MDA to Jerry Lewis: "Thanks and f--- you!"

The Muscular Dystrophy Association has distanced itself from and shown great disrespect toward its greatest asset and the man who gave it an international identity, saying today that Jerry Lewis "will be asked" to participate in the drastically-slashed telethon in 2011.

We reported five days ago that something was amiss in the MDA's announcement that it would turn the 21 1/2 hour national tradition into a six-hour Sunday night television special because its announcement did not mention Lewis' name, while featuring photos of subhost Jann Carl. The following day, we reported exclusively word from a telethon insider that Jerry Lewis was not part of the decision-- and that the MDA officials consider the end of Lewis' reign to be a "transitioning."

Today, John Katsilometes of the Las Vegas Sun picked up the story, reporting that by all indications, Lewis will have a diminished presence on the revamped television special.


He quoted MDA PR VP Jim Brown:

“Jerry Lewis has been MDA’s national chairman for more than 50 years. He’s a world-class humanitarian how has done an absolutely outstanding job for the families served by the association. Jerry will be asked to play a key role in the 2011 telethon.”

Kats emphasized the "will be asked. Not, has been asked. "Lewis has been informed of, not consulted about, the drawdown of the show. He had nothing to do with that decision, which organizers feel will intensify interest in the program and appeal to big-name celebs who want to reach a large audience in prime time instead of the insomniacs tuning in at 3 a.m."


Kats says Jerry returned his phone call this morning and said, "I have nothing more to discuss about the situation," but called back later and promised to speak over coffee later in the week.

Stay tuned.

Lightman's solo act issue in Osmond lawsuit

There's an interesting and forgotten footnote to Chip Lightman's lawsuit against Donny Osmond, for firing him as producer of the Donny & Marie show at the Flamingo. In August, 2009, after it was announced that Donny would compete in ABC's Dancing with The Stars, Mike Weatherford wrote in the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

"The Flamingo was wise to lock in the duo with a contract extension through Oct. 15, 2012. The two originally were courted by late impressionist Danny Gans and his manager, Chip Lightman, who produced under the name GansLight Entertainment.

"Lightman says Gans' family is no longer financially involved in the Osmond show. He's helming it under the name Chip Lightman Entertainment. However, the giant building wrap on the side of the Flamingo is cost-prohibitive to change, so Gans' name will stay."

Lightman's suit claims his contract with the Osmonds show runs through October 15, 2012.

In his Las Vegas Sun article on yesterday's Danny Gans Memorial Champions Run for Life, John Katsilometes reports that "Osmond talked glowingly of Gans, who was managed by Lightman and instrumental in bringing Donny & Marie to the Flamingo two years ago. He says he took on the role of spokesman for the annual run-walk charity event as a tribute to Gans."

“'This shows it is not just a publicity thing with me,' Osmond said. 'Danny was such a good friend of mine. We texted jokes to each other. He came to the show, and he’d have notes for me all the time because he’s such a perfectionist. He came into my dressing room and had four pages of notes, and 90 percent of what he said was spot on.”

Donny Osmond hosts Danny Gans run

Though he's being sued by Danny Gans' former manager and producing partner, Donny Osmond couldn't miss hosting yesterday's second annual Danny Gans Memorial Champions run for the Nevada Cance Foundation-- not when it's been retitled the “Danny Gans Memorial Champions Run for Life Hosted by Donny Osmond."

Chip Lightman filed suit after Osmond fired him last month as producer of the Donny & Marie show at the Flamingo on the Las Vegas Strip. Lightman claims the contract runs through October 2012. Donny said he couldn't talk about the lawsuit, but to John Katsilometes of the Las Vegas Sun, did respond to its claim he has a “lavish lifestyle of exotic cars, luxury hotel suites and private jets.”

Said Donny: “I drive a smart car and a pickup. I don’t think those are exotic cars.”

PHOTO by JOHN KATSILOMETES

Las Vegas Sun features Tabloid Baby video clip in Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon preview

The Las Vegas Sun has posted a clip from the Tabloid Baby YouTube channel as part of a feature story tribute to Jerry Lewis as his 45th annual Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Labor Day Telethon approaches.

The clip depicts Jerry in full throttle mode in the final hour of the 2009 MDA telethon, which added $60.5 million to the cause.

The Sun's reliance on material posted by the Tabloid Baby team reveals clearly how the Las Vegas news media looks to Tabloid Baby since our site excoriated local journalists for the shamefully lax and negligent coverage of the mysterious and untimely death of Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans.


The Sun article notes that the telethon from the South Point Casino-- far from the legendary Strip that 84-year-old Jerry Lewis helped put on the map and cultivated--faces obstacles in this tough economic times and confusing celebrity grid:

"He just keeps marching on, even with the changing economy, even without the support of stars who once clamored to be seen on the telethon.

“'You hear the list of performers this year — Brad (he searches for a word) Stump, Helen Utch, Ruth Belmenent,' he said. 'And these people are some of the best talent in America. But it’s a big difference' from big-name stars.

