Celebrity Gossip From Las Vegas With Robin Leach | Luxe Life Digest

It’s the Battle of the Celebriblondes -- round 2. It’s Paris vs. Pamela, once again -- same city, same Vegas Strip action -- just a thousand feet apart! Pamela will be celebrating her arrival to Vegas residency and Paris will be celebrating the of-age-arrival of her beau, Stavros.

Paris has snubbed the clubs that nixed her underage beau Stavros - and instead of  TAO or Pure or Body English, she has selected the hot celeb ravespot Jet at the Mirage for his actual big, 21st birthday blowout bash this Friday night!!

UPDATE 4/19 2PM (PT): To make it easier on the chroniclers of the rich and famous, both blonde-shells have decided today to have their parties at the same club, Light but in different sections. Stay tuned to Luxe Life as the story unfolds.

Meantime, people are wondering if Stavros is actually turning 21, or just 20. The official bio for Stavros Niarchos III lists his birthdate as April 17, 1985 which would mean he actually hit 21 yesterday morning at 12.01AM. However, those-in-the-know are already asking if he actually only turned 20 because of Greek documents he uses here in America.

Gaming authorities here warned several casinos and nightclubs that letting (even a disguised) Niarchos into their clubs while Paris was in attendance would be a licensing violation subject to heavy fines and gaming and alcohol suspensions. Ever since, Niarchos hasn’t even been seen in the city.

Luxe Life has learned that the weekend of partying will continue on Saturday night. Paris has a party planned for Stavros at TAO followed by a Beacher's Madhouse blast at the Hard Rock Hotel in owner Harry Morton's penthouse bowling-alley suite. Jeff Beacher will be adding his Madhouse touch to the celebrations. “I can’t wait,” he said. “This will be the party of the decade.”

She plans for celebrations to carry on all weekend so expect to see the party couple out on the town everywhere through Monday morning.

And what makes this all the more intriguing, the Celebriblondes went head-to-head in music debuts two Fridays ago – see Luxe Life coverage. Pamela Anderson made her debut as a Pussycat Doll at Pure the very same night Paris Hilton made her debut as a singer, playing her debut CD at both TAO and Pure.

We'll tell you all about Pamela's arrival as a new Vegas resident and a possible romance with local real-estate mogul Laurence Hallier on Friday morning right here in Luxe Life. But right now, it’s now confirmed that Hallier and his partner, Andrew Sassoon, are throwing her a late-night Friday party at the Light nightclub in the adjoining Bellagio hotel with friend Ryan Seacrest of American Idol along as their special guest.

Expect Paris to bring in sis Nicky Hilton and boyfriend Kevin Connolly (who partied here last weekend with Lukas Haas) along with a host of other family, friends and celebrity VIPs from Hollywood.

Luxe Life has been invited to both parties- and we'll do our very best to scoot between both clubs to report all the action come Monday morning. But remember to read Luxe Life this Friday for the Pamela Anderson -- Laurence Hallier matchup!!

More Celebrity Party Showdown
Another big party in the works to put a rock ‘em sock ’em, 1-2 punch – literally -- into Vegas nightlife, Hollywood style. At the Aladdin, plans are underway to celebrate actor Sylvestor Stallone's birthday to hopefully coincide with the world-premiere party of his new Rocky 6 "out of retirement" movie. It’s all part of Planet Hollywood president Robert Earl’s plans as he converts the Aladdin over from its previous Moroccan theme into his new Tinseltown-touched luxury resort hotel. Major renovations, re-construction and re-painting are now in their sixth month heading towards a hoped-for completion in December in time for the celebrity-studded Radio Music Awards, which would kick off a month-long re-opening celebration of stars, stars and more stars!

Neon Chefs Reign Supreme
The 16th annual Epicurean Affair held at the 15-acre four tropical playground pools of the Flamingo -- hosted by Harrah’s regional president Don Marrandino who kindly gave me a personal tour -- proved to be a restaurant and lounge culinary extravaganza with nearly 100 venues in attendance.

It was the ultimate showcase of our city’s finest with everybody from Andre’s to Valentino’s (almost A-Z) serving the ultimate taste treats for 1,000 foodies. But I discovered even more headline making news for our fine dining city. Caesars is now about to bring France’s top mega-chef to its new Augustus Tower, opening Restaurant Guy Savoy from Paris next month. And the Epicurean was the perfect place to meet Guy’s son Franck and his wife Laura Savoy, who will run the glitter-gulch outpost.

"We are very excited to be in Vegas," said Franck. "This has become an incredible city for restaurants and fine dining and we are now realizing a life-long dream of moving here. The quality of service and food demanded for success in Vegas is extraordinarily high and we will meet it and raise it." My chef friend Adam Sobel, who will run the kitchen here (previously worked with Bradley Ogden under the same Caesars roof), spent six months in the Paris kitchen to get ready for his new challenge.

With the arrival of Guy Savoy we will have 14 world-stage kitchen kings including the newest, fellow Parisian Joel Robuchon at MGM Grand, who is acknowledged as "chef of the century" by his peers. (For the record: The other celebrated sautéed-stars are Wolfgang Puck, [who started the whole celeb-chef-craze invasion back in 1991] Daniel Boulud, Michael Mina, Charlie Palmer, Nobu Matsuhisa, Bobby Flay, Emeril Lagasse, Alain Ducasse, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Bradley Ogden, Todd English and Tom Collichio). No wonder America’s food critics are finally -- albeit grudgingly -- acknowledging we have become #1 -- and we’re still going for more!

As if that restaurant debut is not enough, Caesars Palace President Gary Selesner is going one step further and bringing the legendary Italian restaurant Rao's from New York at the end of the year. The current Terrazza restaurant will get a makeover to accurately reflect the intimate speakeasy feel of the original 110-year-old ten-table (yes I did say 10 tables) on East 114th Street in East Harlem. Legions of movie stars, sports celebrities and politicians fight to get tables – but unless you personally knew father and son owners Frank Pellegrino, or the state’s Governor, you could never get a reservation. Incidentally Frank Jr.’s wife, Carla, will serve as consulting chef for the new southern Neapolitan Italian eatery.

"We’re delighted to bring Rao’s to the heart of the Roman Empire" my friend Frank Jr. said. "Rao’s is about family and all of our family look forward to spending many years in Vegas welcoming Caesars guests into our family. I personally know one Mideast royal family 'whale' who wanted to dine there so badly that he had his Vegas casino president call the restaurant offering to buy one table for $1 million for his dinner group. Rao’s offered to do something special on a Sunday night when it's normally closed but the Sheik insisted it fit into his Saturday travel plans so he was refused because of not wanting to upset the "who’s who" of table rights" regulars including Billy Crystal, Woody Allen, Danny Aiello, Nicholas Pileggi and Rob Reiner! 

You don’t have to wait until December for the authentic Rao’s taste, order their sauces and peppers and the family cookbook over the Internet!

Scenes & Herds

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