"He's reenergized magic," said Jeff McBride, a friend of Angel's who was named Magician of the Year by the Magic Castle. "Many people see his success as a boon for all of us."
As the aphorism goes, you can tell a lot about a man from the company he keeps. Angel's the designated BFF to a number of raffish rock stars -- Tommy Lee of Motley Crue and Korn singer Jonathan Davis among them -- the blinged-out, bandanna-wearing figure flashing cryptic hand signs in paparazzi photos. And the magician's supposed romantic exploits, as recorded in the tabloid press, have had him variously linked with Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Pamela Anderson. (Lately, innuendo has him hooked up with Holly Madison, one of Hugh Hefner's Playmate harem of girlfriends on the E! network show "The Girls Next Door" -- a rumor she has discredited.) Whether any of them have been touched by an Angel or not, his reputation as a celeb lothario persists. "You can't believe any of that," he said, inadvertently evoking the name of his show.
Then there's the Miss USA incident. In April, after Angel's then girlfriend, Miss Nevada Veronica Grabowski, did not win the nationally televised beauty pageant in Las Vegas, the "Mindfreak" star reportedly leapt up and made an obscene gesture to the camera. Afterward, in a widely cited exchange, he threatened local Las Vegas columnist Norm Clarke (who wears an eye patch): "Don't ever write another word about me or you'll need an eye patch over your other eye."
Angel vigorously denies both encounters (although Clarke and other sources have confirmed Angel threatened him). "People perpetuate things because it brings the spotlight to them," he said at the Luxor in July. "There is so much that is unbelievable that I see on so many levels. But what happens is, if I say, 'It's not fair,' you give it more fuel and it gets blown out of proportion."
About his social life, Angel framed the debate around depth of perception. "Pamela Anderson is a friend of mine. I went to her birthday party, I was there for maybe an hour. And I'm dating her now? This is what happened: I was sitting there talking to her, someone takes a picture from here and it looks like we're kissing. A good friend of mine is Tommy Lee! He has kids with her! Morally, I would never do that."
