Barry Manilow, shown in a 2004 file photo at the Las Vegas Hilton, made an entrance to remember over the weekend in Atlantic City. Photo by Clint Karlsen.
Pablo Picasso's "dream" painting has turned into a $139 million nightmare for Steve Wynn.
In an accident witnessed by a group that included Barbara Walters and screenwriters Nora Ephron and Nicholas Pileggi, Wynn accidentally poked a hole in Picasso's 74-year-old painting, "Le Reve," French for "The Dream."
Advertisement
A day earlier, Wynn had finalized a record $139 million deal for the painting of Picasso's mistress, Wynn told The New Yorker magazine
The accident occurred as a gesturing Wynn, who suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disease that affects peripheral vision, struck the painting with his right elbow, leaving a hole the size of a silver dollar in the left forearm of Marie-Theresa Walter, Picasso's 21-year-old mistress.
"Oh shit, look what I've done," Wynn said, according to Ephron, who gave her account in a blog published on Monday.
Wynn paid $48.4 million for the Picasso in 1997 and had agreed to sell it to art collector Steven Cohen. The $139 million would have been $4 million higher than the previous high for a work of art, according to The New Yorker.
Cosmetics magnate Ronald Lauder paid $135 million in July for Gustav Klimt's 1907 portrait "Adele Bloch-Bauer I."
Wynn plans to restore "Le Reve" and keep it.
BARRY'S BACK
Barry Manilow made a hip-happening entrance over the weekend.
During his introduction Saturday, the Las Vegas Hilton headliner came onstage in a wheelchair at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
As Nicholas L. Ribis, president and CEO of Resorts International and co-owner of the Las Vegas Hilton, welcomed Manilow, his backup singers came out in nurses' outfits.
Holding up his newly won Emmy, Manilow bounded out of the chair and put on a performance at an event presented by Resorts International and the Atlantic City Hilton, affiliates with the Las Vegas Hilton.
Manilow, who recently underwent outpatient arthroscopic surgery on his hips, returns to the Las Vegas Hilton on Nov. 8.
CASEY'S KID
KXNT-AM, 840 will announce Kerri Kasem, daughter of radio icon Casey Kasem, as the new co-host for the morning talk-show opposite Alan Stock.
The announcement will be made at 8:30 a.m. today at the Rocks Lounge at Red Rock Resort, with her father, longtime host of "American Top 40," in attendance. She replaces Heidi Harris, who chose not to re-sign after her five-year contract expired this month.
SIGHTINGS
Elton John and megahot music producer Timbaland, teaming up at the Palms recording studios over the weekend on a supersecret project. ... At Krave Nightclub (Aladdin/Planet Hollywood) on Sunday night: John's partner, David Furnish, with movie director Stephen Daldry ("The Hours" and "Billy Elliot"). ... Eva Longoria and San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker, dining at Social House (Treasure Island) on Sunday night. ... The Maloof brothers, George, Joe, Gavin and Phil, at the launch party for a Carl's Jr. and Hardee's TV commercial on Monday at the Palms. Unveiled was the $6,000 combo meal: the Carl's Jr. $6 burger with fries and a bottle of 1982 Chateau Petrus Pomerol Bordeaux, a Palms room service feature you won't find on the value menu. Burgers, fries and milk shakes were served in a Sky Villa suite that was jammed with high rollers and supersized members of the Maloofs' Sacramento Kings. ... The Los Angeles Lakers, holding a pool party at The Mirage on Monday night.
THE PUNCH LINE
"Declared jihad on Liza Minnelli" -- From David Letterman's Top 10 Signs Barbra Streisand Is Nuts
