Those who go bald a cut above

If you're hanging around the Strip this weekend, you might see quite a few bald heads serving you or cooking your food.

Celebrity chefs and workers from restaurants, nightclubs and Strip shows are shaving their domes to raise money for a children's cancer charity Saturday afternoon at McMullan's Irish Pub, Fado Irish Pub and Nine Fine Irishmen.

One baldee will be Executive Chef Geno Bernardo of the Palms' Nove restaurant. On Thursday, he started the balding process by getting a mohawk at Palms' Amp salon.

Afterward, Nove kitchen cooks laughed at the sight of him and exclaimed, "(Expletive)!"

"I kinda like it. I want to keep it," a smiling Bernardo said of the mohawk. (He shaves it Saturday at McMullan's.)

Bernardo's Nove has seen its share of mohawks from celebs such as Dennis Rodman. Nove is a regular spot for stars such as Jamie Foxx, Ben Stiller, Kobe Bryant, Ben Kingsley, Joe Montana, Buddy Guy, Yao Ming, Michael Phelps and Bernardo's favorite, Eva Mendes. (Best tipper: Howard Stern, who autographed the chef's door, "Hey now!")

"Eva Mendes loved the chicken parm. Flavor Flav comes in for the chicken marsalas," he says.

Last year, the chef and other N9NE group donors raised $10,000 for Nevada's Children's Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases of Las Vegas, which just opened St. Baldrick's Foundation Infusion Center on Maryland Parkway.

Last weekend, Cirque donors raised nearly $40,000 at a Palms event, where a woman shaved her head onstage. More Cirquers are going bald late Saturday. (For more, check StBaldricks.org.)

Anyway, N9NE co-owner Jenna Morton says be nice to bald servers this weekend.

"Bald is beautiful," she says. "And it's kind of trendy right now."

STARGAZING

Slated to play poker for NBC today at Caesars: Don Cheadle, Orel Hershiser, Jennifer Tilly, Annie Duke, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu. The viewing gallery is open at 10 a.m. today and Saturday to guests on a first-come, first-serve basis for Heads-Up Poker Championship. ... Ronnie and Sammi from "Jersey Shore" walk an 11:45 p.m. red carpet Saturday at Mirage club Jet. ... "Gossip Girl" Leighton Meester sings after a midnight carpet Saturday at CityCenter club Haze. ... This is the last weekend of the Pussycat Dolls lounge at Caesars.

QUOTE UNQUOTE

"There are a few little demons you have. I'm gonna get rid of them. Is that OK?" -- Psychic and healer Gary Spivey, healing me in today's Neon section.

Doug Elfman's column appears Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. E-mail him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.