People
Stargazing is an all-season sport at Las Vegas hot spots
By Mike Weatherford
Review-Journal
Steve Simkins says it was already a surreal feeling to be watching the New Year's Eve fireworks from the prime perch of the Palms' top-floor ghostbar.
Then he realized who he was watching the spectacle with. A few feet away, Reggie Jackson. Near him, Pete Rose.
"I'm pretty much at the Baseball Hall of Fame," Simkins remembers thinking.
Simkins is usually stationed at the ground-floor elevator to the ghostbar as the lounge's VIP host. He says it's one of the best places in Las Vegas for celebrity-watching because it's cozy up there, and reserved enough that most people are cool about not causing a scene.
There is one semiprivate area where celebrities can keep to themselves, if not completely out of sight. But mostly they wander around and check out the views like everyone else. Matthew McConaughey, Stephen Dorff and Jon Favreau of "Swingers" fame are three who Simkins remembers as not being standoffish to other patrons.
Celebrity-spotters usually won't go wrong at the city's newest casino hangouts, particularly when it comes to nightclubs and the new wave of lounges, such as V-Bar at The Venetian.
When socialite Paris Hilton threw herself a birthday party at the Bellagio's Light club, it was a coincidence that Sarah Michelle Gellar and boyfriend Freddie Prinze Jr. were at the next table, says club spokesman Todd Margoluis.
There is no hidden antechamber for celebrities at either Light or the Whiskey Sky club at Green Valley Ranch. Whiskey Sky owner Rande Gerber -- a celebrity-watcher every day because he's married to Cindy Crawford -- says the club is known for protecting stars without isolating them.
"If they want the total privacy then they're not going to go out to a club," Gerber says. "They're not coming to sit in a room with three other people and not even feel the rest of the club.
"We may control the amount of people that are around them if it ends up being a problem.
"We always approach them and say, 'How do you want us to deal with that?' Ninety percent of the time, they say it's fine if someone wants to say hello."
If celebrities club-hop by night, they shop by day. The Forum Shops at Caesars is such a renowned mecca of stargazing that merchants compile sightings for publicity reports.
Wolfgang Puck's restaurants there, Spago and Chinois, are always good bets "because of the L.A. connection" to Puck, who has become almost as well-known as the stars he cooks for, says mall spokeswoman Maureen Crampton.
Recent Spago sightings: Tiger Woods, Nicolas Cage, Tim Burton, Sean Hayes, Patricia Arquette, Lance Armstrong and Henry Winkler.
Spotted nearby, at the mammoth FAO Schwarz toy store? Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Marie Osmond, 'N Sync's Chris Kirkpatrick, Jamie Foxx and Elton John's lyricist, Bernie Taupin.
But any bench or "sidewalk" cafe table inside the heavily themed mall will do, because many stars are sighted just strolling the courtyard area: Steve Martin, Felix Trinidad, Martin Short and Barry Bonds among them.
The center bar at the Hard Rock Hotel became instantly synonymous with the "new Vegas" when the hotel opened in 1995, with Dennis Rodman and Ben Affleck entertaining crowds at the casino tables the way Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin did for Sands hipsters in the '60s.
If you still want to sample that old Vegas, then it's smart to find a restaurant that has survived from the golden era. Piero's counts Steve Lawrence and Robert Goulet as regulars while hosting younger stars such as George Clooney.
The late-night action for the classic-Vegas crowd is at the Bootlegger Bistro. Proprietor Blackie Hunt starts things off at the piano with fellow lounge legend Sonny King, before the venue becomes an open-mike night for veteran singers and comedians such as Peter Anthony and Dennis Bono.
Celebrity-spotting in Las Vegas doesn't have to be left to random chance. Your odds go way up when the stars come to town for a purpose, and here are some annual events that bring them out:
Billboard Music Awards. Held in December (usually the first Tuesday), the stars of the recording industry -- from the latest pop creation to Hall of Famers ‹ gather at the MGM Grand Garden arena, then spend the rest of the night on the town.
ShoWest. The movie stars roll in in mid-March to get in the good graces of the National Association of Theatre Owners during a four-day trade show that previews the big spring and summer movies. ShoWest is closed to the public, but there's plenty of stargazing around host hotels Bally's and Paris Las Vegas.
The ESPY Awards. ESPN's answer to the Oscars brings the sports world and its outer show-business circle to the MGM Grand every February.
VH1 Fairway to Heaven. Pop stars who swing golf clubs are drawn to this cable TV-sponsored event that usually tags onto the Las Vegas Invitational in October.
Any ballyhooed grand opening. This is Las Vegas, so something new seems to open here every week or two. The nightclub Light, for instance, rolled out the red carpet for Sting, Tobey Maguire, Denise Richards, Charlie Sheen and Leonardo DiCaprio.
