Incidentally you all know that Cher is the next huge headliner act to follow Bette into The Colosseum at Caesars.

I just learned that her song catalog—many of which she’ll perform here—is part of the 90,000 song titles held by music giant Universal. They’ve all just been bought as an investment by the Dutch civil service workers pension fund for over $250-million. So each time a Cher song is sung or played part of the royalties goes to the government workers of Holland! Former Caesars headliner Celine Dion, pop-prince Justin Timberlake and Bon Jovi are also a part of the pension fund’s song acquisition!

There is a staggering lineup of Hollywood celebrities and the world’s best poker players arriving in Vegas today (THURS) for the 4th National Heads-Up Poker Championship at Caesars Palace to be taped to air on NBC over seven-consecutive Sundays starting April 13.

The drawing party will begin tonight with a red-carpet gala at Pure nightclub in Caesars. The single elimination competition will begin tomorrow (FRI) morning and continue through Sunday when a “Best of Three” championship match will determine the winner. Among the stars attending will be Jason Alexander, Jennifer Tilly, Shannon Elizabeth, Don Cheadle, Brad Garrett and Orel Hershiser.

Last year Shannon advanced to the semi-finals and Don ousted Phil Ivey from the battlefield. Included in the lineup of poker princes are defending champion Paul Wasicka, 2006 champion Ted Forrest and 2005 champion Phil Hellmujth. Also competing will be Johnny Chan, Antonio Esfandiari, Jamie Gold, Joe Hachem, Phil Laak, Howard Lederer and Daniel Negreanu.

Gorgeous model and TV personality Leeann Tweeden will be new to the unique celebrity battle working as the sideline reporter interviewer.

It was the food equivalent of our President sitting down with their Prime Minister in an East meets West summit luncheon of the world’s top-two chefs! MGM officials brought together their culinary star Joel Robuchon who has two top-ranked world’s best restaurants in the
resort-casino and China’s Hao Baoli.

He cooks with 800-year-old Forbidden City recipes dating back to the Ming and Jin dynasties at the Diaoyutai state guesthouse exclusively for visiting royalty and heads of state.

MGM President Gamil Aziz had brought over the Chinese delegation for a weeklong series of dinners at his Pearl restaurant here to celebrate the Chinese New Year. They are partnering on a new MGM hotel currently under construction in Beijing.

When I met with the Chinese culinary team and learned that Joel was inbound from his Paris restaurant I jokingly suggested the two men should meet for a meal prepared by an independent third party. Well—they agreed and as our exclusive Luxe Life photos show we gathered in the almost secret ultra-private, exclusive high-roller Mansion at the MGM and “talked food” over an extraordinary seven-course meal of soft shell crab, stuffed winter melon with scallops in carrot soup, pan-fried prawns, curry chicken, baked lobster, sharks fin soup and sea-urchin fried rice and honeydew tapioca sweet soup in whole coconut. It was a meal fit for a king—or a prime minister!

Both superstar chefs gave it a ceremonial thumbs-up salute and thanks to English, Chinese and French translators they discovered common ground for discussion. They agreed that Asian influences were an important part of today’s modern cooking. Joel told Hao that he’d visited all over Asia on a food tour and had cooked in Macau. Both chefs extended invitations to the other to visit their respective restaurants! Chef Hao told me that in addition to eating at Fiamma and Craft Steakhouse at MGM on his visit here he’d also snuck into Joel’s L’Atelier and pronounced that ‘best in the world’. He also admitted that his culinary team had been amazed at the food on sale at one of our local Costco stores! We pronounced the summit a grand success and toasted with both Chinese and French wines!

Early this afternoon (THURS) our famed Strip will look like a racetrack staging area.

Over 40 NASCAR 18-wheeler “haul trucks” containing the team race-cars will parade from Mandalay Bay Hotel to the Sahara Hotel en route to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Meantime it’s day one for driver appearances around town with Jeff Gordon hosting a private cocktail party at The Orleans.

Here’s the Luxe Life listing so you can catch all your other favorite speedsters:

Kurt Busch (Sierra Gold Tavern, 6515 South Jones Blvd., 7-9 p.m.)

Tony Stewart (Home Depot, 6025 South Pecos Road, 5-7 p.m.)

Kasey Kahne (Stratosphere Hotel & Casino, 5-7 p.m.—must obtain wristbands at casino at 12-noon today).

Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, David Ragan, Jason Keller (Speedway Children’s Charities NASCAR Driver Auction, Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall, 6 p.m.)

Be sure to check Luxe Life tomorrow (FRI) for our full rundown of the weekend NASCAR highlights—and I’ll be out there on Sunday to emcee the entertainment and driver introductions for a first hand photo—report here on Monday.

In our Luxe Life story yesterday (WED) about the Cathouse loungerie temporary closure at the Luxor we ran a quote that conveyed the impression that the ceiling crashed down in chunks. On deadline that has since been shown to be inaccurate—when in fact it was a 16-inch crack that appeared in the ceiling. Around here we do like to keep the facts straight so thus our clearing up of the confusion. Here’s the official statement from the company that confirmed the rest of our story: “Cathouse closed early yesterday morning due to a structural issue in the ultra lounge portion of the venue. While an inspection and repairs are in progress the ultra-lounge will be closed to the public. The restaurant also will be temporarily closed to the public. More information, along with reopening dates, is forthcoming.”

