Jason Wood died just like Danny Gans

Gay British musical impressionist Jason Wood died in his sleep under circumstances that are eerily similar to his straight Las Vegas counterpart, Danny Gans.

The BBC quotes the agent for the 38-year-old entertainer, known here as "the gay British Danny Gans," as declaring there were "no suspicious circumstances" surrounding his death on Saturday, and that it will take autopsy results to determine the cause.

Similar statements were made after Danny Gans died mysteriously in his sleep at age 52 on May 1st. Ultimately, the Las Vegas County coroner revealed that Gans had succumbed to an overdose of the powerful opiate hydromorphone, sold as Dilaudid and known as the "drugstore heroin."

Another bizarre similarity between the two deaths is the scant news coverage of Wood's sensational passing. The Las Vegas news media as a group refrained from investigating the circumstances of the life and death of the biggest star in their orbit. Likewise, British journos, who usually swarm over show business tragedies, have tiptoed around the story of a man who became a household word when he was the very first celebrity to be voted off the popular television reality show, Strictly Come Dancing (the UK version of Dancing with The Stars-- in another twist, Danny Gans produced the Las Vegas comeback of Donny Osmond, who won last season).

Surely worth a mention in the Daily Mail.

His agents Hannah Chambers and Sophie Church of Chambers Managements refused to offer any other details about the death.

They said in a joint statement:

"We are devastated by the loss of our client Jason Wood.

"He was an inspiring & individual performer who believed that 'variety' was the spice of life and whose wind ups were legendary.

"He was also a warm-hearted and caring man. We have lost a friend as well as a client and he will be truly missed."

Jason Wood had most recently been hosting a variety night at The Hospital Club, a private members' club and creative arts venue in London that was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, and whose celebrity members include Jude Law.

Katie Couric diddles while CBS News burns

While CBS News staffers clear out their desks or find themselves banned from entering the building during a week of bloody, unsparing layoffs for the once revered division, their field marshal, chief newsreader, celebrity and most highly-paid worker in television news, "Katie" Couric, plays Leon Helmsley for Harper's Bazaar magazine. The big powerful television news authority, national balm during times of emergency and crisis, using her blog words like "gussied up," "glamour puss" and "moi," playing make-up and dress-up like a spoiled little girl. In the words of the late Pauly Fuemana, how bizarre. Bad timing, anyone?

Tabloid Baby's 2009 Story of The Year

The Death of Danny Gans

The tragic, sudden death of Las Vegas Strip headliner Danny Gans in his bed on May 1st would seem to have closed the book on an unlikely, inspirational, only-in-America success story of a would-be Major League ballplayer who fell back on his natural charm and talents as an impressionist to become the biggest star in the entertainment capital’s history. The fact that Gans had supposedly finished his autobiography the day before he died, combined with the mystery surrounding the death of this sturdy, clean-living family man and the stubborn, bizarre refusal of the Las Vegas news media to investigate the police blotter incident meant that the story was only beginning to get underway.

Danny Gans was an enigma in Las Vegas, a Born Again Christian who shunned his fellow entertainers and was involved with an evangelical megachurch on the edge of town. He was an athlete and avid golfer whose history of physical injuries and missed shows led to whispers of steroid and painkiller abuse. He had just recently begun a residency at the new Wynn Encore resort in a theatre said to be “cursed” by failure.

Yet, after paramedics arrived to find Danny Gans lifeless in his bedroom, the Las Vegas news media—as a group—showed little interest in the story. They dutifully copied the paramedic and police reports, took quotes from Gans’ manager and fellow celebs, and, amid shock and surprise that Danny Gans would go anywhere near a drug, waited for the coroner’s report. When the coroner finally tiptoed around the conclusion that Gans had died due to an overdose of the powerful opiate hydromorphone (aka "drugstore heroin"), the news was reported, one local paper printed a doctor’s suggestion that he had swallowed a single, out-of-date tablet and the promised in-depth coverage never materialized. In subsequent months, news that Gans was part owner of a pharmacy, and that the pharmacy manufactured an erection pill and marketed it with the promise it would make the user “F*** like a pornstar” still failed to pique the curiosity or a responsibility of the Las Vegas news media.

As facts dribbled out, the official story slowly morphed into something new. The entertainer who would never go near a drug only took the drugs he was prescribed If he was on steroids, it was to help his ravaged vocal cords. If his company sold a porn-promising erection pill, he didn't know about it.

Chip Lightman in The Las Vegas Sun, 12.23.09

Most recently, Gans’ manager spoke with the Las Vegas Sun and contradicted the official version of Gans’ death that the news media had accepted as gospel. Chip Lightman claimed that he had been phoned by Gans’ wife Julie at 3:15 a.m. on May 1st— a half hour before she dialed 911— and that she told him Gans had been dead "a couple of hours.”

We don’t expect the Las Vegas news media to find this latest twist newsworthy either.

We do see the Danny Gans story as the great, unexamined story of 2009, one that encompasses show business, corporate America, religion, sports, Las Vegas’ economic woes, the casino industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the justice system, hypocricy— and the sad state of American journalism.