“'People don’t want to do a telethon anymore because they have to get off their butt, get on a plane, come here and do it,' he said. 'But I don’t want them when they don’t want to, because they don’t come with the right attitude. If they come out of pressure, they’re no good to me.'"


The 2010 Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon begins Sunday, Sept. 5 at 9 pm EDT, live from the South Point Hotel in Las Vegas. It concludes Labor Day, Sept. 6 at 6:30 pm EDT. Check listings for local stations, start and end times, or visit mda.org.


Social media followers of MDA’s Twitter, Facebook and sites will get a behind-the-scenes look at the show during the broadcast.

Read the only behind-the-scenes account of Jerry Lewis and the MDA telethon in Chapter 6 of the book, Tabloid Baby.

(NOTE THE BABY PICTURE)

PHOTOS BY JUSTIN M. BOWEN/ LAS VEGAS SUN

National Enquirer denied its Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prizes were announced this afternoon and the National Enquirer was not among the recipients.

The Pulitzer committee was duty bound to accept the Enquirer's nomination, as the weekly's coverage of the John Edwards sex, love child and potential Constitutional scandal was exemplary, achieved against great odds and in the face of disdain from the mainstream media.


Readers of this site will not be surprised by the slight, however. Somewhat beneath the mainstream radar but fiercely debated in Internet and journalism circles was the Pulitzers' summary rejection one year ago of Tabloid Baby's nomination for its coverage of the post season travesties of the Israel Baseball League. Pulitzer gatekeeper Sig Gissler wouldn't let our nomination across the threshold.

The tabloid banner waves high, however, and we expect that Barry Levine and his colleagues at the Enquirer will one day get their due.

(And we can at least take heart in the fact the Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Review-Journal, so lax and deficient in their coverage of the death of local superstar Danny Gans, also came up empty-handed.)

Tough times for Wayne Newton

With his career-encompassing multimedia show, Once Before I Go, at the Tropicana, these should be golden days for Las Vegas superstar and Tabloid Baby pal Wayne Newton, but according to John Katsilometes at the Las Vegas Sun, these are definitely the worst of times for the Midnight Idol.

Two weeks ago, Wayne's daughter Erin, 33 and pregnant, suffered liver, kidney and respiratory failure and delivered baby boy via cesarean section. Then she fell into a coma until last weekend. Doctors say her condition is consistent with HELLP syndrome, which attacks the kidneys and liver, and is in motion during pregnancy.

After doctors told Wayne that Erin probably wouldn't recover, she awoke "unexpectedly" on Monday.

Wayne had canceled many of his February shows to fly to and from St. Louis to be with Erin, his adopted with first wife, Elaine. (They divorced in 1985. He and his current wife Kathleen have a 7-year-old daughter, Lauren.)

Wayne was in the hospital with Erin this morning when Clark County Sheriff's civil-process deputies and moving vans turned up at his famed 40-acre Shenandoah ranch and estate personnel arrived at his estate on behalf of his former pilot Monty Ward, trying to seize property to execute on a judgment that totaled more than $500,000 in past-due wages.

The deputies were turned away.

Wayne and his family have been hit with all kinds of bad news at least since December. His wife's older sister died suddenly the day after Christmas in Los Angeles, six days after the death of his friend and USO touring colleague Brittany Murphy died.

What else? Kats adds:

"This month, a lawsuit was filed against Newton in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas by speedway magnate and onetime Newton friend Bruton Smith, CEO of Speedway Motorsports, charging that Newton is delinquent on a $3.35 million loan Smith had personally guaranteed. As a result, Smith is seeking foreclosure of Shenandoah, one of the city's signature properties.

"Newton also still is entangled in a $32,000 lawsuit for hay delivered to the ranch for his dozens of Arabian horses, an action that dates to 2009, and earlier this month an airport near Detroit claimed Newton owes more than $60,000 in storage fees after he abandoned a $2 million plane there more than three years ago. The craft reportedly is being eaten away by mold and is useless except for scrap."

69!

Johnny Kats in the Las Vegas Sun:

"I'd had my curiosity about Tom Jones rejuvenated over the holidays, when I was talking with members of Elvis Presley's inner circle for a story... commemorating the anniversary of Presley's 75th birthday. During these interviews, Jones' name kept surfacing as a model for Presley had Presley lived to entertain into his 60s and 70s.

"You can see the similarities. Jones moves well and can still sing anything...

"Even today, women shriek and throw their underwear at Jones, who often acknowledges the act with such deft — a sideways glance, or a smirk — it's difficult to tell if he's honored or bored. Probably the former. When a woman from the back of the room shouted, 'Take OFF the coat!' Jones promised, 'Later, it's all coming off.' It was unclear if he meant later in the show, or later that night. Probably the latter..."

