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.

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

Read more here.

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.

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”)

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.