Darin tribute is an Art Vargas showcase

Yes, Las Vegas has a superstar in the wings. Art Vargas has been bubbling under for years now, portraying Bobby Darin in the popular Legends show while working his own band The Swank Set in various lounges and bistros around town. A look at his show-- as we've given you more than once-- reveals talent and charisma that recall the legendary Rat Pack aura but stand alongside the best of today's one-man shows from Michael Bublé to Robbie Williams. This clip from Legends shows that what's ostensibly a "Bobby Darin impersonation" is actually a display of an equally talented showman, Art Vargas. Among the magicians, musical impressionists (for whom we have great admiration) and comedians, surely there's a Strip resort with a showroom for this Las Vegas classic.

Dr. Fishell prescribes a new spin in explaining away Danny Gans' drug death

How to explain away the fact that the clean-living, athletic, Born Again Christian Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans died from an overdose of a drug that places him in entertainment infamy alongside slothful wastrels like Elvis Presley and Anna Nicole Smith? One way is for one of his old doctors to step forward with another theory about how Dilaudid, the powerful, powerful opiate that's known as "drug store heroin" (and several steps higher in intensity than Rush Limbaugh's "hillbilly heroin") wound up killing the man at 52.

The latest story emanating from the Las Vegas Review-Journal and spinning around the world has Dr. Michael Fishell claiming he wrote Gans a prescription for Dilaudid (hydromorphone) five years ago and suggests that Gans may have shunned the medicine because of his health-conscious ways, kept the bottle in his medicine cabinet all these years and unwittingly popped the single, 75% less-potent tablet that caused him to die in the early hours of May 1st.

Dr. Fishell, a pain specialist and anesthesiologist in Gans' hometown of Henderson, Nevada, took pains to insist he had not written Gans any recent prescriptions. He also said he tapped into the Nevada and California medical records database and found no current Danny Gans Dilaudid prescriptions.

Dr. Fishell's explanation removes himself from suspicion as the new Dr. Nick, and would go a long way in clearing up questions about "an insurance issue involving Danny Gans and his deal with Encore at Wynn Las Vegas that suggests Gans had concerns about his health," reported by Review-Journal gossip columnist Norm Clarke on May 14th. It would have been more helpful had a Review-Journal reporter interviewed the doctor in the days following Gans's death, as opposed to waiting more than 40 days-- especially since reporters and editors had already suspected painkillers as the culprit long before the Clark County Coroner's tightrope walk of an explanation was delivered on Tuesday.

The Review-Journal, however, did not pursue answers in the case at all. It did, however, print more than once the false story that Danny Gans ended his last show with an eerily prescient Bobby Darin song, and took time to make a deal with Gans' family to publish Gans' posthumous autobiography.

Just as the coroner refused to address the issue, Dr. Fishell didn't mention the steroids suspected because of the change in Gans' physical features. Or did the Review-Journal reporter even ask?

Two weeks after the death of Danny Gans, Las Vegas writer Steven Friess admits he knew of steroid rumors, confesses to covering up death theories

It's been two weeks since Las Vegas headliner Danny Gans was pronounced dead in his home of still undetermined causes.

From the first we heard the news of the passing of this great, historically significant and unique entertainer, the Tabloid Baby team has pursued the story day after day, while being struck by the fact that Las Vegas journos didn't find the story worth pursuing beyond adulatory quotes from the likes of Carrot Top (Nothing against Carrot Top. We think he's cool and he makes us laugh). The official excuse was that there was no news to report until the officials released the official cause of death with the official toxicology report, since the official autopsy could not determine what caused this ox of a man's heart to stop at the age of 52.

The first solid clue there was something amiss came when we were attacked, threatened and insulted online by a character named Steve Friess (above & left), a local booster and comp queen who authored a book called Gay Vegas and writes for a number of national publications.

Friess' online hissyfit when he learned of our dogged pursuit of the Gans story was puzzling, until it was revealed that his conflicts of interest only began in his bed, which he shares with Alicia Jacobs' executive producer, and that this self-promoting freelancer exists at the pleasure of the casino kings to whom the words "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" are more than a catchphrase.

Well what a difference two weeks, or as he writes on his blog, a "fortnight," makes.

Today, Friess continues his name-calling:

"Some gay-obsessed lunatics -- well, he refers to himself in the plural, anyhow -- believes anything said about the matter at this stage is thanks to his 'vigilance.' I've since realized that Internet nutjobs will say and do what they wish regardless of accuracy, propriety or basic common sense and never back down even in the face of contrary evidence or reasoning..."

Friess goes through his usual motions: attacking RadarOnline, The National Enquirer and Perez Hilton for covering a story that he could have made a bundle on had not his freelance status been so compromised; denying there's "public appetite" for the story; insisting that "short of those tests being completed, there's not a lot for legit reporters to do."

But then Steve Friess (above left) does something more. While apologizing on behalf of the ones who tried to obfuscate the facts, he admits that he realizes a coverup took place. And while making excuses all along the way, he even slips up and admits he was part of it.

Most spectacularly, Steve Friess admits he has been covering up the story of the real Danny Gans for at least, well, at least... a "fortnight":

"...Gans' suspected steroid use has been out there for years."

He also prints the alternative theories that are out there, though carefully labeling them "bizarro":

"Danny Gans was (a) actually killed in a DUI hit-and-run; (b) was having an affair with a local news personality who has tried to get Mayor Oscar Goodman and Wayne Newton* and Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce (!?!) to help cover up Gans' actual cause of death or (c) committed suicide because Steve Wynn booked Whoopi and Beyonce..."

Read Friess' entire column here.  It is an incredible document of self-righteousness, delusion and ass-covering.  Bottom line: Everything Steve Friess denied, he now says he knew all along.

