Rich Little's wife an apparent suicide

Rich Little says he found a suicide note along with the body of his wife in the bedroom of their dreamhouse in the Lake Sahara section of Las Vegas on Thursday. Marie Marotta apparently ended her life with an overdose of sleeping pills.

The report comes out of the 71-year-old impersonator's hometown, Ottawa, Canada, where his longtime friend, retired broadcaster Gord Atkinson, says that Marotta suffered from severe migraine headaches that sometimes "knocked her out for days.

"She left him a loving note and said that she couldn't go on."

Marotta was 45. She became Little's third wife when she married him in Hawaii in 2003. She was active in many humanitarian efforts, including working with the homeless, children in need and abused animals, and this year was inducted into the Las Vegas Walk of Stars.


Las Vegas gossip Norm Clarke quotes a "friend":

"'They've had a tough year,' alluding to Marotta's medical issues, their purchase of a dream home at the height of the local real estate run-up and a dropoff in his headliner bookings in the last decade."

Atkinson say Rich Little is "absolutely devastated."

Services are set for 11 a.m. Wednesday at Palm Mortuary on Eastern Avenue.

Rich Little made tabloid television history in 1992 when he was sued by his former girlfriend, Vegas magician Melinda Saxe, for allegedly making a secret videotape of them having sex.

Keepers of Danny Gans' secrets gather

The Las Vegas Strip did not dim its lights to mark the first anniversary of the passing of the man who was the entertainment and gambling mecca's greatest homegrown superstar, but there were some who took time to remember the life and legacy of Danny Gans.

Norm Clarke tells us that friends and colleagues of the late musical impressionist gathered yesterday afternoon at his grave at Palm Memorial Park on Eastern Avenue. About a dozen people attended the 2 p.m. tribute, and it is that story-shifting inner circle, the ones who hold the secrets of his life and death, whose names stand out. Among them:

Chip Lightman, his longtime manager who says he received a phone call from Gans' wife Julie in the early hours of May 1, 2009, telling him that Gans had died hours earlier;

...Alicia Jacobs, the beauty queen-turned-television entertainment reporter for local station KVBC-TV, who touted her close friendship with Gans and was the first person Lightman notified of the death that morning (around the same time that paramedics arrived at Gans' Henderson estate);


...R.G. Ryan, who collaborated on Gans' posthumous autobiography, The Voices In My Head, and who's refused to comment on the controversy regarding the timeline of Gans' demise or the drug use that led to it; his assistants and members of his band and crew.


Gans' wife and family packed up and moved from Las Vegas to La Cañada Flintridge, California, outside Los Angeles shortly after his death, which occurred about three months after he opened at Steve Wynn's Wynn Las Vegas hotel and casino.

Danny Gans book hits stores today

Danny Gans' autobiography makes its official debut in bookstores today-- the same day that Garth Brooks will announce he's starting a long run at the theatre left vacant by Danny Gans' death.

The Voices In My Head arrives five months after the Las Vegas headliner died of an overdose of the powerful opiate hydromorphone, also known as Dilaudid or "drugstore heroin." Gans' ghostwriter-turned-cowriter RG Ryan tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal what he told Tabloid Baby last month: that the book will not address Gans' drug use (or his ownership of a pharmacy supply house), but that "readers may get an idea from the book about why he took them":

"Gans sustained several injuries over the years that caused him long-term problems, including an ankle injury that ended his dreams of becoming a major league baseball player, surgeries, two car accidents and a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis."


The paper says the book "spans more than 50 years, beginning with a brief history of how his parents met and closing with a chapter about how Gans came to be headlining at Encore after a long tenure with The Mirage.

"Much of what's addressed in the book-- Gans' love of baseball, his Las Vegas resume and even his inspirations-- won't surprise readers who are familiar with the entertainer, co-writer Ryan says. But Gans told his story in a way that will enable people to understand what drove him to be the 'man of many voices' and a longtime Las Vegas headliner."