By our count, Tabloid Baby has posted 137 Danny Gans-related stories.

Journalist of The Year:
Steve Freiss
Mystery of The Year:
What ever happened to Down Charleston Blvd?
Top Trend:
Dying

The Review-Journal's #6 local story of 2009

"Throughout the paper today you'll find our annual Top 10 lists --
top news, top sports, top business and entertainment.
It is that time of year. Time to reflect on the past
and contemplate its lessons for the coming New Year."

--Thomas Mitchell, Las Vegas Review-Journal editor

Around a week before the end of every year, newspapers fill space left vacant by vacationing reporters with the year's Top 10 lists, ranging from notable deaths to top stories-- lists almost always written even farther in advance of the end of the year, and always missing some major passing or event that takes place in the weeks after the space-filler was written.

The Las Vegas-Review Journal is no exception. This morning's Sunday edition would have gone directly into the fireplace, if not for a bizarre anomaly among its list of the Top 10 Local Stories of 2009: The #6 story is one they barely covered and never investigated!

Yes,

6. DANNY GANS DIES

"Impressionist Danny Gans had been a fixture on Las Vegas marquees for more than a decade when his wife found him unconscious and not breathing in their bed in the early morning hours of May 1.

"Despite the efforts of his wife and paramedics to revive him, the 52-year-old never regained consciousness.

"Entertainers and fans mourned Gans, who had just begun a run at Encore after eight years at The Mirage, while medical examiners tried to determine what killed the star.

"Five weeks later, the coroner's office blamed the accidental death on a combination of heart and blood diseases along with a powerful prescription painkiller used to treat chronic pain, hydromorphone. Gans had battled a painful chronic shoulder injury that required surgery five months earlier."

Odd that editor and McCloud impersonator Thomas Mitchell, (who doffed his Stetson in respect to the holidays and womenfolk for this edition) would choose for the Top 10 a story that his rootin' tootin' team avoided covering or investigating in such a deliberate and embarrassing manner. The paper's obvious complicity in a coverup was even made public when the Review-Journal's publisher, Stephens Media, made a deal with Gans' family within a week of the local superstar's death to publish his autobiography!


Odd as well that "The King of Pop"-- the death of Michael Jackson --would rank two slots above Gans' death on the list. Not only was Jacko's passing an international story, but the initial coverage in the hours and days after he died showed how good, hardworking journos can investigate and answer questions about a celebrity's (and in Gans' case, business and religious leader) unexplained death without having to wait for a coroner to sort out the official story-- in direct contrast to the lax coverage of Gans' death led by Mitchell and his crew.

In the Las Vegas media, the Danny Gans story was the great unexplored story of 2009, and for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, whose publisher Stephens Media made a deal with Gans' family days after the tragedy to publish his autobiography, the great conflict of interest and missed opportunity.


From the morning Gans' death was announced by his manager Chip Lightman and boss Steve Wynn, the Review-Journal (and other local media outlets) remained at a distance from the story, as if the unexplained death of a seemingly healthy, athletic, prominent Born Again Christian family man who was a decade-long major economic force and most unique Vegas showman was somehow a private matter that did not even warrant a chat with the responding paramedics.

Just click here and peruse the past seven months of Tabloid Baby coverage to get an idea of the Review-Journal and cowboy editor Thomas Mitchell's crimes of omission.

So why would it make the Top 10?

And then we get to that problem of compiling Top 10 lists while there are still weeks left in the year, because the Review-Journal's neat encapsulation of the story misses the latest, explosive chapter: Lightman's recent interview, in the "competing" Las Vegas Sun, in which he contradicts the official timeline of what occurred on the morning of May 1st and opens the door to the possibility of a new inquest and investigation.

It was a timeline that the Review-Journal took at face value. It will be interesting to see whether the journalists at the paper will follow this latest lead, or if the Review-Journal is even in business to compile next yar's Top 10 list.

Jacko

It’s got to be thirty years, since the death of John Lennon, that we’ve gotten into the car and turned on the radio to hear the music of a single artist on every station. In the past 24 hours, the selection of Michael Jackson songs across the dial has been awe-inspiring and emotional.

We grew up with Michael Jackson’s music, can remember the first time we heard I Want You Back bursting out of the car radio speakers, saw The Jackson 5 on the Ed Sullivan Show. and his world-stopping performance at the Motown 25th Anniversary special on CBS. But that was long ago, and by the time the tabloid television industry was launched and moving into its heyday in the late 1980s, Michael Jackson’s glory days were behind him and he was descending into a kind of public madness that was not only tolerated but in many ways encouraged until August 7, 1993, the day he stepped onto a jetliner to embark on a concert tour in another part of the planet the very day that police in Los Angeles began investigating a thirteen-year-old-boy’s allegations that the self-proclaimed king of pop had molested him during a four-month romance. That was the day all the Home Alone with McCauley Culkin comedy segments, Elephant Man parodies and plastic surgery jokes stopped being funny and the Michael Jackson story became a crime story.


