Criss Angel is a dick

We don't have anything against Criss Angel, the Las Vegas Strip magician and stunt performer Cris Angel, but the news media of Las Vegas-- you know, the guys and gals who don't think the untimely death of Strip superstar Danny Gans is worth investigating-- hate the guy. They hate his show, they hate that he called Perez Hilton a "douchebag asshole" from the stage at the Luxor-- and they don't like his billboards!

Tabloid Baby pal Richard Abowitz (who also can't be convinced that the Danny Gans story is not only his turf but his responsibility, but he's not really a journo) points out on his Gold Plated Door blog that the current outdoor advertising for Angel's Believe show at the Luxor is a "local's joke" because, in the words of local import Holly Madison, it was "artistically rendered to look like a penis or medical drawing of a vagina.”


And you know, as you take a closer look at that stage curtain, the image does seem to be about as close to that Mom's Apple Pie album cover as you can get away with on a highway roadsign:


Us? We're more impressed with an alternative version that's made its way among various ads and websites. Look closely at this one:


Look at it from far away:


Look at it again-- and you notice the subliminal phallic imagery, and realize that the artists have turned Angel into a human penis-- with his head as the "dickhead."

Now that's a trick!

Richard Abowitz opens Gold Plated Door

Richard Abowitz is not wasting any time getting back into the game after having the distinction in recent weeks of losing both his blog on the Los Angeles Times website due to cost cuts and his print column in the Las Vegas Weekly due to the impending death of the newspaper industry.

The Dean of Las Vegas pop culture writers has started up a new site called Gold Plated Door (see Sin City) which he describes as "an honest broker reporting on all things Vegas," and which will include his unique take on Vegas news, show business, media, and hopefully, anything else he wants to write about.


The site's first "test post," which gives an idea of his style and what's ahead, focuses on Tiger Woods:

"...the most boring celebrity I ever interviewed. I should not be surprised, the connection between a VIP host and a louche celebrity, remains typically Vegas, even if for Woods, Vegas turns out to be only one geographic stop of globetrotting infidelity.

"I interviewed Woods for Tiger Jam, his annual charity concert at Mandalay Bay, a few years ago, and I was given 5 minutes with the golf legend. I have turned down a couple interview offers since. We were done at 3 minutes. He was nice and all, but the money was not worth the time. Woods is boring. When I had no golf questions he was without anything to say. He mentioned that he had little to do with the acts that were playing his concert. He could not name a single song he liked by any of the bands that were performing unless you count 'All of them' as an honest answer and not an expression of total ignorance... Woods did offer to me that his favorite song of all time was 'Eye of the Tiger' and then he explained the pun with his name in case that could be missed. The most memorable thing about the interview was that it is the single time a publicist has asked to search me before I entered an interview room. Did he think I was dangerous? No, he wanted to make sure that I had no golf memorabilia on my person for Woods to sign..."

He refused to be searched.


Abowitz is known not only as the most knowledgeable journo in town, but for his taste for classic literature, self-revelatory writing about his fascinating life and obsessions and an ability to be totally immersed in Vegas culture while remaining somehow above it. He was one of many axed from The Las Vegas Weekly, a fake alt-weekly filled with leftover and expanded articles from Las Vegas Sun columnists like Jon Katsilometes and recycled blogwork from local hacks like New York Times stringer, Gay Vegas author, comp queen and concert promoter Steve Friess.

It's the LA Times cut that's the head-scratcher. The national paper with the most confusing, behind-the-times website must know that the Internet is where operations must move, and Abowitz' The Movable Buffet blog was not only one of the first LA Times blogs but among the most distinctive and informative in the entire business. Idiots.

We first corresponded with Abowitz after he commented on our initial coverage of the Danny Gans death mystery (he suggested that we were insane), and after a series of collegial and thoughtful exchanges (unlike the hysterical attacks from Friess), we count Abowitz as a Tabloid Baby pal.

Now that he's gone solo, we're glad to see the compromised Friess has a competitor in the Las Vegas blog arena-- and only urge that Abowitz get on that Danny Gans story!

Click here for Gold Plated Door.

Did his involvement in Vegas Jacko tribute get Steve Friess' producing partner fired from Jersey Boys?

Las Vegas Sun

Erich Bergen, who was the frontman and star of the Las Vegas Michael Jackson birthday tribute he produced along with Las Vegas blogger, New York Times stringer, Gay Vegas author and comp queen Steve Friess, has been fired from the Las Vegas production of Jersey Boys-- and in the words of one Vegas columnnist, caused a media "kerfuffle" in the process.

