Columnist Kate Maddox: ABC captures Goodman, LV flavor

Kate Maddox's column appears Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays, only in the Las Vegas Sun. Reach her at [email protected]. To subscribe to the Sun, call 383-0400. This week Kate's Sunday column will move to the Accent page in the Sun's combined edition.

ABC News' "20/20" is hot on the trail of Mayor Oscar Goodman.

The news program is following a handful of people from around the world who will be involved in millennium festivities. Goodman and the city of Las Vegas, of course, will be among the highlights.

A camera crew from ABC is in town this week shooting footage of our mayor, as well as a few other sights and sounds of Las Vegas, for a 23-hour ABC special which will be broadcast live Dec. 31.

ABC News personality Connie Chung will host from the Bellagio on New Year's Eve. Other anchors will be situated at posts around the world -- Barbara Walters will sign on from Rome.

The crew from ABC caught the mayor performing some of his official duties at the Four Seasons Hotel on Tuesday. The hotel held a reception in honor of its receiving the AAA Five Diamond Award for Excellence. The award was the first to be presented to a Las Vegas hotel, and Goodman turned up to offer congratulations.

Ultimately, the mayor will be the center of a five-minute segment for the special, and Chung will interview him live on the 31st, as well.

ABC also shot some behind-the-scenes footage of "O" at the Bellagio, as well as a few scenes from Wolfgang Puck's Spago restaurant.

David Cassidy has had a lot on his plate these days. A TV movie on "The Partridge Family" aired on ABC Saturday night -- with the cooperation of former Cassidy co-star Danny Bonaduce -- and Cassidy currently has his own biographical TV movie in production for NBC.

Earlier this week Cassidy was interviewed by "Entertainment Tonight" about the project, which is scheduled to air in February, and the emotional baggage that is often attached when art imitates some painful personal memories.

But despite his busy schedule -- which also includes preparing for his new show at the Rio next year -- the actor still found the time to write a special letter of apology to invited guests of the Lied Discovery Children's Museum dinner, which was held on Oct. 9 at the Four Seasons.

Cassidy, whose behavior toward guests during cocktail hour was called into question by a number of people there, was sincerely apologetic in his letter, which was addressed to Suzanne LeBlanc, executive director of the Children's Museum. He explained to LeBlanc that even though his comments may have been "inappropriate," he was merely trying to get people's attention focused on the raffle of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle for the charity. Cassidy was chided for yelling at party guests to "shut up" and "pay attention." In his letter, Cassidy blamed the "overcrowded room and faulty sound system" for his need to shout at the gathered guests.

Cassidy and his wife, Sue, are both very active members of the Las Vegas community and he wanted those involved with the Lied Museum to understand that his interests at the dinner were strictly to help raise money and that he is sorry if he deflected attention from the importance of the cause.

Cassidy instructed LeBlanc to send his letter to all of the gala guests.

Martin Sheen, Dean Cain, Dan Cortese, Ray Romano, Kevin James, Alan Thicke and Kevin Sorbo were among the celebrities who turned out to play the Canon Charity Golf Invitational last week at the Revere at Anthem Golf Course.

Cain, the former star of "Lois and Clark," is a natural athlete who excelled at football in college, but he had never played golf before last weekend -- he spent nine days tackling the course before the event.

His opponents, CBS stars Romano and James (who stars in the sitcom "King of Queens") were a little unnerved when they discovered who they were up against. No one had told them they were playing against two superheroes -- Superman, and Kevin Sorbo of "Hercules."

The event raised more than $250,000 for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

I know, enough already about Ricky Martin. But for those of you who just can't get enough of the Latin superstar, the news is he's going to be the next poster boy for milk.

Martin is currently shooting photos for the famed milk-moustache ad campaign with celebrated photographer Annie Leibovitz in Los Angeles.

When his upper lip is immortalized in milk, Martin will join the ranks of Leann Rimes, Dennis Rodman, Whoopi Goldberg, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, the Backstreet Boys and many other celebrities. Let's just hope Martin doesn't go the way of another hip-shakin' singer who made the milk campaign -- one-hit-wonder Billy Ray Cyrus.

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