Monday, December 01, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NORM: Dion mourns loss of No. 1 supporter

Celine Dion's parents Adhemar and Therese are seen in July 2001. Sean Penn favored to take Oscar home. Naomi Watts might add hardware, too. Robert Goulet parties up on 70th.

Celine Dion canceled her Wednesday and Thursday shows at Caesars Palace this week to attend the funeral of her father.

Adhemar Dion, who worked two jobs to support a family of 16 on $165 a week, died Sunday at his Montreal home.

The international singing star, whose mega-hit "My Heart Will Go On" sold more than 50 million records, decided to go ahead with Sunday's show "because she figured he would want her to," said Dion's husband, Rene Angelil. "He was her biggest fan and she loved him very much."

After attending the funeral on Thursday, she will return to the show Friday, Angelil said. The show is dark on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Celine's father, a former butcher and security guard, spent his 80th birthday in March surrounded by 30 family members at Alize, the French restaurant atop the Palms. He stayed two months in Las Vegas to see his youngest daughter perform in her swank new venue.

"He was always there for her," Angelil said. In 1988 when Celine's career was taking off at age 20, the family patriarch attended 42 shows in a row and was "always the first to give her a standing ovation."

Celine often credited her father's sacrifices for making her career possible. A favorite family story: Adhemar would walk to work to save 10 cents a day on bus fare.

Oscar Odds

The Oscar odds are up at Bally's/Paris Las Vegas and the favorites are Sean Penn and Naomi Watts for their heavyweight performances in "21 Grams."

Penn, a three-time best-actor Oscar nominee, who also shined in "Mystic River," is the 3-1 favorite. Watts is the 4-1 pick.

"21 Grams" has a "Pulp Fiction" feel to it, said oddsmaker John Avello, who posts the odds for entertainment purposes only; no bets are allowed.

He ranks "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" as the best-film favorite at 4-1, "Mystic River" at 5-1 and "21 Grams" at 7-1.

After Penn, Bill Murray is listed at 5-1 for his role in "Lost in Translation." Two-time Oscar winner Russell Crowe is rated at 6-1 in "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World."

The Scene and Heard

The clogging troupe All That, a headline act at Ovation (Aladdin), was honored last week with a Pioneer Award from the National Clogging Association Inc. for revolutionizing the image of clogging by being on "Dance Fever." More than 3,000 cloggers were in town over the weekend for the national convention. ...

The popularity of Blue Man Group is going global. A fourth spinoff of the New York original is opening soon in Berlin. ...

The bookstore Scott Steindorff referred to on Sunday about "The Human Stain" should have been Borders at Decatur Boulevard and Sahara Avenue.

Sightings

Robert Goulet's 70th birthday party wound up at the Bootlegger late Saturday after starting at Picasso (Bellagio). Goulet, a 30-year Las Vegas resident, ended up at the microphone with wife, Vera, Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt, Sonny King, Dennis Bono, Rich Little and Vinnie Falcone. During the evening, local entertainment attorney Jack Wishna and his wife, Donna, announced they were establishing the "Robert Goulet Music & Theater Scholarship" program at UNLV.

The Punch Line

"You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a firefly and still have room enough for three caraway seeds and a producer's heart." -- Fred Allen

Norm Clarke can be reached at 383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com.COMING TUESDAY