Friday, May 30, 2003 | 5:35 a.m.
In military parlance, a "TA-50" is the kit that holds an assortment of field essentials, such as ammo,a canteen, a compass, a sleeping bag, a mess kit and so on.
Now Dennis Hof, the owner of the Moonlight BunnyRanch brothel (known as the place where Jesse Ventura was once a customer), is featuring a "T&A 50."
The pack includes a BunnyRanch T-shirt, a condom, a menu from his establishment, drink tokens and a coupon for free, uh ... for free sex.
The first 50 servicemen or women who show up at the Mound House brothel just east of Carson City with proof of their active duty status get their T&A package. After that, for the next 50 days, all military personnel get a 50 percent discount on BunnyRanch services, along with other trinkets.
"We all pray that the soldiers get home safely and when they do, they deserve good, safe sex -- right here at the BunnyRanch," Hof said.
Frank Sinatra is finally coming to life -- Frank Sinatra Drive, that is.
The access road off Interstate 15 that runs parallel to the Strip will be open between Russell Road and Monte Carlo Boulevard on Thursday.
At 11 a.m. that day, Mandalay Resort Group Properties and the Department of Public Works are having a little "Backdoor Break" party to mark the occasion.
County commissioners including Yvonne Atkinson Gates, Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, Chip Maxfield and Rory Reid are expected to attend the festivities.
Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine will be in New York City on Monday to play as the house band for the NBC show, "Last Call With Carson Daly."
They served as house band during Daly's recent Vegas gig, and they were so good, Daly is bringing them to New York.
The band hopes the gig becomes permanent; Daly recently told this page that his show is looking for a permanent band, similar to Paul Schaffer and the CBS Orchestra on "The Late Show With David Letterman" or the Max Weinberg Seven, who play alongside Conan O'Brien.
The show featuring Cheese is scheduled to air June 13.
Come Wednesday morning, VegasBeat might know a real first lady.
A few years ago Helen Thorpe, an old friend of mine who used to write for the New Yorker, married a Colorado geologist-turned-brew pub entrepreneur named John Hickenlooper.
Hickenlooper is the front-runner in Tuesday's nonpartisan mayoral election in Denver.
Hmmm. I wonder if Denver has a mayoral residence and if it has a Lincoln Bedroom.
Las Vegas resident Michelle Herrera, 12, will join actress Mary Tyler Moore in Washington, D.C., on June 21 to lobby Congress on behalf of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
"We are very proud of our daughter for taking on the fight," her father, Marco Herrera, said.
"Crazy Girls" dancer-turned-"X" producer Angela Sampras turned 40 Saturday.
On Monday she is getting a celebrity birthday roast, emceed by Robin Leach, at Simon Kitchen and Bar at the Hard Rock.
(As if a day could go by without mentioning Leach!)
It was a star-studded premiere for "The Producers," starring Jason Alexander and Martin Short, in Los Angeles on Thursday night.
Everyone from Mel Brooks to Steven Spielberg to Tom Hanks to Carol Burnett made the scene.
The show plays at the Pantages Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard through Jan. 4, 2004. After that, it is expected to come to Las Vegas, possibly to one of the new stages in the old Guggenheim space at The Venetian.
It was another busy week at VegasBeat for leading the gossip nation in personality news reporting, as we like to call it.
Among our recent items that were picked up nationally were bits on Whitney Houston's Bellagio escapades, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez shopping for baby clothes at Burberry's at the Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian, and Charles Barkley talking Tiger Woods into leaving a big tip at Tabu.
Even the Arkansas-owned paper across town picked up some of our stuff, but without credit, of course.
After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
archive