Now he was Jacko, and for the next ten years, as he paid off a pack of pubescent circle jerk buddies and sank deeper into a drug-addled seclusion that was as obvious and unspoken as the paedophilia traits of the past decade, Michael Jackson wasn’t funny any more.

We heard all the stories. We had all the information that we couldn’t air. And when a vengeful prosecutor who couldn’t get the god the first time managed to arrest and try Jacko for child abuse in 2003, everything was fair game.

But it wasn’t. The Jacko molestation case ended our editor’s sideline as a cable news television “talking head.”

“I was sitting in some satellite studio with an IFB in my ear and a monitor in the corner, arguing with some woman in New York over what Michael Jackson had been doing behind closed doors at Neverland," he recalled today. "During the commercial break I realized I didn’t know what the f*** I was talking about. I didn’t know what went on behind those closed doors. Neither did the woman I was arguing with. We were filling time.”

One tabloid television veteran made Jacko’s prosecution her industry, and while serving as a supposedly unbiased television reporter, twisted every line and repeated every rumour fed from the DA in a determined drive to put Jacko behind bars.

When the prosecutor couldn’t get a conviction, her career, for all intents and purposes, ended.

Jacko’s story is dark and because of his bizarre life, overdose death and molestation accusations, the celebrations and vigils that have carried on into a second day seem slightly twisted. Unless you concentrate on the music-- or discard the factoids that have become facts over the years, and reason that, in the words of a tabloid television godfather, Jacko is “the most maligned, persecuted and slandered person in our time.”

The world circus that's only just getting underway is the perfect tribute and one Jacko would appreciate. It's bound to exceed that of John Paul II. This is bigger than Elvis, who was considered a has been when he keeled over and didn’t even make the lead of CBS News. Already the conspiracy rumours are out there—that it’s an impersonator who died on Carolwood Drive, and that the real Jacko hightailed it to Bahrain to get out of those fifty concerts at the O2 Arena.

Sad day

Michael Jackson

Oh, what a bad day this has turned out to be, and in the TabloidBaby world, the bad news comes in threes with genuine sadness over the death this morning of Farrah Fawcett, the release, due to our diligence, of the 911 tape of Danny Gans' wife calling in to report her husband wasn't breathing, and this afternoon, the bizarre news that Michael Jackson had dropped dead.

Danny Gans

In vast contrast to Gans' overdose death, the circumstances of Jacko untimely, if not entirely surprising, passing is already being combed for every detail, with reports of the paramedics' attempts to revive him and a family spokesman already shouting loud and clear that like Elvis before him, Jacko was abusing prescription drugs and being supplied with the killing medication by "everyone around him." Gans, who was as big a star as any in Las Vegas, should have gotten the same respect and treatment from his local media.

As for Jacko, whatever circus surrounds his death and funeral, he surely deserves and will appreciate it.

Breakdown Pt II: Vegas writer who attacked us for questioning Review-Journal’s Gans reporting lapse hits paper for same failure in Senator sex story!

We don’t mean to harp on compromised Las Vegas writer, comp queen and New York Times freelancer Steve Friess (we wouldn't harp on him at all if he hadn't attacked us first and then kept it up), but the signs of the name-caller's public breakdown are getting more obvious and deserve attention.

Now the man who accused us of being tabloid “vermin” and "a**holes" for asking why the Las Vegas Review-Journal was not providing any new reportage two days after the tragic, unexplained death of Danny Gans, is criticizing the Review-Journal for the very same failure in the seamy tabloid story of Senator John Ensign’s adulterous affair!

The same criticism? It's bizarre. It's troubling.

On May 3rd, we wrote:

“…The Las Vegas newspapers and national gossip and magazine media continue to troll for star tributes to the Vegas-only star, while none has yet published a follow-up on the breaking news story…his morning, there's a news vacuum regarding the death of Danny Gans-- which is odd, considering the talk around town.

“If we were running Las Vegas newspapers we'd be running fresh stories on Day Three."

Today, Friess writes on his Vegas-boosting blog:

“I did have to make a quick note that the Review-Journal, on only the third day of the John Ensign sex scandal, used the Associated Press' report on its front page and had no staff-generated material on the drama other than a 360-word commentary by columnist John L. Smith.

“That is really strange… the R-J had nothing at all to report today?”

It's all too easy to call Friess a blatant hypocrite. We fear it's something much worse. Like Susan Boyle, he appears to be crumbling under the pressure of public scrutiny.

This morning, we pointed out that Friess had dedicated his shameful and outlandish defense of the local media’s coverup of Strip superstar Danny Gans' drug overdose death to us.

We should note that the lead to Freiss’ Ensign story is again directed toward TabloidBaby.com:

“I've laid off on the local media criticism in this space for a while in part because I've learned what it's like to have some half-cocked nutjob misread and distort every little thing that happens and/or that you do.”

Again with the name-calling.


We also note that although Steve Friess and his cohorts have insisted that our coverage of the Gans overdose and criticism of the local media have been “discredited” and have gone unnoticed in Las Vegas, he has been referring to our site constantly and, sources say, is very worried about the consequences of his involvement in the media coverup.