Motivational speaker pleads not guilty to killing meditating woman with a frying pan, cutting her body in half and trying to run over a transsexual

The tabloid murder story of the moment, sure to be exploited as a segment on Dateline or 48 Hours (remember when there were tabloid shows to cover the tabloid stories?) comes from Las Vegas this morning, where a British motivational speaker has just pleaded not guilty to charges that he murdered a woman whose body was stuffed in a trash can and tried to murder a transsexual he allegedly solicited on Craigslist for sex.

Michael Lane (aka Chae Saville, aka Michael Bodhi), 37, is accused of killing 44-year-old Ginger Candela, whose severed body was found in a garbage can filled with bleach in her garage on November 30th.

He's also also alleged to have used the woman's SUV to try to run over that Craigslist transsexual.

Her body was found cut in half and stuffed into a trash can filled with bleach, according to a police report. Authorities said they believe she died about two weeks before she was found.

According to prosecutors, Lane confessed to the crimes, telling cops that he and Ginger Candela were meditating in her bedroom when he compressed her carotid arteries to help her achieve a deeper state of meditation. Then he decided to kill her, hitting her over the head with a frying pan and strangling her with an electric cord.

The body was found, cut in half and stuffed into a garbage can filled with bleach about two weeks later.


According to the Las Vegas Sun, "Lane appeared to be living at her home in the 3100 block of Westfield Street at the time of her death and remained there for a time after allegedly killing her, authorities said. On Nov. 24, he allegedly solicited a transsexual for sex on Craigslist and then, after an argument, attempted to run the person over with a vehicle.

"That vehicle was registered to Candela, and he was still using it at the time of his December arrest at a motel in California, which he had checked into using Candela’s credit cards, police said."

Prosecutors have said they could seek the death penalty. The media will have some time to prepare their coverage.

Swift justice? A trial date in both cases was set for January 10th, 2011, in Clark County District Court.

A poignant footnote:

The details of the murder-- electric cord and frying pan-- provoked some flip replies on the Sun website.

Accountmakr wrote:

"Wow... and they were MEDITATING? People say the UFC is violent. Forget that! They need to focus on keeping their kids away from power yoga.?"

Followed by goingbust:

"Don't need no stinkin gun when you have a frying pan. ATF should start regulating those dangerous pans."

This was followed a few comments down by Candela1:

"Hey goingbust and accountmakr: We the family of Ginger wish to thank you for your comments. I truly hope nothing like this ever plagues your family.

"Nancy Candela"

The Las Vegas news media wouldn't dare look into the death of Strip superstar Danny Gans, but they go wild over lurid tales like this one. Click here to read the story in the Las Vegas Weekly.

DANNY GANS EXCLUSIVE: Cops say "there is no evidence to not believe Mrs. Gans' timeline" on death-- despite manager's statement

A spokesman for the Henderson, Nevada Police Department says that recent comments by Danny Gans' manager do not lead them to question the accepted timeline about Gans' death on May 1st, nor to suspect any evidence of foul play.

Tabloid Baby has been in contact with Henderson Police spokesman Keith Paul since the beginning of the week. After conferring with detectives assigned to the Gans case, he told us exclusively:

"There is absolutely no evidence based on their investigation to not believe Mrs. Gans' timeline. There is no indication of foul play, no indication for us to suspect that Mrs. Gans' timeline is incorrect or that Mr. Gans was dead for any perceptible amount of time prior to his wife calling.

"Again, there is absolutely no indication of foul play."

Danny Gans' wife Julie called the Henderson 911 operator at 3:44 a.m. on May 1st, to say she had awakened four minutes earlier to find her 52-year-old husband was not breathing. She then performed CPR while the 911 operator guided her through the motions.

In the December 23rd edition of the Las Vegas Sun, however, Gans' manager Chip Lightman spoke of how he learned his friend and client had passed away:

“I get a call at 3:15 in the morning, and it’s Julie, his wife, and she goes, ‘Dan is gone.’ I’m like, “What!?” At that moment, it was like I was dreaming. I didn’t think I was awake and on the phone, and then I go, What do you mean?’ And she said, ‘Danny died, Chip.’

“...I asked, ‘When did it happen?’ She said, ‘A couple of hours ago.’”


Lightman's statement not only indicated that Danny Gans had been discovered dead hours earlier, but that his wife had phoned Lightman a half hour before calling 911.

Police spokesman Paul would not say if detectives had interviewed Lightman about his latest story, or whether they had checked cell and home phone records in their investigation. "We will not be releasing details into the death investigation," he said.

Las Vegas news media fails again

Of perhaps equal significance, Paul also told us that no other news organization-- not the Las Vegas Sun, whose columnist John Katsilometes got the explosive scoop, not the competing Las Vegas Review-Journal, not any television news outfit, blogger or gossip columnist, had contacted Henderson Police to inquire about this latest twist. No one in the Las Vegas news media has followed up since December 23rd, despite the fact that Tabloid Baby representatives had reached out to Katsilometes and several other Las Vegas journalists to tip them on the story.

