He was doing 55 in a 54. (Photos by Denise Truscello)

Jay-Z kicks off two nights of shows with Ciara at The Pearl inside the Palms. We’re always kind of fascinated by Rick Rubin, who produced Jigga’s Black Album. The guy made career-defining albums with Hov, Slayer and Johnny Cash. How does one producer do that all over the map like that? We’re pretty sure Rick Rubin is from the future and instead of betting sports like Biff Tannen, he just saw which albums were going to be huge and somehow wormed his way into the engineering booth. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

The all-important TV Poker Pit.

Day 1a of the World Series of Poker Main Event is going on right now and, compared to the last Series we covered, in 2007 when it was like a kegger at Delta house, this one was a tea party full of little old ladies.

As we were coming in, Jamie Gold was marching out, but it doesn’t look like the 2006 champ was playing today. There was a big crowd around Gus Hansen, complete with boom mic and video camera, but the overall atmosphere didn’t seem anything like the circus of a couple years ago. Humberto Brenes was looking admiringly at a huge house of cards in the rotunda at the edge of the convention center though, so that’s something. You can’t get within 15 feet of the thing because it’s roped off, but that’s probably a good idea. We’re not sure we wouldn’t have been able to stop ourselves from tipping it over, either.

They also had something there called the Pokerpalooza, which is basically just where all the exhibitors go. Two things: 1) Really? We’re still doing whatever-palooza? OK. And 2) It was about three guys buying poker junk away from being a shantytown. Two years ago, Sapphire had a booth there with girls dancing, there was a poker ninja running around and it was like its own little slice of the carnival. This year? We saw two booth girls. One for the Aussie Millions and one standing next to a bunch of motorcycles. Yeah, we don’t get it either.

By Jason Scavone

Dayle Brunson and Jack Binion. That’s a LOT of accumulated gambling acumen. (Photo by Bryan Steffy)

Doyle Brunson brought in son Todd, Jennifer Harmon, Daniel Negreaneau, Johnny Chan, Antonio Esfandiari, Jack Binion and Marco Traniello to the 40th anniversary of Brunson’s involvement with the World Series of Poker at Blush inside Wynn Las Vegas. Doyle just looks like the kind of guy who could pull a shotgun out from under his desk if trouble broke out, doesn’t he? All we’re saying is we wouldn’t try to rob the guy anytime soon. He’s like a Johnny Cash song come to life.

By Jason Scavone

Nelly got Cedric to wear something other than a fedora? The Entertainer must love “E.I.” (Photo by Erik Kabik | Retna)

After Ante Up for Africa, Lavo at Palazzo drew in a few of the celebs for dinner, including Cedric the Entertainer, Kenny Smith, Montel Williams and Dean Cain. That’s two strikes Dean Cain has against him: He’s still living under the threat of the Superman curse, and now he’s rubbing elbows with Cedric, who didn’t do Bernie Mac any favors in the long-life department.

Meanwhile over at Tao, LeBron James had dinner with a crew of 15. James is hosting at Tao Beach today and Lavo tonight, where he’ll probably be giddy all day long from the thought of having Shaq as a teammate. Not that having an aging Shaq on the floor is spectacular or anything, but we’d be completely psyched to hang out with him after the game so you could listen to him drop stuff like “yo mom so fat she stopped at the curb and her belly jay-walked.” Seriously, it would never, ever get old. We’d be calling Shaq up at 4 a.m. just to see what he had to say.

Also at Tao were Matt Dillon at the owner’s table and Laker Trevor Ariza up at a cabana in Tao Beach. Did Trevor Ariza ever call out Lance Armstrong on a time trial, though? No. No he did not.

By Jason Scavone

It’s just not the same without Larry David. She probably didn’t even get indignant at anyone.

Cheryl Hines of Curb Your Enthusiasm spent yesterday afternoon at Palazzo’s Azure pool before she went inside to play in one of the Venetian’s Deep Stack tournaments. Man, couldn’t she have brought Larry David with her, just so we could follow him around and watch him be delightfully neurotic? Perhaps cause a hilarious misunderstanding or three? Jason Alexander is here. Seinfeld is frequently here. We’re sure Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jeff Garland could be here on short notice. It could be a whole Seinfeld/Curb thing. Why doesn’t anyone ever plan ahead?