We find it all very worrisome. The entire TabloidBaby.com staff wish Steve Friess the best, and hopes that his second unofficial husband, KVBC News executive producer Miles Smith, gets him the help he so obviously needs.

"Denied. No surprise." Prying? Or lying? Las Vegas Review-Journal editor can't wait to close the books on the Danny Gans story he can't tell

LAS VEGAS - “It was not a well-kept secret among his friends. We all knew Danny Gans was a drug addict.”

A source within the newsroom of the Las Vegas Review-Journal was talking this weekend about the case the newspaper staff was not allowed to investigate.

“And no one was surprised by the coroner’s announcement. But he was really cool. Because it wasn’t a homicide, all he had to do was list what killed him. Who knew what cocktail Danny was on when he died?

“Tabloid Baby was spot on. Every time. You had it right every step of the way. But our hands were tied. None of his friends or coworkers would go on the record. They were afraid they'd lose their jobs. And Steve Wynn was putting so much pressure on the paper…”

If it’s difficult to be a journalist at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, imagine how hard it must be to be the editor, knowing his stature diminishes a bit every time he’s forced by outside pressures to make it seem as if the paper’s crack investigative reporting team is trying its hardest to bring “justice” in the untimely death of the Las Vegas Strip headliner, while everyone who works for him knows he’s settling back comfortably after dodging a bullet from advertisers and casino magnates whose boots he licks.

Long tall Tom “McCloud” Mitchell, the Review-Journal’s fussily mustachioed Stetson-sporting editor, kept his reporters away from the Gans story for 39 full days, making any reporting— and it turns out investigation— off limits, beyond laudatory comments from the likes of Steve Rossi— until the Clark County coroner found a way to acceptably cloud the cause of death that everyone in town knew was fait accompli. (On May 13th, we reported that Review-Journal reporters and editors believed Danny Gans succumbed to painkillers; on May 25th, Marshal Mitchell called us "anonymous plagiarizing gnats.")

Seems the unwritten rule at the Review-Journal is that a reporter waits obediently for the public officials to hand him a statement, then gets to work and asks politely for more crumbs. When the crumbs are denied, the reporter must throw his hands in the air and walk away.

In the case of the Dilaudid overdose of Danny Gans, controversial Clark County coroner Mike Murphy took 39 days to come up with a delicately-parsed explanation of the clean-living entertainer’s death that threw up the admission that Gans had died “accidentally” from a “toxic reaction” the powerful opiate also known as hydromorphone, while pointedly leaving out all other details and refusing to answer other questions, including the amount of the “drug store heroin” found in the tissue samples, whether Gans had needle marks on his body, who prescribed the drug, or what other drugs-- including steroids-- were in Gans’ tissues.

Change the headline

After reporting the very controversial findings, the Review-Journal did its part in helping the coroner explain away the many unanswered questions-- and change the headline at the time, "Findings in death of Danny Gans leave questions," by digging up a local doctor who claimed he’d prescribed Dilaudid to Gans five years ago.

The doctor’s, and by association, the Review-Journal’s official, “magic bullet” theory: Gans had stumbled upon the old bottle in his medicine cabinet on May 1st, inadvertently popped a Dilaudid or two and died.

The effect of the tall tale, titled “DOCTOR SAYS DANNY GANS WOULDN’T ABUSE DRUGS,” worked as intended: newspapers around the world picked up the story and a new factoid was added to the Danny Gans death coverup:

Associated Press:
Doctor: I wrote prescription for Danny Gans’ drug

MSNBC.com:
Doctor: I wrote prescription for Danny Gans

Honolulu Advertiser, San Jose Mercury News:
Doctor says Vegas entertainer Danny Gans had old prescription

Behind the scenes, Las Vegas Review-Journal reporters know better. Legendary tough-talking columnist John L. Smith expressed his skepticism yesterday in the buried blog section of the paper’s website:

“I’ve received a number of calls from people who claim Gans wasn’t always the clean-living guy his friends have described in the days since his death.”

“A number of calls?” Surely, the calls had begun long before the coroner’s press conference on Tuesday.

Surely, the tough guy columnist followed up on them.

Surely, he and the rest of the Review-Journal news team had been gathering information and following up on leads all along, ready to publish them as soon as the coroner had his say. Few stories in the so-called Sin City could be juicier than that of the secret double life of a charismatic, enigmatic star who built a reputation and industry on an anti-Vegas, holier-than-thou evangelical Christianity and family values ticket.

"Denied. No surprise."

We’d hoped that the Review-Journal would finally show its hand with a big spread in today’s Sunday edition.

It did not.


Instead, there was an “opinion” piece from editor Tom “McCloud” Mitchell, essentially a reprint of a blog post from earlier this week, in which he actually declares the Gans case to be closed, and makes it seem that once again, his investigation is being stymied by the coroner.

