Friday, May 23, 2003 | 11:27 a.m.
VegasBeat appears Sunday through Friday in the Las Vegas Sun. Timothy McDarrah can be reached at [email protected] or at (702) 259-4096.
What a pretty picture -- two of Las Vegas' art and social stars are getting married.
Andrea Bundonis, president of the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, and Marc Glimcher, president of New York's PaceWildenstein Gallery, are tying the knot in August, a year after they met.
"This romance was born and bred in Las Vegas," Glimcher told VegasBeat Thursday.
The couple became close while putting together last year's Faberge egg show at the Bellagio.
It was Glimcher's two daughters, Lily, 11, and Isabelle, 13, who first suggested the couple get together.
Glimcher proposed to Bundonis on a recent Caribbean vacation.
"We were sailing on Endeavor, the old America's Cup boat from the 1930s, when I pulled out the rock," Glimcher said.
His dad, Arne Glimcher, is the founder of the Pace Gallery, one of the most important and influential post-World War II American galleries.
Pace has exhibited and helped develop careers of such artists as Julian Schnabel, Alex Katz, Sol LeWitt, Louise Nevelson, Pablo Picasso, Chuck Close, Jim Dine, Mark Rothko, Donald Judd, Adolph Gottlieb and countless others.
An August wedding is planned at the pool at the Glimcher family vacation retreat in the celebrity resort of East Hampton, N.Y.
The seaside community also boasts such seasonal residents as Martha Stewart, Steven Spielberg, Billy Joel, Alec Baldwin and Jerry Seinfeld.
Split!
Siegfried & Roy separated Thursday night -- but they will be back together today.
Roy and several friends, including Darren Romeo, dined at Prana (Aladdin).
At the same time, Siegfried was with some pals enjoying the "Diva Duets" show at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Raging
Vegas favorite Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine closes its televised stint tonight as Carson Daly's house band on "Last Call With Carson Daly" (KVBC Channel 3).
You can catch them live at Sunset Station on Sunday night. Thursday they play at Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Calif., and June 1 at the House of Blues in Anaheim.
A little country
The best post-Academy of Country Music Awards party Wednesday night was at Aureole (Mandalay Bay).
We spotted Dick Clark, George Strait, Reba McEntire, Leann Womack, Randy Goodman, Jeff Cook and Vince Gill and Amy Grant with their young daughter, Jenny.
Also in the house: Former Iraqi war POW Shoshana Johnson.
Recount?
After a fair amount of research, VegasBeat has concluded we were the first place (on Sept. 9, 2002) to note that more total votes were cast for the first "American Idol" than were cast in the 2000 presidential election (though "American Idol" voters can vote repeatedly).
Over the course of the show Kelly Clarkson and friends tallied 110 million votes to 103 million for George Bush and his opponents on election day.
Someone at Fox must have been reading us, because Wednesday night's finale was played as if it were an election night special -- "The votes are in and Ruben Studdard has won Florida ..." " Clay Aiken has won North Carolina ..." and so on.
But what really was this year's final tally?
Conspiracy theorists are out in full force after "Idol" host Ryan Seacrest offered different numbers on how many votes separated the two finalists on Wednesday night's live broadcast.
He first said the margin was 13,000 votes, and later said that a mere 1,335 votes -- out of 24 million phone votes -- separated the two finalists.
After the show, a Fox Television spokesman said the actual number separating them was 130,000.
"This reeks of a contrived, phony ending," an unnamed television executive told Internet gossip Matt Drudge.
Meanwhile three entertainers familiar with Vegas -- Gladys Knight, Neil Sedaka and Olivia Newton-John -- were among the celebrity judges who were back on for the big finale.
VegasBits
News actor: New KVVU Channel 5 hire Rawley Valverde is not your average reporter. He has been a "Santa Barbara" soap regular, played Christina Applegate's boyfriend on the bawdy "Married with Children" sitcom and appeared in several movies, including "Made in America" ...
Art support: Nevada Ballet Theatre artistic director Bruce Steivel, executive director Harry Ferris and board co-chair/founder Nancy Houssels are traveling with six company dancers to participate in the opening of the new building of the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno on Saturday ....
Girls, girls: Playboy is conducting a talent search at the Hard Rock Hotel on Thursday. Las Vegas resident and "Playboy Special Editions" model LaTasha Marzolla will be on hand with publisher Jeff Cohen from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Call the mag at (800) 665-0913 to schedule a test shoot ...
Art opening: Celebrated pop artist Steve Kaufman will attend the opening of his show at the Centaur Gallery at the Fashion Show mall tonight at 6 ...
Final Fling: After being the subject of a recent USA Today cover story, The Final Fling, the Las Vegas company that sets up bachelorette parties, is getting loads of attention. This weekend, a crew from the Fox News Channel magazine show, "The Pulse," will document the weekend of girl groups from Chicago and Kentucky.
From Sun wires
Driven from Gracie Mansion by his previous wife, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani returns Saturday to his old residence under happier circumstances -- for his wedding to girlfriend Judith Nathan.
"I'm very, very happy," Giuliani told reporters after the beaming couple picked up their marriage license this week. "I'm looking forward to spending the rest of our lives together."
The ceremony, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg will perform, brings Giuliani back to the Manhattan mansion where he spent seven years while running the city. Several hundred guests are expected under tight security at the official mayoral residence overlooking the East River.
Official details were scarce about the event, although Giuliani's 17-year-old son, Andrew, was expected to serve as best man, and Nathan said she'll adopt Giuliani as her last name.
Baby talk: Andrew Firestone and Jen Schefft of "The Bachelor" have only been in public as a couple for a few days, but they're already talking about having children.
"I've seen him with his nieces and nephews. He loves them so much, and he's so sweet with them," Schefft told Us Weekly for its June 2 issue. Firestone chose the petite blonde from 25 hopefuls on the ABC romance series.
"I would like to have two or three children," she said. He jokingly agreed: "We're practicing a lot right now."
The couple has been all over the place since Sunday night's finale of "The Bachelor," in which Firestone, 27, asked Schefft, 26, to marry him with a 3-carat, oval-shaped Harry Winston diamond engagement ring.
When asked Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America" about their wedding plans, they didn't reveal much, but Schefft said she quit her job in Chicago and is moving in with Firestone in San Francisco.
"We're just happy to be together. It's one day at a time," Firestone said. "There a lot of things we want to do -- fight over the remote control, those sort of things."
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