Ryan says he met Gans while exercising at a local gym 13 years ago,and that he proposed the idea for the autobiography over coffee in May 2008. The book, told in Gans' voice, was based on 15 hours of recorded conversations that Ryan transcribed and shaped.

Despite Ryan's insistence that he book was completed the day day before Danny Gans died, the Review-Journal article states that he'd completed only a "first draft" on April 30th. Ryan emailed to correct us after we reported last month that Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke wrote that a "rough draft" had been finished that day:

"The final draft was, in fact, completed at eleven AM on Thursday, April 30, 2009."

He tells the Review-Journal: "The day before he died, at 11 a.m., I sent him a text," Ryan recalls. "I just said, 'Done!!!' He wrote back, 'Great, let's get together Friday at 4 p.m.'"

The first copies of the book were made available Saturday at the Danny Gans Memorial Run for Champions. The paperback retails for $14.95 and is published by Stephens Press, a subsidiary of Stephens Media LLC, owner of the Review-Journal. It's available at Amazon.com (we're awaiting our copy), some bookstores and online at DannyGansVoices.com (see column at right).

Garth Brooks and Steve Wynn are scheduled to announcer the singer's extended stand at the Encore Theatre at one pm.

Danny Gans' ghostwriter: "Norm Clarke got it wrong! I did so complete Danny's autobiography the day before he died!"

The ghostwriter for the upcoming autobiography of the late Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans insists the book was completed the day before Danny Gans died, and that Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke was "wrong" in reporting on September 6th that he had only completed a "rough draft."

R.G. Ryan, the musician, poet and, according to Norm, former minister, who collaborated with Gans on his memoirs before the musical impressionist died suddenly at age 52 after taking the powerful opiate hydromorphone, emailed the Tabloid Baby offices to insist that this Danny Gans legend is true:

"Just read your report regarding my interview with Norm Clarke. Contrary to what he said, and what you subsequently reported, the final draft was, in fact, completed at eleven AM on Thursday, April 30, 2009. It is a well-documented fact that Norm, unfortunately got wrong. I'd appreciate a correction in your report and wished you would've asked me about it. I've been pretty open with you, don't you think?"

Ryan has indeed responded to our questions on more than one occasion, and gave his blessing for us to post the prologue to the Gans book, The Voices In My Head (we used screen grabs of the chapter from Ryan's site, which he has since removed. He also told Tabloid Baby that he finished the book at 11 am the day before Gans died.

Although he's failed to answer several queries we've emailed him in the time since, we're happy to publish anything he's got to say.

The story that Danny Gans had completed his autobiography hours before his shocking death was one of several image-burnishing stories that were circulated by his friends in the days after the tragedy. The book is set for October release. Norm is on vacation in Spain. No word whether he's issued a retraction, as he's done for past Danny Gans myths that he had floated.

Danny Gans autobiography contains chapter touching on his drug use; coauthor admits book wasn't really completed the day before Gans died

Danny Gans' ghostwriter turned co-author admits today that the musical impressionist's autobiography was not really completed the day before he died. Although the legend began on the day of the Las Vegas superstar's untimely death and has been repeated often in the months since, RG Ryan now admits that he had only finished a "rough draft" of the book-- which is now said to contain a chapter that at least touches on an explanation for Gans' secret use of painkilling drugs.

Ryan's revelation-- and the effort to address the details of Gans' untimely death in a suitable fashion-- could help explain the delay in publishing The Voices In My Head, which was snatched up within days of Gans' shocking passing on May 1st by the owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and promised for a rush-release in June (publication is now set for October).

Ryan, a local writer, poet and musician who is also billed today in Norm Clarke's Review-Journal column as a "former minister," had intimated that the delays were due to negotiations with Gans' family over his writing credit.


Ryan tells Norm that the book will include a chapter called "The Glory and The Pain," detailing Gans' "incredible struggles to overcome pain."

