Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2004 | 10:27 a.m.
Pop crooner A.J. McLean , one of the Backstreet Boys, made quite a hit in the Hard Rock Hotel parking lot Monday night.
He was telling friends he chased down and helped catch a would-be thief who had dashed out of the hotel's jewelry store with a $40,000 diamond-encrusted ring.
"In matters where security is concerned, we really can't comment," Heather Lloyd, assistant manager of Rocks the Jewelers, told VegasBeat hours after the late-night drama unfolded in her store.
Just before 11 p.m. McLean was trying on watches in Rocks, the trendy hotel's new 24-hour jewelry shop, nestled between the Pink Taco restaurant and its sports bar.
A man walked into the shop and tried on various bracelets and rings. At one point the man turned to a pal and asked him to admire the ring.
Suddenly, the man with the ring made a dash for the door.
"The girl at the counter screamed that she could not leave the store, so A.J. just shot out of there like a rocket," Vegas club personality Marklen Kennedy, a friend of McLean's, told us Tuesday. McLean caught up to the man in the parking out, where he and a hotel security guard on a bicycle nabbed the man.
Kennedy, McLean and porn star Ron Jeremy were together late Monday night and into Tuesday at the Foundation Room (Mandalay Bay), where McLean shared his story.
McLean and Jeremy are in town to make appearances at this week's Adult Entertainment Expo convention.
A spokesman for McLean did not return a call seeking comment.
No police report was filed on the incident, which is not unusual, said Metro spokesman Jose Montoya. On occasion, he said, hotels try to keep certain incidents out of the public eye.
Celeb electronics
After the traditionally "slow" Christmas and New Year's break (except for that little Britney Spears thing) the celebs flock back to Las Vegas starting today, thanks to the Consumer Electronics Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Some of the familiar faces making appearances include Magic Johnson, who will appear at a Samsung event Friday, former Howard Stern sidekick Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling, who is introducing a line of electronic joke products for Excalibur Electronics, and music stars Ricky Skaggs, LeAnn Rimes, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Johnny Lang, who will appear at the Sirius Satellite Radio booth Friday.
Other hired pitchmen on the CES docket: Steve Garvey, who will play and introduce a XaviX computer baseball game, drag racer Ara Arslanian, who will be at the StreetGlow booth, and a gaggle of entertainers that Sirius has brought in, including 3 Doors Down, Buddy Guy, Trace Adkins, Jessi Colter, Ziggy Marley, Joe Jackson and The Bangles.
The event is also a favorite of the national media. For example, "Good Morning America" correspondent Lara Spencer was slated to tape a broadcast from the convention floor at 4 a.m. today.
Hugh plans
Now that Spears is back on the market, 77-year-old Playboy patriarch Hugh Hefner is putting out the feelers.
"Picasso had his pink period and his blue period. I am in my blonde period right now," he tells US Weekly magazine in its Jan. 19 issue. "I think it's related to those early movies that had such a great influence on me when I was a kid."
Not only would Spears make a great girlfriend, Hef huffed, but he'd like to see the 22-year-old pop singer in the pages of his magazine.
Spears "epitomizes the type of beauty that we like in the magazine," Hef said.
Bing move
On Feb. 1, "Ba Da Bing" -- the popular interactive dinner theater show at The Orleans -- is moving to the Ovation Theatre in the Desert Passage at the Aladdin, producer and star Ben Morgan told VegasBeat.
Morgan plans to open a new show, "Dinner With Mama," also an interactive dinner theater show, in the old "Ba Da Bing" room he is vacating, which is inside the Sazio restaurant.
David Saxe's "Ovation" show will continue to play in its namesake showroom, which is the former Sevilla space.
Puck change
With little fanfare, Wolfgang Puck Cafe at the MGM Grand closed Sunday.
After a $3 million face-lift, it is slated to reopen in July in conjunction with the new Cirque du Soleil production at the hotel.
The cafe was the first in a string of casual Puck places he franchised out starting in 1992. Recently, Puck and his Fine Dining Group partners Tom Kaplan and Joe Essa have started to buy back the franchised eateries and upgrade them.
Kaplan told us that world-renowned designer Tony Chi is creating "a vibrant yet relaxing patio and bungalow restaurant for the new Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill."
VegasBits
Judges: Joe Maloof and beer magnate Brad Coors will judge a contest at Rain (Palms) tonight to select the next Coors spokesmodel and Maxim magazine cover girl ...
Party: Recent "Survivor" cast members Jon Dalton -- aka Johnny Fairplay -- and Dave Johnson were at OPM (Forum Shops at Caesars) on Saturday night...
Triple threat: Funnyman Russ Merlin goes for the trifecta Saturday night. After his usual gigs in "V -- The Ultimate Variety Show" (Venetian) and "Showgirls of Magic" (Hotel San Remo), he'll be performing in "Folies Bergere" at the Tropicana ...
Irish: One of our favorites, The Chieftains, play UNLV's Performing Arts Center Jan. 31 as part of the school's World Stage series ...
Happy day: Oscar-winner ("Leaving Las Vegas") and frequent visitor Nicolas Cage turns 40 today.
From Sun wires
Courteney Cox Arquette, whose "Friends" TV character has struggled to have a child and who in real life has suffered miscarriages, is expecting her first child, her publicist said Tuesday.
Arquette, 39 and her husband, actor David Arquette, have spoken publicly about their struggles to have children. The two recently said they were trying to conceive via in-vitro fertilization.
"The Producers" on big screen: Having conquered Broadway -- twice -- Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane have signed to star in a new movie version of "The Producers," Mel Brooks' hit musical based on his 1968 film.
Beatle's estate sues doctor: The estate of George Harrison, the former Beatle who died of cancer in 2001, sued a Staten Island, N.Y., doctor Tuesday, claiming he exploited Harrison for "shameless self-promotion" in Harrison's final days, revealing confidential information to reporters and coercing him to sign autographs.
The doctor, Gilbert Lederman, the director of radiation oncology at Staten Island University Hospital, was portrayed in the lawsuit as violating Harrison's privacy to bask in the glow of a famous patient.
Jackson gets third nomination: "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" earned Peter Jackson his third-straight nomination for the Directors Guild of America Awards on Tuesday, the first filmmaker ever nominated three years in a row.
Also nominated were Sofia Coppola for "Lost in Translation"; Clint Eastwood for "Mystic River"; Gary Ross for "Seabiscuit"; and Peter Weir for the Napoleonic naval adventure "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World."
The guild's 56th annual awards dinner will be Feb. 7.
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