Cher

LAS VEGAS -- Like the temples of the ancient Roman world that it simulates, the Colosseum at Caesars Palace is an environment suited to extravagant immortals. The artists who've graced its huge stage have all achieved that status in which one name not only serves but also explains and expands upon whatever the star projects. First there was Celine, clean and lean, selling every song with unmatchable melodrama. Then came Elton, whose eloquence (if not always elegance) weighs a ton.

Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil's solid gold catalog of heart-pumping love songs might seem to qualify them to score a musical based on the baldly sentimental 1985 movie "Mask," about a doomed teenage boy with a rare disfiguring bone disease trying to be normal. But in this world premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse of screenwriter Anna Hamilton Phelan's adaptation of her own, earlier work, the music and story too often elude each other, keeping the show from finding a rhythm that can carry it convincingly through 2 hours, 45 minutes.

Cher is re-inventing herself again -- this time as the flipper of a Palm Springs house she renovated and has listed at nearly $2.5 million. "I've been coming to Palm Springs since I was a kid," said Cher, 60. Her mother has lived in the area for 15 years. "I've always loved the indoor-outdoor lifestyle you find there," she said. "We designed this home to capture that feeling, and I'm very happy with the way it came out."

Florence "Rusty" Tullis, the strong-willed biker mother of a son with a rare disfiguring disease, who was portrayed by Cher in the 1985 movie "Mask," has died. She was 70. Tullis died of an infection Saturday at Beverly Hospital in Montebello about a month after being injured in a motorcycle accident, her niece, Helen Cunningham, said Tuesday. Tullis was driving a three-wheeled motorcycle through an intersection in Azusa on Oct.

An auction of more than 700 items belonging to singer and actress Cher raised over $3.5 million -- more than double pre-sale estimates -- as celebrity collectors snapped up her possessions. The top-selling costume was a Bob Mackie-designed rock 'n' roll outfit that was sold for $60,000, up to 20 times its estimate of $2,000 to $3,000. The buyer was Brigitte Poublon, wife of singer and actor Bobby Sherman, who once appeared with Cher on the "Sonny and Cher" show.

CHER, a collector of fine English Gothic Revival antiques, is on the phone, happily explaining why she'll feel a little tug next week when the contents of her beachfront Malibu villa are auctioned off at the Beverly Hilton hotel. "I love the look of Gothic furniture," she says. "It's not like I hate it and want to get rid of it. I am going to miss it, I think. But I thought, oh my God, I will do a whole new thing and just start over."

Come October, the highest bidder can buy Cher's bed. It's one of 700 items from the superstar's Malibu home to be auctioned off in Beverly Hills. Cher announced Monday that she plans to part with hundreds of her personal possessions -- including furniture, artwork, jewelry, a 2003 H2 Hummer and original costumes by famed designer Bob Mackie -- so that she can redecorate her home. A "nice percentage" of the auction's proceeds will benefit the Cher Charitable Foundation, she said.

Bob Mackie is cleaning out his closets. One hundred and fifty pieces from the Sultan of Sequins' private archives will be auctioned at Christie's New York on Nov. 22, including costumes from "The Carol Burnett Show" and "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour," red-carpet gowns, sketches, and flowered and feathered headdresses. Selected items are being previewed at the Beverly Hills Christie's location today through Friday. "I've kept so many things," the designer said by phone Monday.

There were acrobats, a dancing elephant, fireworks and an explosion of confetti, plus film clips, moving staircases and a succession of wig hats. There were screaming fans, belly dancers, sailor caps tossed onstage, and in the middle of it all, there was Cher. On Saturday night, Cher completed her three-year, 325-stop "farewell tour" at the Hollywood Bowl, playing to a sold-out crowd of nearly 18,000.