Sinsational Celebrity Tales

Even parrots like getting the scoop from Las Vegas’ gossip guru. I suppose it’s only natural that they’d be attuned to tweets. You can follow Norm too, here.

A great inside look at the life of Sin City’s very own Ace Insider, Norm Clarke.

In a recent interview with Forbes.com Vegas gossip guru Norm Clarke dished on everything from his take in the Tiger Woods scandal, to the state of today’s media, his AP days and much more!

Forbes.com, 3.1.10
Writing up gossip in Sin City is the Wild West of entertainment beats. Norm Clarke is the sheriff.

How has Tiger Woods handled the gossip media?
His press conference made it clear that Tiger still thinks he’s calling the shots on this story. What we learned is that he’s a control freak. Two-and-a-half years ago I got a tip that Tiger had a girlfriend. My reaction was: Is she blond? If you can’t tell me with certainty it’s not his wife, I can’t run it.
What probably foreshadowed all this was Tiger hanging out with Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan. The chicks were lined up 10-deep around those guys. That’s a lot of temptation to give up. But when you have a wife and two kids, the fact he did this for so long, having unprotected sex with all these skanky women, is incredible even to us hardened gossip columnists.

Read the rest of Norm’s Forbes interview here.

The Outpost ~ by Les Gapay
It’s Vegas, baby!
There’s something about the town. The feel, the buzz, the energy, the celebrities, the shows, the people watching, the buffets, the slots, the volcano at the Mirage, the lions at MGM Grand, the shark tank at Mandalay Bay, the fountains at the Bellagio, the Elvis impersonators and the Liberace museum …
Every day, to find out what’s going on in town I check out Norm Clarke’s Vegas Confidential column in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. It gives the latest buzz and gossip about celebrities from Paris Hilton and Britney Spears to Pete Rose and Charles Barkley, where to go to eat, what shows are hot and even breaking news about Sin City …
I found it’s best to find out about goings on about town by reading Norm’s column and now his latest book, the light-hearted Vegas Confidential: Sinsational Celebrity Tales, published by Stephens Press.
Norm has the credentials for the book and column. Alan Feldman, head public relations executive for MGM Mirage, says: “Norm’s is the must-read column every morning.”
In a town overflowing with buzz every day, Norm has great access and owns the inside track on what makes the town tick.

Read more here.

by Krissy Hawkins
On Sunday, November 22nd the Encore Theater hosted a taping of “Live! with Regis and Kelly”, with hosts Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa. In the audience was Vegas’ resident man-about-town, Norm Clarke.
Prior to the taping Norm had not met either of the hosts and had requested a couple minutes with them after the show to grab some quotes for his column.
About 15 minutes before the taping began a publicist approached Norm at his aisle seat, about 10 rows back, kneeled and said, “Regis wants to know how long have you been covering entertainment here?”
Initially the gossip columnist assumed the information had been requested in regards to his upcoming backstage sit-down with the legendary host. Perhaps even a quick shout-out during a commercial break.
But toward the end of the first segment of the show Regis sprung a nice surprise.

Norm recaps:
Regis: “In our audience today is a guy who has been here many, many years now, covering the news, the entertainment news, and it’s like a column from the old days when Walter Winchell and all those guys were banging out material. And this is the place to go, all this material. And it’s Norm Clarke, right over here. There he is, right there. He does a great job.”
Kelly: “Where is Norm? (peering into the crowd) … behind the camera.” (a boom camera had just swung out at the start of the show, sort of obscuring our view)
Regis: “NORRRRRM Confidential!”
Kelly: “We got Norm some great seats, right behind the camera.”
Regis: (holding his hands up in front of him like a bear baring its claws) “Be nice to Norm or he’ll ruin you in his column tomorrow.”

When Cara and I went backstage, Regis and Kelly spent about 10 minutes with us. I thanked them for the incredibly kind gesture. Regis said, “I’m not kidding. The first thing I do when I get to Las Vegas is read your column.”
I was told later by a Wynn PR rep that it was Regis’ idea, after hearing I wanted to visit them backstage.
It certainly made my day/week/month/year – being schmoozed by an old pro.

The show aired on Tuesday, November 24th.

