As with most things, we learned our lessons about money from DuckTales

The gaming handle jumped up 33 percent in February over the same period last year, bolstered by big baccarat wins. This means at least for a quarter, we’ve staved off an inevitable dystopian future of the dunes rising to reclaim our suburbs and tumbleweeds rolling forlornly down Las Vegas Boulevard. Hooray! Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

To Caroline’s dismay, there was limited interest in her sad, tiny gun show. (Photo by Bryan Steffy)

Model, socialite and general “who?”, Caroline D’Amore took over the turntables of Blush at Wynn on Saturday night. The actress best known for her role opposite Jabberjaw in the Oscar-nominated* Sorority Row, arrived at the venue shortly after midnight after dining at Society Café Encore. D’Amore immediately took to the turntables playing an eclectic mix of pop tunes and some house music before departing at 2:30 a.m., probably to yell at her agent for not getting her a reality show and/or leaked sex tape yet.

*We assume. We don’t really watch the Oscars….or do research.

By Jared Harmon

Those lips look like she got punched in the face with a bee’s nest, and yet, we’re OK with it.

Blush in Wynn Las Vegas will play host to The Persian Trilogy part two on Dec. 26. While we didn’t attend part one, we’re pretty sure part two is all about Persia as a teenager, kind of angsty but at least not irritatingly “kid cute” like he was in part one. There’s less annoying aliens and a big robot fight at the end but the plot gets a little complicated and you don’t get any closer to seeing Persia in the black helmet and cape like you’ve been waiting for.

Luckily, the event is hosted by professional briefcase opener Leyla Milani, of “Deal or No Deal,” who will walk around and pose and generally try to distract you with her hotness from how socially awkward Howie Mandel is.

By Jared Harmon

Well, we know he’s not above doing experiments with his body.

You know how in those old Looney Tunes cartoons the female black cat would always wander under a loose fencepost that had just been painted so she ends up with a white stripe going down the middle of her back, and so Pepe LePeu thinks she’s a a skunk and spends four hilarious minutes trying to date-rape her? We’re pretty sure that’s what happened to Sammy Sosa. He just tried to crawl under a loose fencepost and got painted white. Also, he’s going to be dealing with some rather unwelcome advances from a cartoon skunk in the near future.

Sosa was at XS inside Encore Friday night in the middle of his skin bleaching? Vitiligo? Steroids side effect? Body double played by C. Thomas Howell? Controversy. Here’s another frame of reference for Sosa’s prior darker shades. It just happens to include him getting beaned because head trauma = HI-larity.

Incidentally, when your defense for these pictures is, “He is going through a rejuvenation process for his skin. Women have it all of the time,” that is still doesn’t make it any better. Try to picture Bob Gibson getting skin rejuvination. Then refer back to that picture of Sosa taking a ball off the face. Incidentally, while everyone’s making a big deal about his skin looking 15 shades lighter, why isn’t anyone talking about how shiny he looks? It looks like someone dipped a Cubs jersey in Vaseline and olive oil then whipped it at his head.

Also at XS were LeAnn Rimes with Eddie Cibrian, Jets wideout Braylon Edwards and Oakland receiver Javon Walker. Sister club Tryst saw Maxim model Mayra Veronica hosting her cover release party while Mets outfielder Gary Sheffield was around. So, you have a Met, a Raider, a Jet and a Cub all circling around each other in one night. They may as well have buried some Indian bones underneath the place, too.

By Jason Scavone

Other things Wynn plans to take legal action against: the city-state, consumer confidence, heteronymy, sadness.

A delightful story keeps getting even more delightful. Over at VegasTripping.com, they put together a fake website for Wynncore.com that was going to be part of their Trippies awards. The gag was that Wynncore would hang on loading — a playful jape at Wynn Las Vegas’ website.

Except that one man’s playful jape, is another’s cease-and-desist letter. This led to a firestorm of Internet controversy (our favorite kind of controversy) and Chuckmonster at VT getting help from the Electronic Frontier Foundation to draft his response letter where he’ll agree to hand over the Wynncore domain — in exchange for a check for $22.95 hand-signed by Steve Wynn.

Really, the EFF and everything. Let this be a lesson to Wynn and other corporate operators. The Internet is like a sleeping bear, and when you poke that bear with a stick, the bear will rise up and craft snarky legal documents through the assistance of a major non-profit. It’s an object lesson in hubris. And bears.

