Monday, May 17, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NORM: Fund-raiser nets record $5 million

Wolfgang Puck and his girlfriend, Gelila Assefa, attend Saturday's fund-raiser at The Mirage. COURTESY PHOTO

What happens when the upper crust of Las Vegas gets competitive at a charity auction?

A lot of bread was raised, a record $5 million in fact, for the "Keep Memory Alive" Alzheimer's fund-raiser Saturday at The Mirage.

Hotel builder Tony Marnell forked over $1 million for a sports car. Steve Wynn put up $500,000 for 10 super chefs to prepare dinner for 100 as part of the grand opening of his new resort. An Australian yacht trip went for $250,000 to MGM Grand honcho Jim Murren and time share operator Stephen Cloobeck.

Nine star chefs prepared specialties for the event, which honored star chef Wolfgang Puck.

The biggest crisis occurred when a shipment of Maine diver scallops didn't arrive at The Mirage as scheduled by air express.

The lost scallops were in Las Vegas after all, but the air express company said there was no way they could be released until today.

Chicago chef Charlie Trotter reached the air express company's vice president and, voila, his scallops made it in time to stay on the menu, according to Renoir chef Alessandro Stratta.

Joining Trotter and Stratta were: Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse, Daniel Boulud, Charlie Palmer, Nobu Matsuhisa, Thomas Keller and David Robins.

'Las Vegas' finale

Josh Duhamel, the hunky Danny McCoy on NBC's "Las Vegas" series, gets called to military service in tonight's finale.

It may be a Hollywood script, but it hits close to home for Duhamel, pronounced doo-mell.

"It meant a lot to me because my aunt -- my mother's sister-- is being deployed next week to Kosovo," Duhamel told me Saturday night at the "Keep Memory Alive" event at The Mirage.

"It's one of my favorite scripts. If any of them ever meant anything, it would be this one," he said. "It was important for me to play what a kid would go through 24 hours before he gets deployed."

Duhamel and several cast members shot his going-away scenes during a shoot here a couple weeks ago.

In the final scene, he rides off into the Vegas dawn with buddy Mike Cannon, played by James Lesure.

Asked about his views of the war in Iraq, Duhamel said: "I don't want to get too much into that, other than what your stance is on the war, we should always support people over there defending this country. It's very scary over there, and I don't think you're truly an American if you don't support these people."

The Scene and Heard

Celine Dion announced on Sunday that she has canceled her Caesars Palace shows through next Sunday because of her sore neck.

Sightings

Enrique Iglesias and Anna Kournikova, dining with his band at Simon's Kitchen (Hard Rock Hotel) after their miniconcert at the Alzheimer's event. Also there: James Caan and Duhamel. ... Antonio Tarver, celebrating his win over Roy Jones Jr. with pals and six bottles of Cristal champagne at Vegashotspots.com's after-party Saturday at the House of Blues. Also there: NFL Hall of Famer Jim Brown and NBA stars Antoine Walker, Cuttino Mobley and Nick Van Exel. ... A dejected Jones, spotted at Bikinis (Rio). ... Former Syracuse University stars Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles and Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets, at the Tarver-Jones fight. Anthony was spotted being turned away from Tarver's after-party because he's only 20. Magic Johnson and wife Cookie, at Piero's Italian Cuisine on Saturday.

The Punch Line

"We use the term chef very loosely (in America) ... a cook is not the chef." -- Julia Child

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