Writes Norm:

"The pain came not just from sports injuries, but two car accidents. One involved being rear-ended by a garbage truck about eight years ago. The other happened about five years ago when his car hit a water puddle and hydroplaned into a light pole.

"On some nights, when his pain was unbearable, Gans signaled his band leader to play a song, 'because Danny would have to run off stage and throw up,' Ryan said."

Norm reports that Ryan and Gans' estate do not go into the details of how managed that pain, or what led to the overdose of hydromorphone (described my Norm as "a powerful opiate also known as Dilaudid, the highly addictive drug... nicknamed 'drugstore heroin.'")


Ryan claims, "It never came up in our conversations (12 to 15 hours of interviews). The only thing he ever said about that to me was that he stuck to ibuprofen, because all that other stuff-- he said he had doctors prescribe heavy-duty stuff-- it dried out his voice."

"When Gans died, 'I was just as shocked as anyone else. Obviously he was taking something stronger than Motrin,' Ryan said."

Ryan tells Norm that Gans was "pushing very hard to get a number of things wrapped up. But I didn't pick up any sign that he had a premonition that he was going to die."

"Ryan described the book as a 'comprehensive, intimate look into the heart and soul of a man who, from the time he was 7 years old, was targeted to the goal of being a professional baseball player.'"

Norm also reports that Ryan "finished a rough draft the day Gans died."


A "rough draft" is usually the first version of a work that requires correcting, rewriting, revising and polishing. In the case of a book, it is far from the final, finished version.

Ryan had told us via email that the entire book "was finished at eleven AM on Thursday. We were supposed to get together at four Friday afternoon, May 1."

The autobiography myth was one of several that were spread in the hours after Gans death. Another, later retracted by Norm, was that Gans switched the final song in what was his final show from his usual medley of African American singing impressions to Bobby Darin's "The Curtain Falls."

Money questions haunt the “Michael Jackson’s Untimely Death Was The Best Thing That Could Ever Have Happened To Michael Jackson’s Music Show" in Vegas

With Las Vegas columnist Norm Clarke confirming that Michael Jackson's father Joe Jackson "has committed to attending" the controversial “Michael Jackson’s Untimely Death Was The Best Thing That Could Ever Have Happened To Michael Jackson’s Music Show" at the Palms on Saturday afternoon, new questions are being raised about the "costs" of the concert and what the pre-net money is being spent on.

The show's producer and promoter, Las Vegas blogger, New York Times stringer, Gay Vegas author and comp queen Steve Friess, promises in a recent press release that "100% of the proceeds after costs benefit music education programming in Clark County Public Schools" --while at the same time "raising funds to help kids across the U.S."

As more local entertainers are joining the afternoon lineup on August 29th-- Jacko's birthday-- it's unclear how much money is being spent on the show and "after party"-- and whether anyone is being paid for appearing. The involvement of Joe Jackson brings the issue to a head, in light of reports that he was paid by the city of Gary, Indiana to appear at a Jacko tribute there.


Friess, who had celebrated Jackson's June 25th death as "the best thing that could ever have happened to Michael Jackson's music" and led the media coverup in reporting the prescription painkiller death of local superstar Danny Gans, was among the first in the nation to rush to capitalize on Jackson's death by scheduling the tribute show for a "tribute" show that he has pointedly insisted "will commemorate and celebrate Jackson’s art" and not his life.

Friess has claimed that he hopes to "to raise $100,000 for public schools music programs," but he has not revealed how much he hopes to raise through ticket ales and donations.


On Monday, August 17th, Friess wrote on his blogsite about his meeting with Joe Jackson at the Palms, and while he did not go into specifics about what it took to get Jackson to "promise to get to the Palms for at least the end of our show" and "the after-party," he did admit to blurring his roles as journalist and concert producer by selling to the New York Daily News the personal information Joe Jackson revealed during the negotiations.