It should be noted that McCloud’s columns are usually accompanied by this photo:


Here is the editor's photo for this particular whopper:


Notice that Tom Mitchell is not wearing his cowboy hat, most probably because he realizes his column violates Tenet #3 of The Cowboy Code:

“He must always tell the truth.”

The column is entitled:

We pry because the dead can't speak for themselves

“The day after the coroner announced that the death of impressionist/singer Danny Gans was accidental, the Review-Journal received a reply to our public records request for Gans’ toxicology report. 

No surprise. Denied.”


Tom Mitchell explains that coroner “cited a 1982 opinion from then-Attorney General Dick Bryan” that maintains the confidentiality of medical records beyond the grave. He describes the decision as “bizarre,” “fashioned out of vagaries and sleight of hand,” and adds:

“…The living can speak for themselves. No one can really speak for the dead.

 Nothing against the coroner’s conclusion in the Gans case, but if the toxicology report were allowed to be inspected by an independent medical examiner, might not another opinion be found? Now the case in closed. No one, so far as we will ever know, will be found culpable or contributory. 

Gans can’t speak for himself. Who will?”

“No surprise… denied” is disturbingly similar to brings to mind the "The word is… No word”, the LVRJ lead of June 4th, when the paper wrote that the coroner still had no answers to Gans’ mysterious death, and that the Review-Journal would wait patiently until he did.

On Tuesday, Tom Mitchell sent a reporter to a news conference, reported what the coroner said, sent in the standard request for the complete report, was turned down and now wipes his hands of the matter. As far as he's concerned, the story’s over.

"We pry."

You pried?

“Now the case is closed. No one… will be found culpable or contributory.”

Now the case is closed?

”Gans can’t speak for himself. Who will?”

Who will?

The case is never closed as long as a journalist keeps it open (we learned that from those third-rate burglaries at that office-apartment-hotel complex hotel in Foggy Bottom back in ’72).

Who will speak for Danny Gans?

That’s your job, Tom.

You pried?

You didn't pry. You and the rest of the Las Vegas news media transcribed, paralyzed by the notion that it was somehow improper to pry until the coroner announced his official finding. Once that happened, you asked, but didn't tell.

The case is closed? Not by a longshot. There’s another major revelation about Danny Gans that we know you and your reporters know about.

Bet we beat you to it.

Tomorrow.

Las Vegas writer Steve Friess finds it "strange" that ordinary folk are being invited to Danny Gans' memorial

Steve Friess, the Las Vegas comp queen, Gay Vegas author and Vegas freelance writer to the world, has finally discovered something "strange" in the case of the death of Danny Gans-- and it's the fact that ordinary Las Vegans are being invited to Gans' memorial service.

We reported this morning that at least one Las Vegas ticket service was inviting Gans' neighbors to celebrate his life in the 3 p.m. show at the Encore Theatre, and we described it as a "nice gesture to Gans' hometown fans."

Friess, whose story in the Las Vegas Weekly a week after Gans' death opened with him and his "husband" in bed, wondering "who's going to care" about Gans' passing, copied our report on his blog this afternoon and referred to the regular folks as "seatfillers."

Seatfillers.

He writes:

"I find this a bit strange.

"Isn't that a little odd and awkward? I mean, is someone concerned about the room not looking quite full enough? It's a memorial -- in fact, it's been referred to in various media accounts as a 'private; memorial -- not a show or a popularity contest. They sent out all these invitations to friends, family, media folk, etc. It's nice that they're opening it up to the public, I suppose, but then they're not really. You have to have tickets..."

How out of touch is this guy?

Friess' concern with the unwashed mixing with the Vegas elite (treating them like people hired at an awards show to fill in empty seats to make the room seem full) seems bizarre in light of the fact that Friess insisted publicly that Gans' death was not worth of reportage because he was such a regular guy. His obsession with being part of the "in crowd," however, may explain his crusade to prevent this news organization from covering the Gans death mystery. His public tantrum, which included name-calling, an attempt to shut down this site, and as he admitted in an email, helping concoct false rumours connecting Wayne Newton and Mayor Oscar Goodman to Gans' death (see kvbcsecrets@yahoo.com and ask for Anony Mouse), was apparently connected to the fact that his "husband" is executive producer of Alicia Jacobs, the beauty queen-turned-TV reporter and longtime Gans chum who was the first journo to be notified of his death and has been a determined promoter of his legend ever since.


"Miles shook me awake last Friday at about 7:30 a.m.

“'I need you to wake up,' he said. 'You need to get up. Now.'

"I was confused. I’d told him I didn’t need to be up until 8. But he looked grave.

“'Danny Gans died in his sleep this morning,' he said.

"My bleary look gave way to a puzzled one. It was the only reaction to such strange and awful news. How does a 52-year-old health nut die in his sleep?

"Here are my first and second comments, in this order: 'Oh, that’s so sad.' Then, after a long pause: 'But I wonder who’s going to care.'

"Yes, that sounds cold. But I meant—and Miles got it immediately—who in the national media will recognize this passing as a significant story? That’s my job and to some extent my function in this community, to determine what of the local news rises to the level of broader significance and interest, and which publication is going to want me to document it..."

