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”)

From Norm’s Vegas Confidential column November 24, 2008:

Michael Phelps’ passion for poker isn’t the only reason he’s been showing up in Las Vegas.

The 14-time Olympic swimming gold medalist has been seen in the company of a fetching brunette who works at the Palms.

He was spotted at Moon nightclub on Saturday and having lunch earlier at Canyon Gate Country Club.

He’s definitely getting into the swim of things in the dating pool. Last month he was spotted arriving at a Baltimore airport in the company of Nicole Johnson, runner-up in the 2007 Miss California USA pageant.

Since winning a record eight gold medals in the Beijing Summer Olympics, Phelps has spent a considerable amount of time in Las Vegas, taking poker lessons from pros, so he can enter the World Series of Poker next year.