The afternoon event at the Palms Hotel & Casino has grown in scope as it is being bunched with other local tributes, including the declaration of "Michael Jackson Day" in Las Vegas and the appearance of Joe Jackson and former manager Frank Dileo a special celebrity star tribute at a theatre at the Palms.


Friess has raised eyebrows as he covers the Las Vegas angle of the Jackson story for The New York Times while doing business with Joe Jackson and other members of the Jackson family. He recently criticized ABC News for stationing a stringer outside the home of Dr. Conrad Murray, who's being investigated in Jackson's death.

We've reached out to Steve Friess for comment, but he has not responded.

Las Vegas keeping an eye on Tabloid Baby

"Hello Tabloid Baby!"

They're not talking, but they're watching.

The group of Las Vegas journalists who tried their darndest to keep the secret life of superstar Danny Gans from being investigated or revealed in the weeks before the coroner confirmed his death by Dilaudid overdose is keeping close tabs on Tabloid Baby's coverage of their unusual Michael Jackson tribute show.

Beauty queen turned TV entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs, who literally took out a Bible during a news report to demonstrate the clean-living spirituality of her longtime close personal friend, referenced Tabloid Baby in a Twitter message early this morning.


Jacobs was bragging that she had been a guest at a roast for Harrah's Las Vegas president Don Marrandino over the weekend, seated with New York Times stringer, Guy Vegas author, comp queen (as exemplified in this case) and Jackson show producer Steve Friess (who led the campaign to quell Gans coverage) and Norm Clarke, the ubiquitous Las Vegas Review-Journalist gossip columnist who went to print with whatever Jacobs and Friess gave him-- and who revealed that the Marrandino was attended by "500 high rollers" along with the Gans trio.


Listing Friess, Norm as among the "fav pals" she "hung" with, she added somewhat defensively: "Hello Tabloid Baby!"

Hello, Ms. Jacobs.

(As of now, no Las Vegas journalist has written or broadcast a definitive, no-holds barred examination of the circumstances of Danny Gans' life and death.)

Las Vegas media's Danny Gans death coverup mob join forces to promote Michael Jackson birthday "tribute" concert

The group that allied to mislead the public about the life and death of Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans is joining forces for the August 29th Las Vegas “tribute” concert to Michael Jackson.

The benefit show at the Palms Hotel and Casino (where Jackson last recorded) on what would have been Jacko’s 51st birthday is produced and being promoted by Steve Friess, the New York Times stringer, Gay Vegas author, local entertainment blogger and comp queen, who attacked Tabloid Baby, and made attempts to have this site shut down, because we were investigating the mysterious death of Gans on May 1st, and who, in the days following Jackson’s death, applauded the tragedy as “the best thing that could ever have happened to Michael Jackson’s music.”


According to a press release issued yesterday, the 3 pm show at the Pearl showroom will feature video montages and “cast members of Jersey Boys, Lion King, Peepshow and Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular.”backed by a 10-piece band comprised of musicians led by Las Vegas’ own Joey Melotti.”

Tickets, which go on sale Saturday, are $29, $54, $79, $104 and $129, “plus applicable box office fees. A VIP package is available for $504.” Proceeds are said to go to “Music Education programming in Clark County Public Schools.”


Details of the show were promoted on television this week by Alicia Jacobs, the beauty queen turned entertainment reporter who was Gans’ longtime close personal friend and who, with Gans’ manage Chip Lightman, led a spin campaign to divert attention from Gans’ drug use that led to his death by overdose of the powerful painkiller hydromorphone. Jacobs’ boss, KVBC News executive producer Miles Smith, is Friess’ unofficial husband (the couple were married at the Palms, though same-sex unions are not sanctioned in Nevada).


Friess’ show was announced last week by Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke. (whose paper has deliberately downplayed the Gans story). In the weeks before the cause of Gans’ death was announced, Clarke was used by Jacobs and Lightman to plant items that painted Gans as a clean-living, drug free, and spiritual figure.