Friess, who had a story appear in the New York Times that day (it was about a plastic surgery convention) apparently paid the price for his ignorance about what makes a national story. The New York Times was one national news organization that wanted the story, and today the biggest story of his career was the subject of a New York Times feature by Dan Barry.

(Note: Steve Friess threatens us any time we use an actual picture of him,
so we have to improvise...)

UPDATE: Steve Friess sent us an email: "The NYT has cut back dramatically in all areas as it struggles to avert bankruptcy and is not taking any freelance for their arts coverage. I'm in fine stead with the sections of the Times I write for regularly and have several new assignments at this time. Thanks for your heartfelt concern."

Steve cut off our ability to reply to her emails so we'll reply here: "The New York Times story wasn't an 'arts' story but a news feature in the Times' National section. And if the Times is going bankrupt, it can thank freelancers like you who wouldn't know a story if it bit him on his big spanked ass!"

The New York Times runs a condescending feature on Danny Gans and gets it wrong about "hyperventilating bloggers"

"...Although the Clark County Coroner’s Office
has yet to reveal the cause of death
of one Daniel Davies Gans,
hyperventilating bloggers continue to swap
dark speculations about depression, and on and on..."

The New York Times, which ran an obituary for the Las Vegas headliner Danny Gans after his death on May 1, runs with a feature story today on Gans' influence in Las Vegas, before and after his death.

The bippityboppity, bemused, finger-snapping Vegas riffing by writer Dan Barry begins with a wink to hipster New York Times readers by placing Danny Gans squarely in the square, C-level strata of show business losers--

"The dozens of framed photographs that once lined the backstage walls are stacked now on the floor. Danny Gans with Kevin Costner. Danny Gans with Sly Stallone. Danny Gans with Florence Henderson. Danny Gans with Morey Amsterdam. So many celebrities, all wearing that camera-ready grin... Danny Gans, a man famous for not being all that famous..."

--and carries on its condescending, smirking tone before touching on the reality of what his passing at age 52 means to the city and his loved ones:

"He also leaves his wife and three children; more than a dozen employees in need of work; a darkened casino theater in need of acts; and a surreal city struggling with the reality of a hit to its economy and psyche.

"It may seem strange that one man — an impressionist, of all people — could have such an impact, but you have to understand the loss in Vegas terms. This wasn’t just anybody who died; this was Danny Gans.

"The city fairly shouted his name, from massive billboards, from the tops of hundreds of taxis, from the lips of all those cabdrivers and casino workers he courted over the years. When visitors asked what’s a good show to see, 10-to-1 the cabbie would say, Danny Gans."

Dan Barry gets some of it wrong in Vegas's Man of Many Voice Falls Silent, spinning the false report that Danny Gans ended his last show with Bobby Darin's The Curtain Falls into something totally confusing ("Three weeks ago, Mr. Gans closed his show with his Apollo Theater tribute, which threw the band off a little because lately he had been ending by singing 'The Curtain Falls'..."), accepting as fact an apocryphal comment about nonexistent "hyperventilating bloggers swapping dark speculations about depression" (the only depression story was floated by Mike Weatherford of the Las Vegas Review Journal), and in the end, glossing over the most interesting facts of the story in order to gloat over the image of Danny Gans as a show business freak in a story that's more performance piece than thought piece:

"Mr. Gans was a show business anomaly, with no movie or television career to speak of and a long-ago one-man show on Broadway that lasted a week. Still, when he died he was grossing $18 million a year as a sure bet to lure people into the casinos that hired him, which is what it’s all about..."

"Danny Gans soon became more famous in death than in life, as a familiar local story went international: How he turned to entertainment after an injury ended his baseball career; how Las Vegas allowed him to stop traveling; how he was a devout Christian and family man who raised millions for local charities.

"But this is Las Vegas. Although the Clark County Coroner’s Office has yet to reveal the cause of death of one Daniel Davies Gans, hyperventilating bloggers continue to swap dark speculations about depression, and on and on..."

"(Chip) Lightman, Mr. Gans’s manager, cringes at all the gossip and hollow sentiment... These days the manager is trying to find jobs for the band members, the sound and lighting crew, the theater ushers and others who depended on one man for a living. He is also working on getting the book and DVD out, which would be a good thing, because in less than three weeks that once-ubiquitous name has all but disappeared from the Strip."

Tellingly, the Gans feature was not written by the Times Las Vegas stringer Steve Friess, who severely damaged his credibility by participating in spreading false rumours about Gans' death in his effort to stonewall the investigation by this news team.

Unfortunately, in his effort to be cooler-than-thou and paint Las Vegas as a mentally retarded cultural backwater and Danny Gans as a bizarre subcultural entity, the New York Times reporter who did cover the story obviously didn't move much farther than the Encore Hotel for his quotes and observations, and came no closer to explaining why Vegas' own news media has exhibited such a lack of curiosity about the tragedy.

