Down Charleston Blvd: The only Las Vegas journalist doing his job in the Danny Gans case is an anonymous blogger who puts the paid hacks to shame

Living in Las Vegas, it would be nice to open up the morning paper, pull the weekly "alternative" paper out of the box, switch on the TV news or even turn to Twitter to find the latest on the story that everyone in town is interested in, has been affected by and has an opinion about.

Unfortunately, in the case of the mysterious death of entertainer Danny Gans on May 1st, the supposedly competitive members of the news media have circled the wagons, gone to the mattresses and deliberately, offensively ignored the story, avoided investigation, allowed Gans' close friend to whitewash the details and agreed as one to wait patiently as a controversial coroner takes his sweet time coming up with an answer to what killed the supposedly strong performer at 52.

No one in Las Vegas is tackling the biggest story to hit Sin City in this young century (think about the ties to the Las Vegas economy, construction, water supply, tourism and the growing evangelical powerbase).

No one, that is, but a man with a blog called Down Charleston Blvd.

We first got in touch with the mysterious web journo in the early days of our own investigation. Down Charleston Blvd went farther on a limb than any other source, suggesting that Gans may possibly have been murdered.

FindAGrave.com

His recent posting, dated on the one-month anniversary of Gans' untimely death, is the type of story we'd expect to see in a newspaper or alt-weekly-- if today's crop of "alt-weaklies" lived up to the name. Some excerpts from Danny Gans Mystery Runs Deep:

One Month Later…

The mystery continues to grow larger, and as rumors are quashed or lose ground, new ones spawn from this dark uncertainty. Due to the fact that news and details are extremely scarce; Rumors, rumblings, and things that were overheard are sprouting up like weeds...

People want to know what happened, and when there are contradictions, and strange/odd things happening it only makes the mystery grow larger, deeper, and gives it life.

We all know everyone has a side of themselves that most rarely see. Often a darker side.

Gans is well know as a man of unflinching faith and conviction, passionate about performing, and even more passionate about his fans. A charitable celeb that didn’t donate for the publicity, a father, a husband, a friend, and said to be the best at all three.

As much as we want to believe that there were no dark secrets, no drugs, steroids, affairs, and so on; That he (Gans) just died of something unforeseen, something perhaps related to high blood pressure. You’d think we would have found that out by now if that was the case. You’d think….

We have received many requests to address some of the more possible and/or popular rumors that have been circulating. Since Gans had many fans across the world and details are scarce outside of Vegas... heck, they are even scarce here if you read the Las Vegas Review Journal or Las Vegas Sun (both owned by the same company by the way)

Did Danny Gans Kill Himself intentionally, accidentally?

You have a friend/pastor saying he was depressed, down in the dumps the day he died. Yet you have his family saying he wasn’t depressed. Danny’s religious faith was deep, in one way this knocks down the suicide theory but if his image was just a long ongoing front... drastic things can become the result...

Did Danny overdose, have a bad reaction to Drugs and/or Steroids?

...It has been speculated that Gans may have used steroids to help overcome the injuries while playing baseball and may have been using to keep up his act as he got older. Whether it has been all these years, occasionally, or just recently has been debated amongst insiders.

...Last year, The Albany County District attorney David Soares launched a probe that indicated performers Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, Timbaland, Wyclef Jean and actor Tyler Perry had allegedly ordered steroids or human growth hormone from doctors and pharmacists targeted in Soares’ investigation.

Was Gans using and did his heart become so weakened that he died or could have their been another similar reaction? or did he perhaps take too much? We contacted the Clark County Coroner’s office about this directly, and asked about rumors that there were marks on Gans’s body possibly indicating ‘track marks’ – or that needles were used by Mr. Gans. The coroner’s office denied these rumors...

Friends and associates have been said to believe that Gans was hiding his usage of steroids, and noted his facial characteristics changing as it took effect on him.

One Friend we spoke with shared an awkward moment he had with Gans when he told Danny that his head was getting big. “He (Gans) took it figuratively he said, but I meant literally." he went on to say “I can’t say for sure if he took any kind of drugs or steroids and I honestly think if he did, very and I mean very few people knew about it; All I noticed was the change in appearance as others have, for me it was the size of his head increasing..."

As more and more rumors point to Gan’s using steroids, at this stage it seems to be the strongest theory as to what may have caused Gans to suddenly die at age 52.

Talks of murder dim, but lingering

The rumors of Gans being murdered haven’t completely diminished here in Sin City. They have only altered and shifted in possible details.

At first people thinking money being the factor, now have gone more towards rumors of Gan’s having an affair. The woman rumored that Gans was possibly having an affair with? Why Alicia Jacobs of course.

...in the exclusive interview with Tabloid Baby (here) Alicia said in response to the rumors of her and Gans having a relationship

“No. Oh my gosh, no,”
“We were just very great friends.”