Friess came to our attention in the days following Gans’ death, when he launched a vicious public attack against Tabloid Baby (and took steps to have this site shut down) after our correspondent emailed to ask why the local news media was not investigating the circumstances of Gans’ tragic death. Friess later admitted he knew of rumours that Gans was a steroid user, and that he was involved in spreading false stories about the tragedy to throw reporters off the scent.

Not Michael Jackson, but Danny Gans in an incredible simulation

While Friess has switched his “journalist” hat for one of show promoter, most of the talk in Las Vegas media circles concern his motivations for celebrating Jackson’s birthday, since he has expressed a disdain for the life of the late singer.

Some suggest it would be more appropriate for him to take the time to plan a tribute to Danny Gans, whose birthday is October 25th.

(Tabloid Baby classic: Click here to read "The Danny Gans daisy chain: Steve and Chip and Alicia and Norm and Miles and--")

Danny Gans and doctor shopping: Gossip columnist blows the lid off Las Vegas news media's cone of silence

How widespread has the practice
of doctor-shopping become in Las Vegas?
Will the investigation into
Jackson's prescription drug abuse
lead back to the Las Vegas medical community,
given Jackson spent a good deal
of time here in recent years?
Will the intense scrutiny uncover more leads
in Danny Gans' drug-related death?

--Norm Clarke, Las Vegas Review Journal

Norm Clarke of The Las Vegas Review-Journal has brought up the subject of "doctor shopping" in the Danny Gans death case. The gossip columnist and compulsive Twitterer buries the reference in story about Michael Jackson, but his column reveals once again that Las Vegas journalists are covering up a huge story bubbling under the drug overdose ten weeks ago of the biggest star on the Strip and the most unique entertainer in the country.

Norm's column, in which he interviews an anonymous doctor who claims Jackson's handlers once tried to intimidate him into prescribing painkillers under someone else's name," directly connects Jackson's apparent overdose death to Gans'.

Norm also extends the accusation of "doctor shopping" (requesting care from multiple physicians, often simultaneously, without making efforts to coordinate care, usually due to a patient's addiction to prescription drugs) in Las Vegas to at least one "high profile casino executive."


The column is all the more extraordinary for several reasons:

* The exact cause of Jackson's death won't be known for weeks, until toxicology reports are completed;

* The Las Vegas news media had refused to speculate about or investigate Gans' untimely death, claiming they could do nothing until toxcicology reports were completed;

* The talk of the town in Vegas was and is Gans' alleged use of steroids and prescription drugs;

* No one in the mainstream Las Vegas news media opened the floodgates of revelations about Gans once it was revealed that the supposedly Born Again Christian former athlete had died from a dose of hydromorphone, otherwise known as Dilaudid or "drug store heroin."

Leave it to the gossip columnist.

Just as his jaunty eyepatch is key to his image, Norm's candid reporting is a hallmark of his work. As a gossip columnist, he is known to plant unconfirmed items from publicists-- or, in the Danny Gans case, from Gans' manager and close female friend who were on a campaign to mislead the public about the musical impressionist's lifestyle-- but his job also frees him to write whatever he wants to fill the space (after the coroner's report on Gans was released, he was the only one to copy our report that Gans was now linked to Vegas legend Elvis Presley though Dilaudud).

This morning he writes about a doctor who claims he was called to Jackson's suite at the Mirage Hotel & Casino in 2003 (owned at the time by Steve Wynn, and the home of Danny Gans' show ):

"The doctor's experience with Jackson raises several questions: How widespread has the practice of doctor-shopping become in Las Vegas? Will the investigation into Jackson's prescription drug abuse lead back to the Las Vegas medical community, given Jackson spent a good deal of time here in recent years? Will the intense scrutiny uncover more leads in Danny Gans' drug-related death?

"'Doctor-shopping 'has become very common,' he said.

"The meeting with Jackson wasn't the first time the physician felt pressured to accommodate a VIP.

"He treated a high profile casino executive who wanted sleeping pills. A week later, the executive wanted a refill and a week after that he requested another refill 'and I said no -- and my services are no longer required.'