No one with a journalistic background could deny the Lightman statement was provocative and compelling. Any journo with a stake in Las Vegas crime reporting would check it out, even knock it down. But no curiosity whatsoever? Not even a phone call?

That's another reason the behaviour of the Las Vegas news media has become a story of its own.

LISTEN TO JULIE GANS' 911 CALL

From Danny to Donny: Gans line lives on

Musical impressionist Danny Gans may be a distant memory in Las Vegas in 2010, but a little bit of his act and legacy live on thanks to Donny Osmond, whose sibling show with sister Marie at the Flamingo was produced by Gans and his manager Chip Lightman.

Las Vegas Sun entertainment columnist John Katsilometes mentions in another 2009 wrapup column that the crowd-pleasing Gans, who was guaranteed to bring the audience to its feet more than once in every show, gave his pal Donny am "awww"-inspiring line he uses every night:

"A line Danny Gans gave to Donny Osmond: When Donny is cheered during 'Puppy Love,' he says, 'I still got it.' Osmond still uses it in the show at Flamingo."

Katsilometes brought a new twist to the Danny Gan's death in an article published on December 23rd, in which Lightman contradicts the official police report that says Julie Gans told Henderson Police Detective Chad Mitchell that she suddenly awoke at 3:40 a.m. when she no longer heard her husband's snoring dialed 911 four minutes later:

Said Lightman:

"I get a call at 3:15 in the morning, and it’s Julie, his wife, and she goes, 'Dan is gone.' I’m like, 'What!?' At that moment, it was like I was dreaming. I didn’t think I was awake and on the phone, and then I go, 'What do you mean?' And she said, 'Danny died, Chip.' I’m saying, 'No.' She said, 'Call whoever you have to call and let them know, and I’ll talk to you later.'

"I asked, 'When did it happen?' She said, 'A couple of hours ago.'"

No Las Vegas news organization has yet followed up on the story. In fact, one prominent Las Vegas journalist suggested in an email that this out-of-state volunteer organization do the work they're paid to do:

"Nobody cares about Gans as much as you do... Why would you 'want' us to investigate it? If you're this big-shot investigative guy... and you're convinced there's a big story being covered up in a concerted, orchestrated effort by a daily newspaper, wouldn't you be trying to uncover and sell it yourself?"

Aside from the "selling," every "journo" in Las Vegas knows that's what we've been doing for eight months now...

DANNY GANS BOMBSHELL: MANAGER SAYS VEGAS STAR DIED "A COUPLE OF HOURS" BEFORE HIS WIFE CALLED 911

LEILA NAVIDI

In a shocking interview with the Las Vegas Sun, Danny Gans’ manager has raised disturbing new questions about the circumstances of the musical impressionist’s drug-related death.

Chip Lightman, who was first to receive word from Gans’ wife Julie that the Las Vegas Strip star had died in his bed early on the morning of May 1st, indicates that Gans may have died hours earlier than police reported, and that Julie Gans phoned Lightman a half hour before she called 911.

STEVE MARCUS/LAS VEGAS SUN

According to the incident report from the Henderson Police Department, Gans’ wife Julie (“Julia”) awoke “at approximately 0340 hours… and realized Daniel was no longer snoring. When Julia checked on Daniel she realized he was unresponsive and she could not tell if he was breathing and or if he had a pulse.  Julia immediately called 911.”

Lightman, however, tells Sun columnist John Katsilometes that Julie Gans called him at 3:15 a.m., and told him that Gans had died “a couple of hours ago.”

“I get a call at 3:15 in the morning, and it’s Julie, his wife, and she goes, ‘Dan is gone.’  I’m like, 'What!?’  At that moment, it was like I was dreaming.  I didn’t think I was awake and on the phone, and then I go, 'What do you mean?’ And she said, ‘Danny died, Chip.’ I’m saying, ‘No.’  She said, ‘Call whoever you have to call and let them know, and I’ll talk to you later.’

“I asked, ‘When did it happen?’ She said, ‘A couple of hours ago.’”

Henderson police report that Julie Gans called 911 at 3:44 a.m.


Lightman also responds to a question Tabloid Baby first asked in the days following Gans’ death: why he immediately phoned Alicia Jacobs, the beauty queen turned local entertainment reporter who flaunted her close relationship with Gans, to inform her of Gans' passing.

“I had collected my thoughts, and I thought, ‘OK, how do I get the word out? Do I get Steve Wynn up at about 4 in the morning and tell him?  Or do I call (Wynn Las Vegas spokeswoman) Jennifer Dunne?  ... I finally just called Alicia.  She was the first person I thought of to get the word out, get it on the air, and I knew her number.  When something like that happens, you’re in shock.  Danny had just done an interview with her, and she was fresh on my mind when I thought ‘media.’  I thought, ‘I’ll just call Alicia.’  They were friends, too.”