But you have a few out there saying something was odd about them. Those ‘few’ people have said that when seen together, they looked like a couple, or at least Alicia made it appear that way. “It was obvious how incredibly charmed she was by him” said one source. One source going as far as to call her “Gan’s biggest groupie." The rumor of them having an affair has stuck around especially when Alicia shared her story about Gan’s giving her a bible, inscribing it, and how she cherished it every night. Plus other comments and Television appearances she has made seem to only add fuel to the rumor...

As we reported early on, this appears to be the weaker rumor that still happens to be floating. Although Metro (LVMPD) has stated that they do not suspect foul play, a Metro source told us that “This early in the game, Metro will say that, even if they do suspect it. I know it’s not ruled out at this point"

So where are the Feds in all this?

...At the time of this posting, the FBI had not gotten back to us.

So we wait… As irritation, and suspicion grow fiercer and it becomes clear that the delay in the Toxicology Results do not fit the time frame of other reports on other cases here in Las Vegas. Fans of Danny Gans along with writers/journalist (who are actually touching the story) share the frustration and anger. I’m sure even Mr. Gans’ family are eager themselves to find out. This mystery begs to be closed but something about it indicates that we may be far from it…

****

And there you have it. Pretty simple, really. A local journalist serves his readers, engages them in a dialogue and responds to their questions, chases down rumours that have swept through the Ls Vegas area like bad luck.

Bravo, Down Charleston Blvd.


Shame on Tom "McCloud" Mitchell (above), Steve "Comp Queen" Friess (left) and every other paid newsman or newswoman who's avoided this case or participated in the coverup, whitewashing and image-burnishing.

NOTE: An FBI source told Tabloid Baby two weeks ago that the FBI is not involved in the Danny Gans case.

Developing...

"Magical! Mysterious! Whimsical! Hysterical!": The Chicago Tribune raves over The Seventh Python in advance of historic show at the Wilmette Theatre

As legendary pop music satirist Neil Innes rolls across America in a concert tour that culminates Tuesday with a once-in-a-lifetime live performance alongside a screening of the acclaimed, award-winning film bio, The Seventh Python, at the historic Wilmette Theatre in suburban Chicago, the prestigious Chicago Tribune raves today about Neil and the Frozen Pictures movie:

Chicago Tribune
June 5, 2009

A glimpse of Neil Innes

It takes a special guy to warrant the attention of The Beatles. Not everyone can (or could) call members of the Fab Four close-and-personal friends and collaborators. Enter Neil Innes. Known as "The Seventh Python" due to his work with the legendary Monty Python comedy troupe, this musical satirist can call on Paul McCartney if he ever wants Macca to produce another single for him, or if he needs a guest member for his Beatles parody group, The Rutles. Innes' own magical and mysterious tour through life is the subject of a new film, "The Seventh Python." The only thing more whimsical and hysterical than his songs is Innes' real-life story. In addition to concert footage of Innes' live performances, John Cleese, Eric Idle and Terry Jones also make appearances on camera to talk about their mate. Enjoy a viewing of this pre-fab film, and then partake in a heart-to-heart with the film's director and Innes himself. 7 p.m. Tuesday, Wilmette Theatre, 1122 Central Ave., Wilmette. $25; 847-251-7424 or wilmettetheatre.com.

Sam Butera gets his NY Times obituary

Tabloid Baby pal and inspiration Sam Butera, the great, innovative sax player who provided the spark for Louis Prima and created some of the most joyful, rocking, hippest music ever heard in a Vegas lounge or committed to vinyl, died this week at 81. And the world stopped to take notice.

Las Vegas Review-Journal

Sam's obituary in The Los Angeles Times spelled out his achievements in a colorful way:

"...Prima, nearly 20 years older than Butera, was a composer ('Sing, Sing, Sing'), trumpeter, singer and irrepressible stage performer, a combination of Louis Armstrong and Jerry Lewis. His career was on the wane when he teamed in 1954 with Butera, who a few years earlier had been named the country's outstanding teenage jazz musician by Look magazine. Both men were New Orleans natives of Italian heritage.

"Butera was enjoying a long engagement at a New Orleans club owned by Prima's brother before he and Louis Prima began a musical union in 1954 that lasted nearly two decades. They recorded hit albums for Capitol Records, became nightclub fixtures from Las Vegas to New York and appeared in movies and on television.

"Prima was married to Smith, a smoky-voiced balladeer with a pageboy haircut, until their rancorous divorce in the early 1960s. Prima's fifth wife, Gia Maione, later joined the act as singer.

