Thursday, Dec. 11, 2003 | 10:32 a.m.
It was one stunner after another Wednesday as the "Billboard Music Awards" hit Las Vegas.
The incomparable Stevie Wonder told VegasBeat he has been asked to be a Strip headliner.
Country star Shania Twain told us she was too young to be a Strip headliner, saying it was a job only for "old" people.
There were repeated sightings of Tabloid America's hot couple, Pink and Tommy Lee, locking lips. And we came across perhaps the most unusual celebrity sighting in VegasBeat history -- we saw Robin Leach, bad-boy rocker Vince Neil and celeb scenester extraordinare Paris Hilton breaking bread at Nobu (Hard Rock Hotel). Well, actually, they were eating sushi.
Seems that Leach is a longtime friend of Hilton's parents, Rick and Kathy, and while they did not ask the Rich and Famous One to look after their offspring while they were in town, Leach did keep a fatherly eye on them.
In the afternoon, he sent Paris and her sister, Nicky Hilton, to his pal Michael Boychuk's Canyon Ranch Spa (Venetian) to get gussied up before the nationally televised awards show.
Members of Boychuk's other luxury retreat, AMP Salon (Palms), were called up to get Lee and Pink prepped in their suite at the Palms.
When the women from the salon started working on Pink, they could barely style her hair as she and Lee, oblivious to anyone else in the room, were deep kissing one another, as it was described to us by someone who was there.
Benjamin McKenzie, Mischa Barton, Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson -- principals of the Fox show "The O.C." -- also ate at Nobu after the show, two tables away from R. Kelly.
At one point the R&B star Kelly left the eatery and went across the hall to Simon Kitchen and Bar, where there is a television at the bar, to watch his own performance on the West Coast feed of the broadcast. He booed the plasma screen when 50 Cent was awarded Artist of the Year, which came right after Kelly's appearance on the telecast.
Nearly every entertainer we asked was ripe for Vegas.
"Why wouldn't anyone want to work here regularly? The energy is fantastic, and it never gets old," show host Ryan Seacrest told us.
"Maybe one day down the road I would headline here. I don't really think I am good enough yet. I'd hardly put myself in the same class as someone like Celine Dion," "American Idol's" Clay Aiken told us.
Some were more energetic in their assessment of Las Vegas.
"Oh my God! I love Vegas!" gushed original "Idol" Kelly Clarkson. "I would definitely love to do something like that if anyone would ask me."
Motown deity Wonder, when asked by VegasBeat if he'd ever consider being a Strip headliner, said yes.
In fact, he said, "There has been some talk in the past, and again more recently, about that. I'd have to see what type of a show I'd like to do, but if people like Celine Dion and Elton John are playing here ... "
Then, the former Little Stevie spoke in an erudite manner on topics ranging from rap music (likes some, hates some), to Michael Jackson.
"All of us, media and entertainers, are in the same business, of sharing information. But we can't allow ourselves to become part of a circus, which is what has happened," Wonder said, adding that Jackson, like all Americans, "should be presumed innocent until proven guilty."
Twain was the only one we asked who was not too keen on Vegas.
"I may consider it when I am old or something," she said. "Isn't it something that old people come and do? I mean I have too much energy to settle in one place. I'd get bored."
Paris Hilton was understandably guarded when we spoke to her, but her "The Simple Life" co-star, Nicole Richie (Lionel's daughter), was quite the chatty one.
"I was just in the airport and people started screaming. I turned around and looked to see who it was," she told us. "It was me! They were all looking at me. It was so weird."
Richie said she was flattered, "and, like, so surprised it's crazy" that the reality show has been a ratings success.
Also rattling around onstage, backstage and in the expensive seats: comic Kathy Griffin, Nicole Sullivan ("King of Queens"), rapper Shaggy, Backstreet Boys, Dave Grohl, Mandy Moore, Beyonce, Nick Lachey, Jessica Simpson, Fabolous, Smokey Robinson, Carrot Top, Chingy, Black Eyed Peas, OutKast, Insane Clown Posse, Robert Smigel and his Triumph the Insult Comic Dog hand puppet, and Michael's dad, Joe Jackson.
The elder Jackson did not speak to reporters, no matter how loudly and frequently questions were shouted at him.
Big homecoming
If he continues his rapid improvement, Roy Horn may indeed be home for the holidays.
We hear that the plans are for him to return to his Vegas residence on Dec. 22, when he'll move into a bedroom that is now being equipped to accommodate him.
Horn has been in the UCLA Medical Center for the last seven weeks. He was bitten onstage at The Mirage Oct. 3 by Montecore, a 381-pound white tiger.
Siegfried & Roy spokesman Dave Kirvin said that "any date that is being used is pure speculation. Everyone is optimistic about Christmas, but it may be after Christmas.
"The time frame is going to be decided by Roy's doctors."
VegasBits
Pre-awards: Lots of entertainers in for the "Billboard Awards" were at Tabu (MGM Grand), including JC Chasez, Nick Carter, A.J. McLean, Rob Van Winkle (the former Vanilla Ice), Playboy Playmate and occasional George Maloof companion Tishara Cousino, motocross champ Carey Hart and "Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis ...
Pre-awards II: Anyone who wasn't at Tabu was at Baby's at the Hard Rock Hotel for Carmen Electra's party after the Seether and Evanescence show at The Joint. In the house: Electra's new hubby Dave Navarro, Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyz, No Doubt (sans Gwen Stefani) and Nicky Hilton.
From Sun wires
Singer Bobby Brown was charged with battery Wednesday, three days after he allegedly hit his wife, singer and actress Whitney Houston.
A Fulton County, Ga., police spokesman said Brown, 34, turned himself in. Brown and Houston left Fulton County Magistrate Court together after they and their attorneys met with police.
Paltrow marries: Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin are married, according to the Santa Barbara, Calif., County clerk-recorder.
Last week, Paltrow announced she was expecting their first child next summer. County officials confirmed that the couple applied for a license last Friday, and that appears to be the date they tied the knot.
Copperfield cancels: Magician David Copperfield canceled a Michigan show after a tractor-trailer hauling his stage materials overturned Wednesday.
About a half-dozen crates spilled out of the trailer on Interstate 75 in Kentucky, and the driver had minor injuries.
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