Real Journos

Meanwhile, real journalists, like the ones at The Las Vegas Review-Journal, responded professionally to our prodding. Insiders tell us they feel bound by "rules," and are hamstrung to do much before an official report is released.

But they admit our prodding has had an effect.  Mike Weatherford's chilling account of Danny Gans' depression on his final day was published after sitting around for more than a week. And Norm Clarke's hastily-added one-liner begs a followup:

"No one's willing to discuss it, but there's an insurance issue involving Danny Gans and his deal with Encore at Wynn Las Vegas that suggests Gans had concerns about his health."

Sure, they say we at TabloidBaby.com seem to be "obsessed" or even "insane." And there are those who'd try to lump Tabloid Baby with the new generation of bloggers who conjure fantasy and post whatever comes into their heads.

They're wrong.

Danny Gans was an Old School entertainer.  We're Old School journos.

This is the Old School talking.

Decades of newspaper and broadcast journalism experience. Contributors on four continents. Experienced two-finger typists who've taught a generation of journos to follow a good story where it leads.

Murder?

The case of Danny Gans should have been, and should be covered from all its angles. That's how important it is, and as uncomfortable and ad-revenue endangering some of those angles may be, those are the angles that manage to be covered up as time passes.

Was Danny Gans murdered in his bed? We'd not pose that question, but thanks to the wait-and-see attitude of the Las Vegas media, that story is floating around the Internet as we type.

Will the toxicological report close the book on the Danny Gans case?

Probably not, no matter what is revealed, because the ones who should be on the front line of finding  the truth are content to wait for an official report from a controversial coroner's office.  It's these paid professionals, sitting around their news meetings debating whether a story's worthy of coverage, who've allowed the story to spin out of control.

A Review-Journal reporter said it himself when he wrote the lede to yesterday's coroner story that was copied somewhat inaccurately by every news station in town:

"The mystery of Danny Gans' death remains almost two weeks after he died in his home, leaving rumors to fill the information void."

Steve Friess confessed to it in his column today.


* The "Wayne Newton" reference, never made public, was part of a tip emailed to TabloidBaby.com offices. Friess' inclusion of it indicates that he was part of a deliberate effort to mislead journalists investigating the Gans story.
(Comp queen Steve Friess threatens us every time we post his picture, so we're forced to used fascimiles. Help us get it right by sending us a nice photo of Steve Friess today!)

The curtain falls on an instant myth: Danny Gans didn't really close his last show with eerie, prescient Bobby Darin number

In the week since the untimely death of Las Vegas headliner Danny Gans, not a question has been raised by the Las Vegas news media about the exact circumstances of his death, or the factors in his life that may have led to it, Yet while the news pros, from Pulitzer Prize winners to Gay Guide writers, have sat obediently to wait the next press release, much has been done from that first (and last) news to burnish Gans’ myth.

As it turns out, the first has turned out to be untrue.

On Saturday, May 2nd Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke write a column, Gans’ final act leaves mystery, which included quotes from Gans' manager Chip Lightman and focused on an almost spiritual moment in Gans’ last show:

"Something didn't feel right to Lightman.

"Looking back, 'that was the scariest thing,' Lightman said Friday, still in shock hours after the death of Gans at age 52.

"A creature of habit, Gans rarely ended with 'The Curtain Falls,' Bobby Darin's favorite closer.

"Through most of his thousands of shows as a 13-year Las Vegas headliner, Gans preferred ending with 'Apollo,' which featured snippets of songs by Sammy Davis Jr., Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles and others.

"No one will ever know for certain, but just maybe Gans knew something was amiss and sent a message through Darin's curtain closer at the Encore theater.

"… Near the end of Friday's walk-through to capture photo snippets of Gans' backstage life, Lightman brought up the mystery of 'The Curtain Falls.'

"It was one of many why's that didn't make sense to Gans' longtime friend and manager.

"I offered a theory.

"Maybe Gans' switch to 'The Final Curtain' was hinting about his health by channeling Darin for the finale.

"Darin had a meteoric run before dying of heart-related problems at the age of 37 in 1973."

This morning, Norm Clarke retracted the story:

“Allow me to correct something here: On Saturday in this space, I misstated that Gans closed his final show on April 29 with 'The Curtain Falls,' the signature close of legendary entertainer Bobby Darin, who died in 1973 at age 37.

“Gans closed with 'Apollo,' the medley he had ended his show with for years…

“During our interview May 1, the day Gans died, Lightman had noted a delay occurred in the curtain closing, which I mistakenly wrote down as a reference to Darin's ‘Curtain’ closing.

“Gans had performed ‘Curtain’ during his 12 weeks at Wynn Las Vegas' Encore hotel, Lightman said.

“And he said Gans, in his upcoming book that he finished April 29, ended the manuscript with the final words to 'Curtain.'"

Norm Clarke revealed yesterday the publisher of his own newspaper had entered into a deal with Lightman and the Gans family to publish that Danny Gans autobiography. The fact that we at Tabloid Baby have received readers complaints this week that the Darin story was untrue has led others to suspect Clarke and Lightman are in fact writing or completing that “autobiography” as we speak.

Interesting that The Encore website used a clip of Danny Gans singing The Curtain Falls as a tribute after his death.

In any case, add that bit of misinformation that's been spreading around the world for the past week to the Danny Gans mystery, and place your bets on how long the Danny Gans posters, billboards and taxi cab placards will remain in and around Las Vegas.

(The May 21 memorial to Danny Gans is by invitation only. The Gans family asks that cards be sent to Danny Gans Family, c/o Encore Hotel, 3131 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas, NV 89109. Instead of flowers, the family prefers donations be made to Danny Gans' favorite charities, the Junior Golf Academy and the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation.)