Luxe Life had been reliably informed that Iron Chef winner, Kerry Simon, had hoped to reopen the restaurant portion of the property last night—but that has also been postponed for a few more days. Numerous sources have also subsequently confirmed our initial reporting that the Cathouse floor slipped several inches during the structural problem.

*The Blue Man Group has partnered up with our Vegas headquartered Allegiant Air for their iconic image to be featured on the exterior of the airline’s jets. In addition the BMG will be featured on the inflight crew uniforms and the overhead bins and service carts. In exchange
Allegiant gets their logo on the Boeing 747 featured in the show plus a VIP room at the Blue Man Theater in The Venetian! Airline passengers can get discounted tickets when they make their flight reservations. The unique promotion will be launched March 13—and the thought of seeing Blue Men speeding through the friendly skies just boggles the mind! Love it!

*Two years ago in Spring ’06 supreme skateboard star Danny Way achieved the impossible with an 82-foot drop from atop the guitar sign at the Hard Rock Hotel.

He claimed an official Guinness Book of World Records for a 24-foot “bomb drop” Now the high-flying ace who is still the only skateboarder to leap from a helicopter wants to one-up all of those mind-boggling achievements. He’s planning to skate down the side of the Luxor’s black pyramid and leap over the front-entry Sphinx! No dates are set yet but they are drawing up sketches for the ramp needed for the possible death-defying jump.

*Superstar Tony Curtis had standing room only crowds for two-nights of
his award-winning Some Like It Hot movie screening. He conducted a Q & A session at the Family Music Center and told personal stories about making the movie with Marilyn Monroe. Tony autographed copies of his original Marilyn portrait with proceeds going to he and wife, Jill’s, Shiloh Charitable Trust.

*Vegas singer-songwriter Shauna Burns celebrated the release of her
debut album Moon and the Fire Circle with a party at the legendary Mint music club in Los Angeles.

With backup from drummer James Clark she performed several tracks including her debut single “Around You” that has already jumped into the Top 40. On March 6 Shauna who handles her own keyboard sounds starts a tour through Oregon and Washington states

*Out and about for lunch: following the oifficial split from rocker wife Pink, newly-single moto-cross stunt king Carey Hunt was at Wolfgang Puck’s Bar and Grill in MGM while Cedric the Entertainer picked pizza and pasta at Wolf’s Spago restaurant in The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace.

Incredible illusionist David Copperfield begins another run of magical shows at the MGM through March 18 … Kids get a special treat with the Doodlebops Live at The Orleans Arena … Grammy-winner Mele Mel—the first rap artists to win for Record of the Year—will perform his chart-topping hits on the dance floor at Tabu ultralounge in MGM … American Gladiator star Tanoai Reed hosts Tao nightclub’s 2nd annual Boot Camp as part of the ongoing Nightclub and Bar convention activities. Locals dressed in military attire get free admission!

The countdown is underway for three delicious days of NASCAR excitement and Luxe Life has the full advance look at the madness, mayhem and mag-speed mileage! Plus Amazing Johnathon starts his new Strip magic shows and for the first time ever three lucky American dancers get a shot at joining the Paris headquartered Crazy Horse revue in France with the final auditions right here in vegas with burlesque artist Dita Von Teese.

Get ready for our brand-new multi-media website with daily 24/7 breaking news updates for all the luxury lifestyle secrets of Vegas, plus all the latest celebrity happenings. Later this month we’ll reveal all the exciting details of the March launch. Our weekly Luxe Life wrap-up is heard on the ABC radio network to 300 stations around the world.

When visiting Vegas, be sure to see Las Vegas Magazine in your hotel suite featuring a print edition of Vegas Luxe Life and an incredible directory of attractions, shows and restaurants.

VEGAS—THE ONLY PLACE TO PLAY!

Blonde bombshell Pamela Anderson so desperately wants to have her two-month quickie marriage annulled that she’s calling “fraud.” It was her third wedding after previous marriages to tattooed drummer Tommy Lee and singer Kid Rock. In legal papers filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court, the 40-year-old Canadian actress reveals that the Vegas wedding to poker playing sex-film-maker Rick Salomon—between shows when she starred in The Beauty of Magic at Planet Hollywood—on October 6 only lasted until December 13 when they separated.

Click here for our Luxe Life coverage of that wild wedding weekend.

Her lawyer, Larry Ginsberg has petitioned the court for the annulment on the grounds of fraud, but no additional information on that claim has been turned over to court officials yet. As you all know, when a marriage is annulled it’s as if it never took place.

Additionally, Pamela insists the court rule that all of her property and earned income will remain her sole and separate property. She signed the court documents last Wednesday and they were entered last Friday—only coming to light yesterday.