"Backed by a small band called the Witnesses, the Prima-Smith-Butera partnership re-created jazz and pop standards in a dazzlingly inventive array of styles and tempos: swing jazz, "shuffling" upbeat jump blues, Italian tarantellas and Dixieland. Some of their best-known titles included 'Just a Gigolo'/'I Ain't Got Nobody' (done as a medley), 'Pennies From Heaven,' 'That Old Black Magic' (which won a Grammy Award), 'Jump, Jive an' Wail' and 'When You're Smiling.'

"Mostly, Butera took a supporting role to the headliner Prima but was at times allowed to shine in a singing role, notably on 'There'll Be No Next Time,' a jokey, blues-inflected number about a man who goes to jail for 'failure to support' his faithless wife.

"Prima had complications from surgery for a benign brain tumor in 1975 and was in a coma until his death in 1978. Afterward, Butera performed with a band he called the Wildest. He lived to see his music influence a later generation of musicians as varied as David Lee Roth, who had a hit with 'Just a Gigolo'/'I Ain't Got Nobody,' and Brian Setzer, who won a Grammy for his cover of 'Jump, Jive an' Wail.'

"...In addition to his work with Prima, Butera enjoyed a prolific side career performing with entertainers including Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., with whom he recorded the acclaimed 1965 album 'When the Feeling Hits You! 'He also put out several albums under his own name, including 'The Rat Race' (1960) and 'The Whole World Loves Italians"'(1996).

"He told interviewers that with companions such as Sinatra, he lived hard much of his life, with a typical day starting with two beers and ending with a bottle of Courvoisier.

"Prima was the most influential figure in his life.

"'The whole thing is entertainment, man,' Butera told a reporter. 'I learned that from him. You can get up on stage, do all the singing and talking you want, but if you don't know how to laugh and get happy with the people, it's nothing.'"

His obituary in the New York Times was official notice that a giant had passed on:

The New York Times

Sam Butera, Saxophonist for Louis Prima, Dies at 81

By PETER KEEPNEWS

Sam Butera, whose tenor saxophone provided a raucous counterpoint to Louis Prima’s frenzied “jump, jive and wail” vocals for two decades and who was later a successful bandleader in his own right, died on Wednesday in Las Vegas. He was 81.

The cause was pneumonia, his daughter Cheryl told The Associated Press.

Singing and clowning over a driving shuffle beat, Prima and his wife, the singer Keely Smith, became one of Las Vegas’s biggest attractions in the 1950s with a crowd-pleasing mixture of jazz, rhythm and blues, and pure showmanship. Mr. Butera’s high-energy saxophone solos were an essential element of Mr. Prima’s success, as were the many arrangements that Mr. Butera wrote for the band.

Sam Butera was born in New Orleans on Aug. 17, 1927. His father, Joseph, was an amateur musician who made his living as a butcher and encouraged young Sam’s interest in music.

Mr. Butera began studying saxophone when he was 7 and became a professional musician at 14, playing in a strip club on Bourbon Street. At 19 he won a talent contest sponsored by Look magazine, which led to an appearance with other winners from around the country at Carnegie Hall.

After working with the big bands of Ray McKinley, Tommy Dorsey and others, he formed his own group and began a four-year residency at the 500 Club in New Orleans. He was hired by Prima, a fellow New Orleans native, in December 1954 and put together a band, the Witnesses, to back Prima at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas.

Mr. Butera and the Witnesses continued to work with Prima, in Las Vegas and later in New Orleans, until Prima fell into a coma after undergoing brain surgery in 1975. He died in 1978.


In the late 1970s, Mr. Butera stepped into the spotlight. Doing as much singing as playing, he led a band that performed songs from the Prima repertory and frequently accompanied Ms. Smith, who had divorced Prima in 1961. He retired in 2004.

Mr. Butera’s survivors include his wife, Vera; two daughters, Cheryl and Diane; two sons, Sam Jr. and Nick; eight grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

Among Mr. Butera’s best-known arrangements was the medley of “Just a Gigolo” and “I Ain’t Got Nobody” that was a hit for the Prima-Smith team in 1956. To Mr. Butera’s chagrin, it became an even bigger hit for the rock singer David Lee Roth three decades later.

“He copied my arrangement note for note, and I didn’t get a dime for it,” Mr. Butera told The New York Times in 1997. “But there wasn’t an act in Atlantic City or Las Vegas that would do that song, out of respect for me.”

"The word is... no word": Tom Mitchell and his Las Vegas Review-Journal team wait obediently to be spoonfed answers to the Danny Gans mystery

Danny Gans, a photo worth a thousand words (Leila Navidi/Las Vegas Sun)

"The word is... no word."

If you've come late to the story and want an idea of what's wrong with the Las Vegas news media and its disgracefully lax and irresponsible "coverage" of the death of its local superstar Danny Gans, look no farther than today's "Breaking News" report on the website of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Here it is.

Right here.

Just click.

