Beyonce, an $87 million dreamgirl, to shake up Encore

By John Katsilometes

Wednesday, July 29, 2009 | 11:46 p.m.

For its June 22 issue, titled “The Celebrity 100,” Forbes magazine takes us inside Beyonce’s entertainment empire. You know this because the cover reads “Inside Beyonce’s Entertainment Empire,” with a saucy shot of the woman once known primarily as Beyonce Knowles wearing a tight red dress and brownish earrings roughly the size of banana-nut waffles. She’s gorgeous, we can all agree, no matter what she’s cloaked in, reminding of the line about how Marilyn Monroe could wear a potato sack and look sexy and how she was photographed while wearing just that.

Big moment for Idaho, that photo.

Beyonce is in town this week and weekend for a set of dates at Encore Theater, which sits between sister hotels Encore and Wynn Las Vegas. The dates run today through Sunday (click here for info). Expect that Beyonce’s show will be somewhat more energetic than that of Larry King, who graced the Encore stage last month for his fanciful one-man show.

In the Forbes Celebrity 100 piece, we learn:

*At age 27, Beyonce is No. 4 in the Top 100 list of the world’s most influential celebrities. The top four are all women who require no surname: Angelina, Oprah, Madonna and Beyonce. Tiger Woods is No. 5, and Monti Rock III is No. 69 (joke!). The Forbes rankings are based on income and visibility.

*She rakes in $87 million a year.

*The breakdown of that $87 million: $21 million in album sales, $20 million in endorsements, $15 million in retail fashion sales, $14 million in touring and merchandising, $8 million in music publishing, $5 million in film revenue and $4 million from tour sponsors.

*She suffered undisclosed bruises while filming a fight scene for the critically derided but commercially successful film “Obsessed.”

*Solo and with Destiny’s Child, she has sold more than 118 million records and won 10 Grammy Awards.

*At age 9, she formed a band called Girlz Tyme (a great name for a Vegas lounge act), which made it to “Star Search.” Girlz Tyme failed to advance in the competition.

*Her father, Mathew, left his job as a salesman for Xerox and took over the group, changing its lineup and name to Destiny’s Child. Under his direction, the girls rehearsed four hours a day. His approach was described as “boot camp-style.”

*A total of 70 songs were recorded for Beyonce’s latest solo release, “I Am … Sasha Fierce,” a collection lopped to 17 for the final version.

*She uses the onstage alter ego Sasha Fierce as a vehicle to unleash “the fun, more sensual, more aggressive, more outspoken … and glamorous side,” as she puts it.

*For nearly a decade, she has been photographed with Jay-Z, but did not publicly acknowledge their romantic relationship (and marriage) until fairly recently. The two were married April 4, 2008, but Knowles didn’t wear her wedding ring in public until several months later and revealed the marriage to the public through a video montage at the Sony Club in Manhattan, an event marking the debut of “I Am … Sasha Fierce.”

*She employs roughly 400 full-time staffers.

Consider that, 400 employees. Maybe a Beyonce Hotel-Casino? Where she’s the resident performer and alternates emerging artists in the showroom? Her mom, Tina, runs the retail boutiques. Maybe I’ll put this deal together, in Wishna-esque fashion.

Alden ailing

Mark Alden has a well-earned reputation as one of the strongest voices on the state Board of Regents. Sadly, he is suffering of voice (but as he says, not in spirit), having been diagnosed with throat cancer in May. Upon diagnosis after having difficulty swallowing, Alden was hospitalized at Desert Springs Hospital for a week and is undergoing radiation treatment four to five times a week at Nevada Comprehensive Cancer Center. During this stretch, he’s been limited mostly to e-mail correspondence while under the TLC of his wife, Tunga. The two have been married since October.

Alden has been one of the more active public servants in Las Vegas for decades and is widely known as a man never reluctant to state his opinion. I found out about his health problems in an e-mail exchange after asking about UNLV’s hunt for a new athletic director. “I get the sense of change in management style and direction,” he wrote, adding that a fundraising goal of $150,000 would require a director “who can really connect with the individual coaches” and devote energy to the UNLV boxing and rodeo clubs. He’d like to ensure that all sports get individual attention, including “the non-revenue sports.”

Alden ended the note with, “It’s a hard time for me to talk … but believe me, I will be very involved. No more outsiders.” Well stated, even without the voice.

Fire in the hole!

Chief to the lawsuit filed by Steve Wyrick against Pyritz Pyrotechnics Group LLC (this, following Wyrick’s ill-fated July 4 “Death Drop” on the Strip, in which one cast member was treated for minor injuries) is Wyrick’s complaint that he has been professionally “defamed.” The suit, filed by Wyrick’s attorney Dale Rycraft Jr., says the pyrotechnics were an integral part of the trick that was captured by numerous private video cameras and broadcast on news shows nationwide and on YouTube.

“Pyritz defamed Wyrick by providing a shoddy and inferior pyrotechnic display that caused Wyrick's trick to fail, thereby causing damage to Wyrick's reputation as a magician,'' the suit alleges.

I, for one, cannot wait to see how this one plays out. That’s all I’m sayin’.

“Slice” sighting

During Don Marrandino’s 50th birthday roast at Flamingo on Saturday, I approached Marrandino’s table and recognized most of the folks seated: Marrandino, Alicia Jacobs, Donny & Marie … then halted at a familiar-looking guy to Marrandino’s left. I finally called out, “Slice!” It was Barry Rohrssen, former director of basketball operations at UNLV many years ago in the Bill Bayno administration. Wow. Rohrssen earned the nickname "Slice" in his youth, ostensibly because of the way he cut through the air while driving for layups (“Slice” had a colorful playing career, including a stint with the Harlem Globetrotters' designated opponent, the Washington Generals). He and Marrandino became friends -- long-term, in this instance -- more than a decade ago when Rohrssen was a Rebel and Marrandino was at Station Casinos. Rohrssen was dispatched when Bayno was let go by then-UNLV President Carol Harter in 2000, spending a few seasons at Pitt before landing a head coaching job at Manhattan College in 2006.

“Don and I became friends, real friends, not like a lot of friendships you can have in Vegas that are kind of fake,” Rohrssen said. What an out-of-the-dark moment to run into him.

Club thought

A story written by Allen Salkin under the headline “Drink, Dance, But Don’t Say Club” in the July 12 edition of The New York Times details the city’s faltering club scene. It’s worth a read for anyone even remotely interested in what is happening in Las Vegas as Prive and Poetry have lost their liquor licenses (Prive’s having been yanked by the county and Poetry’s vanishing as Chinois closed). Red Room on West Sahara, too, is dust.

As the story notes, with revenues at New York’s splashiest nightclubs down 20 to 40 percent, a new order of low-key, stripped-down nightspots are moving in. One stretch from the story: “Three or four years ago, it seemed like every bar in New York had a rope and some imposing-looking guy,” said David Rabin, an owner of Lotus and president of the New York Nightlife Association. Now, he said, haughtiness is as stylish as a balloon payment.” This is a trend to watch.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.