Tuesday, May 27, 2003 | 10:43 a.m.
Tiger Woods is generally regarded as one of the biggest skinflints among star multimillionaire athletes.
Charles Barkley's proclivities with a penny are the exact opposite. In fact, the former NBA star and current TNT commentator has said publicly that Woods is likely the only sports star who is a worse tipper than Michael Jordan.
So when Barkley and Woods go out for a night on the town in Las Vegas, as they did over the weekend, who has the final say on gratuities?
Score one for Barkley.
The two stars and new Arizona Cardinals running back Emmitt Smith hit the MGM Grand club Tabu on Friday night.
Woods was subject to plenty of teasing from Barkley, according to some club patrons who overheard the good-natured ribbing, and an occasional barb from Smith, about Woods' frugality.
But at the end of the very long evening, Woods slipped his waitress several folded bills with Ben Franklin's portrait visible on the outside.
"He was apparently quite generous," a club spokeswoman told VegasBeat the next morning.
We couldn't get an exact figure, but our spy estimated there were at least five bills in the mix that passed between Woods and the waitress. Assuming they were all hundreds, that's pretty good for only having a couple of beers, as Woods did.
Earlier this year, according to Stuff magazine, Woods was gambling $10,000 a hand at the MGM Grand and tipped a waitress a mere $5 -- and when his girlfriend, Elin Nordegren, told him that he had already tipped her, he pocketed the bill.
This time, Nordegren was nowhere in sight.
Backstage
It was a busy weekend for seeing stars -- and then going backstage to meet them.
After Sunday night's performance at Paris Las Vegas, Tony Bennett greeted a group that had been sitting in the front row: Robert and Vera Goulet, Clint and Brenda Holmes and Jack and Donna Wishna.
On Saturday Stephen Sorrentino chatted up Brett Butler backstage after her return to the Riviera Comedy Club.
Tony Sacca, Darren Romeo and Siegfried went to say hello to Lance Burton after seeing his Monte Carlo show last week.
And Antonio Fargas, who starred as Huggy Bear in the classic cop show, "Starsky & Hutch," was backstage with Tony Perry and Tezz Yancey (Soul Desire) after their performance the other night in the Big Apple Bar Mini-Showroom at New York-New York.
Final fling
Any column can reel off a list of celebrities. VegasBeat tells you why they were in Las Vegas.
So, exactly why were there so many NFL-ers spotted in town over the weekend? They were in town for a bachelor party for the Cleveland Browns' Aaron Shea.
Among the partiers were Tom Brady, Tim Couch, Jonathan Ogden, Adam Archuleta, Mark Campbell, Darryl Russell and Javon Walker. Also on hand were NBA players Wally Szczerbiak and Scott Pollard.
Former Chicago Bears great Richard Dent wasn't invited, but ran into the group at dinner at N9NE and joined the fun.
Damon and Marlon Wayans, Fred Durst, E!'s Brooke Burke and producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Stephen Bing -- who has a child with Elizabeth Hurley -- also toasted the groom Saturday night at ghostbar.
Houston, continued
Nothing like a visit to Vegas by Whitney Houston to get the phones ringing.
Our Friday report of her theatrics outside Picasso (Bellagio) led to several other Whitney sightings, including her having a bloody nose outside a local ear, nose and throat doctor (which was first reported on Fox.com), and her having the sniffles when she was getting the treatment at Bellagio Salon.
Houston's performances were free of incident, however. Her duet with husband Bobby Brown knocked 'em dead at "VH1's Divas Duets" Thursday night, and she was nothing but gracious at the big OPM club opening above Chinois at the Forum Shops at Caesars later that evening.
Also at OPM: Michael Keaton, Lou Rawls, Queen Latifah, "Mamma Mia!" star Tina Walsh, Holmes, former Gov. Bob Miller, Aisha Tyler, Tony Curtis, Paul Tracy, Jessica Simpson and club partners Michael Goodwin and John Padon. And despite the club's success, Padon said he will be keeping his day job as the featured comic in the "X" show at the Aladdin.
Eyebrows were raised when Barbara Lazaroff showed up -- she is Wolfgang Puck's business partner and estranged wife. Puck owns the restaurant, but did not attend.
Beyonce Knowles of Destiny's Child was one of the few "Divas Duets" performers who missed the OPM party -- but we saw her later that night when we sat across from each other on the red-eye to New York.
VegasBits
Knockout: Oscar De La Hoya dining at Prana (Aladdin) after his MGM Grand news conference last week, promoting his September bout with Shane Mosley ...
New place: Uber-restaurateur Stephen Hanson has brought scores of stylish, popular and distinctive restaurants to New Yorkers. Now the owner of such hot spots as Dos Caminos and Ruby Foo's is opening a more casual outpost of his Soho restaurant Fiamma at MGM Grand, New York Magazine reports today ...
Spanish eyes: An item in Friday's VegasBeat incorrectly reported the primary residence of Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf. The residence is in Spanish Hills. VegasBeat regrets the error.
From Sun wires
In the latest example of art imitating life, a group of San Diego high school students has created a musical based on last fall's shoplifting trial of actress Winona Ryder.
Point Loma High School's "Sticky Fingers: A Tale of Saks, Lies and Videotape," satirizes the trial in which the Oscar-nominated actress was convicted of taking more than $6,000 worth of items from Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills, Calif.
The production is the culmination of a year's worth of work by several dozen students and is directed by teacher Larry Zeiger, who plays piano for the show and also stars as CNN interviewer Larry King.
"Sticky" follows the journey of missile-factory employee and tango dancer Winnobega Driver from a Spanish village in North Korea to New York. There she has a fateful meeting with her idol, Winona Ryder, at Saks on Rodeo Drive.
Ryder was invited to see the show, which opens this week. The school has not received a response. Ryder's publicist, Mara Buxbaum, said she didn't know if the actress ever saw the invitation.
Saks donated shopping bags for the set.
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