Never has a newspaper appeared to be more pleased and smug that there is not an answer in the mysterious passing of one of its city's foremost figures and prime economic generators. Rarely is a newspaper, with a newsroom full of aggressive, competitive reporters who know their ship is on the verge of sinking, so obsequious, obedient and... and... incurious as this gang of civic boosters laboring under the fussy mustache and cartoonish Stetson of editor Tom "McCloud" Mitchell.

"The Las Vegas Sun put more
time, effort and column inches into
investigating the final years
of Las Vegas legend Sam Butera,
who died this week at 81, than the
entire local news media combined
have dedicated to the death
of Danny Gans."

To bring you up to date: Last night, beauty queen-turned-TV entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs, Danny Gans' close personal friend (and, with his manager Chip Lightman, guardian and promoter of his myth) somehow got the news that the Clark County Coroner had finally received the results of the long-awaited toxicology report that might explain why this seemingly robust, athletic, teetotaling, healthy-eating Born Again Christian, clean-living, spiritual family man died in his sleep at 52.

This morning, we spoke to the coroner's office. The spokeswoman there wouldn't elaborate beyond what Alicia Jacobs reported. She wouldn't answer our questions about whether steroids or other drugs were involved.

"We're not allowed to give out any information," she claimed.

The local boys though, they got to speak to coroner Mike Murphy. Their secret? They don't ask questions. They listen. They transcribe. They never, ever challenge an answer. They copy down the party line. Their editors sanitize the story even further so even someone like Steve Wynn would approve.

And then the story is released without a byline.

Tom Mitchell, the cowboy-posing pissant who accused our journalistic team of plagiarism and has yet to apologize, will have to take the blame for this one (from which we excerpt a portion):

****

Cause of death for Gans will take at least two more weeks
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

The word is... no word. A medical explanation for the death of entertainer Danny Gans at age 52, which shocked Las Vegas last month, is still at least two weeks away.

“It’s not available for release and we’re still poring over the information,” Clark County Coroner Michael Murphy said today about toxicology reports that have now been submitted to a medical examiner. “We’ve gathered what we believe is all the critical information and now we anticipate an answer within the next couple of weeks,” he said, but added that it could take longer.

“You need to remember that Mr. Gans died on May 1 and we’re just at the beginning of June and it takes two to four weeks just to gather that information, so we’re in the right time frame. And once you get all the information, it could create the need to do other testing. But all the initial information is in, so we have to review it and see where it goes.”

Murphy declined to speculate about possible findings. Gans’ family has said he was on medication to control high blood pressure, but otherwise had no health issues as far as they knew. As the wait for a conclusive cause of death continues, Gans’ manager, Chip Lightman, said the family is “doing as well as can be expected..."

Lightman added that the coroner had promised Gans’ wife, Julie, that she would be the first to be called when test results come in.

Lightman has said that on the night before Gans died, he had slept poorly. Police responded to a call from Gans’ Henderson home at around 3:45 a.m. May 1. Paramedics arrived but could not resuscitate him...

****

Fellow journos: Have a field day parsing that one.

We'll stick with the most obvious ringers. Interesting that the crack reporters at the Review-Journal allowed themselves to be lectured on process by the controversial coroner, and then reprinted the late, unsubstantiated claim by Lightman and Jacobs that Gans was dealing with high blood pressure-- yet did not bring up national reports of Gans' steroid use ("steroids" being the first word on anyone's lips when Gans' death is discussed).

Even comp queen, Gay Vegas author, former New York Times stringer and Gans cover-up accomplice Steve Friess (left) admitted "Gans' suspected steroid use has been out there for years."

(Just think, Tom. A simple warning about steroids might save the life of a high school athlete.)

The paper also did not comment on word that Gans' wife Julie would be the first to get the results. With all respect to Mrs. Gans, it is all to obvious that the second person to receive the findings will Lightman, who will then get laundry help from Jacobs.

The Las Vegas Sun? Fughedabout it. The Pulitzer winners are running with an Associated Press story. In the end, the Sun today put more time, effort and column inches into investigating the final years of Las Vegas legend and Tabloid Baby pal Sam Butera, who died this week at 81, than the entire local news media combined have dedicated to the death of Danny Gans.

Don't ask, don't tell?

Shame, guys.

Every one of you hiding behind Alicia Jacob's miniskirts might as well be at the end of one of her leashes or inside one of her controversial doggie purses.

Is it fear? Incompetence? Pressure from advertisers and higher-ups?

We'll place our bet on the chance that there's one reporter in the Review-Journal newsroom who's mad as hell and busting at the seams to get the real story out.

You know where to find us. (Find us by clicking here!)

"The word is... no word?" Ask some tough questions. Follow up what you know. You'd be surprised how many words you'd be able to come up with.

Tom Mitchell and his crew have neglected their responsibility and as result are adding to and extending the Danny Gans mystery. They've set the stage for what is bound to be the most disputed and disbelieved post mortem since the report from The Warren Commission.

