Leona Lewis doesn’t look like she’s properly swooning enough. (Photos by Scott Harrison. Additional photos by Erik Kabik | Retna)
Matt Goss got back down to business Friday night with his Gossy Barge debut at Caesars Palace, featuring staples from his previous shows “Superstition,” “Hotel California,” “Luck be a Lady” and “I’ve Got the World on a String,” plus the new “Lovely Las Vegas.”
During the show’s finale, Mel B and Natasha Bedingfield jumped on stage to sing with him for a crowd that included producer Robin Antin, Leona Lewis, Frank Marino, Laura Croft, Rita Rudner and Natasha Bedingfield. What we really want to know is how long it takes Goss every night to make sure he has the perfect rakish angle on his fedora. We all know Sinatra’s admonition that “Angles are attitudes,” and Goss takes that advice to heart. Almost always low on the left, high on the right, we’re guessing there’s a solid chunk of minutes in his life that were devoted entirely to chapeau tilt. Still, easier for him to wear a hat than Mel B, who with the shaved-sides-of-the-head ‘do was going for the Angelo Moore in Fishbone look. Or Corey Glover from Living Colour. She ain’t no glamour boy: She’s fierce.
Just like this, only indoors. (Photo by Scott Harrison | Retna)
Finally, you can stop the shakes typically associated with Gossdrawl as our very own version of Michael Buble being a version of Harry Conick Jr. being a version of Frank Sinatra, Matt Goss, makes his Cleopatra’s Barge debut at Caesars Palace tonight. Wait, make that The Gossy Room at Cleopatra’s Barge. To be fair, this was all predicted in hieroglyphics. Expected to attend the premiere are Mel B, Natasha Bedingfield, Leona Lewis, Laura Croft, Rita Rudner and Frank Marino. Click for more words and pictures »
Color, Michael Boychuck’s Caesars Palace hair salon, was one of six in the United States chosen as the Most Beautiful Salons in the Country by hairstyle magazine Estetica Design’s Whitebook. The Whitebook honors the top salons and spas woldwide, but the other American ones are spread out in Lombard, Ill., New York, Seattle, Boston and Washington, D.C. So, that’s pretty good for the U.S. Takes all the sting out of losing the hockey gold to Canada. Wait, no. No it doesn’t. Stupid Sidney Crosby.
More like headlights-up poker, right? Highfive! Why … why you gotta leave us hanging like that? (Photos by Erik Kabik | Retna)
The Heads-Up Poker Championship returns to Caesars Palace tomorrow at 1 p.m. The field of 64 is set, and sticks with some of the familiar celebrity poker faces outside of the pros. Don Cheadle squares off against JP Kelly, while Orel Hershiser takes on Annette Obrestad and Jennifer Tilly faces Jennifer Harmon.
Some other notable first-round matchups include Sam Farha against Antonio Esfandiarai, Andy Bloch against Annie Duke, Gus Hansons against former main event winner Greg Raymer, Phil Laak and John Juanda, Erick Seidel and Huck Seed, Patrick Antonius and Chris Moneymaker, and the battle of the gregarious vs. the preternaturally quiet, Gavin Smith squaring off against Phil Ivey. The side-bets alone in that one should be epic.
NBC doesn’t start airing episodes until April 18 at noon.
Finally, with Bette Midler out of the picture, Celine Dion is free and clear for her big, three-year comeback to the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. Just don’t get too excited yet. It doesn’t start for another 13 months.
The new show will be “centered on capturing the romance of classic Hollywood movies” according to a press release, which we’re going to assume means an operatic reimagining of Creature from the Black Lagoon until we’re told otherwise.
Tickets for the first 54 shows (through August ‘11) go on sale Feb. 12 and will range from $55 to $250. Replica Creature from the Black Lagoon masks will probably go around … let’s say 50 bucks.
Well, Bette Midler wrapped up her Caesars Palace run of The Showgirl Must Go On Sunday night. Man. Now what are old people going to do for entertainment other than every other show on the Strip and the inevitable Celine Dion return?
Dion had her moment in the show when Midler came out to do “My Heart Will Go On” in her encore, only to have the Canadian chanteuse pop up on the video screen and bid Bette farewell before she launched into “Wind Beneath My Wings.”
