Friday, Oct. 18, 2002 | 9:53 a.m.
Las Vegas is a town full of impersonators.
There are probably more faux Elvises and Michael Jacksons per square foot in this city than any other place on Earth.
Rarely, however, do they get to perform with the person to whom they are paying tribute.
But Las Vegas resident and Tom Jones impersonator Harmik Kazanchian did exactly that.
In the Wyclef Jean-directed video to be released Monday, "Tom Jones International," Harmik (his professional moniker) and the Welsh singing idol team as scientists in matching suits and try to find out what it is that makes Jones so irresistible.
The wonderfully campy video is beyond entertaining. The interaction and chemistry between Jones and Harmik is hilarious, and the music is solid.
Jones conducted a worldwide search to find his perfect clone.
"I had a great time making it," Harmik told VegasBeat. "He was charming, polite, told me all kinds of stories about his younger days and, of course, he is supremely talented as a performer."
Soul explosion
Plan to see The Hardest Working Man in Show Business tonight at House of Blues at Mandalay Bay.
The last time James Brown was in town, at Blue Note Las Vegas in 2001, he imploded, stopping the show and lapsing into an incoherent rant.
The Godfather of Soul ran off the stage, reappeared in a bathrobe, accosted a fan who was using a video camera and tossed some chairs.
As he is now facing the loss of his South Carolina home because of tax and other financial issues, he may be set to explode again.
Here's hoping tonight comes off without a hitch.
Chesty humor
Possibly forgetting October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Rita Rudner told a series of breast-related jokes before a lunchtime crowd of newspaper feature editors at the Aladdin for a convention.
Example: "In Las Vegas, breasts are not just body parts -- they are entertainment. I went for a mammogram, and there was a two-drink minimum," she told the American Association of Sunday and Features Editors in town throughout the week.
Channel changes
A personnel move to note at KLAS Channel 8: Reporters Renata Troiani and Carol Wilkinson are being moved to weekends.
Some staffers are concerned that this is the beginning of a major shake-up at the station.
From my experience, television newsrooms are always in a state of perpetual motion, personnel and otherwise.
Senator celebrity
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., stuck his toe in celebrity waters the other night in New York City.
He presented awards at the Words Can Heal gala to Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn at the St. Regis Hotel on Fifth Avenue.
"It is a good cause, and I had a wonderful time," Reid told VegasBeat.
Last year Reid was the main sponsor of a resolution recognizing the group, which "promotes the value and practice of ethical speech in order to improve our democracy."
Paint tossing
Barbara Bloemink, the outgoing director of the Guggenheim-Hermitage Museum at The Venetian, has a few choice parting words for the facility's critics and naysayers.
Bloemink shepherded the space through a tough opening (coming just two weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks) and deals with persistent rumors that the facility is on the verge of closing.
A recent story in the New York Sun newspaper detailed a variety of budget problems, executive staff changes and other problems facing the international art powerhouse at its Las Vegas; Berlin; New York; Venice, Italy; and Bilbao, Spain, locales.
On Nov. 5 Bloemink starts as curatorial director of the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in her native New York City. She insisted that the turmoil surrounding the Guggenheim was unrelated to her move.
"I am actually quite angry with the reports that say the Las Vegas museums have not been successful," she told VegasBeat. "I'd like to hear about any museum in the country that, in their first year, brought in 650,000 people, stayed within the operating budget and set up an educational program throughout the county.
"Success like that just did not happen anywhere else after 9-11."
Bloemink said her first show in the Cooper-Hewitt was a look at 19th-century English decorative artist Christopher Dresser, who revolutionized the decorative arts.
Bloemink's replacement has yet to be announced.
Think Fink
The producers of "Spirit of the Dance" take criticism well.
After Sun Lounge Lizard Jerry Fink wrote that the show was impossible for most of the audience to see on its raised stage, producers temporarily closed down and retooled the facility.
The show will be dark from Nov. 4 through Nov. 10 to build a tiered seating structure inside the Golden Nugget's Theatre Ballroom, allowing patrons to actually see the hoofing.
Or as the show's gifted spokesman Ira David Sternberg put it, "allowing audiences a wider view of this popular dance spectacular."
Reno arises
Look for Reno to be in the news this month.
On Oct. 25 the Miramax release "Waking Up in Reno" opens.
The film focuses on two married couples, Patrick Swayze and Charlize Theron and Billy Bob Thornton and Natasha Richardson, who think they know each other until they all take a vacation together -- a road trip to a Monster Truck Show in Reno.
Needless to say, hilarity ensues.
Then, musical comedian Steve Sorrentino hosts the Reno Film Festival the weekend of Nov. 1.
Others slated to attend include Elliott Gould, Gary Busey, Marlee Matlin and Piper Laurie.
Gould, by the way, is on KNUU 970-AM (K-NEWS) at 3 p.m. today -- the opening act for VegasBeat's regular fortnightly Friday afternoon gig on the station.
Comic Jay Mohr follows me in the studio. He's performing at Paris Las Vegas over the weekend.
Check out ...
Noriyuki "Pat" Morita -- from "Happy Days" and those "Karate Kid" movies -- at Spago at the Forum Shops at Caesars. Then his party made the requisite pilgrammage to our local mecca, the Siegfried & Roy show at The Mirage ... Brendan Fraser and Jenna Elfman dining in a private room at Aureole ... Joan Lunden at Spa Mandalay, then off to cover the Mr. Olympia competition at the hotel for her A&E show, "Behind the Scenes" ... Charles Barkley, and later Jimmy Kimmel, at rumjungle ... Lou Dobbs filming his CNN show at Bellagio.
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