On a weekday morning in Summerlin, Justin Timberlake — the international pop star who has grown into a very good TV and film actor — looked like a regular weekend hacker.
Or, in his case, a regular, once-every-four-months hacker.
"(Monday) was the first round I've played in the last four months," he told a small collection of media types at TPC Summerlin on Tuesday, in advance of the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. "You know, it's that old thing when work is good the game suffers. But you work so you can play."
The event was Timberlake's first, and only, news conference of the week. It was the first time I'd actually seen him in an intimate setting, and he really is a casual, unassuming presence. If you didn't recognize his face, Timberlake would blend in seamlessly with the TPC staff. He showed up in a red golf shirt and gray slacks, his face showing about a full tournament's worth of whisker growth.
The Timberlake of the links looked nothing like the sequined-costumed image of Elton John he portrayed in the video for "Rocket Man" that played on the LED screen at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.
As a condition of his appearance, those present were asked to limit their questions to the tournament and its peripheral events, including Saturday's star-packed concert at the Planet Hollywood Theatre for the Performing Arts.
Scheduled to perform are Christina Aguilera, Sean "P.Diddy" Combs and Diddy Dirty Money, Lady Antebellum, Salt-N-Pepa, T-Pain, FreeSol, and Selena Gomez and The Scene (tickets are $100 to $350, absent fees, and can be purchased at the box offices at Planet Hollywood, all Ticketmaster outlets, online at Ticketmaster, or by phone at 800-745-3000/702-474-4000).
During his 15 minutes or so in front of the mic, Timberlake spoke of Saturday's wide-ranging concert lineup. Even he seemed impressed by its scope, saying he might launch himself into anyone's set in an unplanned fashion, keeping it a "free-form thing," to borrow his vernacular.
Timberlake is especially looking forward to being reunited with longtime friends John and Aguilera. As kids, Timberlake and Aguilera were cast mates on "The Mickey Mouse Club," and toured together in 2003 during the "Justified/Stripped" tour.
"It's nice to know you have friends in high places. I'm excited and honored to have Elton come back and play a set," he said. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's going to bring the house down, you know, so I'm very excited to have him here. I'm excited to have Christina here. I've known her since I was 10 years old. ... I have a band that I just signed to Interscope, Free Soul, and they'll be performing."
Timberlake did make a glancing reference to his non-golf schedule, disclosing a couple of recently wrapped film projects.
"My schedule this year has been, I wrapped 'The Social Network' (in which he convincingly portrayed Napster founder and Facebook co-founder Sean Parker) at the end of February; I started a film called 'Bad Teacher,' in the middle of March. I wrapped that film April, somewhere in April I think.
"Then June we went into rehearsals for a film called 'Friends With Benefits.' We wrapped that film in September; and then we did 'The Social Network' press tour, which went internationally. So you can add up — or subtract, which would probably be easier to do — all the opportunities I've had to not play golf."
When asked what he could say to draw a robust gallery to the tournament, held somewhat inconveniently in Summerlin, Timberlake ticked off some of the celebs who were to take part in the Wednesday's pro-am.
"Andy Garcia is going to be here. Jerry Rice is going to be here. ... Yeah, Rickie Fowler. You know, that should get some young girls out here, shouldn't it? Right?"
The 20-year-old Fowler is one of the PGA Tour's great young pros and a favorite in this week's tournament at TPC Summerlin.
"Rickie Fowler is like, I don't know, I think he's cooler than Justin Bieber," Timberlake said, grinning. "Did I throw the gauntlet down? Oh, whatever. I'm taking Rickie Fowler."
You'd have to take Timberlake, too, maybe not on the course, but definitely in any contest measuring coolness.
"It's a fun week," he said. "I guess if you don't like having fun, then we don't want to see you out here. Don't come. That's what I would say."
The PGA tournament itself runs today through Sunday. Daily passes are $15, weeklong passes run $75. Access to "The Hill" is $25 daily, $100 for the week. "The Hill" is a grassy expanse overlooking the 16th, 17th and 18th holes that features eating areas, tables and large-screen TVs.
Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen and Wayne Newton at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Nevada Wild Fest at Henderson Pavilion on Oct. 15, 2010.
Wayne Newton hosts a neighborhood meeting at La Quinta Inn on Sept. 20, 2010, to discuss the museum and commercial tour being developed on his property.
Mi casa, su casa
On Wednesday, Wayne Newton invited a few media members out to Casa de Shenandoah for an update about what's happening at ... Casa de Shenandoah. I couldn't make this, as I was under the weather and also because I have an acute fear of domesticated marmosets.