Turning up in person was Gladys Knight to do “The Way We Were,” which brought the show to its highest level of street cred it ever enjoyed during the two-year stretch. Paula Abdul, Wayne Newton, Rita Rudner, Terry Fator, Marie Osmond, George Wallace, boxing promoter Bob Arum and human Muppet Bruce Vilanch were all in the crowd.
Osmond did a few jokes, and Midler brought up ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro to do The Beatles’ “In My Life,” which was a total mistake as they missed out on a clear home-run with “While My Uke Gently Weeps.”
It’s going to be weird when they change the sign to ‘Gossy’s Palace.’ (Photo by Scott Harrison | Retna)
In the grand tradition of in-front-of-the-casino spectacles, the Matt Goss mini concert will fall somewhere in between Evel Knievel jumping the fountains and, say, someone getting sparklers in their birthday ice cream at Serendipity 3.
You can decide for yourself where. But the late-of-the-Palms performer was announced today as the newest attraction at Caesars, where starting March 12 he’ll be setting up shop on Cleopatra’s Barge. It continues a long American tradition of entertainers who have worked on barges including … uh … um.There was probably a juggler on the Eerie Canal or something. Clearly we need more barge-based entertainment in this country. Tickets will be $40. Here’s Goss with Nicole Scherzinger on opening night at the Palms doing “Feelin’ Good.”
For those who can’t close out 2009 without getting a little extra gelee.
If you’re going to go all foodie on us and go for the big, blow-out meal on New Year’s Eve, you may as well go for broke. Guy Savoy at Caesars Palace has two prix fixe menus available for the gourmand set. The rest of us get Domino’s. And not any of that fancy new stuff that’s supposed to taste 30 percent more like actual pizza, either. First up from Guy Savoy is the $240 Menu Elegance, with marinated lobster salad and gelée of summer herbs; crispy sea bass with delicate spices; artichoke and black truffle soup served with toasted mushroom brioche and black truffle butter; poached-roasted baby chicken; couscous of cauliflower; spinach puree and mustard jus; and fruit and chocolate. Or, go for broke with the $390 Menu Prestige: Oysters en gelée; marinated lobster salad and gelée of summer herbs; colors of caviar; crispy sea bass with delicate spices; foie-gras en papillotte and radish bouillon; artichoke and black truffle soup served with toasted mushroom brioche and black truffle butter; roasted veal chop, black truffle potato purée, young vegetables braised in veal jus; selection de fromages affinés; coconut and chocolate fondant, crunchy praline and chicory cream. Click for more words and pictures »
Apparently he hasn’t been watching those Emmit Smith commercials. (Photos by Erik Kabik | Retna)
Jeff Dunham, the undisputed king of the lazy racial puppet caricature and unfunny catchphrase, did two shows at the Colosseum inside Caesars Palace where he debuted his newest: Hans the German Moustache. See, you can tell it’s a crazy character because the moustache is gray while Dunham’s hair is a certain uniform shade of Just for Men brown. So clearly, these two things would match if it weren’t a character.
Hans, the story goes, was a moustache belonging to a butcher in pre-war Berlin. He ends every sentence with a plaintive “Nein, nein! Mein meat!” (Admit it: This is no dumber than “I keeel you!”) Comedy Central has agreed to give the moustache its own spin-off series and a 26-episode deal. How’d Hans get attached to Dunham’s face in the 21st century? We dunno … Peanut or … something. Don’t worry about it.
You know how you’re just finally getting to the point where your friends aren’t badgering you with Hangover quotes all day long anymore? Guess what, sucker, it’s about to start all over again.
The movie comes out on DVD Dec. 15, but today Caesars Palace is hosted a media roundtable this afternoon with Todd Phillips, Justin Bartha, Heather Graham, Rob Riggle and Mauly the Tiger. At least we’re hoping the tiger was there. And that someone named him “Mauly.” It’s what we’d call our tiger. Look, the point we’re trying to make here is: Why haven’t you bought us a tiger yet?
A launch party follows tonight with the possibility that Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis turn up.
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