Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NORM: NFL washout sells ring at pawnshop

Champ Car driver Paul Tracy shows his speed on an indoor track in Las Vegas. Lawrence Phillips pawns football ring. Nicky Hilton threatens to sue. David Chesnoff: more wedding work

Trouble-prone football star Lawrence Phillips apparently hit rock bottom in Las Vegas.

Phillips, an NFL bust after helping Nebraska to consecutive national titles in the mid-1990s, walked into a downtown Las Vegas pawnshop not long ago and sold one of his Big Eight championship rings for $20.

"He said he was stuck in Las Vegas," said Steve Gibson, owner of Steve's Buy & Sell, 625 Las Vegas Blvd. South. "He said, `I need to get out of town.' "

Gibson, who turned around and sold the ring on eBay for $1,700, said he tried to talk Phillips out of selling it. "I thought about giving him $20, but he would have just walked down the street and sold it."

Phillips, the sixth player taken in the 1996 draft, by the St. Louis Rams, ran afoul of the law throughout his pro career.

Phillips told Gibson he tried to hawk the ring "at every pawnshop from Tropicana to downtown," but nobody was interested because it was not gold.

"His name was on the side of the ring, but I didn't believe it was him until I saw his driver's license," Gibson said.

Photo fracas

A dispute was resolved Tuesday over the wedding pictures of Nicky Hilton and Todd Meister.

The newlyweds threatened to sue the Vegas Wedding Chapel for ownership of 90 photos taken during the quickie wedding early Sunday.

"Everything's good," said Cliff Evarts, majority owner of the chapel. "They're happy, and we're happy."

Asked for details of what I hear was a handsome settlement, Evarts said, "I would not under any circumstances describe it as a settlement."

Meister's New York lawyers brought Las Vegas attorney David Chesnoff into the fracas: the second time this year that Chesnoff found himself in the middle of a celebrity wedding entanglement. In January, he extricated Britney Spears from her 55-hour marriage.

Evarts, who was bombarded with magazine offers for the photos, said the newlyweds "perceived they would automatically get ownership of all our photos."

He said, "We've done thousands of weddings, and we've never sold or given ownership to anybody."

Once Chesnoff got involved, Evarts contacted local attorney John Curtas to represent him.

The Scene and Heard

Steve Mainini, general manager at Francesco's in Treasure Island, is the new GM of Le Cirque and Osteria del Circo at the Bellagio. He succeeds Antonella Paganuzzi, who moved over to Steve Wynn's Wynn Las Vegas as director of fine dining. Mainini, who ran Francesco's for two years, started Saturday. "They didn't want me to start on Friday the 13th," the San Francisco native said. ...

Sports Illustrated is holding a model search for its next cover model from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday at Club Seven Nightlife, 3424 Las Vegas Blvd. South. To register, call 940-9010.

Sighting

Paul Tracy, defending Champ Car champion, entertaining his crew and sponsors at Fast Lap Indoor Kart Racing on Monday, a day after finishing second in the Denver Grand Prix. Tracy ran the fastest time of the month, 26.55 seconds.

The Punch Line

"Longer if you are a teenager, so I guess thinking everybody is stupid takes lots of energy." -- Ellen DeGeneres, commenting in her monologue last week on the necessity of eight hours of sleep.

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