HENDERSON, NEVADA POLICE REPORT

Lightman’s latest statements are all the more disturbing in light of the fact that they come more than seven months after Gans’ death, with more than enough time to prepare his answers, and after he and others close to the situation have altered their stories more than once to fit new information and circumstances that arise.


And while it's Lightman's backhanded swipe at Gans' widow in an interview to promote the Gans autobiography that stands out, Lightman's latest version also paints a very different picture of Gans.

While he once claimed that Gans seemed to be in perfect health in the days leading to his death, he now tells Katsilometes that the star was ill.

“A few days before he died, I said, ‘You don’t look like you feel well.’  He said, “I’ve been fighting something.  I’m just drained beyond drained.  My shoulder has been acting up, the kids are sick, everyone around me is sick.’  The Wednesday night before he died — we always sat and met before onstage, usually at 7:10 — and he didn’t look good.  He looked worn out..."

He admits that Gans may have been using steroids-- for his vocal cords:

"People said to me, when the coroner’s (report) hadn’t come out yet, 'We know he’s doing tons of steroids, and he had bulked up like the Hulk,' and all this stuff.  And you know, if Dan did that, he didn’t do it around me.  If Dan took any steroids, it was for his voice, to lessen the inflammation on his vocal chords...  He worked out five days a week, and he had a 2,000-square-foot gym at his house."

He even says Gans' Encore Theatre may have been cursed.

“The biggest concern was the room People said it was a bad-luck room, it’s cursed.  Dan was saying, ‘Spamalot didn’t work, Avenue Q before Spamalot didn’t work.  Nothing has worked, and they were very good shows.’"

The Henderson Police Department investigation into Gans’ death was open for almost two months, but no criminal charges were filed.  We do not know if the police looked into the records of Gans' home or Chip Lightman's phone calls.

Julie Gans and her children moved to Los Angeles during that time.  Although the three teenage children have been brought out to speak with the media twice since the tragic death, Julie Gans has not been seen in public.

The Las Vegas news media as a group deliberately avoided any investigation of the circumstance of Gans' death or unexamined private life (Katsilometes wrote the day after Gans’ death about rumours of Gans’ steroid use — but never followed up), and Steve Friess, a local blogger, comp queen, New York Times stringer and close associate with Gans boss Steve Wynn, joined with Jacobs in a campaign to stop any investigation into the death and in fact, have this site shut down.

Public perception of the Born Again Christian, athletic, corporate entertainer has shifted in recent months with the revelations that a pharmacy co-owned by Gans marketed a male erection party pill.  Gans’ children, brought out to face the media last month to promote the recently-published autobiography, changed a story they’d told earlier to acknowledge that their father did take prescription medication.

Developing...

AUDIO: JULIE GANS' 911 call

Feds probe Danny Gans pharmacy sex pill

The Las Vegas Sun reports that the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the Nevada Public Safety Department and the State Board of Pharmacy are investigating the manufacture and distribution of Vegas Mixx, the male erection pill that combined Valium and Viagra and was advertised to Las Vegas visitors with the promise it would allow them to "F* like a pornstar."

The drug was manufactured and marketed by of Green Valley Drugs, the Henderson, Nevada pharmacy that was partly owned by the late entertainer Danny Gans, whom the Sun reminds its readers "died May 1 of a prescription narcotics overdose" and was "known for his squeaky-clean image." Scot Silber, the target of the probes. claims Gans did not know abotu the product that was manufactured and marketed while Gans was alive and starring on the Las Vegas Strip, and "would not have approved of Vegas Mixx."


The probes are centered on whether the pharmacy was producing the sex pills on speculation and distributing samples rather than waiting for patient-specific prescriptions from doctors. Silber said he invested thousands of dollars in Vegas Mixx, but sales were limp so he discontinued the product.

Steve Friess keeps his column

A lot of the Las Vegas print journalists who shied away from covering the very important Danny Gans story have little to show for their obedience, now finding themselves suddenly out of work. Greenspun Media, which runs the Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Weekly, laid off many reporters, editors and columnists this week, the latest nail in the closing coffin of the print news business.

One person who's kept his job is Las Vegas blogger, New York Times stringer, Gay Vegas author and comp queen Steve Friess, who used his Las Vegas Weekly column this year to explain why the still-developing Danny Gans story (the sudden, unexplained death in his prime of the top star of the Vegas Strip) and later his blatant conflict-of-interest in producing a "birthday tribute" to Michael Jackson while covering the Vegas angle of the police death investigation for The new York Times. Friess' crush and partner in the project, a star of the Vegas production of Jersey Boys, lost his job over the spectacle. Friess did not.

Friess, as readers of this site are aware, is the Las Vegas media figure who not only attacked us in the most obscene terms, but made an active effort to have TabloidBaby.com shut down after we emailed him privately days after Gans' death to ask for his take on why the Las vegas media was not investigating the mysterious tragedy.