"The sad thing, he said, is that someone else filled the void.

"'It's Elvis Presley all over again.'

Though we've criticized Norm for the recent Gans factoids he spread, the joy with which he covers his beat and his excitement over getting a scoop-- see his constant, compulsive Twitter posts-- sets him apart from the corrupt editors and scaredy-cat reporters who are content to keep their heads down so they don't join the ranks of the laid-off.

The speculation in Las Vegas-- and knowledge among many reporters and editors-- is that Danny Gans got his prescription drugs from more than one doctor, as well as from members of his entourage.

Norm's single sentence in the nineteenth paragraph of a gossip column, could be the spark that sets off the explosive coverage that will blow this lid off off a scandal that goes far beyond the hypocrisy of Danny Gans.

The realization of what slipped through on the weekend will surely cause editor Tom Mitchell to tear off his three-beaver Resistol, toss it on the floor and jump up and down on it, yelling, "Dag nab it! Dad burn it!"

Norm's column could also convince a reporter to interview a doctor or musician under the cover of anonymity.

It could even lead to some real independent journalism in a city where journalism isn't merely dying, but slowly killing itself with painkillers.

Steve Friess twitters from a comped Danny Gans coverup Apalachin summit

Fit to print? New York Times report on Danny Gans' death by Dilaudid is penned by compromised comp queen and cover-up conspirator Steve Friess

Eerie: Danny Gans with Elvis on his shoulder (and a monkey on his back?)

Despite the current taste for full disclosure of journalistic conflicts of interest, readers of the New York Times received no such disclaimer on page A22 of yesterday's paper when the report on the Clark County Nevada Coroner's controversial findings in the death of Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans came with the byline of Steve Friess.

Friess (right) is the Las Vegas freelance writer, author of the Gay Vegas guide and comp queen whose sexual relationship with a local television news producer led him to dangerous conflict of interest and clear ethical lapses in his attempts to derail the investigative reporting into Gans' unexplained death on May 1st, an untimely passing at age 52 that was revealed this week to be the result of an overdose of Dilaudid, also known as "drug store heroin."

Friess' cover-up attempt began after we wrote him a private email on May 6, asking why Las Vegas journalists were not covering the Gans story, and he responded with a public Internet posting, calling us "a**hole," "Perez Hilton wanna be" and "vermin," and accusing us of "Danny Gans hate," among other things.

Within days, in a post titled "The Danny Gans Daisy Chain: Steve and Chip and Alicia and Norm and Miles and--," we reported on a tangled web of interpersonal dealings among Las Vegas media figures, including the revelation that Friess shares a bed with Miles Smith, executive producer of KVBC TV news, colleague of beauty queen-turned-local TV entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs. Jacobs had gained notoriety as Danny Gans' close and personal friend for more than a dozen years.

She not only broke the story of Gans' death, but worked with Gans' manager to spin and obfsucate the facts in such an obvious manner that the Las Vegas Review-Journal TV columnist lambasted her for her "reverse bias." Steve Bornfeld wrote "there's a difference between professional relationships and personal friendships, especially one as strongly and publicly evident as Jacobs and Gans... it creates an appearance of potential bias -- viewers/readers wondering if a reporter-friend would conceal unflattering or damaging information."

"A.J.'s boundary-breaching closeness"


Today, in his Medialogy column titled "Except for Jacobs, TV stations play Gans news straight," Bornfeld again singles out Jacobs' career-damaging conflict of interest in reporting the coroner's slippery Dilaudid announcement:

"Efficient, yet elusive.

"Such was the level of coverage and nature of the story as the cause of Danny Gans' death was disclosed Tuesday, leaving local media to present question-riddled reports of a 'drug toxicity' reaction from the painkiller Dilaudid, the coroner refraining from terming it 'drug abuse.'

