Diamond puts Hope to shame

After years of pursuing five-diamond perfection in the desert, Steve Wynn has acquired the perfect symbolic gem.

The same man who purchased the 61-pound Hand of Faith gold nugget to promote his first hotel-casino 30 years ago will unveil on Wednesday a 230-carat diamond that dwarfs the 45.52-carat Hope Diamond.

Wynn and his wife, Elaine, will be the focus for the entire half hour of ABC's "Nightline" program.

The big-as-a-Buick sparkler will be shown for the first time, along with the restored "Le Reve" painting by Picasso, which was accidentally damaged a year ago when Wynn was showing it to friends.

Wynn had agreed to sell the painting for a record $139 million a few days before he poked a small hole in it.

The value of the Hope Diamond has been estimated as high as $250 million.

The Wynns were going to reveal their pear-shaped rock later this year but chose to unveil it during the national telecast, said "Nightline" reporter Cynthia McFadden, who interviewed the couple.

A lucky handful of friends saw the diamond in May when Wynn reveled in revealing it to a couple of tables of VIPs at Bon Appetit magazine's Vine and Dine dinner at Wynn Las Vegas.

The "Nightline" show airs at 11:30 p.m.

THE PARRY THOMAS STORY

Banker E. Parry Thomas, one of the most influential figures in modern Las Vegas history, has a book in the works.

Thomas, 86, is collaborating with Las Vegas author Jack Sheehan, who spent three days last week interviewing Thomas at his home in Sun Valley, Idaho, next door to Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher.

"It's the first time," Sheehan said, "that he's agreed to tell all those fascinating stories about the deals he structured for Howard Hughes, Kirk Kerkorian, Benny Binion, Jimmy Hoffa, Adnan Khashoggi, Jay Sarno, Steve Wynn, Irwin Molasky and an endless list of others. The people he helped comprise a Who's Who of the last 50 years."

Sheehan said the Jack Binion called Thomas "the perfect man for the perfect time, who believed in Las Vegas and found the money to put it on the map."

'CIRQUE DU O.J.' IN '08

A Cincinnati restaurateur who made headlines this year for refusing to serve O.J. Simpson says last week's media circus in Las Vegas was just the beginning.

If Simpson goes to trial here, "it's going to be 'Cirque du O.J.,'" said Jeff Ruby, who asked the football Hall of Famer to leave his Louisville, Ky., steakhouse the night before the Kentucky Derby.

Ruby, 59, said he was threatened by the Black Panthers, and Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter, vowed to have his liquor license yanked for the eviction. But nothing came of it, said Ruby, who said he has no regrets.

He offered words of support to Palms owner George Maloof, who said Simpson won't be welcome if he tries to return.

"Tell George Maloof I'm going to stay at the Palms after what he did," said Ruby, who operates a restaurant empire out of Cincinnati.

Ruby, in a telephone interview Saturday, said he was unprepared for the public response. "I was treated like a war hero. The only TV show I wasn't on was 'American Idol.'"

Full disclosure and a personal aside: As a reporter for The Associated Press in Cincinnati, I met Ruby in the aftermath of the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire that killed 165 people in May 1977 in Southgate, Ky. I interviewed Ruby, one of the survivors, after he gave his Cincinnati Reds seats to a restaurant bus boy who was hailed as a hero after warning hundreds to leave a showroom.

THE PUNCH LINE

"Medals would be bronze, silver and gold lame." -- From David Letterman's Top Ten Ways the Olympics Would Be Different If They Were Held in Las Vegas

Norm Clarke can be reached at 383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find additional sightings and more online at www.normclarke.com.