Tuesday, April 1, 2003 | 10:51 a.m.
Shock and awe.
That was the audience reaction after hearing former presidential advisor David Gergen deliver a wide-ranging two-hour address as part of the Edward Barrick Lecture Series at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Friday night.
Gergen has worked closely with Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.
"I would love to have Nixon in office right now," Gergen, who was a Nixon speechwriter, said.
That shocked 'em.
"Nixon had a dark side. And therefore he 'got' the dark side," Gergen said.
That awed 'em.
Gergen spoke at length about what makes a great leader. Nixon, he said, was the smartest president he'd known.
Gergen wished for Nixon during this time of war because Nixon could "predict the future" -- not through a crystal ball but through his understanding of people and cultures, history and politics.
Clinton was the second smartest -- but he was "a hard dog to keep on the porch. He tried to keep himself chained up but he slipped his leash."
Reagan was dubbed "not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he was the best leader."
What did Gergen have to say about the current president?
"George Bush actually has a very high IQ, which is apparent to anyone that spends time with him, even though he did trade away Sammy Sosa."
When Bush was president of the Texas Rangers in 1989, the team traded Sosa, then a 20-year-old rookie outfielder, to the Chicago White Sox for infielder Fred Manrique and DH Harold Baines.
Sosa's next major league home run will be his 500th.
In the building
Yes, that was Lisa Marie Presley bouncing around Las Vegas on Monday.
She spent much of Monday night riding the Big Shot and the High Roller at Stratosphere with a group of friends.
Elvis' 35-year-old daughter was the daring member of the group, riding the Big Shot five times in a row. (Drew Barrymore holds the celebrity record with 10 consecutive turns.)
Presley's debut disc, "To Whom It May Concern," which drops a week from today, has been garnering very good reviews.
She was in town to explore doing a live date in Las Vegas. Her label, Capitol Records, has said she will tour to support the recording, but has not definitively said Las Vegas will (or won't) be a tour stop.
Can you imagine the frenzy a Presley playing a live date in Vegas would cause?
It might even knock Celine out of the paper.
Mob connections?
Speaking of Celine, I was quite intrigued by Victoria Gotti's column in the New York Post on Sunday.
Gotti is a novelist and the daughter of John Gotti, aka The Dapper Don, the alleged boss of the Gambino crime family who died in prison last year.
Victoria Gotti wrote that Celine told her that the songstress was not losing any sleep over losing her shoes during her opening-night performance last week, and that Celine was looking forward to her first day off in a year, which would have been Monday.
What!? Celine told her? Does Diva Las Vegas count the daughter of John Gotti -- a crime boss, and for much of the 1990s, the nation's most high-profile mobster -- among her friends?
I immediately called and e-mailed Victoria Gotti, and reached out to Team Celine as well, but heard nothing back.
We'll stay on top of this one.
L-L-L-Lunch
Before I watched my beloved Mets get their hats (and their derrieres) handed to them by the Cubs on Monday in the major league baseball season opener, I stopped into the restaurant Trattore Dell'Arte, across from Carnegie Hall.
I sat for a spell with Robin Leach and "Stuttering" John Melendez from the Howard Stern radio show.
Seems the two actually did become friends when they both appeared on "I'm a Celebrity -- Get Me Out of Here!"
Melendez is gearing up for not only the Stern show, doing a series of broadcasts from the Hard Rock Hotel in a couple of weeks, but his own show at The Joint on April 24.
Not to make fun of the handicapped, but listening to "Stuttering" John place his food order to a waiter whose first language is not English, well, it almost made up for Chicago 15, New York 2.
Homecoming news
Veteran newsman Dave Courvoisier is coming back to Las Vegas, to anchor the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts on KLAS Channel 8.
His first day on the new job is June 30.
For 13 years Courvoisier was the main anchor at KVBC Channel 3, before moving to Missouri in 1998 to be near his parents.
"We are extremely excited to have Dave join our team," KLAS Vice President Bob Stoldal said. "He knows Las Vegas and Las Vegas knows him."
Courvoisier will co-anchor with Paula Francis.
Gary Waddell will move to the noon, 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. telecasts.
As usual...
VegasBeat, Tuesday, March 18: Among the goody-bag gifts to Oscar participants are "a pair of tickets to the Sept. 20 opening of 'Zumanity' -- the new Cirque du Soleil show coming to New York-New York."
Last Sunday in the slow-going Arkansas-owned paper across town: "The secret is out: an April 22 announcement is scheduled to unveil the name of the new Cirque du Soleil at New York-New York" and it will be Zumanity.
Actually, fellas, the secret was out about two weeks ago, when we broke the news. Oh well, better late than never.
VegasBits
It was far past 9 p.m. on a Saturday -- so Billy Joel asked Charlie Palmer to keep his Four Seasons steakhouse open late after Joel's MGM Grand Garden Arena gig with Elton John on Saturday night. Joel dined with "Boston Public" star Jeri Ryan and some other friends and didn't leave until 3 a.m. ...
Backstreet Boy AJ McLean dined with three pals at Spago at the Forum Shops at Caesars on Friday night. On Sunday the same group took in "La Femme" at MGM Grand ...
Darren Romeo was feeding strawberries to Siegfried & Roy at Ann-Margret's party at Tabu last week. We report. You decide ...
Variety editor Peter Bart offers a thoughtful take on Celine and the future of Las Vegas entertainment in the current weekly Variety ...
Engelbert Humperdinck has rescheduled his "Definition of Love" engagement at Las Vegas Hilton for April 10. He had canceled his winter gig there due to an undisclosed illness.
From Sun wires
"American Idol" finalist Corey Clark has been dropped from the Fox series because of an arrest last fall at his family's Topeka, Kan., home.
A website, The Smoking Gun, reported Monday that Clark faces trial next month on charges he assaulted his teenage sister and fought police while resisting arrest.
Madonna won't preach: Madonna has decided to withdraw the anti-war video for her single "American Life" out of respect for the troops fighting in Iraq.
In a statement posted on her website Monday, the singer said the video was filmed before the war started and was not appropriate to air at this time.
The video shows Madonna wearing military garb next to dancers in camouflage on a fashion runway. At one point, a grenade is thrown in the direction of a lookalike of President Bush.
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