Thursday, June 17, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NORM: Brotherly love didn't last long

CORRECTION -- 6/18/04
The first item in the Thursday "Vegas Confidential" column gave the incorrect last name for Las Vegas real estate agent Richard A. Casper.

Tonya Paoni had a brief stay on the CBS reality show "Big Brother 3" in 2002. Tim Poster says Lorraine Hunt is welcome to sing at the Golden Nugget "anytime." Lorraine Hunt

A Las Vegas real estate agent's 7-month marriage to "Big Brother 3" participant Tonya Paoni turned ugly Tuesday.

Richard A. Foster filed a statement with Metro, claiming Paoni grazed his arm with a knife and threw a cell phone at him while he was in bed recovering from a recent heart attack.

Paoni could not be reached for comment.

The case has been referred to Metro's Domestic Violence Detail.

Foster said in a telephone interview that Paoni lost her temper when he wouldn't take her back. She threw her cell phone hard enough to leave a hole in the wall, he said.

"She has filed to take my $750,000 house, which I owned before she moved in."

Foster said they met at Playboy magazine's 50th anniversary party at the Palms in September and married Oct. 22 after Paoni proposed in Aruba, where Foster won $43,000 in a poker tournament.

"The 43 got eaten up in seconds. I spent $150,000 just buying her jewelry and trips," Foster said. He said Paoni spent $1,700 of his money on nude pictures of herself as a Christmas present to him.

"She's a gold digger and I know I made a mistake. I'm not looking for sympathy," said Foster, who said he had a heart attack on June 7 from the stress of the breakup.

He said Paoni told him she was going out for sushi last Saturday but later admitted she was at a high-roller party featuring "The Sopranos" cast at the Golden Nugget.

Paoni had a brief stay on the CBS reality show "Big Brother 3" in 2002 after housemates questioned her character and devotion to her five kids.

'Casino' brouhaha

Golden Nugget co-owner Tim Poster has one major regret about Monday's debut of "The Casino."

It wasn't the segment that demeaned Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt. Or the "Big Chuck" Gorson shocker.

"I thought the fratboy party was bad. We should have skipped that," Poster said Wednesday, referring to a whipped-cream scene.

Telephones at the downtown property were still ringing off the hook, he said, "with everybody giving us suggestions on how to run the Golden Nugget."

Among the callers was Peggy King, wife of Las Vegas lounge legend Sonny King. She also called me with a statement from Sonny ripping Golden Nugget singer Matt Dusk for his denigrating comments suggesting a drop-in appearance by Hunt and her boyfriend, Dennis Bono, was akin to cheesy karaoke.

"Matt Dusk couldn't shine Lorraine Hunt's shoes," Sonny King said in his statement. King, a Las Vegas fixture since the 1950s, is a featured entertainer at Hunt's family-operated Bootlegger nightclub and restaurant.

Poster said he had not received any complaints from Hunt and added, "I don't know what the fuss was all about. I thought she did a great job. She could play here anytime."

As far as Gorson's tryst with a transvestite, "that was the real deal," said Poster, emphatic that the show is not staged or scripted.

The final Nielsen ratings came in at 7.6 million viewers, "not a blowup number, but I'm told we did pretty good," he said.

By comparison, the Fox show "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?" shot at the Las Vegas Hilton in February 2000 attracted 22 million viewers.

The Scene and Heard

Darva Conger, whose sham marriage helped spur the reality TV rage, is returning to Las Vegas as host of "Vegas Weddings Revealed." The show airs Friday on the Game Show Network. Conger married comedian Rick Rockwell in the aforementioned Fox show "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?"

The Punch Line

"I don't like anything past 2 a.m. Anything past 2 a.m. is like all losers and weirdos." -- Paris Hilton, on her partying habits, to David Letterman.

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