Bergen, who portrayed Four Season Bob Gaudio in the show at the Palazzo Hotel & Casino on the Strip, has turned himself into a Vegas personality, performing at the Liberace Museum (his version of Britney Spears' "I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman" is a YouTube staple), and then going national with his flogging of the “Michael Jackson’s Untimely Death Was The Best Thing That Could Ever Have Happened to Michael Jackson’s Music Show” while his partner Friess stayed in the shadows.


His surprise axeing was reported in the Las Vegas Sun and in an angry Twitter from Friess' BFF, beauty queen-turned-TV entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs:

I am SO FURIOUS! Just heard that my friend.
ERICH BERGEN was "let go"
from JERSEY BOYS!
Told not 2 return from his vacation!
Wow. BIG MISTAKE

When respected Las Vegas writer Richard Abovitz Los Angeles Times blog item expressed wonderment over such a fuss over a common cast change in an ensemble Vegas show, a supporting player at that, Freiss responded with a tantrum on his own Vegas blog.

Oddly, Friess, who claimed loudly that the mysterious overdose death of Vegas headliner Danny Gans was not a story worthy of investigating or reporting, claims that the departure of a supporting castmember of an ensemble show is actually big news:

"... it's odd to me that Abowitz overlooks the fact that Erich's name has been in the papers for most of the time he's been in Vegas, an unusual feat for even the stars of shows with more singular performers. He's been pivotal in turning the Liberace Museum's showroom into a hip place for young Strip talent to jam, he raised $103,000+ less than a month ago for Las Vegas schoolkids in a show that drew massive amounts of international news coverage and he was the mouthpiece for 'Jersey Boys' only a fortnight ago on one of the most-watched TV shows of the summer.

"When someone makes a name for themselves, we call them celebrities. And when celebrities are summarily dismissed from the jobs that made them celebrities, the public is understandably curious. Fame + Controversy = Newsworthiness. Is it really that baffling?"

The pompous use of the word "fortnight" notwithstanding, Friess neglects to address the elephant in the room: whether Bergen got the axe because of his association with Friess and his involvement in the controversial exploitation of Michael Jackson's death.

We've emailed Friess. He has yet to respond.


(Fame + Controversy = Newsworthiness? Unless it's Danny Gans, we suppose...)

Steve Friess sends us a photo of himself. We think he's in love with us in a gay way. Meanwhile, the Danny Gans mystery is entering its FIFTH week.

Someone sent us a nice photo of Steve Friess (left) and you won't believe who!

The Las Vegas civics-boosting, casino-beholden comp queen, Gay Vegas ("Vegas as a queer fantasyland? You bet!") author and freelance writer attacked us in public a few weeks ago when we emailed him privately to ask why no local journalists were investigating the mysterious death of Strip superstar Danny Gans... he tried to have our site shut down when we ran his photo... he actively attempted to stop us from covering the Danny Gans story in collusion with his "husband" the executive producer of Gans' close friend and legend spinner, beauty queen-turned-TV entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs... and he admitted being involved in a conspiracy to spread false rumours about Danny Gans' death simply to throw us off the scent.

He threatened and harassed us every time we ran a picture of him or his "husband," so for weeks, we've been using facsimiles whenever we run a story on Steve Friess, while asking you to please send us in a nice Steve Friess photo so we don't have to keep using shots of Paul Lynde, Liberace, Peter Allen, Charles Nelson Reilly or Richard Deacon.

And now someone has sent us a photo and giving us her blessing to use it:

Steve Friess.

We're not making this up. We got an email at the Tabloid Baby office this afternoon from stevefriess@aol.com, titled "a gift from me to you."

We were hoping it was the Danny Gans toxicology report, but it was this note:

"I know you've been wanting an authorized photo. And I happened to see a cool little show last night at the Liberace Museum and they happened to have a Tussaud's wax figure on loan there. So here you are. Use it to your nasty conspiratorial irrelevant gay-baiting/hating heart's desire. Sorry it's a little blurry, my camera's not behaving right these days."

...and this photo:


We thought, hey, Steve Friess has a sense of humour! Until we saw that he'd x-rayed our heart and concluded that we are gay-baiting and hating! Then our note of appreciation was returned because Steve's blocked our email access and ability to reply! It seems that Steve Friess gives, but he won't receive (and to think we took him for a power bottom!)

What is it with this guy?

We think we've figured it out. Either Steve was on an amyl nitrate poppers bender, deep in a K-hole or had too many Cosmos when he sent the giddy email-- or he's flirting with us because he loves us. And in a gay way. Sorry, Miles, but the evidence is there. The teasing comments... the insults... the photos!