Norm always finds the juiciest stories in the City of Sin. This time, he’s spotted details about a potential duel between Las Vegas mayor, Oscar Goodman, and Antoinette “Mafia Princess” Giancana.

Ms. Giancana and Goodman plan to open competing crime syndicate museums on the Strip, Clarke reports.

The “Mafia Princess” may have authentic material from mob families for her museum’s exhibits, but Goodman does not seem to be backing down anytime soon. Oscar Goodman was once a defense lawyer who handled criminal cases for Chicagoan Anthony “Ant” Spilotro – the man rumored to have killed Ms. Giancana’s father.

Click here  to read more! (ABC 7 news article by Chuck Goudie & Ann Pistone, “Momo’s daughter will fight mayor in museum battle”)

The venerable Tattered Cover in Denver (one of the finest indie bookstores in America) recently hosted a signing for our own Norm Clarke and his newest title, Sinsational Celebrity Tales. Authors on Tour recorded his comments and you can listen to him HERE. Norm shares the background on his biggest stories including crashing the Review-Journal servers on the $200 steaks in Vegas story; Britney’s wedding/annulment dinner at N9NE Steakhouse at the Palms, and the infamous bitch-slap from Pete Rose objecting to Norm adding him to the top ten worst tippers list in his first book. A fun look at the world of celebrity gossip from the inside — and according to Norm, the celebs never fail to deliver story leads, day after day in Sin City.

From Norm’s Column March 18, 2008
THE SCENE AND HEARD
Vera Goulet, widow of the late singing star Robert Goulet, is flying to Los Angeles today to attend the funeral of Altovise Davis, the widow of Sammy Davis Jr. She died Saturday in Los Angeles after suffering a stroke. She was 65. The Davises and Goulets were close friends for years and often traveled together. During one of their trips, a 1975 visit to rainy Paris, Vera Goulet said their limo pulled up to a stoplight. “Sammy got out of the limo and did his ‘Singing In the Rain’” (song and dance routine) in front of a disbelieving crowd. “It was spontaneous. This was his personality. Altovise just laughed and laughed.” When Robert died in October 2007, “the second call I got was Altovise. The first was Julie Andrews,” Robert’s Broadway co-star in “Camelot.”

SIGHTINGS
Steve Wynn and his girlfriend, Andrea Hissom, attending a birthday party for the wife of South African hotel and gambling magnate Sol Kerzner at The Dorchester in London on Saturday night. Also in attendance: Sarah Ferguson, Simon Le Bon and Geri Halliwell. … Famous sisters Joan and Jackie Collins, meeting with Cher backstage after her show Tuesday at Caesars Palace.

From Norm’s Column March 18, 2008
THE SCENE AND HEARD
Vera Goulet, widow of the late singing star Robert Goulet, is flying to Los Angeles today to attend the funeral of Altovise Davis, the widow of Sammy Davis Jr. She died Saturday in Los Angeles after suffering a stroke. She was 65. The Davises and Goulets were close friends for years and often traveled together. During one of their trips, a 1975 visit to rainy Paris, Vera Goulet said their limo pulled up to a stoplight. “Sammy got out of the limo and did his ‘Singing In the Rain’” (song and dance routine) in front of a disbelieving crowd. “It was spontaneous. This was his personality. Altovise just laughed and laughed.” When Robert died in October 2007, “the second call I got was Altovise. The first was Julie Andrews,” Robert’s Broadway co-star in “Camelot.”

SIGHTINGS
Steve Wynn and his girlfriend, Andrea Hissom, attending a birthday party for the wife of South African hotel and gambling magnate Sol Kerzner at The Dorchester in London on Saturday night. Also in attendance: Sarah Ferguson, Simon Le Bon and Geri Halliwell. … Famous sisters Joan and Jackie Collins, meeting with Cher backstage after her show Tuesday at Caesars Palace.

Recommended: Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke’s new book, Vegas Confidential: Sinsational Celebrity Tales which is jam-packed with gossipy stories of (mostly) bad star behavior while cavorting in Sin City. Norm’s been on the Vegas entertainment beat since 1999. That he’s managed to keep a sense of humor about some of the insufferable stars he’s covered (including Jerry Lewis and Robin Williams) is remarkable.