For these men, it’s the size that counts

A modern-day version of a legendary Renaissance rivalry is unfolding on what Donald Trump calls "the hottest corner in the world right now."

The colossal building boom along Las Vegas Boulevard "goes to my argument that Las Vegas is the Venice of the 21st century," local author Michele Jaffe wrote in an e-mail.

A former Venetian who studied the Renaissance period, Jaffe has witnessed an unprecedented era of one-upmanship waged by rival billionaires Kirk Kerkorian, Steve Wynn, Sheldon Adelson and Trump.

"In Venice during the Renaissance, rich men flexed their fiscal muscles through architecture, building larger and more sumptuous palazzi (palaces)," Jaffe said. "Competition played itself out in the wow-inducing facades they put up on either side of the Grand Canal, the 'Strip' of Venice."

Trump's "hottest-corner-in-the-world" reference came during an interview Friday at the topping-off ceremony for the first of his two 64-story residential towers.

It is no coincidence that Trump's 645-foot towers eclipse Wynn's 614-foot Wynn Las Vegas. Adelson's Palazzo, when completed next year, is supposed to top out at 642 feet, but rumors are rampant that the world's third-richest man may have a surprise in the "Mine's-Bigger-Than-Yours" competition.

And the phallic war doesn't stop there: Wynn's Encore, when completed late next year, would take over as the tallest at 653 feet. But I'm told the owners of the $5 billion Plaza going up on the New Frontier site will end up -- surprise -- between 650 and 680 feet.

All this reminds Jaffe of the storied competitions played out in the 1550s between the scion of the well-established Tiepolo family and an up-and-comer named Girolamo Grimani.

The latter fell hard for Tiepolo's daughter, but when he went to ask for her hand in marriage, the father scoffed at the brash newcomer, saying (reportedly), "I'd never give my daughter's hand in marriage to a nobody who doesn't even have a house on the Grand Canal."

Rebuffed but fired up, Grimani "is said to have given what, at the time, was the insult to end all insults," Jaffe wrote.

"Building on the fact that glass was a luxury commodity at the time, he declared, 'You just wait -- I'll build a palace where every WINDOW is bigger than the door of your palazzo.'

"And he did: the imposing marble facade of the Palazzo Grimani stands exactly across the Grand Canal from the Palazzo Coccina-Tiepolo.

"Although it happened 450 years ago, it's a very Vegas story: Rivalry played out through marble and glass."

THE SCENE AND HEARD

I'm hearing Carmen Electra, before bailing out of "The Beauty of Magic" with Hans Klok, had a contract clause that prohibited choreography that made her sweat or caused her hair to stick to her lip gloss. ...

Tickets for the Osmonds' two-day taping of their 50th anniversary show Aug. 13-14 at The Orleans sold out in eight minutes Saturday, said spokeswoman Candi Cazau.

SIGHTINGS

Actress Gabrielle Union, dining with Denver Broncos wide receiver Javon Walker at N9ne (Palms) on Friday. Also at N9ne on Friday, at separate tables: director Michael Bay and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, who was set to fight Chuck Liddell in a title showdown Saturday. ... At Pure (Caesars Palace) on Friday: Phoenix Suns star Shawn Marion, beauty Cindy Margolis, MySpace founder Tom Anderson, Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart, mixed-martial artist Frank Trigg, UFC fighter Dan Henderson and Dennis Haskins of "Saved By the Bell."