Celine Dion speaks during a news conference Saturday for Andre Agassi’s Grand Slam for Children benefit at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Photo by K.M. Cannon.
Year after year, Andre Agassi never seems to run out of aces at his Grand Slam for Children benefit.
This time, he delivered a stunner for his 10th gala fundraiser: Singing legend Barbra Streisand made a rare public appearance to assist her former boyfriend.
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Their well-kept secret didn't start leaking until midafternoon. Word started spreading when a small army of volunteers who were asked to leave the MGM Grand Garden Arena recognized the unmistakable voice of the Oscar-winning "Funny Girl" through closed doors.
Streisand and Agassi were the buzz of the sports world when their love match hit the headlines at the 1992 U.S. Open. Streisand, during a break at the tournament, spilled the beans. He had called her, she said, after seeing her in "The Prince of Tides," and they talked for hours.
Her famous quote in that interview: "He plays like a Zen master out there."
tower of fantasy
"Welcome to George Maloof's fantasy world."
That's what many of his guests will be hearing when half of the Palms' new 350-room tower opens in three weeks, in time for the Sacramento Kings-Los Angeles Lakers weekend.
Maloof has tentatively nicknamed his expansion project the "Fantasy Tower" because he's convinced he's unveiling the next generation of celebrity suites.
Topped by a Playboy club and a 10,000-square-foot Hugh Hefner suite ("our version of the Playboy mansion," says Maloof), the 400-foot tower will include 50 supersuites among the 150 suites and a 7,000-square-foot recording studio with three rooms.
"It takes the whole concept of Vegas to another level," said Maloof. "It's the ultimate Vegas tower."
Maloof provided a sneak-peek tour on Friday of his pet project, which includes six sky villas with overhanging indoor-outdoor "sky" pools that offer panoramic views of the Strip.
Two party floors, which are insulated for sound, have themed suites with names such as "Hardwood," "Kingpin," "Hot Pink" and "Erotica."
The 10,000-square-foot "Hardwood" suite includes a basketball court, NBA-supersized Murphy beds that drop onto the court, and cheerleaders and referees on call. Yours for a mere $75,000 to $100,000 a night.
The "Kingpin" suite, appropriately, features two regulation bowling lanes.
Maloof gives new meaning to the term "wet bar" because many of the suites' back bars feature a glass-enclosed shower complete with a stripper pole.
THE SCENE AND HEARD
No one had a tighter schedule for Agassi's event than Caesars Palace headliner Celine Dion. Her itinerary: Her show at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace ends nightly at 10:15 p.m. She was to be in a limo by 10:25 p.m. and arrive at the MGM Grand Garden at 10:35 p.m. "We made a dry run on Tuesday and did it in six minutes," said her husband/manager Rene Angelil.
SIGHTINGS
Leonardo DiCaprio, dining at Fix (Bellagio) on Friday night. ... Mena Suvari, the teen temptress in "American Beauty," spotted making out Friday on the balcony of The Joint (Hard Rock Hotel) during "Beacher's Madhouse." Her beau: a male dancer in the "Madhouse" lineup. Also at the "Madhouse": Jaime Pressly and Jenny McCarthy.
THE PUNCH LINE
"This is unbelievable, these fires. This is the only city in the world where it's illegal to smoke in a restaurant while the entire city is on fire." -- Jay Leno
