Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: Sides seething over Charo’s Sevilla split

VegasBeat appears Sunday through Friday in the Las Vegas Sun. Timothy McDarrah can be reached at [email protected] or at (702) 259-4096.

Nothing like some high-profile entertainment folks zinging insults at one another.

As we first reported Thursday, Charo has stopped performing at the bankrupt Aladdin's bankrupt showroom Sevilla. Also Thursday, Charo filed a $2 million breach of contract suit against Sevilla.

Both sides in the dispute lay blame at the foot of the other for the sudden closing.

"Without saying anything to management, Charo and her cast removed all of her belongings, including 40-year-old publicity pictures hanging on the walls, and left the property" after her show on Wednesday, according to Sevilla owner Bart DeLorenzo.

Despite negative comments to the press about Sevilla by Charo, DeLorenzo said he had always bit his tongue and taken the high road -- until now.

He then blasted Charo, saying she gave out too many free tickets to her show, and that she and her managers had promised more paying customers than were delivered.

Charo freely admits she packed up and left -- after Sevilla siphoned off box-office money that should have been used to pay her cast. She ripped DeLorenzo for his leaning on her ability to draw fannies to ease the difficulties caused by his financial mismanagement.

She had been paying her 22 cast members herself and finally decided to cut her losses.

Lawyers for both sides continue to work toward a peaceful resolution in anticipation of a May 19 bankruptcy court hearing.

On another front, a Las Vegas contractor, M&H Building Specialties Inc., also filed a breach of guaranty suit against Sevilla on Thursday, and asked for $1.2 million in damages.

Ladies lunch

The ladies who lunch did just that at a Make-A-Wish benefit at Spago on Thursday.

KVBC Channel 3 anchor Nina Radetich presided over a meal and raffle for about 100 guests, including Linda and Melissa Richardson, Tiffany Tiberti, Lynn Weidner, Susan Molasky, Jane Schorr, Camille Ruvo, Sheryl Goldstein and Julie Baxter.

Court-ing ideas

Andy Warhol was on the wall, but disgraced former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair was in the air.

At the opening party for the impressive "American Pop Icons" show at the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum inside The Venetian on Wednesday night, VegasBeat bumped into retired California jurist Gilbert Yarchever and his art collector wife, Edythe Katz Yarchever, both now Vegas residents.

Yarchever is well known in academic and legal circles for the landmark Allan Bakke case.

In 1978 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a decision by Yarchever's California Appeals Court that said Bakke, a white male, had his rights violated when he was denied admittance to medical school at the University of California at Davis in favor of a minority applicant.

The nation's highest court agreed, in a controversial decision, that minority set-asides were invalid, and that equality under the Constitution and under the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act applied to white males as well as everyone else.

"We took an awful lot of flak back then for not being politically correct," Yarchever told VegasBeat. "And look what happens when The Times -- but it could have been any company -- promotes a person who clearly was not up to the task."

The august Times and Blair, a 27-year-old black reporter, publicly parted ways last week after it was learned that he was a serial plagiarizer whose work required more than 50 published corrections.

In a front-page story this week, The Times said Blair had been promoted after the publisher "had made clear the company's commitment to diversity."

Party people

Meanwhile the Vegas art and social worlds were well represented at the Guggenheim opening and the after-party at the club Venus.

Meandering among the works by pop icons Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist, Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein, Tom Wesselman and Robert Rauschenberg were Dave Hickey -- the UNLV prof who is one of the nation's leading art critics -- former Las Vegas Art Museum Director James Mann, Jack and Carolyn Solomon of the S2 Art Group, Hugh and Bonnie Fogel of Unica Home, Donna Beam Gallery director Jerry A. Schefcik and Guggenheim Director Thomas Krens.

Also popping in: Steven and Lynette Boggs McDonald, Mark and Susan Fine, Bill and Lynn Weidner, Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, Rob Goldstein, aspiring artist Sarah Schreck and her mother Susan Schreck, Hal Ober, Art Marshall, Carlos Garcia, Betty Bunch and Florence Bolatin.

Bid event

Robin Leach won't venture a guess on how much may be raised, but he figures it is a very, very large number.

He is the celebrity auctioneer at Michael Douglas' private charity dinner tonight where some amazing packages are being sold off to raise coin for the Motion Picture & Television Fund.

Among the items up for grabs are tickets to the December premiere of the movie "Cold Mountain" and face time with stars Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Renee Zellweger and a trip to Douglas' and wife Catherine Zeta-Jones' Bermuda home and have dinner with them -- which will be cooked in front of you by Emeril Lagasse.

The truly one-of-a-kind item is a chance to participate with celebs Alice Cooper, James Woods, Sylvester Stallone, Joe Pesci, Martin Sheen, Dennis Miller, Kenny G, Matthew McConaughey, Andy Garcia, Clint Eastwood and Haley Joel Osment in the Lexus $1 Million Hole-in-One Shoot Out.

The winner and the celebs will each get two swings to nail a hole-in-one for charity during Sunday's tournament at Cascata -- and it will all be nationally televised when ABC broadcasts the event July 20.

VegasBits

Party: Longtime and well-regarded Las Vegas restaurateur Nick Bimonte celebrated a birthday in a private area of the new Paris Las Vegas nightclub Risque on Wednesday night. Elsewhere in the room, entertainer Tony Sacca was filming the crowded club for his television show, "Entertainment Las Vegas Style." Tonight rapper 50 Cent hosts a party there after his House of Blues performance ...

Decanted: Wine Spectator and Cigar Aficionado magazine founder and publisher Marvin Shanken heading a party of 10 at Aureole (Mandalay Bay) Wednesday night ...

Fresh: DJ Jazzy Jeff, who shot to fame with "Fresh Prince" Will Smith, was spinning at the renovated Baby's at the Hard Rock Hotel on Wednesday night.

From Sun wires

A $10 million libel suit filed by former Rep. Gary Condit's wife against a supermarket tabloid is headed to court after lawyers failed to reach a settlement Thursday, the woman's attorney said.

Carolyn Condit sued the National Enquirer last year after it published headlines on its website and its Aug. 7, 2001, front page that said: "Cops: Condit's Wife Attacked Chandra."

Carolyn Condit said she never met slain intern Chandra Levy. Police in Washington, D.C., have said the report was false.

Trial was set for Sept. 30. An after-hours call to the National Enquirer's office in Florida was not immediately returned Thursday night.

Big break: Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry broke her right arm while filming a scene for the supernatural thriller "Gothika" in Canada, a publicist for the movie said Thursday.

Berry, 34, was filming "one of the more physically demanding scenes" when she was hurt Wednesday, said Joe Everett, a spokesman for the Warner Bros. production.

Everett did not have details of the scene. Berry broke her ulna, a long bone in the forearm, and was treated at a Montreal hospital and released, Everett said.

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