At a recent party to launch the book "Norm Clarke's Vegas Confidential: Sinsational Celebrity Tales," the Palms' Playboy Club was packed with many of the Vegas personages who populate Clarke's daily newspaper column in the Las Vegas Review-Journal: casino owner George Maloof, Strip headliner Rita Rudner, celebrity chef Kerry Simon and fellow Vegas chronicler Robin Leach.
"His column doesn't just trade in stupid gossip," said Leach, himself a groundbreaker in the field of celebrity coverage. "Norm understands that in Vegas, buildings are stars, architects are stars, chefs are stars, and the whole city is the star. And, as a result, he is the No. 1 read person in Vegas."
To be sure, celebrity is the dominant theme of Clarke's column, which has broken stories including Britney Spears' oopsy 55-hour marriage to a childhood friend in 2004. He was also the first to report that Celine Dion was on her way to being a contracted headliner for a multiyear stand at Caesars.
"My approach isn't to treat gossip like most people and sensationalize it. Things are sensational enough in Vegas," said Clarke, who attributes his style to spending decades reporting for the Associated Press, primarily in sports. "You just have to lay out the facts for people."
Though it may be traditional reportage, his subjects (including sex tapes, pregnancy rumors and bizarre celebrity behavior) prove Clarke doesn't shy from the dirty work of gossip any more than one would expect of a man who names his two dogs Rumor and Scandal.
Because of his popularity as a man-about-town and his distinctive look -- especially his black eye patch, a result of having lost an eye to disease years ago -- Clarke, who turns 66 today, has become something of a local celebrity himself.
Frequently, he must encounter those displeased by something he has written. At the book party, his most recent feud with magician Criss Angel came up. Angel, the headliner of Luxor's Cirque show "Believe," earlier this year was unhappy about a mention in a column. Clarke said Angel accosted him backstage at an event with the words, "Don't ever write another word about me, or you'll need an eye patch over your other eye." Clarke uses the quote as a blurb on the back of the book, and at the party, guests were given copies of the book wrapped in an eye patch. Nothing is subtle about Vegas.
But even here, Clarke sees more than the story of a temperamental star.