"And -- except for an Alicia Jacobs commentary with an Alice-through-the-looking-glass effect of seeming completely right while being thoroughly wrong -- coverage was responsible...

"Then there was A.J.

"Her statement on the 4 p.m. news, in part: 'I'm sure there will be much focus on the drugs in Danny's system, but it's important to remember that since his baseball days, Danny dealt with endless injuries. ... On a personal note, I hope we can go back to remembering the great man and the amazing entertainer and the wonderful friend that was Danny Gans.'

"That's the response of a personal confidant who should have been a detached observer, the modest leeway of familiarity she's granted as an entertainment reporter abused long ago.

"In case news reporters, unsatisfied with ending the story with this toxicology finding, investigate further, Jacobs nudges us toward Gans' injuries as justification for his use of Dilaudid. While that's a legit element of the story as stated by neutral reporters, from Jacobs it's clearly a request for compassion from a protective pal.

"Then she plants a big wet smooch on his memory that out-Mary Harts Mary Hart. Her 11 p.m. 'Stage 3' was essentially an encore...

"Jacobs' boundary-breaching closeness to Gans oddly inoculates her -- she's so known as his buddy that withholding a heartfelt tribute would flummox fans conditioned to consider the relationship acceptable, seeming like a friend's betrayal when it's actually a professional requirement.

"...Yes, she's on the showbiz beat where sympathy might seem harmless. But when soft features turn into hard news, credibility counts in every corner of this craft."

Jacobs' conflict of interest is taken into account by local viewers.

Tried to shut us down

Friess (left), who writes for a national audience who may not be up on the local towel-snapping scandals of which he's part, should have recused himself from the story as soon as he admitted on May 15th that he was involved in sending us false information about Gans' death in effort to discredit our news team and throw us off the scent. (He also took action to shut down TabloidBaby.com after we posted his photo. We have since been forced to rely on reasonable facsimiles.)

Instead, it's the Steve Friess byline that appears on a story that is given the full authority of the New York Times. The story, of course, does not mention that the coroner refused to address what other drugs Danny Gans may have had in his system, pointedly refused to answer our question of possible steroid abuse, and arranges the words in a way that, like Alicia Jacobs, excuses the use of the powerful opiate in the name of sports injury:

The New York Times
Nevada: Entertainer's Death Is Ruled Accidental

"The Clark County coroner, Mike Murphy, ruled that the death of the popular impressionist Danny Gans, left, on May 1 was an accident brought on by a toxic level of the pain killer hydromorphone, which led to heart failure. Mr. Murphy refused to characterize the death as a drug overdose or disclose the level of hydromorphone, marketed as Dilaudid, in Mr. Gans’s system. Mr. Gans’s manager, Chip Lightman, said that he was unaware Mr. Gans, 52, was taking Dilaudid, but that Mr. Gans had shoulder surgery early this year before opening at the Encore Las Vegas resort and had follow-up surgery in March to remove scar tissue. Mr. Lightman previously told reporters that Mr. Gans had a family history of heart disease and for many years had been on medication for high blood pressure. Mr. Gans became a widely celebrated mimic known for his George Burns impression after his minor-league baseball career was cut short by a foot injury. He was prone to other injuries as well, canceling hundreds of performances over the course of his 13-year headlining career on the Strip because of shoulder, back and knee surgeries."

There have been many reasons suggested for Friess' involvement in the Danny Gans death, from the mundane-- Alicia Jacobs is supporter of same sex marriage and was the "celebrity" guest at his unofficial second marriage to Miles Smith at the Palms Hotel-- to his allegiance to Gans' employer, casino magnate Steve Wynn.

Friess picked up the Gans story on his own Vegas-boosting website on Tuesday and spoke as an authority on at least one radio station without mentioning his embarrassing missteps.

He did not post again until late this afternoon when he wrote about Englebert Humperdinck.

That Darn Norm

Then there's Norm Clarke, the colorful, nationally-known Las Vegas Review-Journal gossip columnist who has printed much of Jacobs' and Friess' planted stories that led the public farther from the truth about the life and death of Danny Gans.