Coroner's office reports great interest in Danny Gans death mystery-- but not from the local Las Vegas news media

There is major interest-- and at least one offer of a bribe-- in finding out what caused the death of beloved Las Vegas Strip headliner Danny Gans-- though most all the interest and activity is from out-of-town journalists.

A charming and lovely spokeswoman for the Clark County Coroner told Tabloid Baby minutes ago that the toxicology report that's expected to reveal what caused the supposedly healthy Christian ex-athlete's heart to stop in his sleep at the age of 52, three months into a long-term contract at Steve Wynn's Wynn Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, "is still pending."

Then she added: "Are you the one who offered me money yesterday?"

"No!"

"Are you sure?"

"Sure I'm sure," said TabloidBaby's reporter, phoning from Los Angeles. "Did someone offer you money for the report?"

"Somebody offered $500. I thought it was you because you said you were from Los Angeles and you spoke to me yesterday."

"Well, $500 is nothing. They should offer you more."

"That's illegal."

"Is there a lot of interest in this case?"

"Of course!" she replied.

"Well, people from Las Vegas tell us that no one cares."

"It's all from you guys. All you guys in Los Angeles. I don't know why."

"Well, Danny Gans is a very important and unique figure in entertainment."

"You guys must have more gossip to report."

The words of the coroner's delightful and helpful spokeswoman were a good reflection of the attitude among the Las Vegas media, which have ignored the story, or in at least one case, started up false rumours in an attempt to questions from being raised. In her moving tribute to her close platonic friend Danny Gans, beauty queen turned entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs also hailed the restraint of the local-- national -- news media-- and for not pursuing any of the down-and-dirty details of the shocking death of the supposedly healthy and vital 52-year-old athletic Christian family man:

"With a few exceptions, I am very proud of the local & national media...they have given Danny’s family & friends some time to try & catch our collective breath. Soon enough, we will have the answers. Until that time, it seems almost tabloid-like to make assumptions & entertain rumors. (believe me, I think I’ve heard just about all of them.) It is my feeling that barring something completely bizarre, the story of Danny Gans has been told. His cause of death will be nothing more than a footnote on his Wikipedia page.

"The story of Danny Gans’ unlikely career & enormous success, against most odds, is far more interesting & inspiring than a coroner's report..."

While a reading of our reportage in the case would show we are not making assumptions nor entertaining rumours, we applaud Alicia Jacobs' grace in acknowledging that in the end it will be impossible to cover up the cause of this untimely death.

We do take issue with her pride in the failure of the Las Vegas news media. We don't expect much from the local news stations like the one she works for, but when it comes to newspapers in their own death throes, we would expect that they'd dedicate their resources to the most important and talked-about story in town.

The fact that they did not is made obvious on the Danny Gans "Hot Topics" page on the Las Vegas Review-Journal website, which shows just what the paper has not investigated or told its readers, and how it has deliberately stifled interest in story that holds far more national appeal than they'd admit. The page lists the stories it's printed about Danny Gans since his death:

May 01: Las Vegas entertainer, 52, dies at home;
foul play not suspected
May 01: Entertainers, celebrities offer memories of Gans
May 02: 'HE CAN'T BE REPLACED'
May 02: DANNY GANS: CELEBRITY MEMORIES
May 02: NORM: Gans' final act leaves mystery
May 03: NORM: Gans has final word in life story
May 04: NORM: Gans friends share feelings, memories
May 06: NORM: Mourners gather for Gans' funeral
May 08: NORM: Gans service to be invitation only
(contains retraction of May 02 story)
May 08: EDITORIAL: Danny Gans
May 10: NORM: Heart problems in Gans' family
May 14: NORM: Insurance issue
May 14: MIKE WEATHERFORD: Gans was 'down in the dumps'
before death
May 14: Coroner awaits facts to reveal cause of Gans' death

"Norm" is show biz gossip columnist Norm Clarke. Pointedly, the paper did not list the May 8th Norm report that the Review-Journal's publisher made a deal to publish Gans' autobiography. It also fails to mention, nor did editors assign a news reporter to investigate, Norm's explosive May 14 report (we added it) that "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."

The Hot Topic also links to a blog from the Review-Journal editor Thomas Mithcell, posted on May 2nd, the day after Gans' death. Mitchell praises his newsteam for its handling of the breaking Gans story:

"...On Friday, I felt like a kid peeping through a knothole in a fence watching a well-oiled construction team go about its job of building an excellent newspaper.

"By the time I got online that morning there was already a message from business reporter Howard Stutz saying he had heard Danny Gans had died. By the time I called the breaking news desk, reporters had already been dispatched, photographers alerted, entertainment writer Mike Weatherford was driving in, columnist Norm Clarke had been notified, people were pulling files of stories, old photos and video clips...

"...On Saturday morning, even I was amazed. Laid out on broadsheet newsprint — sometimes called emphera — was a story about the death of one man, but also a glimpse of the spirit of humanity.

"Both the main story and Norm’s column used a story technique I call bookending. Each picked up a small element that spoke volumes about the occasion. The lede the story by Mike and Doug told about the Gans crew gathering for its traditional pre-show prayer, but without the star. The story ended: 'And they prayed. And they mourned.'

