VegasBeat -- Timothy McDarrah: Wynn opens wallet for framed figure

He didn't buy that $100 million Picasso, but Steve Wynn didn't leave the spring art auctions empty-handed.

Wynn bought an 1885 portrait of "Treasure Island" author Robert Louis Stevenson by John Singer Sargent for $8.8 million Wednesday.

Wynn said that the work would be exhibited starting next year at the Wynn Las Vegas, which is under construction on the Strip.

"The painting will play a very special role in educational programs the Wynn collection does in conjunction with schools in Las Vegas," he said in a statement.

Unlike the more formal portraits of its day, it shows Stevenson striding across a room in a velveteen jacket, twirling his mustache, while his wife is sitting behind him in Indian garb.

Stevenson wrote of the work: "It is, I think, excellent, but too eccentric to be exhibited," Reuters news service reported.

The Sargent and the Picasso both were part of the private Greentree collection of newspaper owner and diplomat John Hay "Jock" Whitney that has been sold by Sotheby's this month.

Crasher alert

Several major parties are going on tonight. Carson Daly is taking over the penthouse suite at the Hard Rock Hotel to celebrate the new "Last Call With Carson Daly" gaming chip that the hotel is introducing. He is taping his NBC show at the hotel all this week.

OPM (Forum Shops at Caesars) is having a private first-year anniversary bash this evening after its public "Martinis With the Mayor" event at 6 p.m.

Phil Hellmuth, the youngest poker player ever to win the World Series of Poker, is having an event to announce the launch of "Phil Hellmuth's Texas Hold 'Em," a multiplayer poker game for wireless phones. The kickoff party is at the rooftop steak house at the Horseshoe.

Party promoter Jimmy Foster is having a birthday party at Tabu (MGM Grand).

George Carlin is also having a private opening-night shindig after his performance at the MGM Grand's Hollywood Theatre.

Also tonight, at the Stardust, David Halberstam -- who won a Pulitzer Prize at age 30 for his reporting about Vietnam for The New York Times -- will address members of the Second Infantry Division of the Korean War Veterans Alliance.

The party scene hardly eases up Friday. Risque (Paris Las Vegas) has its one-year anniversary party.

UNLV's College of Fine Arts and the Liberace Foundation are having a 100th birthday fete for Hollywood glamour photographer George Hurrell. Sales of his vintage images of stars such as Marilyn Monroe, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable will go to the school.

PokerParty.com is having a big-bash event at the Golden Nugget in conjunction with the World Series of Poker.

Finally, actress and singer Linda Purl will be at a private dinner party with her ex-husband, Desi Arnaz Jr., and his wife, Amy, after Purl plays the first of two sold-out cabaret shows at Desi's historic Boulder Theatre (see Jerry Fink's story about the show on page 1E).

Snappy guy

Call him John Stamos, matchmaker. Seems he is good friends with Bobby "Badfingers" Von Merta, who is a finger-snapping artist (really!) and Hilton headliner Trent Carlini ("The Dream King").

Stamos took Carlini to see Von Merta snap, and Carlini thought he was just quirky enough to open his show.

"I am performing on Elvis' stage and am using Elvis' old dressing room -- it is a dream come true for this former RV salesman," Von Merta said.

The two of them are at the Hilton through June 6.

Old school

The great Keely Smith is recreating her days with Louis Prima in Las Vegas during a two-week stint at Feinstein's, the noted lounge at the Regency hotel in New York City. The swanky boite is decorated with chocolate playing cards on the table and 1958 Sahara Hotel menus. Prima and Smith played the Sahara back in the day.

Prima's daughter Lena is one of the rotating headliners at the Sahara's Casbar Lounge.

VegasBits

Fan: Former "Saturday Night Live" star Will Ferrell ("Elf," the upcoming "Anchorman") caught Wayne Newton's show at the Stardust on Tuesday ...

Couple: Tipper and Al Gore celebrated their 34th anniversary Tuesday night by attending "Mamma Mia!" at the Mandalay Bay Theatre and then having dinner at Tsunami Asian Grill and Sushi Bar (Venetian) ...

Hire: Scott Freeman has been named the new editor of Las Vegas Life magazine. He had been executive editor of Atlanta magazine, and is the author of books on Otis Redding and the Allman Brothers ...

Congrats: The Tropicana's manager of public relations, Lisa Keim, is tying the knot June 19. She and Dave Carr, an engineering supervisor at Bellagio, will do the deed in a poolside ceremony at the Trop ...

Gotta have Faith: Country star Faith Hill plays The Colosseum at Caesars Palace Aug. 10-14. Tickets are now on sale ...

As time goes by: Actress, singer and gay icon Cher turns 58 today ...

Sherlock: On Wednesday, the gossip in the Arkansas-owned paper in town said to "look for the announcement soon" that the famous Miami restaurant Joe's Stone Crab is opening in the Forum Shops at Caesars. No kidding. We reported that news exactly one year ago today, when the deal was signed. Fourth-generation Joe's Stone Crab restaurant owner Stephen Sawitz spoke to us about it ...

Radio: Why do all these celebrities come to Las Vegas? We're not entirely sure. But we'll be talking about it at 9 a.m. Friday on "KNPR's State of Nevada" on KNPR 88.9-FM with host Marc Breindel. Listen up.

From Sun wires

'Idol' finalists: Jasmine Trias was voted off "American Idol" after a longer journey than some thought she deserved, leaving Fantasia Barrino and Diana DeGarmo in next week's finale.

The 17-year-old from Hawaii kept smiling even as she learned of her removal Wednesday night from the Fox singing competition.

'Bachelor' picks Jessica: It was Jessica who won NFL quarterback Jesse Palmer in the finale of "The Bachelor."

Tara, her overanxious rival, fumbled -- and before that, hurled during Wednesday's final episode.

First lady jokes: Visiting NBC's "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" for the second time since her husband took over the White House, first lady Laura Bush was asked if she hit the slots or looked in on a Chippendales show while in Las Vegas on Tuesday?

"Jay, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," she deadpanned.

And what about her last argument with the president?

"What happens in the White House stays in the White House," she said.

archive