By Jason Scavone

‘Hey I got an idea for Good Will Hunting 2: Hunt Harder.’ (Photo by Erik Kabik. Additional photos by Kabik, Scott Harrison | Retna)

Cue up Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Sarah Silverman, Jason Alexander, Charles Barkley, Brad Garrett, Cedric The Entertainer, Dean Cain, Herschel Walker, Kenny Smith, Matt Damon, Montel Williams and Doug Benson. They were all at the third Ante Up for Africa charity poker tournament yesterday prior to the start of the Main Event at the World Series of Poker.

Since its inception the tourney has raised more than $2 million for Darfur, or something. We’re really not sure. Unless that has something to do with Michael Jackson, we’re really not sure what’s going on. Apparently Darfur has a shortage of poker players. Or cake. Or something. This year the haul was $362,000.

“I’m here for Ante-Up for Africa and it’s all about Darfur,” Silverman said. “Genocide is happening and we always hear about the Holocaust in school and we say that will never happen now, we would never let that happen again, but it’s happening right now. And I’ll tell you something else. I think if this was happening in France or England, that … would be taken care of!”

Alex Bolotin of Brooklyn, NY, won the $177,730 first-place prize and donated half his winnings to ENOUGH Project and International Rescue Committee. Adam Richardson was second and Rafe Furst took third. None of the celebs cashed. Bunch of pikers.
Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

Scott Weiland: American patriot. (Photos by Scott Harrison | Retna)

If Stone Temple Pilots do a Fourth of July weekend concert, shouldn’t they play nothing but “Big Bang Baby?” They probably didn’t. We don’t really know, we weren’t actually there. Kind of a waste if you ask us, though. Unless they have other songs you could pretend were about fireworks. Does “Interstate Love Song” have anything to do with fireworks? Probably not. “Sex Type Thing,” though, for sure. Or maybe that’s just us.

By Jason Scavone

Doyle Brunson: Huge Anthrax fan.

The World Series of Poker Main Event starts tomorrow, and hundreds of people will be $10,000 the poorer after busting out early by Tuesday, but for now, Doyle Brunson is hosting the 40th anniversary WSOP party at Blush inside Wynn Las Vegas. Alternately, you could check out the Ante up for Africa charity tourney afterparty at Pure inside Caesars Palace. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

Wait, no, LL Cool J has nothing to do with this.

You can see Steel Panther Friday nights at Ovation inside Green Valley Ranch, or you can see them Saturday night at Access Showroom inside Aliante Station, but that doesn’t let you have the experience of taking Steel Panther home with you. Unless you starred in a Slaughter video between 1989 and 1992.

The Panther recently signed with Universal, though, and dropped their first album, Feel the Steel in the U.K. last month. It includes guest spots from Corey Taylor of Slipknot, Justin Hawkins of The Darkness and M. Shadows from Avenged Sevenfold; and it’s set to come out here Nov. 3. You can already check out the video for debut single “Death to All But Metal” — directed by notorious metalhead and comic Brian Posehn and featuring a guest spot from Sarah Silverman — on YouTube.

We just had a quick chat with bassist Lexxi Foxxx about the new record. We’re not sure he knew what we were talking about at first, but he came around. Mostly. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

Feel the patriotic fury of Linkin Park. (Photo by Scott Harrison | Retna)

Chester Bennignton’s Club Tattoo at the Miracle Mile Shops is marking its grand opening on Independence Day (we assume conflating Linkin Park and the Fourth of July is Bennington’s way of reminding us that America isn’t free of sin in its 233-year history) with a full slate of activities.

Bennington will sign autographs at the shop from 2 to 4 p.m. Then, at 8:30, magician Steve Wyrick will take members of Bennington’s other band, Dead by Sunrise, and perform a trick on the Strip (which will be shut down in front of Planet Hollywood during the stunt) called a death drop. It’s kind of a portentious way to stack the deck. If we were going to do any kind of magic trick involving the word “death” we’d make sure the band we were using in the stunt was Pile O’ Kittens, the famous Scandanavian black metal outfit.

Wyrick is going to be shackled into one of the band’s equipment boxes, which will be hooked to a crane. The box will be dangled over a bed of 500 flaming spikes 80 feet below, and the ropes holding the box will be set on fire. Wyrick will have to jump 20 feet off the burning box and rappel down to the ground, dodging flaming spikes. Although to be fair, falling to your death on flaming spikes sounds a lot like the experience of watching Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen.

Then Dead by Sunrise will take the stage at 10:30 p.m. at the Steve Wyrick Theater, followed by Bennington hosting the afterparty at Prive. His VIP booth may or may not also be lined with flaming spikes.

By Jason Scavone