"A must for Python fans!" Excitement builds for Neil Innes and The Seventh Python at the Wilmette Theatre

Excitement is building and tickets are reportedly selling at a rapid clip for the history-making Night of The Seventh Python at the historic Wilmette Theatre outside Chicago. For the first time, legendary musical satirist Neil Innes will perform live following a screening of The Seventh Python, the acclaimed, award-winning nonfiction musical film about his career, philosophy and influence, and the importance and significance of the event is being amplified by rave reviews and press throughout the Chicago area.

"When the film premiered at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre at the American Cinematheque's Mods & Rockers Film Festival, (festival curator) Martin Lewis had Neil there for a Q&A, and a special concert the following night. And while Neil's been on hand for other screenings, this is the first, and possibly only time the film will be followed by a concert by the real thing," said director Burt Kearns. "What makes it even more exciting is that this be the finale of Neil's US concert tour. This will be great!"

Great? The Chicago Sun-Times News Group agrees. Their wide-ranging suburban weeklies feature an interview and a three-star (we're assuming out of three) review of the film, to which we add exclamation points as we summarize:

"In this... genial documentary...much is made of the surprising un-famousness of Neil Innes, an unofficial member of Monty Python (perhaps best remembered as the teasing minstrel in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"), with all of the surviving Pythons among those giving testimony regarding his remarkable talent!

"Its best service is providing the opportunity to appreciate Innes' musical career, beginning with the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and continuing with the Pythons (where a particularly brilliant side project was his score for the Beatles parody 'The Rutles'). Featuring live performances of charming tunes! There's also a nice recipe for Belgian Waffles in the credits! A must for Python fans!"

In the feature, The Seventh Python breaks his silence, Innes talks about the film and his illustrious carer under the radar. Here's a taste:

Q: What's your favorite moment in the film?

A: They (interview) someone on Hollywood Boulevard, who says, "You're making a documentary about a guy nobody's ever heard of." I'm rather unusual in show business as being a bit shy. If I could do all my work and not have to be made a fuss over, that would be nice.

Q: Are you writing new songs?

A: I've been working quietly at getting myself out of the mess I got myself into by not paying attention when I signed things. I'm happy to say that on Jan. 1, 2010, I get my publishing catalogue back. It frees me up to come out with the newer stuff I've been working on, because otherwise it was going to be swallowed up by white-collar multinational companies. So I will probably, at the unlikely age of 65, come out from behind my camouflage and say, "Hey, I'm ready for halftime at the Super Bowl!"

The Seventh Python screens Tuesday night June 9th at 7 pm the historic and hip Wilmette Theatre, 1122 Central Ave., in Wilmette, Illinois outside Chicago. The $25 ticket price includes a movie poster and details can be found at www.wilmettetheatre.com.

More to come...

DANNY GANS EXCLUSIVE: CLAMPDOWN AT THE CLARK COUNTY CORONER'S OFFICE

Five weeks after the mysterious death of Las Vegas headliner Danny Gans, the Clark County Coroner's Office has suddenly clamped down on information regarding the toxicology reports that could finally explain what killed the musical impressionist.

The initial autopsy performed after the local superstar was found dead in his bed at the age of 52 proved inconclusive, and the coroner's office announced that tissue samples would be sent out for toxicology testing in order to determine how the heart of the seemingly robust entertainer suddenly gave out at the age of 52.

The coroner initially said the tests would take "several weeks" to come in. This was later amended to "up to 12 weeks," though everyone we spoke to at the coroner's office had insisted there was nothing unusual in the findings or the delay in receiving the toxicology test results.

Today, however, amid reports of steroid use and a report by a Gans' close friend, the beauty queen-turned-TV entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs that the tests had been completed and were now awaiting a summarization for public consumption, all conversation has ceased and a spokeswoman told a TabloidBaby.com journalist just minutes ago:

"I cant give out any information."

"At this point we're not allowed to give out any information."

When asked about the veracity of last night's report by Jacobs, the spokeswoman said:

"I don't know anything about that. I don't know who that is."

The Associated Press this morning paraphrases coroner Mike Murphy saying that toxicology and microscopic reports have been submitted to a medical examiner, who still hasn't determined a cause or manner of death:

"Murphy says that ruling will be checked before being made public.. (in) two or three weeks... Murphy notes that police suspect no foul play, and says his medical examination isn't taking longer than usual."

The coroner's spokeswoman did say that Murphy is now deciding how to break the news when he's ready to share it with the public. She denied that Jacobs is being given an inside track on the story or that Jacobs will be given the results first in order to break the news with her own spin, as she has done since Gan's manager informed her at 4 a.m. on May 1st, minutes after paramedics had arrived at Gans home, that her close personal friend had passed away.

"I don't even know who she is," the spokeswoman insisted.