Newton says his Museum de Shenandoah project across Sunset Road from "The Ranch" will be open by fall of 2011. This is the plan he and his investor and friend Steve Kennedy unveiled to neighbors last month during a town hall-style meeting at La Quinta, just west of Shenandoah on Sunset Road.
A theater and museum dedicated to Las Vegas entertainment will be built across the road from Newton's famous ranch-style estate, on the land occupied by the old Napa Valley Floral & Pottery store.
A commercial developer from Dallas, Kennedy bought that acreage for that 10-acre parcel for a reported $10 million. Newton said the theater itself will seat around 600 and would probably be called the Wayne Newton Theater. He plans to model that venue for the old Copa Room at the Sands.
Shuttle tours will be led from that site through Shenandoah, entering along Tomiyasu Lane, a concept that has rankled some of Newton's neighbors in estates sitting to the south and west of Shenandoah, but Newton says more and more residents are accepting that he will be moving forward with this project. He adds that the entire operation will put between 300-400 people to work, full-and part-time.
Of particular interest at the moment is how the museum itself will be filled. Over the years Newton has stored a huge collection of his own artifacts, collected from his friends in the entertainment, military and political fields. He said Wednesday he has arranged for a couple of pieces from the Liberace Mansion — not the Museum, but the lavish home named the Las Vegas Villa that is the foreclosed-upon former home of Liberace on Shirley Lane (many personal items once belonging to Liberace were sold at auction in August).
This has opened up the possibility that some of the pieces from the now-closed Liberace Museum could wind up in the Shenandoah attraction. Newton says he is open to adding some Liberace bling to his museum. At the moment, that bling is sitting in the dark, awaiting its next exhibit home.
Lior king
The baby's name is AnnaBelle.
That's what we learned during a preview of mindreading entertainer Lior Suchard on Tuesday night at The Lounge at the Palms. Suchard is a mind-control specialist, able to take your glasses — or, in Tuesday's instance, my glasses — place them on a flat surface and flip them WITHOUT USING HIS HANDS. He also does the bending-of-the-quarter routine and collects seemingly random information from audience members (the name Elizabeth, the hometown of Cleveland, like that), only to produce a note in a stapled envelope that refers to every piece of info given to him. Very eerie.
During Tuesday's show he summoned a couple whose baby is due in two weeks. First he guessed the baby's gender (girl), then the initial of her first name. Then he blurted out, "AnnaBelle," and if the soon-to-be mother was an audience plant she was the finest actor ever to play the role of an audience plant. She looked about to faint.
Suchar's "Supernatural Entertainment" opens tonight and runs Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m. (tickets are $43 and $63; call the Palms box office at 702-944-3200 for info).
Suchar has opened for Joan Rivers at The Venetian and will be at the Palms for five weeks. Then, we'll see what happens. But it's a fun show in a venue that is as versatile as any of its size in town.
Brad does it, for a song
Brad Garrett finishes a two-night run at his club at the Trop tonight. He reports that he will star in the Disney animated feature "Tangled" with Mandy Moore and Jeffrey Tambor. He sings in this role, even. The film opens Nov. 24. Also, his children's variety show "That Kids Show," produced by Ryan Seacrest, will air on Mondays on TLC beginning in February.
Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Nevada Wild Fest at Henderson Pavilion on Oct. 15, 2010.
Hello, neighbors
Important to note in the aftermath of last weekend's "Nevada Wild Fest" country music festival at Henderson Pavilion is that Southern Nevada has gained two powerful new residents: Keith and Claire Resnick, co-founders of the Lili Claire Foundation. The Resnicks are familiar in Las Vegas for all the money they have raised at their Lili Claire Foundation events at Strip resorts.
But last month the Resnicks relocated to Henderson, a far better vantage point than Los Angeles to oversee the fundraising and construction for the planned Lili Claire medical facility adjacent to College of Southern Nevada. The Resnicks need to raise $100 million, total ($40 million for construction costs and $60 for long-term operating costs) to see the renderings come to life. The City of Henderson donated 5.5 acres for the project, but it comes with a condition.
"If we haven't broken ground in three years, they get the money back," Resnick said Saturday during the second of a three-day country carnival that brought in Kenny Rogers, Glen Campbell, Lonestar, John Ford Coley, Montgomery Gentry and Love & Theft, among others. "The city has made an incredible investment in us, and we're going to be here to make sure we can oversee everything."
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.
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