George Maloof's new Las Vegas
On the red carpet at the Video Music Awards, the most popular and praised person was easily George Maloof (as well as his resort The Palms). As Maloof walked the red carpet, he was thronged by well wishers; the list is instructive, including as it did Pete Wentz, the Panic! At the Disco guys, Mario Lopez, Perez Hilton and Brent Bolthouse. There is no level of media or celebrity where Maloof is not well known and well liked. Tailing behind them all was my colleague, Spencer Patterson, notebook in hand, who is following Maloof for an upcoming profile to appear in Weekly (September 27).
Perhaps unique among the new Vegas icons (which the Palms helped inaugurate by opening in 2001 -- with Paris Hilton in attendance, of course), the Palms has never gotten stale with celebrities, with the press or with the public. What few outside the city take the time to marvel at is that Maloof has managed to accomplish this with an off-Strip property, real estate roughly the equivalent of Rio or Orleans.