In the months to come, we learned more about Friess' various conflicts, including his relationship with Gans' boss Steve Wynn, that seemed to explain his extreme position.

With his many freelance gigs, including that of music reviewer (despite a hearing impairment),, and the probability that the Weekly columnist gig doesn't pay much if anything, Friess is able to pose as a tough guy on his blogsite, listing the names of the newly jobless, criticizing his bosses for the way they were let go, and bragging, "I write all this knowing full well I may offend the powers... But I have been fired before and I feel a great kinship for the folks who have lost their jobs..."

The crusading journo has not yet announced that he'll produce a benefit concert for the group. It's an idea, though

Report: Pharmacy co-owned by Danny Gans invented and sold sex pill that promised to help young male Vegas visitors "F like a porn star"

Another wrinkle has been added to the complicated image of late Las Vegas entertainer Danny Gans with the report this morning that the pharmacy he co-owned marketed a male erection pill and advertised it in “crude terms… promising men in obscene terms on a Web site that they could perform ("F") “like a porn star.”

The Las Vegas Sun reports that Scott Silber, Gans’ partner in Green Valley Drugs of Henderson, Nevada, combined Valium and Valium and Viagra into a single pill and called it Vegas Mixx. The pill was advertised on a website in 2007 with “with the promise that the combination would mellow the mind, relax the muscle that causes ejaculation and provide a lasting erection.

“The Vegas Mixx Web site — aimed at guys who come to Vegas for a fling — used crude terms: ‘Vegas Mixx... makes you rock hard, and keeps you that way. Enjoy the ride.’”

The article by Marshall Allen mentions the Danny Gans connection in the fourth paragraph:

“Silber owned the pharmacy with entertainer Danny Gans, who was known for his squeaky-clean Christian image and died May 1 of a prescription narcotics overdose.

“Gans was not aware of Vegas Mixx, Silber said. ‘As you could probably guess, he would not have approved,’ he said.”

LEILA NAVIDI

According to the Sun article, Vegas Mixx idea was a failure and the website was taken down a month ago. Green Valley Drugs, however, could be haunted by the scheme.

“…Silber could face bigger troubles. Green Valley Drugs is a compounding pharmacy — meaning it can combine unique mixes of drugs, based on a doctor’s prescription — but may have been operating outside the bounds of its license. That could lead to investigations by the Nevada State Pharmacy Board and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.”

Danny Gans was 52, with a reputation as an athletic, clean-living evangelical Christian when he died unexpectedly on May 1st of an overdose of hydromorphone, a drug known commercially as Dilaudid and on the streets as “drugstore heroin.”

In the days following Gans’ death, his friends and family expressed amazement that he had been involved with drugs in any way. His ownership in the Green Valley Drugs was revealed in August. Gans’ partners insisted the musical impressionist did not use the place as his own dispensary.

This latest story comes amid a publicity push for Gans’ posthumous inspirational autobiography, The Voices In My Head, that included a television interview with his children.

Carrot Top is a classic clown

The Las Vegas Sun website is carrying a long, serious profile of Carrot Top, whom writer John Katsilometes takes pains to refer to by his given name, Scott Thompson, a member of the Las Vegas Strip Laugh Pack. The article is an appreciation and a keeper for all comedy fans, and the accompanying photo places Carrot Top squarely in the tradition of underappreciated comic talents, in the manner of the Clash using London Calling to stake its lineage to Elvis.

New Danny Gans promises "show on steroids"

MADtv and NFL pregame impressionist Frank Caliendo arrives on the Las Vegas Strip tonight to launch a new show that's meant to fill the comic impressionist void left by the untimely death of Danny Gans in May.

Ironically, in light of the speculation regarding Gans' drug use, Caliendo tells the Las Vegas Sun that his act at the Monte Carlo "will be my stand-up show on steroids."

Photo: STEVE MARCUS/ Las Vegas Sun

Frank Sinatra Jr. returns to Las Vegas

Frank Sinatra Jr. is playing two shows in Las Vegas over Labor Day weekend. Back in 2002, he played the MGM Grand with a 36-piece orchestra. This time around, he's got an eight=piece band and he's far from the Strip at the Suncoast, a joint that attracts the locals with slots and 16-screen movie complex.

Jow much has Vegas changed? Frank Jr.'s been coming to town since 1954 when he was 10 and begn performing there in 1963. Jerry Fink has a poignant interview in the Las Vegas Sun. Some highlights from Frank Sinatra Jr.:

“Nobody wants to hire the big orchestras anymore. We were four-walling those concerts and the man who paid for the four walls stopped the whole thing after three appearances because he said they weren’t generating enough income. He was so down that the concerts were not carrying their weights that the last appearance, he made me roll the dice with him. When I put my foot on that stage to work, I spent $3,000.

“But that’s what Las Vegas has become. Entertainment is not a primary concern there any longer. It’s whatever can make the most money for the smallest investment. But if I was on the other side of that desk, I probably would feel the same way.”

