Wayne Newton

Wayne Newton is telling fans "Danke schoen" after 50 years in Las Vegas and hinting that his latest run could be his last. But the singer synonymous with Sin City says he's leaving himself an opening in case he wants to perform after April. The man known throughout the world as "Mr. Las Vegas" says retirement is possible, but that decision won't hinge on the success of his new show that opened Wednesday night at the Tropicana Las Vegas hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Instead, he says, it depends on whether his itch to keep working conflicts with his desire to spend more time with his 7-year-old daughter.

LAS VEGAS - It sits along a stretch of median on the less-glamorous south end of this city's glitzy gambling Strip, a stubborn holdover from another era. Yet, as the days turn to night and back into day, it beckons as many tourists, human tumbleweeds and adventure-seekers as any newfangled casino. They come to see, touch and photograph the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada" sign, a 1959 scramble of colors, typefaces and flashing light bulbs. They come in droves, as if on some obligatory Vegas pilgrimage, arriving in taxis, rental cars, stretch limos, golf carts, pickup trucks, motorcycles, double-decker tour buses.

An NBC attorney attempted Friday to persuade federal appeals court judges in Pasadena to strike down the largest libel verdict against an American news organization--a $5.3-million judgment that the network defamed singer Wayne Newton in newscasts that linked him to organized crime figures. NBC lawyer Floyd Abrams said the stories were the product of aggressive reporting, not ill will, and should be protected by the First Amendment. But Newton's lawyer, Morton R.

Jon Bon Jovi's "pay-what-you-can" charity restaurant in New Jersey is open for business. The rocker said Wednesday that Soul Kitchen in Red Bank is designed to help the hungry without the stigma of a soup kitchen. There are no prices on the menu. Diners pay whatever they're able to. Those without money can still eat provided they're willing to work in the restaurant or perform some community service. The restaurant operates out of a former auto body shop near the Red Bank, N.J., train station.

Regarding Mike Boehm's review of Wayne Newton at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim (Calendar, July 18): ... If (Boehm) was really at that show, he must have reviewed it from the parking lot. It doesn't appear that he saw or heard the same thing that Mr. Newton's sellout crowd heard: a man with a voice that seems to make all hang on to every word, the talent to play many different instruments, and so much enthusiasm that he had his audience on...

The Celebrity Theatre, dark since New Year's Eve, will come back to life for at least two shows in the coming months despite a pending bankruptcy case and other legal difficulties. Las Vegas stalwart Wayne Newton will play the theater March 11 and a country bill-- Patty Loveless and Restless Heart--will be offered April 16. Both shows are being produced by an independent promoter, Bill Silva of San Diego.

A federal judge has given singer Wayne Newton until Feb. 1 to accept a reduced $5.3-million award in his libel suit against the National Broadcasting Co. or face the prospect of proving his case again in a new trial. U.S. District Judge Myron Crocker set the deadline for Newton to accept the money or go through a complete new trial in the 8-year-old case against the network.

A former state gaming agent who later worked for singer Wayne Newton testified that he warned two NBC newsmen they were "barking up the wrong tree" if a network news report linked the entertainer with organized crime. Former state Agent Lon Shepard told a federal jury hearing evidence in Newton's defamation suit against NBC that he met with NBC reporter Brian Ross and producer Ira Silverman in a Las Vegas bar.

A Nevada gaming agent testified Thursday he has since learned that entertainer Wayne Newton was "not being truthful" about his relationship with two crime figures when he was licensed to purchase the Aladdin Hotel in 1980. Fred Balmer testified he had been "perfectly satisfied with the investigation of Newton and statements he'd made to us" in the 1980 probe. "I felt that he was candid. "Subsequent to that time, after hearing of the testimony before the Connecticut Grand Jury . . .

The National Broadcasting Co. has filed new motions in its legal battle with Wayne Newton, seeking to block a record $5.3-million libel judgment awarded the entertainer. The latest brief, filed by the network with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, alleged that Newton "lied to state authorities" when he sought a gaming license to buy the Aladdin Hotel.

Like residents in many cities, longtime Las Vegans long for what's long gone - the days when a young Wayne Newton crooned "Danke Schoen" and dealers knew players by their first names. "It was better in the old days when the mob was still here," said Aiko Shono, a 35-year resident of Sin City. "Everyone had a job, everyone was friendly [and] people were not rude. " Over big, juicy steaks and tender lyonnaise potatoes, Shono and her dining companion, Iris Buck, sighed as they reminisced.

"Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil" is all-sugar rush, its potential to charm adults and their young charges routinely drowned out by a bigger/faster/jokier ethos. Directed by Mike Disa and scripted by the same team behind 2005's cheeky "Hoodwinked," the film sees Red (Hayden Panettiere, taking over for Anne Hathaway) now training ninja-style with an elite female goodies-making squad called the Sisters of the Hood. Fighting techniques include a flipping maneuver called the Spatula. The Happily Ever After agency, meanwhile, run by British-accented frog crime solver Nicky Flippers (David Ogden Stiers)

Wayne Newton is telling fans "Danke schoen" after 50 years in Las Vegas and hinting that his latest run could be his last. But the singer synonymous with Sin City says he's leaving himself an opening in case he wants to perform after April. The man known throughout the world as "Mr. Las Vegas" says retirement is possible, but that decision won't hinge on the success of his new show that opened Wednesday night at the Tropicana Las Vegas hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Instead, he says, it depends on whether his itch to keep working conflicts with his desire to spend more time with his 7-year-old daughter.

You'll talk about: "Heroes." It may not have won big (or at all) at the Emmys, but "Heroes" can boast of being one of the few shows last season that was a commercial success while racking up critical acclaim ("Ugly Betty," we haven't forgotten you!). This week, the show that turned Hayden Panettiere into a tabloid star returns. (Monday) You should already be talking about: "Dancing With the Stars." It's an awesome lineup this year!

Cole Porter may have written "I Get a Kick Out of You" in 1934, but in 2006 I got a kick out of your excellent Vegas coverage that entailed many different facets of Vegas life (The Vegas Issue, Nov. 5). I especially enjoyed the article by Mark Childress ("His Mission: Blow $1,000"), which described how he continually failed to lose the allotted $1,000 given to him to gamble away, but finally decided to give it away to homeless people on Fremont Street. I also discovered that Mr. Las Vegas, a.k.a.

Wayne Newton arrived in Las Vegas as a fresh-faced 17-year-old singing sensation, looking like the result of a science experiment involving Brylcreem and estrogen. It was 1959, and to put his Las Vegas tenure into perspective, that was the year that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper died, that Fidel Castro first took command of Cuba and that American Airlines scheduled its first transcontinental jet flight from Los Angeles to New York.

When "Also Sprach Zarathustra" blares forth at the start of a performance, and it isn't a screening of "2001: A Space Odyssey," what you have is a sure harbinger of bad things to come. Wayne Newton's show Saturday at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim started with a tinny rendition of Richard Strauss' portentous music. Sure enough, over the ensuing two hours-plus, Newton built up a daunting monolith of blandness.

THESE are tough times for Mr. Las Vegas. Less than a week into the run of his Christmas show at the Flamingo (scheduled through Dec. 23), Wayne Newton literally fell off his high horse. A lifetime rider, Newton noticed that the white Arabian horse he dramatically enters the show on was slipping on the waxed stage and says he rolled off his mount to allow the horse to steady. That was just the latest in a series of jarring moments.

Cranky it up! The AARP set got hip to Bush-bashing lyrics this month when the aging Stones weighed in against an unnamed neocon. But brat rappers and pop poeticizers have been busting on the president for years.