It’s not all grim news, though. Our insiders at WLV have hinted that the company may counteroffer with two tickets to Spamalot and first dibs on one of the moving walls at Switch whenever it gets dismantled.

By Jason Scavone

Too bad the Serena Williams Memorial Intimidate a Line Judge fundraiser contest was scrapped. (Photos by Erik Kabik | Retna)

Saturday’s 14th annual Grand Slam for Children benefit at the Wynn brought out a slew of celebs to raise money for the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy and featured at least one performance that we’re pretty sure is a harbinger of the apocalypse.

Emeril Lagasse, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Tony Hawk, Chazz Palminteri, David Foster, Robin Antin and Matt Goss all turned out, plus there were performances from Macy Gray, Brian McKnight, Lionel Richie, Frank Caliendo and Charice Pempengco. But it was Dane Cook taking a guitar and getting on stage with Chris Daughtry that has us worried. An American Idol contestant and the comedy equivalent of an American Idol contestant? Nothing good can come of this. This has “Top Selling Duet Album Sold Exclusively at Wal-Mart in 2010″ written all over it.

By Jason Scavone

Now, blow a kiss to each other…good, now make-out! (Photo by Bryan Steffy)

Cast members of Teen Choice Awards favorites like The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Sonny with a Chance and Princess Protection Program hit the dance floor at Blush at the Wynn Tuesday night to celebrate the 21st birthday of publicist Chris Rossi.

Stars like Josh Kaplan, Tiffany Thornton, Samantha Droke, Brando Eaton, Zoe Meyers, Allen Evangelista and other actors you’ve never heard of from shows you’re
legally not allowed to watch were in attendance.

By Jared Harmon

Fab 5 Freddy always makes us want to watch the Ed Lover Dance. (Photo by Bryan Steffy)

So, the World Shoe & Accessories convention is coming to town Friday, which could only be less boring if there were, like, a cheese convention or something. What? There’s a cheese convention? Well then … congratulations? shoe conference.

Anyway. Fab 5 Freddy was hosting Puma’s Second Annual Kick-Off party at Blush inside Wynn Las Vegas last night where he hyped up a crowd that included Junior Seau. Meanwhile, over at First inside Palazzo, Melissa Rycroft of Dancing with the Stars was in for dinner. Who do you suppose spends more time thinking about shoes: The hot chick or the hip-hop icon? It’s kind of a tough call. Now who spends more time thinking about diamonds? It’s still a coin toss. We are about 20 minutes away from rappers carrying purses.

By Jason Scavone

Let this be a lesson to all of us about the dangers of letting third graders pick out carpeting.

Well, Encore at Wynn Las Vegas opened last night and you know what that means – a brand new place to get drunk, stagger to the roulette wheel at 2 a.m. and bet what’s left of your meager paycheck on black, because that’s the color of your soul. No? Just us? Awkward.

There’ll be a lot more Encore info to come (and not just because it’s flying in the face of the economy, logic and Suze Orman), but for now we bring you first impressions from the front lines. In this instance, “the front lines” are a place that resembles what it would be like if all those people that represent the network in Verizon Wireless commercials were suddenly turned into zombies. But instead of lumbering slowly toward your brains, they were the aggressive and fast ones, like in 28 Days Later and they didn’t want brains, but penny slots. Click for more words and pictures »

By Michelle McKay

We would totally take a Charlie-in-the-box.

Tryst at Wynn Las Vegas has thrown the charity machine into high gear this year, already having collected $8,000 from the staff, and are aiming for $10,000 before Victor Drai makes his matching contribution. They’ve also raised $15,000 for the KLUC toy drive and will go to Wal-Mart Dec. 10 to purchase toys. They’ll be led into the store to “Here Comes Santa Claus” and escorted by Metro with the loot, caravan style, to the site of the drive.

Tonight, Poetry at Caesars Palace holds the Permanent Coat Check Holiday Drive with County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly, offering free admission and a drink to those who donate coats. The coats will go to at-risk kids in District D.

Rok Vegas at New York-New York hosts a Toys for Tots drive Dec. 17, complete with Marines at the door collecting toys and models from The Platinum Agency inside.

By Jason Scavone