Columnist Kate Maddox: Country was cordial, rock was raucous at MGM

Kate Maddox's column appears in Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays, only in the Las Vegas Sun. Reach her at [email protected].

Amini-music marathon took place here in Las Vegas late last week. A handful of big-name musicians were in town to play the WB Radio Music Awards on Thursday night and the Pixelon.com concert on Friday at the MGM.

Leann Rimes was at both events. Smiling and personable, she arrived solo at the WB Awards, but was with her boyfriend, Andrew Keegan, at Friday's affair -- and also with her grandpa, who lamented that music events were really the only time he gets to see his granddaughter anymore, since she spends most of the year on tour.

Leann, along with Faith Hill and the Dixie Chicks, was a part of the Divas of Country portion of the concert. Faith Hill, one of country music's most popular talents, was there with her husband, Tim McGraw, also a country superstar.

The happy couple brought their two young children to the show, and walked them over to Rimes' dressing room so she could have a look at the babies. That was one of the few signs of goodwill among the various artists during the daylong event.

The Dixie Chicks kept to themselves backstage, but admitted that there was one very special reason for their participation at the Pixelon event -- money, and lots of it. Turns out the Chicks were supposed to be performing in England on Friday as part of their England/Australia touring calendar.

But Chick Emily Erwin let it slip that the money was so good, they rearranged their schedule to cancel a day or two in England and only play Australia. She giggled with glee as she let it slip about the payoff, a bit too excited to maintain a professional silence.

As soon as the "Country Divas" were through diva-ing, they were shooed out of their dressing rooms and The Who were ushered in. The band has some notorious issues with getting along, and each member had his own room. No press were allowed to talk to the legends and they kept to themselves before and after showtime.

But perhaps the most temperamental rock star award should go to Kiss. The buzz is that the guys refused to play with hot alternative band The Offspring. Instead Kiss shared the bill with Sugar Ray, which was already in town for the WB Awards. According to those in the know inside the music industry, Kiss and The Offspring have never been on good terms -- a result of pitting glam rock and pageantry against hard-core, politically charged punk. A publicist for The Offspring said that the band was canceled from the Pixelon concert just a few days before the main event, without explanation.

Another curious note about The Offspring: At the two run-through rehearsals for the WB Awards, The Offspring was announced as the winner of the Best Alternative Band category, but at the live broadcast, Smashmouth was proclaimed the winner. The publicist said that the band was unaware of a win in any of the categories and that they simply decided not to attend the WB Awards after their event at Pixelon was canceled.

Gen-X magician David Blaine is in town this week talking to casino heads about working a steady gig in Vegas sometime in the near future.

Blaine, who once walked into the ABC offices in New York and did some of his amazing sleight-of-hand tricks for executives and then walked out with an unheard-of $1 million dollar offer for a TV special, hopes to take Las Vegas by storm.

The T-shirt-and-jeans-wearing 26-year old, who counts Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro among his best friends and who also dated singer Fiona Apple, was buried alive earlier this year in a see-through coffin in New York City for more than a week.

The stunt garnered quite a bit of national publicity and the word is that Blaine is going to draw the same brand of mega-caliber attention wherever he ultimately lands here on the Strip.

"E.R." TV doc Anthony Edwards will join the ranks of other celebrities, including Paul Newman and David Letterman, when he becomes a partner in a race car team in the next year's season.

Edwards is involved with the nonprofit organization Cure Autism Now, and CAN will be the team's title sponsor, with Edwards using his star power to help generate approximately 10 cosponsors for the team.

Edwards, who plays Dr. Green on NBC's "E.R.", caught the racing bug when he participated in a celebrity racing event with Al Unser Jr. five years ago.

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