Maher muses on Mansion

Comedian Bill Maher seems like he should know what's up with Hugh Hefner, at least more than the rest of us. Maher goes to the Playboy Mansion for holiday parties and other occasions. So excuse me for asking rudely: What will happen to the Mansion when Hugh, uh, dies?

"We don't know," says Maher, who performs this weekend at The Orleans. "He's got two burgeoning teenagers. ... It could become like it was when he was married to those kids' mother. There was a time when he got married (in 1989), there were events at the Playboy Mansion, but they weren't what I would call parties. It's what I call 'The Dead Ball Era.'

"I don't know how swinging a place it is anyway" now, he says. "But it certainly is a fun party when they throw one. I hope they continue to do that. And his kids, I don't know what their ambitions are. Sometimes kids rebel against whatever the parents want.

"They seem like really nice kids. And God, if you had to pick one father to inherit something from, that would be the one."

Maher, by the way, calls Sarah Palin a bad mother in my interview, which you can find inside today's Neon section.

STUFF TO DO THIS WEEKEND

• The Comedy Festival continues at Caesars tonight starring Jerry Seinfeld, Dane Cook, Cheech & Chong, The Kids in the Hall and more. Tomorrow, it's Seinfeld, Dave Attell, Andrew Dice Clay, John Oliver and others. Check out today's Neon, where Mike Weatherford gives you the comedic run-through.

• The official comedian after-party red carpet is 11 p.m. Saturday at Tao, with slated arrivals Maher, Tracy Morgan, Clay, Pauly Shore and more.

• Mariah Carey's husband, comedian Nick Cannon, spins music as a guest DJ at Pure tonight. DJ AM spins at Pure on Saturday night.

• The weirdest thing ever happens today: Penn and Teller, plus a bunch of TV actors, will bag groceries in a grocery-bagging competition at Caesars Palace -- if you're keeping score at home, Caesars isn't a grocery store -- to raise money and status for a nonprofit.

On the schedule from "Mad Men": Vincent Kartheiser (Pete), Alison Brie (Pete's wife, Trudy) and Aaron Staton (Ken). From "10 Items Or Less": John Lehr (Leslie), Kim Coles (Mercy), Roberta Valderrama (Yolanda) and Greg Davis Jr. (Buck). From "My Boys": Michael Bunin (Kenny), Kyle Howard (Bobby), Jamie Kaler (Mike) and Kellee Stewart (Stephanie).

The nonprofit at hand is dosomething.org, which promises something about getting "young people" to do active, positive things in their communities. This goes down from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in front of the Palace Ballroom.

• Saturday at MGM's Tabu, Playboy Playmates Kara Monaco and Janine Habeck will "mesmerize" "party-goers," or at least that's what the news release says. When was the last time you were a "mesmerized" "party-goer?" That would be last week, for me. Red carpet is at 11:45 p.m. Saturday.

• Lookie, the Eiffel Tower is going all red, from 7 to 10 tonight and Saturday, for the Beaujolais Nouveau celebration, which celebrates wine, because there's not enough wine being gobbled already in France or in Las Vegas. Beaujolais Nouveau is a worldwide wine knock-it-back.

Also, Paris will be doling out little bits of wine for wine tastings in a lobby bar from 1 to 8 p.m. today and Saturday. Drink up. Don't drive. Stay alive. Stay cool. Stay classy. It's not too late. To whip it. Etc.

Doug Elfman's column appears on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 702-383-0391 or e-mail him at delfman@ reviewjournal.com. He also blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.