Sam Butera 1927-2009

God bless Sam Butera

Saxophone genius, Louis Prima sideman and Las Vegas legend Sam Butera died yesterday at 81.

Sam was a good friend of ours. We first met him in 1989, while we were with Jerry Lewis as he geared up for his Jerry Lewis telethon for muscular dystrophy and he was playing the Tropicana with his band, The Wildest.

Sam was not only a masterful, pioneering R&B, jazz and rock 'n' roll musician, he was an example of the best and most loyal friend a man could have. More than a decade after Louis Prima's death and three decades after he made history with Louis, Keely Smith and the Witnesses at the Casbar Lounge at the Sahara Hotel, Sam kept the legend alive leading his band The Wildest through a Prima tribute show that carried on the rollicking, rocking, swinging, bluesy, hilarious tradition that only begins with Just A Gigolo.

Sam closed every show with When The Saints Go Marching In, walking through the aisles playing with one hand and shaking hands with the other.

Rafael Abramovitz was the one who observed that Sam had the incredible ability to play his saxophone and smile all the while.


Sam told us something that we've carried with us every since:

"It's nice to be important, but it's important to be nice."

Did David Carradine die masturbating?

The mainstream news media is referring to death of Kung Fu star David Carradine as a "suicide by hanging."

Distasteful to mention it as it may be, the actor was found dead in his hotel room in Bangkok, reportedly naked with a rope around his neck, and genitals (later amended to "other parts of his body"):

"Thai police told the BBC the 72-year-old was found by a hotel maid sitting in a wardrobe with a rope around his neck and genitals on Thursday morning. The US star was in Thailand filming his latest film Stretch, according to his personal manager Chuck Binder. Mr Binder said the news was 'shocking', adding: 'He was full of life, always wanting to work... a great person.'"

Bang-kok? Well hung?

(Then again, it could have been murder.)

UPDATE: The Daily Mail quotes Chuck Binder as calling the death "accidental."

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.

Developing...

Las Vegas is losing its Trader Vic's

The Las Vegas outpost of Trader Vic's is closing.


Word's been spreading all day on Twitter that the bright upscale, reincarnated and reinterpreted 21st century version of the dark Tiki classic is set to shutter within 24 hours, but all that's been confirmed is that the eatery and drinkery-- and a Vegas office of the TabloidBaby.com newsteam-- is closing.


Trader Vic's would seem a natural for the Vegas crowd, but with its location at the end of the Miracle Mile shopping mall and its decor a far cry from the dark, exotic Tiki classicism of the original, the place really was a bit pricey for the crowd dripping in from the Planet Hollywood slots.


Trader Vic's opened in Vegas in 2007, one of many franchises around the world. Coincidentally, official word came today that the Los Angeles Trader Vic's is up and running at the LA Live-Staples Center complex downtown. We suggest the Marina and raise a Mai Tai and crab rangoon in memory of the Vegas Vic's.

"Engaging & revealing": Magazine features Neil Innes and The Seventh Python on the road to Tuesday's history-making event at the Wilmette Theatre

With pop music legend Neil Innes receiving rave reviews on a United States concert tour that culminates in a much-anticipated appearance alongside the acclaimed, award-winning film The Seventh Python, the Bonzo, Rutle, Monty Python cohort, Ego Warrior and heretofore hidden treasure, talks about his reaction to the film and the subsequent showers of appreciation in a magazine interview that's just hit the stands.

Innes shares the stage with the Frozen Pictures Innes biopic at the historic Wilmette Theatre outside Chicago on Tuesday June 9th. And as he continues his concert tour, fans, and folks who are about to discover him, can read an excellent interview by writer Jeff Elbel in the new issue (#64) of The Big Takeover, the very hip and forward-looking Brooklyn-based music magazine.

A brief excerpt from the article in the magazine you must hold in your hands:

JE: The Seventh Python must stoke your ego and provoke your contempt for fame simultaneously. Will you have difficulty maintaining your power of invisibility with a film about yourself in circulation?

NEIL: Well, it’s not really up there with The Dark Knight, is it? [laughs] I quite like that they went around with a photograph of me and nobody recognized me. One woman in Windsor said, “It’s not that Russian that got poisoned, is it?” - clinging to the idea of "it's got to be somebody who's been on the news."

JE: I particularly enjoyed the testimonials in The Seventh Python from your Python mates, during which they celebrated your vices. John Cleese described your deadly cigarettes, which were apparently "so strong, they were like something the police would throw at you during a riot."

NEIL: Cleese would arrive like an ocean-going schooner and demand, "Give me one of your cigarettes." He never really bought any of his own [laughs], but he was rather tempted by my incredibly strong cigarettes - which I only used to smoke half of. It was very wasteful. They were killer cigarettes, but I certainly didn't smoke them all the time, and I never smoked them all the way down.

