Eat while cheering ‘Top Chef’ charity

Chef Rick Moonen's RM Seafood restaurant at Mandalay Bay has a special promotional hook tonight. You can watch the finals of Bravo's "Top Chef Masters 2" and cheer for the $100,000 prize to go to one of two local charities.

The episode will air in the downstairs area about 7 p.m. Moonen won't be able to attend, but he'll be making an appearance on Skype.

The only Las Vegas chef among three finalists, Moonen is competing for Three Square, the county's largest food bank.

Toronto chef Susur Lee is competing for Andre Agassi's Foundation for Education. The third finalist is Ethiopian native Marcus Samuelsson.

Lee is a Hong Kong native whose first wife died in 1983 when Russian fighters shot down a Korean Air Lines plane, killing 269, after it strayed into Soviet airspace.

MEDIA UPDATE

Sounds like a short honeymoon for the Tropicana and comedian Paul Rodriguez, who recently launched a four-wall deal there. "I'm not thrilled. It isn't the show I want to do," Rodriguez told blogger/free-lancer Steve Friess . "This is my nickel. I was going to try to do something different. They said, 'No, we just want straight standup. People want straight standup.' And I said, 'Well, all right, I'll just do my run.' But the good thing about it is, we're getting interest from a couple other casinos now who came to the press party. Word got back to them." ...

KLUC-AM, 98.5, deejay Chet Buchanan fields a lot of calls. But this one likely made his Top 10. It happened a couple days after the recent Miss USA pageant, where Buchanan was host of the prelims. Miss Universe Organization head Paula Shugart was on the phone "and said someone has a question for you." Donald Trump said some complimentary things to Buchanan and then asked whether he would handle the prelims for the Miss Universe pageant and keep the crowd engaged during the finals. The Miss Universe pageant is Aug. 23 at Mandalay Bay. ...

The Las Vegas Locos, defending champions of the inaugural United Football League season, unveil their new dance team, the Loco-motion, on Sunday at the Blue Martini in Town Square. Celebrity judges include KTNV-TV, Channel 13, anchor Lisa Remillard, College Football Hall of Fame member Napoleon McCallum, Locos head coach Jim Fassel and KLUC's Buchanan. ...

Steph MacKenzie, a morning deejay at KXPT-FM, 97.1, for more than a decade, is going for the Mrs. Nevada title next month. She's lost 30 pounds, lowered her body fat from 29 percent to 16, and "I've got the metabolism of a 12-year-old." She's also been a dynamo when it comes to charities. MacKenzie, 36, assists with the American Cancer Society's Making Strides (breast cancer) walk and works with Speedway Children's Charities and the New Vista Community.

SIGHTINGS

There's been an outbreak of exotic cats at Hooters Hotel. Cast members of the musical "Cats" have been meandering through Hooters for rehearsals at Planet Hollywood, where they are performing Thursday through Saturday. ... Soccer superstar Ronaldo "Ronaldhino" de Assis Moreira, creating a buzz at The Bank (Bellagio) on Sunday. He was with Milan AC goalkeeper Nelson de Jesus Silva. Ronaldhino, the all-time World Cup scoring leader (15), did not make Brazil's 2010 Cup team. ... When first lady Michelle Obama dined last week at Sensi in the Bellagio, it wasn't her first visit. In January 2008, her husband, then a presidential candidate, surprised her with a necklace for her 44th birthday . Her dinner was June 1, not May 31, as misstated here.

THE PUNCH LINE

"Mrs. Palin, please, enough with the celebratory gunfire." -- From David Letterman's Top Ten Things Overheard At Rush Limbaugh's Wedding

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