We only wish the little minx would spend more time looking into the Danny Gans case and less time bothering us.

Tomorrow begins Week 5 of the Danny Gans mystery and no one, in the Las Vegas news media from the rootin' tootin' Review-Journal editor in the cowboy drag to Richard Abowitz, Steve's competitor at the Las Vegas Weekly, gives a hoot. We'd figure today's issue of the "alternative" weekly might at least mention the fact that the promised two-to-four week wait for toxicology tests on Gans is now four to twelve weeks, but instead we get more Gans tribute-- and this time it's a week old.

Abowitz, the hipster Penn Jillette fan who publicly called us insane for asking questions about the Gans case before the officials hand over the answers, has taken an elite public stand against deigning to touch the Gans story, so it was surprising to see him in the Weekly this morning with a piece on the Gans memorial that took place a week ago, and not only buying but promulgating the evangelist Christian idea that the angels simply carried away a great man:

"Gans... believed in immortality and eternity. He just never thought they came from a performance on a Vegas stage. But according to his preacher, Gans felt eternity came from his religion and how he lived his life up until the last of it no matter how long or brief."

Four weeks of hosannas. What would Penn Jillette think? When's someone in Vegas going to pick up one of the threads in the story of the year? With every passing week, it's more evident that the Vegas media is not only lying down on this story, they're bending over. Sorry, Steve. There we go again.

Danny Gans photo: Las Vegas Sun

Gans memorial will go on with no answers about what caused his untimely death at 52; Vegas journos waste column inches questioning public invites

The memorial tribute to Danny Gans will go on at the Encore Theatre later this afternoon without most people having any idea of what caused the gifted musical impressionist to die suddenly at age 52. A spokeswoman for the Clark County Coroner's Office told TabloidBaby.com minutes ago that the results of toxicology reports on the late superstar are "still pending," and suggested that they won't be known until early next week, "after the holiday" at the earliest.

As a footnote we'd like to point out that our team members have spoken to several spokeswoman for the coroner in the past week or so, and to a person they have been more than professional: courteous, helpful and charming. This is not a fawning note-- they really do stand out.

What also stands out is the attitude of more than one Las Vegas columnist when it comes to the free tickets to today's Gans memorial that were handed out to members of the public. We were astounded yesterday when comp queen and Vegas writer Steve Friess (left) called the idea "strange," and referred to the ordinary folk who'd attend the tribute as "seatfillers" as if they were paid stand-ins who fill in empty seats at award shows to make the room look full. We saw it as smart and generous way to allow the common man to pay tribute to the Everyman superstar (limited seating, great demand, makes sense)-- especially after the panic over the public storming the gates at the event or his secret funeral.

Yet today, two Las Vegas print columnists also mock the idea. Richard Abowitz, who writes the Vegas blog for the Los Angeles Times and has maintained a noticeable hands-off policy with the Gans story ("I have tried to write as little as possible about Gans' passing. Right now the death investigation is awaiting a toxicology report and then we will know better if we are discussing a John Ritter or a Heath Ledger death or something else. Whatever the cause, the facts are that the father of three is dead and the show is closed. Those are the two facts that matter most in Vegas, and no future information will alter them.") posts today:

"I assume trying to cajole volunteers to come to the memorial at Encore is being done to create a full house for the cameras and media covering this tribute to Gans. 'Free Comp tickets are currently available for Danny Gans Memorial Thursday afternoon at Wynn,' the e-mails read. Has anyone ever heard of being comped to a memorial service before?"

Even Mike Weatherford of the Las Vegas Review-Journal took time to question the gesture:

"...It was quite a surprise to see one of the daily blasts offering a complimentary ticket to the Danny Gans memorial service today at Encore.

"Well, it's not a surprise in one sense. ShowTickets4Locals is co-owned by the late impressionist's manager, Chip Lightman. But it did raise questions of why they needed to 'paper' a service that had been characterized as an invitation-only gathering of family and friends?

"'It was not an effort to fill the house,' says Gans' publicist, Laura Herlovich. Rather, 'Danny was very active in a lot of community things,' and this was part of the outreach to include some 'regular' fans and locals in the memorial. Tickets also were given to firefighters and police officers, she said..."

These Vegas journos think differently than the rest of us beyond the desert. Of all the things to write about in the case of Danny Gans, this gets them to their word processors.

The Las Vegas Sun? John Katsilometes, who's backed way off from the Gans story since his Day One questions, jots off a quick column saying that today's memorial has got him listening to Paul McCartney and attending a family reunion.

Go figure.

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