"The Seventh Python is an engaging
and revealing look at the 'accidental career'
of beloved musical satirist and creative powerhouse
Neil Innes, a predominantly unsung figure despite
over four decades in the public eye and ear."
– Jeff Elbel, The Big Takeover

JE: You can see the writer's mind in his anecdotes. John's insistence that you had developed an admirable approximation of a British accent despite the "fact" that you're Belgian was very funny, too.

NEIL: John will take something absolutely incredible, and look it in the camera until it backs off. "He is from Bruges." [laughs]

JE: Michael Palin seemed to relish the story about how you would harangue the night porter for drinks after hours.

NEIL: It's funny to see Michael's interpretation. The way he says it, it makes it sound like I'm a complete alcoholic desperate for a drink!

The thing is, being on the road with a group, you would come back late [after the show]. After you've been on stage, you're pretty up [from adrenalin], and you can use something to quiet yourself down. Most hotels in the UK would be closed up. Usually, there's a night porter who's got a cupboard with a few miniatures in it. You could get a couple of shots of whiskey or something as a nightcap.

I got used to the fact that they would say, "No, it's too late." If I went, "Now look, there's a night porter's cupboard. What have you got in there?" ... if you insisted, politely and nicely as well, they'd normally get it out. That's all it was; I wasn't driving motorbikes around the corridors, demanding booze.

Neil Innes in The Seventh Python

JE: What do you make of a statement like the one Eric Idle made, suggesting that you should have paraded your talent around the states more often, and that you owed it to people?

NEIL: That is a more conventional showbiz approach. I want it all, though. I want all the toys and all the friends, and all the anonymity. I'm a greedy bastard, and I want even more than most people.

JE: Less is more.

NEIL: More or less, less is more!

JE: Did you learn anything about yourself through the film?

NEIL: I already knew how prickly I can be sometimes. I thought Michael was very good about saying, "Well, he knows what he wants." That was the thing about working with Python; everybody has an opinion, and you don't get anywhere from just nodding and being polite. But eventually the best solution comes forward. It's up to everybody else not to have any grudges and go along with the majority...

Jeff Elbel & Neil Innes take the Ego Warrior oath

JE: The Seventh Python underscores what you’ve always said about degrees of celebrity before - that it's easier being a Rutle than a Beatle.

NEIL: Fame and money have become the twin pillars of modern-day culture. I like to go off into fantasies about it. I love the idea of a D-list celebrity, which is someone who’s been hit on the head by Tiger Woods’ golf ball...

JE: George Harrison had a reputation as an insightful person. With distance from the most extreme years of Beatlemania, did he become more comfortable with his status?

NEIL: No, he was always [wary of fame]. To his credit, he wasn’t fooled by show business. He once said in an interview; “It’s all very well, wanting fame and fortune, and good luck to you if you find it. But you still have to find yourself.” Money can’t buy anyone love, you know.

Great stuff! And this brief selection only hints at the insight on both sides of the conversation.

The Neil Innes interview appears in The Big Takeover's issue #64. If you can't find it, you can order it by clicking here.

EXCLUSIVE: Farrah Fawcett's friends say Ryan O'Neal won't let her see the German doctor who treated her cancer and extended her life

Farrah Fawcett’s Hollywood friends say Ryan O’Neal is stopping the iconic actress’s German doctor from treating or visiting her in what appears to be the final stages of her battle with cancer, and denying the Hollywood legend one last chance at survival.

Dr. Ursula Jacob took over Farrah’s anal and liver cancer treatment in 2007, after doctors in the United States said they could not help her. She arrived in Los Angeles from Germany last month with more experimental therapies that she said could extend the actress’ life or put the cancer in remission.

“Dr. Jacob was out here and told Farrah there was experimental treatment that she should try because at this point there’s nothing anyone else can do for her,” says producer Brett Hudson, who was treated with Farrah at the various kliniks in Germany.


“From what I’m told, Farrah tried the treatment for four days, but stopped because it made her feel sick. I know how sick she was. I was that sick, too. But that’s part of the process. Farrah stopped, and Ryan, who is now the gatekeeper, stopped all communication with Dr. Jacob.

“Dr. Jacob has tried to get in touch with Farrah. From what I’ve been told, Ryan shut her out. What do Farrah’s Hollywood friends think? The people you guys call ‘Farrah’s Hollywood friends’ are appalled! Dr. Jacob took on Farrah’s case after doctors here said there was nothing they could do for her. She did everything here, radiation and chemotherapy and it didn’t work. Only then did the doctors say, ‘You might as well try Germany.’

“That was almost two years ago. Dr. Jacob extended Farrah’s life. Now the doctor says she has nothing to lose. And after four days she stopped.