In the days leading up to the coroner's hastily-called and carefully-worded news conference, Norm had been in Washington D.C, merrily Twittering his every move, from meals to exhibits at the Smithsonian.

His pure joy at reporting gossip and his evident innocence in the cover-up planning was exhibited in his Wednesday column about Danny Gans, when, hours after we drew the comparison, he guilelessly put a most sunny, even excited spin on the news that Gans had overdosed on drug store heroin:

NORM: Presley and gans linked by Dilaudid

"Danny Gans and Elvis Presley had something else in common, besides dying young.

"Both entertainers were linked after their deaths with Dilaudid, a highly addictive opiate nicknamed 'drug store heroin.'

"...According to numerous published reports, Dilaudid, said to be two to eight times more potent than morphine, was Elvis' favorite drug.

"Gans, a vocal impressionist, included a karate-kicking overweight Elvis among his spoofs of musical greats.

"Gans, a Las Vegas headliner since 1996, was 52.

"Elvis was 42 when he died Aug. 16, 1977, in Memphis, Tenn."

Viva Las Vegas...

Danny Gans photo: Ralph Fountain/Las Vegas Review-Journal

Coroner is holding Danny Gans death results; once again, Gans' close friend Alicia Jacobs has the inside track on the information

Six weeks after the mysterious death of Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans, The Clark County Coroner is holding on to the toxicology report that could reveal what killed the musical impressionist-- and once again, the controversial beauty queen-turned-TV entertainment reporter who was Gans'close personal friend has the inside track on the information and how it will be revealed to the public.

Alicia Jacobs of local television station KVBC reported last night that "all of the key information has been compiled by the Coroner's Office.

"The coroner will likely release the manner and the cause of death for the legendary entertainer within a couple of weeks. Experts are currently sifting through the results from the standard scientific tests."


Jacobs broke the news of Danny Gans' sudden death at his home in Henderson, Nevada on May 1st. She also let on that she was informed of the tragedy by Gans' manager Chip Lightman "around 4 a.m.," which would have been within minutes of the time paramedics arrived at the home to declare Gans deceased.

Jacobs thrust herself into the story with her very first report, talking emotionally about a 13-year personal friendship with Gans and showing off a white Bible she said Gans had inscribed for her (in an exclusive interview with TabloidBaby.com, she denied that she and Gans had ever had an affair).

Her close relationship with Gans and his manager Chip Lightman led to criticism here, and later in the Las Vegas media, as it became more and more evident she and Lightman were "spinning" the information and clouding details of the mysterious death in an effort to protect Gans' image and legacy.


While rumours of steroid abuse spun beyond Vegas, the pair insisted that they had no inkling whatsoever of what may have struck down the 52-year-old clean-living, eggwhite-eating, teetotaling Born Again Christian athlete in his prime.

It was only after our interview with Jacobs, in which she repeated the claims and we pressed on the steroids issue, that she and Lightman did an about-face. Within 24 hours, the pair had given an exclusive to Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke, both claiming they'd known that Gans had been treated for high blood pressure and had a family history of heart problems.

The Jacobs-Gans connection got murkier after this site-- the only news organization to provide constant coverage and updates of this major story-- was attacked publicly by Vegas booster, writer, gay activist and comp queen Steve Friess (right) for asking questions or even covering the story. Friess' motivations came into focus when we revealed that he was in an unofficial same sex marriage with Miles Smith-- Jacobs'executive producer.

It should also be mentioned that the rest of the Las Vegas news media failed miserably in their responsibility to cover a story that had great social, spiritual, economic and historic impact on the city. No news organization investigated the circumstances or history of the paramedic responses to Gans mansion, the talk and rumours that have been flying all over town, or the many leads dangled in front of them.

And now, entering the sixth week of the mystery surrounding Gans' death, the information from the coroner's office is apparently again being directed through Alicia Jacobs.

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