"Norm wrote about Gans, 52, ending his last show... with Bobby Darin’s favorite closer "The Curtain Falls."

"Darin died of heart failure at the age of 37...

"...I defy you to read either the story or the column without getting a bit misty.

"The whole package was impressive..."

Unfortunately, Norm's story about The Curtain Falls was untrue. He retracted it a week later. And though the editor was proud of his news team, a cursory look shows that they may be good at color, but didn't cover the story at all.

As for the Las Vegas Sun, the paper who got a Pulitzer from Sig Gissler? Forget about it.

Meanwhile, the coroner's perky spokeswoman says the Gans report will be released without fanfare or news conference, and will not be held up by the invitation-only memorial service on Thursday.

Alicia Jacobs' poignant farewell to her friend Danny Gans

"With a few exceptions, I am very proud
of the local & national media...
they have given Danny’s family & friends
some time to try & catch our collective breath.
Soon enough, we will have the answers.
Until that time, it seems almost tabloid-like
to make assumptions & entertain rumors."
-- Alicia Jacobs

Alicia Jacobs, Danny Gans' longtime close personal friend and first member of the media to be notified of Gans' sudden, unexpected death at the age of 52, has posted a lengthy, heartfelt and touching farewell to the Las Vegas superstar.

The beauty queen-turned-entertainemtn reporter for KVBC-TV news and quirky Vegas personality writes on her Stage 3 blogsite that "I’ve attempted to write this post often over the past 2 weeks, but each time I became too emotional & realized I was simply not in the right mindset to do justice to someone who meant a great deal to me & who deserves to have me at my best.

"This has been an absolutely horrible time for me. I continue to walk around in complete shock. I vacillate between grief & disbelief & sometimes I experience both at the same time."

Jacobs' post takes pains to explain the platonic nature of her 13-year relationship with the musical impressionist:

"From the day I met Danny 13 years ago, he would constantly & lovingly beam when he spoke of Amy, Andrew, & Emily...& that never changed... He was also so impressed with how strong a woman his wife Julie is. What mattered most to Danny was his family.

"Danny & I hit it off from the moment we met. We had a great deal in common, plus we lived in the same neighborhood. We were both into fitness; he got me hooked on Karate, (he was a big shot Black Belt, while I proudly sported my Green Belt,) we are both a bit on the Type A side, with a tiny bit of OCD...

"...We would often share fitness tips while chowing down on Thai food & we both LOVE Jelly Belly's. He would also offer me advice on my work & career...everything from camera angles I should suggest to our directors, to great editing ideas & suggestions for my own performance...& he was always right!

"Most people know how spiritual Danny was & he was greatly responsible for bringing religion into my life. 10 years ago, I lost a dear friend of mine... From the moment she was diagnosed until months after she was gone, Danny was there for me...

"Danny was there for me again last year when my beloved dog, Cuddles, passed away..."

"It is my feeling that barring
something completely bizarre,
the story of Danny Gans has been told.
His cause of death will be nothing more
than a footnote on his Wikipedia page.
The story of Danny Gans’ unlikely career
& enormous success, against most odds,
is far more interesting & inspiring
than a coroner's report."

Some of what Alicia Jacobs writes she's said before, in much the same words, and in passages like the one in which she repeats the anecdote about her father coming back from the brink of death when Danny Gans passed, serve to bolster the legend of the spiritual, saintly Danny Gans, an image sure to be projected in the autobiography she says Gans completed the day before he died.

"We still don’t know why we lost Danny so soon in life, & it’s human nature to desire those answers. With a few exceptions, I am very proud of the local & national media...they have given Danny’s family & friends some time to try & catch our collective breath. Soon enough, we will have the answers. Until that time, it seems almost tabloid-like to make assumptions & entertain rumors. (believe me, I think I’ve heard just about all of them.) It is my feeling that barring something completely bizarre, the story of Danny Gans has been told. His cause of death will be nothing more than a footnote on his Wikipedia page.

"The story of Danny Gans’ unlikely career & enormous success, against most odds, is far more interesting & inspiring than a coroner's report.

"This Thursday about 1500 of us will gather in Danny’s beautiful theatre at ENCORE. We will arrive, much the same as we did this past February 6th...Danny’s opening night at ENCORE. For the most part, it will be the same people in those seats. But that’s all that will be the same. Instead of the excitement & anticipation we all felt that night awaiting Danny’s thrilling on-stage entrance, I suspect we will have little to say beyond, 'how can this be?' 'how can he really be gone?' We will watch the stage that Danny ran onto & brought to life every night. We will see his image projected onto screens, we will hear his voice, as well as many of the other voices that were always along for the ride. We will hear his music. But, we won’t hear Danny’s inside jokes with his band, the tears we shed won’t be because of his poignant 'ON GOLDEN POND,' bit, and we won’t witness Danny’s customary 3 standing ovations.

'And, this time, when 'The Curtain Falls,' I suppose I’m expected to do the impossible....say goodbye."

Alicia Jacobs photo