Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NORM: Britney ubiquitous on Halloween

Dorothy Young, Harry Houdini's former assistant, joins Aladdin headliner Steve Wyrick onstage Sunday. COURTESY PHOTO

Las Vegas threw a Halloween party and a Britney Spears convention broke out.

She was everywhere.

Wearing short plaid Catholic schoolgirl skirts, Spears' look-alikes on Sunday streamed into the Palms' Rain nightclub, where Spears partied during the weekend of her 55-hour wedding.

At Curve, the Aladdin nightclub, The X Girls paraded around as celebrity personas: Britney, with hubby Kevin Federline, Beyonce's "Foxy Cleopatra," Paris Hilton, Pam Anderson and Jessica Simpson, with a whipped Nick Lachey in tow.

There were numerous sightings of Federline wannabes.

I asked local public relations whiz Laura Herlovich, who stays on top of all things hip, how one would begin to impersonate Federline, the latest Mr. Britney Spears.

"Look like trash, talk some trash and have a Big Gulp in your hand," said Herlovich.

Anderson was another favorite of the masses, with many a look-alike sporting fuzzy pink hats and creative displays of cleavage.

The award for most politically incorrect impersonation was the dude spotted at the Palms and the Hard Rock, wearing a Kobe Bryant Los Angeles Lakers jersey and holding a blowup doll in front of him. Was that you, Shaq?

At the Palms, a Martha Stewart look-alike in an orange jumpsuit with "Department of Corrections" on the back carried a plant-watering can.

Near the entrance to the Palms' N9NE Steak House, a group of cowboys in town for the pro bull riding championships looked at each other like they had landed on another planet -- Planet Vegas.

The Scene and Heard

Simpson and Lachey's body language will be under heavy scrutiny this weekend at Body English, the Hard Rock Hotel's nightclub. Jessica and Nick, who starred in the TV hit "Newlyweds," are at the Hard Rock for Lachey's birthday party weekend. Lachey is dealing with a storm of bad publicity that he's been misbehaving. ...

When Andrea Bocelli returns to Las Vegas Nov. 13, he'll again be backed by the Las Vegas Philharmonic. Steven Mercurio will again be conducting, and soprano Sandra Lopez will perform as well.

Sightings

Actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and Ed Norton, in town Monday campaigning for John Kerry. DiCaprio rallied voters in Henderson, Norton was spotted taking in Penn & Teller (Rio) on Saturday after dinner at AJ's Steakhouse at the Hard Rock Hotel, and Penn joined the sports-talk show of John Hansen and Dave Cokin on KBAD-AM, 920. ... Actor Jared Leto, dining at Nobu (Hard Rock Hotel) over the weekend. ... Ultimate Fighting Champion superstar Chuck Liddell, dressed as an American Indian in a buckskin outfit, sporting a Mohawk and a single red feather and armed with a bow and arrow, Sunday at the Palms. ... Jewel, eyeing chocolates at the Chocolate Swan in Mandalay Place while killing time over the weekend, waiting for the Pro Bull Riding event. ... A troupe of orange-skinned little people dressed as Willy Wonka's Oompa Loompas, performing at midnight on the main bar at Body English on Saturday. ... Dorothy Young, Harry Houdini's former assistant, now in her 90s, joining Aladdin headliner Steve Wyrick onstage Sunday, after meeting him at a Houdini seance on Saturday. Houdini died on Halloween 1926 in Detroit.

The Punch Line

"It's Jessica Simpson. Thanks for making me look like a genius." -- From David Letterman's "Top Ten Messages on Britney Spears' Answering Machine"

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