"CABLE ACE AWARD NOMINEE ALAN HARVEY RETURNS TO THE IMPROV AT HARRAH'S."
The Cable Ace Awards were discontinued after the 1997 ceremony.
In a recent column, Entertainment Weekly TV critic Ken Tucker went Vegas-wacky, stuffing reviews of four Vegas-centric series—Fox's The Casino (set at Downtown's Golden Nugget), Discovery Channel's American Casino (Green Valley Ranch), Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown (the Palms) and The Travel Channel's World Poker Tour—into one huge Sin City wrap-up. Among his pearls of East Coast-biased wisdom:
• "There's a whole staff of jerks running the Green Valley Ranch Resort Casino. Some weeks they manage to misplace great trays of food meant as free grazing for the cattle—excuse me, patrons—of a blackjack tournament."
• "[Producer Mark] Burnett's two pink-faced protagonists, Nugget owners Tim Poster and Tom Breitling, are number-crunching, flair-lacking nerds."
• "[Nugget Hotel Manager Ninya Perna is a] tall drink o' water—she's intelligent, funny and more attractive than any showgirl."
• "Celebrity Poker Showdown ... is the only setting in the universe where Malcolm in the Middle's Christopher Masterson can outperform Friends' Matthew Perry."
• "For World Poker Tour, [one of the expert hosts is] Mike Sexton, dispenser of such folksy quips as, 'I've seen better hands on a chicken.'
• "Between these contests, reality shows and scripted series like CSI, Las Vegas and the upcoming dr. Vegas, I never again want to hear the mantra "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."
Actually, Ken, the slogan is "What happens here, stays here." But what could we reasonably expect from a nationally acclaimed journalist?
Accuracy? Silly us.
"At least Will is awake."
A Monday story in the Las Vegas Sun, "New Urbanism taking root in Henderson," notes that Hooterville is the latest American city considering an experiment with an increasingly popular, sprawl-limiting, live-work-play metropolitan design that puts schools, stores, workplaces and recreational outlets within a 10-minute walking distance.
Hall-of-Fame tight end and former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka is adding clothing designer to to a lengthy resume that includes TV sports commentator, restauranteur and motivational speaker. The cigar-chomping, invective-spouting tough guy is slated to unveil portions of the Mike Ditka Hall of Fame Collection, which includes silk camp shirts with embroidered backs, Polo shirts, shorts and accessories, at the annual MAGIC fashion show August 30-September 3.
TV producer Jesse Briggs took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to explain to us from Ft. Lauderdale how the sale of Elvis Presley's tooth will help him with his newest endeavor.
Are you really selling Elvis Presley's tooth?
Yeah. I own Elvis' tooth.
How'd you get it?
I got that from the estate of Linda Thompson. ... The story goes they were driving down Elvis Presley Boulevard and he was eating a candy bar of some kind, and it's actually a cap off of one of his teeth in the back. It's in a frame with a mirror around it. ... We put it on eBay once before, and the bids got up to $2 million, and I took it off.
Why'd you take it off?
It was just too exciting. We was on Extra with it, we was on Inside Edition, we was everywhere. Even they talked about it on the Tonight Show and all that stuff. So now I decide to put it back out because I want to do this reality show called Style Star.
What's that?
It's like American Idol, be the hairdresser of the year. ... We just were going to let Elvis produce it with us, his tooth will raise more funds for it to make this right, and I put it on the market today. ... He's still alive and well.
Does he want his tooth back?
Elvis? [Coughs.] He'll be happy because we're doing something good.