The latest outcry follows accusations from Greg Lott, Farrahs’ college beau and business partner that O’Neal suddenly cut off his access to his dear friend since the actor took over Farrah’s affairs on Easter.

O’Neal also took over control of the personal cancer documentary Farrah and her producing partner Craig Nevius had been preparing for two years. Nevius is suing, claiming the takeover was unlawful and that the final product, drastically reshot and re-edited by NBC News personnel, did not reflect Farrah’s visions and hopes for the documentary.

The documentary, which was turned into the NBC entertaiment special “Farrah’s Story,” a maudlin feature focusing on Farrah’s “love story" with O’Neal (star of the movie “Love Story”), was edited to diminish the credibility of Dr. Jacob and her colleagues, who use cutting edge, state-of-the-art treatment that is either not approved or used widely in the States.

In publicizing the TV product in which he played a big role, O'Neal said that Farrah's cancer treatment "had pretty much ended."


Hudson says his own cancer documentary project, Frozen Pictures’ The Klinik, will hit many of the tough issues removed from Farrah’s documentary.

He adds: “She’s in and out. She’s nearing the end.

“Ryan has shut Farrah off from everyone except for her American doctor and Alana Stewart. As far as we know, they’ve stopped all treatment. It’s pretty f---ing scary.”

UPDATE: Texas newspaper picks up our Farrah fan mail exclusive

Visit The Klinik website here

Farrah Fawcett's business partner and college beau fights visit ban by inundating Ryan O'Neal with Farrah fans' cards and letters

As the Farrah Fawcett cancer plays out behind closed doors in a Beverly Hills area high-rise, one of her lifelong friends who’ve been denied access to her is striking back at her caretakers in a most unusual way.

In an action that brings to mind the scene in Miracle on 34th Street in which a judge is buried beneath sacks of letters to Kris Kringle, Greg Lott (above, with Farrah in 1999, below with Farrah at a Houston wedding in 2001) is directing Farrah fans’ cards, letters and packages to be sent to her apartment, so her longtime, on-again-off-again lover Ryan O’Neal can be “up to his neck” in them.

We’ve written about Greg Lott. He was Farrah’s football hero sweetheart in college forty-four years ago, gone down in tabloid legend as the man who lost her to Hollywood and Lee Majors, but who re-entered life in 1997 after she announced her split from lover Ryan O’Neal.

Lott is partners with Farrah in a company called Relentless, which runs her official website and the merchandising that goes along with it. Lott says the site has been getting thousands of letters that are stacking up in plastic boxes at the Relentless post office box in Lubbock, Texas, so he's having the mail forwarded to Farrah's home.


Lott, who claims that he his regular access to Farrah has been cut off since Ryan O’Neal moved in around Easter, has also posted Farrahs’ home address on the website and asked fans from around the world to send their cards, letters and packages to her very unit.

“All the fans know Farrah’s address,” Lott said this afternoon. “TVLand put the address on the air and on their website when they ran the Chasing Farrah show. A lot of her mail is already going there. You know Ryan O’Neal is already going through it, He’s looking for the letters addresed to him and the ones postmarked Texas, which he knows are from me.

“I just thought, 'Why not put it all the way up to his neck?'”

O’Neal, his business manager and Farrah’s friend Alana Stewart are being sued by Farrah’s documentary filmmaking partner. Craig Nevius claims the trio unlawfully took control of the cancer documentary project he and Farrah were producing, turning it into a morbid soap opera, assembled with NBC News, called “Farrah’s Story.”

TabloidBaby.com has learned that key evidence in the suit will be a contested signature on the document Farrah supposedly signed in giving control to O’Neal.

Lott, a Texas businessman, has been in Los Angeles since Easter, holding a vigil of sorts, waiting out his ban on seeing his true love and vowing to remain in town as long as Farrah is alive.

“She’s relentless all right,” he said. "She's a fighter. I have three friends from the University of Texas football team. They called this weekend to cheer me up, and they said, ‘Don’t you remember, if she was a man she'd have made our team!?'

"I’m telling you man: she’s tough. She’s not ready to go."

Correction: The Globe is the tabloid that picked up our story about steroids being suspected in the death of Danny Gans

Tabloid Baby pal Perez Hilton tipped us to a report in the National Enquirer (NOTE: Our report's been corrected) that friends and others close to Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans say they believe his use of steroids weakened his heart and led to his untimely, mysterious death at age 52 one month ago. A stop in the supermarket over the weekend revealed that Perez got his tabs confused. It was The Globe, not the Enquirer, that ran with our story 28 days later, in their latest issue (below).


The Enquirer, through its RadarOnline.com Internet arm, got onto the story May 11th.

The local Las Vegas media offered no coverage of Danny Gans' still-unexplained death (though Norm Clarke chased a rumour that Garth Brooks is being courted/courting to take Gans' spot at the Encore) as the mystery enters its fifth week.

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