"Nobody wants to hire
the big orchestras anymore.
You know what the big draw is
in Las Vegas today?
The shopping centers in the hotels.”

“When I started working there I was next door to the Sands at the Flamingo. On occasion my father would come to see me when he was in town and when he was finished watching my show he would go into the pit and gamble for a while. This was casino etiquette.

“The stars were the big draws, as well as the gaming. All of the show places, they wanted to hire the biggest stars... When I first went to Las Vegas I saw Sophie Tucker, Joey Lewis, Jimmy Durante. Nowadays entertainment is not even secondary, not even ‘third-dary,’ if there is such a word. You know what the big draw is in Las Vegas today? The shopping centers in the hotels.”

“The first time I came to Las Vegas, the street in front of the hotels was U.S. Highway 91, a two-lane highway that crossed the desert and all of a sudden there were these big hotels. In those days there used to be a kind of motto the city had in order to get people to come -- ‘Play the games, lie in the sun and mingle with the stars.’"

“It’s not that Old Vegas is not here, it’s that the older generation is no longer there. This generation that goes to Vegas, and the generation before them, this is all they’re used to, all they’ve known. Their grandparents knew the great days of Vegas, the ’50s and ’60s.”

“I checked out some of the newer hotels, went into the lounges to see what was happening. There were a bunch of garage bands, absolute amateurs.”

The Kats' out of the bag about Steve Friess' Las Vegas "tribute" to Michael Jackson

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Rolling out act after self-congratulatory act while a flurry of tweets about its wonderfulness was unleashed by its producer and his friends, beauty queen-turned televisioon entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs and Norm Clarke of The Las Vegas Review-Journal, the “Michael Jackson’s Untimely Death Was The Best Thing That Could Ever Have Happened To Michael Jackson’s Music Show" went off as scheduled at the Palms resort in Las Vegas yesterday-- but not without some serious questions aimed at its producer and promoter, Las Vegas blogger, New York Times stringer, Gay Vegas author and comp queen Steve Friess.

The questions came from Tabloid Baby.

Friess gave his answers to the Las Vegas Sun.

One thing the Danny Gans case has made clear is that journalists working in Las Vegas read Tabloid Baby, and while some curse us for calling them out on their cowardly refusal to investigate the big questions while hyping some questionable enterprises, they do take our criticism to heart-- and when they can slip it past their editors, take up our challenge.


In this case it was John Katsilometes of the Las Vegas Sun who, in a promotional piece on the Jackson "tribute," cornered Friess about his obvious conflict of interest, if not the bizarre notion of his producing a "tribute" that he insisted was not a tribute to Jacko the man, even though the tribute took place on Jacko's birthday, with Jacko's father as a guest.

Kats gets Friess to answer the questions we have asked in this space, and in many unanswered emails to Friess, including:

Was Joe Jackson paid to attend the tribute?

How much does he plan to raise in total?

How much money will go to ""production costs" and expenses?

Either Katsilometes asked the questions or Friess used the friendly reporter to give his answers, unchallenged.

Writes Kats:

"Friess finds himself performing something of a moonwalk between the Jackson death investigation and the Palms benefit. His role in covering the Vegas angle of the Jackson story has coincided with his involvement in organizing a charity show that is essentially authorized by the Jackson family. Friess, who writes regularly for Las Vegas Weekly (a Greenspun Media Group publication) among his freelance gigs, allows that it has been an interesting summer ever since the details of Jackson’s death spilled out to include Las Vegas.

“'There’s no doubt it’s weird for me,” Friess said today. 'When this was conceived, it was just a couple of days after his death. Nobody believed it would be a homicide at that point, that it would be anything this controversial connected to Las Vegas... Journalists don’t have to divorce themselves from their communities.' (Friess plans to write of his shifting between journalist and benefit producer in next week’s L.V. Weekly.)

"Friess finds himself performing a moonwalk
between the Jackson death investigation
and the Palms benefit. His role in covering
the Vegas angle of the Jackson story
has coincided with his involvement in
organizing a charity show that is essentially
authorized by the Jackson family."
--Las Vegas Sun

"Soon after Jackson’s death, Friess was approached by Bergen, a friend who is a lifelong Jackson fan, to assist in organizing the benefit show. Bergen has invoked an audio clip of himself at age 4 singing 'Man in the Mirror' during his performances at the Liberace Museum and has written a piece for the Sun relating Jackson’s influence on his career. It was Bergen who first thought to turn Jackson’s untimely death into a means of raising money for local arts programs, and both organizers have said that the show is to honor the creative work, not the mercurial and ultimately tragic lifestyle, of Jackson.

"At this writing, about $90,000 in advance ticket sales have been raised, Friess said. The goal is $100,000... Friess says that all money taken in after production costs will be donated to the Public Education Foundation to fill such needs as instruments, maintenance of instruments, sheet music, supplies and specialized tutoring (the books will be opened to anyone who wants to review how the money was allotted, he said, adding that the Jacksons did not ask for fees to appear at the show or dedication ceremony)."

