Saturday, October 23, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NORM: TV's Leach rankled by effort to evict

Jewel dazzles in diamond pendant. Photo by RONDA CHURCHILL/REVIEW-JOURNAL Robin Leach wants R&R Partners apology. Tuff Hedeman attends radio station event.

TV personality Robin Leach wants an apology from public relations heavyweight R&R Partners after being threatened with eviction from a Forum Shops soiree.

Leach, longtime host of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," said he was invited to "assist with an interview" with Jessica Simpson after her mini-concert Thursday at the grand opening of the third expansion phase at Caesars Palace.

Leach said he was turned away by R&R rep Lisa Jacob, who "without explanation, orders security to have me removed from the Forum Shops" on three occasions.

Leach said he received a telephone call inviting him to visit the singing sensation. He recently interviewed Simpson and her husband, Nick Lachey, for a five-part Fox TV show.

R&R Partners CEO Billy Vassiliadis said Jacob was acting on instructions from Simpson's handlers.

"Simpson's bodyguards gave very stringent orders as to whom they wanted (in the dressing room). They were very forceful and very strong about it," Vassiliadis said by telephone on Friday.

"He was not on the list and no one had been informed so they couldn't figure out who invited him," he said.

Leach wrote in a letter to Vassiliadis: "So I go where I am told, and Ms. Jacob immediately orders me to leave. She tells me to move away from a media roped area and use the public area. I didn't raise my voice. I wasn't impolite. I didn't even want to be there in the first place.

"Heck, I didn't even use those immortal words of a fate worse than death, `Don't you know who I am,' " Leach wrote.

After leaving the area, Leach, 63, said he was approached by Jacob and a co-worker (Dayne Percifield, according to Vassiliadis). After further discussion, Jacob again called for security on her walkie-talkie.

I was standing a few feet away when four security guards surrounded Leach before Forum Shops executive Maureen Crampton intervened. Crampton asked the R&R reps and security to leave, apologized to Leach for a "misunderstanding" and invited him to stay.

Vassiliadis said that after speaking with Jacob and Percifield, he believes "they acted in accordance with our client's wishes."

As far as an apology to Leach, Vassiliadis said, "I'm going to take the word of an employee I've worked with for four years. There must have been a misunderstanding or miscommunication."

Sightings

Simpson, dining with her father, Joe Simpson, at N9NE Steak House (Palms), after her mini-concert at the christening of the Forum Shops expansion. ... Dennis Quaid, strolling through the Hard Rock Hotel on Friday. ... Jewel, sporting an 87-carat diamond pendant worn by Kate Hudson in "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," on Friday at Caesars Palace. Jewel was cutting a ceremonial ribbon bedecked with $150,000 worth of diamonds at Harry Winston's new store in the Forum Shops. Assisting Jewel was 6-month-old Blaise Winston, the first child of Ronald Winston, who is Harry Winston's son. ... J. Tony Serra, and his Rick Tabish defense team members, Shari Greenberger and Anna Ling, at Sedona restaurant on West Flamingo on Wednesday for the Las Vegas Fine Arts Salon fund-raiser for the Vegas Valley Book Festival. Serra was there to support courtroom sketch artist, Paulette Frankl, a featured guest at the gala. She has co-authored a book with Serra. ... Cowboys Tuff Hedeman, Ross Coleman and Michael Gaffney, at Friday's KWNR-FM, 95.5 birthday breakfast at the Plaza's diner. ... That sighting of the Los Angeles Lakers at Tangerine on Wednesday night was a case of misinterpreted information.

The Punch Line

"As a matter of principle, I never attend the first annual anything." -- George Carlin

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