpson, Marilyn Monroe and Sen. Robert Kennedy. We’ll also have the new cast of Dancing With the Stars, incredible photo coverage of the new Virgin America Fly Girls reality TV show from the cast party at the Palazzo with Gilles Marini and The Real Housewives of Orange County star Gretchen Rossi and the provocative performance photos of singer-songwriter Kelis.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.