If Steve Friess is indeed writing another apologia for his actions in the Las Vegas Weekly, we hope it is as amusing and mind-boggling as his "A Fine Restraint" excuse for not investigating the death of local superstar Danny Gans.

Meanwhile, we should point out that Michael Jackson's death was suspicious from the start, his personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray of Las Vegas, was sought for questioning from day one, after he disappeared from the emergency room hours after Jacko's death, and Friess, who wrote in the Weekly's July 2nd issue that "Michael Jackson’s untimely death was the best thing that could ever have happened to Michael Jackson’s music," was covering the Las Vegas investigation of Murray weeks after he began producing the birthday part for the man whose "baggage" he claimed "imprisoned and stigmatized" his "product."

Las Vegas Sun finally reports week-old Danny Gans pharmacy story: Reporter claims Alicia Jacobs snatched her scoop!

While the Las Vegas Review-Journal continues to keep a conspicuous distance from covering the drug death of Strip headliner Danny Gans and its aftermath, its putative competitor, the Las Vegas Sun, has finally reported news from early last week that the entertainer who died from an overdose of Dilaudid was a part-owner of a pharmacy.

The coverage however, comes in the blog section of its website.

Dana Gentry, a local television reporter and executive producer local cable television shows Face to Face and In Business Las Vegas, reports the story, this afternoon, as well as posting the 2003 letter confirming Gans' stake in the drug business.

Gentry also claims she had the scoop a week ago, but that it was snatched away the following day by a competitor: Danny Gans close personal friend, the beauty-queen-turned-TV entertainment reporter, Alicia Jacobs, who "reluctantly" asked the tough question.

Gentry reports:

Gans owned pharmacy
By Dana Gentry · August 24, 2009 · 3:46 PM

Danny Gans’ friends and family maintained that the late entertainer had little use personally for prescription drugs, though his death in May was from an overdose of Dilaudid, (the generic is Hydromorphone) a painkiller. The source of the drug that killed Gans has not been identified.

Now the Board of Pharmacy is investigating Gans’ ownership interest in Green Valley Med, a distributor of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to doctors. Documents we obtained from the state reveal Gans had held a stake in the local pharmacy since 2003. The pharmacy board took Gans’ records from Green Valley Med in June, but will not reveal the nature of the documents seized. Green Valley Med bills itself on its website as the "largest medical supplier in Southern Nevada.'

We wanted to know if it carries Dilaudid. Owner Scot Silber seemed stunned last Monday when I asked about his business relationship with Gans. Silber confirmed the two were partners but wouldn’t say whether Green Valley Med carries Dilaudid. Coincidentally, the very next day Gans’ self-described friend, Channel 3 entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs, detailed Gans’ ownership interest and reluctantly delved into the possibility that Gans obtained the lethal drug through that association.

Attorney Bob Massi, who represents Green Valley Med and doubles as its marketing director, declined to be interviewed but in an e-mail said, "The perception that is being portrayed of Danny Gans is disgusting. He was a great man, an ambassador to Las Vegas, and he is being smeared by an affiliation which was and has been a matter of public record."

You can see the story tonight on In Business Las Vegas, Las Vegas ONE, Cox Cable Channel 19.

(click photo to enlarge it)

Las Vegas pharmacy raided in Jacko probe shares name with druggists indicted in steroids ring; no connections to Danny Gans

The Las Vegas pharmacy raided by federal agents as part of the investigation into Michael Jackson's doctor has the same name as an Alabama pharmacy indicted earlier this year in a steroids distribution scandal.

A spokesman with the US Drug Enforcement Administration confirmed that the two-hour raid by DEA officers and police of Applied Pharmacy Services at 6370 West Flamingo Road was related to the investigation centered on Dr. Conrad Murray-- Jackson's personal physician and the man who was with him when he died.

A law enforcement official ssaid agents uncovered evidence that Dr. Conrad Murray legally purchased the anesthetic Propofol there. It's believed Propofol contributed to Jacko's death on June 25th.

The Nevada State Board of Pharmacy took action against two of the company's pharmacists in July 2008 for failing to keep proper records.


As we have stated, Dr. Conrad Murray never treated Las Vegas entertainer Danny Gans, who died May 1st from an overdose of Dilaudid.

The Las Vegas Sun reported, and a Google check confirmed, that Applied Pharmacy Services was indicted in January along with a dozen people by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Alabama for distributing anabolic steroids in a nationwide sports drug scandal. That Applied Pharmacy Services is located in Mobile. There has been no official connection made between the two operations.

While there had been reports and much talk around Las Vegas that that Danny Gans, a former athlete as well as philanthropist and unique talent, had been a steroids user, the Las Vegas coroner refused to confirm that. Nor would he name or confirm that any other drugs were in Gans' system at the time of his death.

Las Vegas Sun photo