Wednesday, May 7, 2003 | 10:34 a.m.
Go with your strengths, says the old adage.
So, Heidi Fleiss is coming to Nevada to open a house of ill repute. A brothel. Sex for sale.
God Bless America, indeed -- the famed Hollywood Madame is coming to Las Vegas on July 4 to make the official announcement.
Fleiss is currently talking to the Hard Rock Hotel, where she wants to hold an Independence Day event announcing a new Nevada brothel under the banner of her Australian corporate partner, The Daily Planet.
If the Hard Rock and Fleiss do not come to terms, she and The Daily Planet are determined to hold the July 4 event at another Vegas property.
No location has been picked for the sex facility.
Prostitution is legal in Nevada in counties with fewer than 400,000 residents, meaning that it is legal everywhere except for the two main population centers of Clark County (Las Vegas) and Washoe County (Reno).
There are 28 licensed brothels in operation statewide.
"How can you go wrong with sex?" Fleiss told VegasBeat from her Los Angeles office Tuesday.
She should know. When she was busted in 1993 at age 27 for peddling passion to the rich and famous, it was front-page news around the world.
Lurid tabloid headlines came from revelations that such stars as Charlie Sheen had paid her girls as much as $53,000 for an evening of entertainment.
Now, she is continuing to parlay her fame into fortune.
Fleiss was hired last year by The Daily Planet to develop business ideas. Las Vegas is at the top of her list.
She was Down Under last week as the Melbourne Stock Exchange began trade in The Daily Planet, Australia's first listed brothel.
Fleiss served 21 months in prison when she was sentenced after being convicted on a variety of money laundering, tax evasion and pandering charges.
After her 1999 release, she went on to start the sexy clothing line Heidi Wear, and she wrote the book, "Sex Tips," with her friend Victoria Sellers (yes, Peter Sellers' daughter).
Film fame
No fear. No loathing. But Hunter S. Thompson is coming to Las Vegas next month for his first overnight visit since his epochal tale of drug-fueled Sin City paranoia was published in 1971.
The gonzo journalist will be appearing as part of the CineVegas International Film Festival, which will screen the premiere of "Breakfast With Hunter," a feature-length documentary.
Also coming to town for the June 13 to June 21 festival is Dennis Hopper, who will receive the second annual Marquee Award. Dustin Hoffman copped the inaugural prize last year.
Perhaps the most interesting facet of the festival will be the panel discussion with Hopper, Thompson, UNLV prof and art critic Dave Hickey and Grace Slick, formerly of the Jefferson Airplane.
They'll discuss "Artists, Icons and Legends" in a Venetian ballroom.
Log on to Vegas.com for tickets and more info.
Seeing stars
There are few better star-gazing locales in Vegas than at the Forum Shops at Caesars.
Virtually every celebrity who passes through town makes a pit stop at one of its restaurants or high-end stores.
Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld popped into several stores and ate at Terraza during their stay last weekend.
Sports memorabilia store Field of Dreams recently had Serena Williams and Keyshawn Johnson as customers, in addition to Roy Jones Jr. and Evel Knievel.
Wolfgang Puck's eatery Chinois fed Bob Costas the other day, and (separately!) Paul Stanley of Kiss and golfing great Annika Sorenstam.
Marcus Allen shopped at MaxMara, Tony Hawk at DKNY and former President Bill Clinton's Secretary of State Madeline Albright at Landau.
Robin Williams bounced from Field of Dreams to Dolce & Gabbana to Judith Lieber.
And two Sundays ago Michael Jackson stopped into West of Santa Fe, Antiquities, Galleria di Sorrento, Niketown and the Virgin Megastore -- apparently to check how his CDs were selling, a store worker told VegasBeat.
Nite Lights
"The Nighties" -- Las Vegas Weekly's annual nightlife awards -- were handed out at Light on Sunday night.
KLAS Channel 8 entertainment reporter -- and former Sun siren -- Kate Maddox emceed the affair, and gave out awards for Best Locals Bar (Double Down), Best Nightclub (Studio 54) and Best Restaurant With a Scene (N9NE), among others.
Three local personalities received "Lifetime Achievement Awards" -- restaurateur Victor Drai; Michael Fuller, who is opening the new club Ice this month; and ubiquitous scenester Michael Shulman.
VegasBeat surmises that Shulman must have stuffed the ballot box on that one because, as he later pointed out, "I have yet to live a lifetime or achieve all that much."
VegasBits
No gamble: Mandalay Resort Group President Glenn Schaeffer has donated $1 million to the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop to help add a library and classrooms. He is a 1977 graduate of the program ...
Daly news: Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman will be the first guest on tonight's taping of "Last Call With Carson Daly" at the Hard Rock Hotel. It is scheduled to be aired next week on NBC ...
Windy: Chicago White Sox co-owner Eddie Einhorn had breakfast at the Pyramid Cafe at Luxor Tuesday ...
Picture that: A drawing by Sun editorial cartoonist Mike Smith was picked up by the Los Angeles Times on Monday ...
Reality: Actress Meg Tilly and television producer Michael Burke were at Sapphire over the weekend, taking notes.
From Sun wires
An arraignment for actor Robert Conrad, who is accused of felony drunken driving, has been postponed a month because he is partially paralyzed on his right side.
Conrad, best known for his roles in "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "The Wild Wild West," was to be arraigned on two drunken driving charges on Tuesday. A judge continued the hearing until June 10.
Calaveras County (Calif.) District Attorney Jeffrey Tuttle said he received a letter from a Santa Clara Valley Medical Center doctor indicating Conrad was suffering from paralysis and also sustained a head injury in the accident.
Lavelda Conrad said her husband sustained spinal cord and head injuries in the head-on collision on March 31.
Conrad's blood-alcohol level was above 0.20 percent, nearly three times the legal limit, when he crashed into another vehicle on Highway 4 near Arnold, injuring Kevin Burnett, 26, according to a complaint filed last month.
All clear: Guitarist Pete Townshend, co-founder of The Who, was cleared today of possessing pornographic images of children but still was placed on a national register of sex offenders.
That registration was part of a formal police caution Townshend received for accessing a website containing images of child abuse.
Townshend, 57, was arrested in January on suspicion of making and possessing indecent images of children. The arrest was part of an FBI-led crackdown on Internet child pornography.
After a four-month investigation, London's Metropolitan Police said today the rocker "was not in possession of any downloaded child abuse images" but had accessed a site containing such images in 1999.
Townshend acknowledged using his credit card to enter a website advertising child pornography but said he was doing research for his autobiography.
Townshend said he believed he was sexually abused as a young boy.
"I am not a pedophile," he said at the time of his arrest.
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