Friday, June 13, 2003 | 10:45 a.m.
Boulder City is a pretty low-key place. At the same time, the town fathers -- and mothers -- realize the night of the town's high school graduation is a pretty big deal.
So, when the big day came last week, the local Rotary Club rented a golf course for an all-night party, invited Rio headliner Ronn Lucas to perform and raffled a car at 5 a.m.
Not bad at all.
"There are so many stories of graduation-night tragedies," Lucas said. "So when they explained to me the concept behind this, it was an easy decision for me to attend. It turned out to be a lot of fun as well."
Almost the entire graduating class of 140 students attended the Boulder Creek Golf Course fete. The faux beach party featured an inflatable obstacle course, barbecue pit, ice cream truck and raffle, where graduating senior Kylen Smith won a Nissan Maxima.
There were no alcohol or drugs, and if you left the grounds, you couldn't return.
"The kids deserved a party, but a safe one," said Eric Estes of the Boulder City Sunrise Rotary Club, which sponsored the bash.
"It was a lot better than the night I graduated," said Lucas, an alum of Eastwood High School in El Paso, Texas (class of 1972). "I was working as an orderly in a nursing home and had to get up for work the next day. But I got my partying in later on."
Must See TV
Hold on to your television sets -- Charo is going to be on "Today."
The "coochi-coochi" girl, or, more accurately, woman, will be on the NBC show's weekend edition July 26 for an interview and outdoor performance at the Plaza at Rockefeller Center.
Ever since her acrimonious split with the bankrupt Sevilla, the Las Vegas venue where she most recently performed, Charo has been in Los Angeles most of the time writing and recording a new CD.
Wedding bells?
Leave it to a public-relations guy to send out a media advisory on his own engagement.
Imperial Palace publicist Phil Valentine sent a mass e-mail this week alerting the press that tonight at 9 the Imperial Palace marquee will flash, "Janien, I love you. Will you marry me?"
"Hey, I am 46 and getting married for the first time," Valentine said. "I think that warrants a high five!"
Despite the fact that today is the historical day of bad luck -- Friday the 13th -- Valentine is confident of the response.
"She has already given birth to my child, so I'd say this is a sure thing," Valentine said.
The talented Janien Masse -- she is the lead female vocalist in Clint Holmes' show -- gave birth to Sabrina eight weeks ago.
The wedding is set for July 13 at Mount Charleston.
No mystery
Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte is featured in an advertising insert for Audi that will be included in scores of top national magazines this summer, including the new Vanity Fair.
Laliberte's shows, according to the slick ad, have "revolutionized entertainment, transforming enormous spectacle into highly emotional affirmations of life."
The first Las Vegas Cirque show, "Mystere," is approaching its 10th anniversary at Treasure Island and is having a private reception Monday night to mark its 4,500th performance.
That morning, Robin Leach dresses up as one of the show's characters and cavorts with the cast for a segment on the KVVU Channel 5 Fox morning show. It'll be the first time (and the last?) an outsider has ever been allowed to join the cast onstage.
Like it hot
Screen legend Tony Curtis is being feted tonight at a cocktail party and at a gala dinner Saturday when he receives the first Las Vegas Screenwriters Conference Legends of Hollywood Lifetime Achievement Award.
Since it is nearly Father's Day, his daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, is expected to attend the Saturday event. Shirley Jones and Marty Ingles will make the award presentation.
A few tickets to the Treasure Island dinner are still available at vegasscript.com.
VegasBits
Host: "American Idol's" Ryan Seacrest will be at the Palms on Monday afternoon, hosting a live broadcast of his top-ranked Los Angeles afternoon drive-time radio show. The public is invited to watch, starting at 3 p.m. in the Palapa Lounge...
Gary opens: NBA star and Las Vegas resident Gary Payton will appear Saturday afternoon at the opening of Just for Feet, on Mall Ring Circle in Henderson. No autographs, please, but he will shoot hoops, chat with kids and offer a skills clinic ...
Gummed up: Preliminary competition in the fourth annual Dubble Bubble National Bubble Blowing Contest takes place Saturday at every Wal-Mart in the country, including those in the Las Vegas Valley. Kids 12 and under are invited to compete, free of charge, between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. ...
Late night: Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine appear on "Last Call With Carson Daly" tonight. The Vegas favorites perform hilarious lounge versions of popular rock songs ...
Proud Pop: Charlie Palmer, the restaurateur (Aureole, Charlie Palmer Steak, Stirling Club), was on "Today" this morning. He was on a Father's Day segment with his four sons: Courtland, 9, Randall, 8, and his 5-year-old twins, Reed and Eric ...
Home turf: Elvis plays Liverpool. A collection of Elvis memorabilia described as the largest outside the United States goes on display starting Saturday at the Beatles Museum in their hometown, according to Reuters. "Fingerprints of Elvis" depicts the King's influence on the Fab Four and exhibits items such as his actual fingerprints on a gun application.
From Sun wires
Lawsuit dismissed: A Chicago judge threw out a breach-of-contract lawsuit against Michael Jordan, saying the former basketball star can't be forced to pay $5 million to a former lover who allegedly promised to keep quiet about their affair.
"Because the hush money provision infects the entire agreement, the court finds that the entire agreement between Jordan and Karla Knafel is void and unenforceable," Judge Richard A. Siebel said Thursday.
Paris celebrates Dietrich: Paris paid tribute Thursday to film legend Marlene Dietrich, renaming a square in a posh neighborhood in her honor as a museum prepared to open an exposition of the clothes that made her a fashion icon.
The show, "Marlene Dietrich: creation of a myth," opens Saturday at the Galliera, the Fashion Museum of Paris.
Ally and Indiana: Calista Flockhart has been quiet about her romance with Harrison Ford for the past year and a half, but not anymore.
The "Ally McBeal" star was positively mushy about the 60-year-old actor in an interview with People.
"I like the way he looks first thing in the morning," Flockhart said. "It's not handsome. It's more cute. He looks like a little boy."
Ford's "Hollywood Homicide" opens today.
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