Nighttime TV will always have Paris

Paris Hilton is, umm, taking a hit from late-night TV hosts after her Las Vegas arrest on cocaine possession charges.

"Paris says someone else left their cocaine in her purse," said CBS host Craig Ferguson. "In legal circles, this is known as the Lindsay Lohan defense."

Ferguson said Hilton "was arrested for cocaine possession. In her defense, it was in Las Vegas. From now on, when a joke bombs on this show, I'm going to say it was someone else's joke."

David Letterman weighed in with, "Paris Hilton was arrested again. Your move, Lindsay Lohan."

Hilton, 29, was arrested late Friday near Wynn Las Vegas when a motorcycle cop smelled marijuana and pulled over the SUV her boyfriend, nightclub executive Cy Waits, was driving. Waits was booked on suspicion of driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

I'm hearing Hilton will be gong before Justice Court Judge Joe M. Bonaventure Jr. for her hearing on Oct. 27. Bonaventure handled the arraignment and preliminary hearing for O.J. Simpson in 2007. Bonaventure's father, Joseph T. Bonaventure, presided over the Ted Binion murder trial in 2000.

PAINFUL INTRODUCTION

It's a marriage made in motor sports heaven. But things got off to a painful start.

Las Vegas resident Jamie Little, the only pit reporter for ESPN/ABC's coverage of the NASCAR Sprint Cup series, and racing executive Cody Selman are getting married Dec. 11 in San Diego.

They sort of met five years ago, when Selman got run over on a pit road and suffered a broken leg while working as a tire changer during an IndyCar series race in Fontana, Calif.

As Selman was carted away on a stretcher, Little was on the scene reporting the news.

Three years later, when Little needed to interview Kyle Busch, she had to go through Selman, who had risen to the position of Busch's manager.

Near the end of 2008, while at a party, Little and Selman started chatting about non-racing topics, "and POOF! The rest is history!" she told me by e-mail Tuesday.

They are getting married a week after NASCAR's postseason awards show in Las Vegas. They will honeymoon in Australia.

Selman works for Motorsports Management International . The company reps drivers Busch, Jamie McMurray, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart and many others.

Little, a 1996 graduate of Green Valley High School, is the only female on ABC's Indy 500 broadcast team. Next year's Indy 500 would be her eighth straight on the broadcast team.

She has covered motor sports on TV since 2000, a decade after getting hooked on motocross through her friend, Carey Hart, a motocross legend.

THE SCENE AND HEARD

A couple of weeks ago, it was a British paper trumpeting the bogus report that Madonna was getting a five-year, $1 billion deal at Caesars Palace. Now a French newspaper is claiming Celine Dion underwent emergency surgery in a Miami hospital Thursday night after it appeared she would be giving birth to her twins three months early. Not true, said Dion's publicist. ...

More on that Wayne Newton teaser we ran Aug. 18 about a crane and a jet airplane spotted on his estate, Shenandoah. Word is he is building a huge "Graceland-like" attraction that includes a wedding hall. He already has Arabian horses, plus a menagerie of animals, and he owns a humongous car collection. So why not? ...

Tweet of the Week: "Basic wardrobe malfunction on stage last night! Oh, gosh. Guess it will be a good story for my new book!!!;-)" -- from Flamingo headliner Marie Osmond, who posted it on her Twitter feed Monday night.

THE PUNCH LINE

"Conan (O'Brien) tells me to just be thankful I have a show." -- From David Letterman's "Top Ten Reasons I Still Love Hosting "The Late Show With David Letterman."

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