Donny Osmond wows his wife

Donny Osmond is off to a fast start for Husband of the Year honors.

So much for getting the little missus roses and jewelry for her birthday.

Osmond surprised his wife, Debbie, on her 50th birthday Friday by bringing in 13 of her closest friends from all over the country, Vegas Confidential has learned.

"She hasn't seen some of them in 35 years," Osmond said after Thursday's Donny & Marie Show at the Flamingo.

He worked on the surprise since October, he said.

He sent his wife of 30 years on a shopping trip Friday so he could sneak her friends into a room at Harrah's. The plan was to have her walk into the room and be surprised.

Thanks, Donny, for raising the birthday bar to an impossibly high level.

The couple married May 8, 1978, and have five sons: Donald, 30, Jeremy, 27, Brandon, 24, Christopher, 18, Joshua, 11.

FAREWELL, OLD FRIEND

A great lady and dear friend died Friday.

Born during Denver's gold rush days, she was two months away from her 150th birthday.

The Rocky Mountain News was closed on one-days notice, the latest victim in our troubled times.

I'm proud to have been among the fortunate journalists who got to spend 15 years in her company.

I joined the Rocky, as everyone called her, in 1984, lured by the excitement of being part of one of the last great U.S. newspaper wars. And a great job offer: My job, after 12 years with The Associated Press in Cincinnati, San Diego and Los Angeles, was to stay on top of Denver's effort to gain a major league baseball team.

It was an exciting time to be a sportswriter and a sports fan in Denver.

There was John Elway's 11th-hour magic and two Super Bowl trophies. Denver got the Rockies in 1993 and Coors Field opened in 1995. The Colorado Buffaloes were national co-champs in football. The National Hockey League arrived in 1995, and the Avalanche were so good that Denver fans got to see an improbable Stanley Cup-winning team that same 1995-96 season. UNLV's Final Four dominance played out in Denver in 1990.

Every year the Avalanche made the playoffs, the logo on the Rocky's sports section was changed to Hockey Mountain News. Boosterish? Probably.

But more than the sports thrills, I'll remember the Rocky "family," the scrappiness, the characters and the camaraderie.

There was John Coit, the gifted cityside columnist who loved exploring the subculture. One of his best columns came after he hopped on a freight train to Salt Lake City to examine the spirit of those on the rails.

I was in the newsroom late one night when I heard a colleague shouting into the phone. "John! (pause) John! (pause) John!" It turned out Coit was in Europe, dictating a column after a night on the town. He had fallen asleep in mid-dictation and there was no waking him.

Ten days after he got married in the lobby of the Rocky, he was dead at age 38 of a heart attack. Ten years later, we were reeling again when another supreme storyteller, cityside columnist Greg Lopez, died in a high-speed, hit-and-run accident on St.Patrick's Day. He was 35.

Gene Amole was a larger-than-life columnist who had seen it all: He survived the Battle of the Bulge to become a Denver broadcasting pioneer and a radio and TV icon before starting his Rocky column in his 50s.

Years later, he offered this observation: "Columns are like nymphomaniacs. A man always wants one until he actually has one."

-- 30 --

SIGHTINGS

CNN's Larry King and wife Shawn at the Donny and Marie show Friday. Shawn is the daughter of Carl Engemann, Marie's manager. ... Comedians Craig Ferguson, Ron White and The Amazing Jonathon, showing up Thursday at Stoney's dance hall to have birthday cake with Carrot Top, who turned 44 Wednesday. The group accommodated star-struck cowgirls who wanted photos with them. On Saturday, French star chef Joel Robuchon rolled up to the South Las Vegas Boulevard dance emporium in a Rolls Royce. He was with some of the top executives from his MGM Grand restaurants. Robuchon was invited to ride the mechanical bull but declined. ... Actor Luke Wilson, playing golf Friday at the Wynn Las Vegas course.

THE PUNCH LINE

An e-mail signed "Venetian bartender" says US Airways pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger has spawned a new cocktail -- The Sully Martini: "Two shots of Grey Goose and a big splash of water."

Norm Clarke can be reached at (702) 383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find additional sightings and more online at www.normclarke.com.