Las Vegas Weekly

July 15, 2008 · 2:02 PM

Stars dunk with the ducks at Palms Place

By Robin Leach

Hotel tycoon George Maloof has created the wildest, wackiest "hot summer nights" parties -- and it simply involves bathtub rubber duckies! Actually, there are more than 25,000 of them, filling the sixth-floor pool of his new Palms Place condotel every Tuesday. Tonight will be no different.

Photo: Palms Place

UFC exec Dana White and fighter Chuck Liddell.

The stars are turning out in droves for the six hours of festivities that begin at Iron Chef Kerry Simon's restaurant with happy hour at 6 p.m., then the pool is open from 8 p.m. until midnight! Bring your swimsuit because you’ll want to go wading as you hunt for the specially marked ducks that offer prizes for free drinks, dinners and rooms all over George’s casino resort.

Lindsay Lohan’s steady liplocked galpal Samantha Ronson -- (when will they go public with their Sapphic affair?) -- was the guest DJ that lured in UFC head honcho Dana White and his top-draw mixed martial arts artist Chuck Liddell, along with tattooed motocross champ Carey Hart, who opens his new Wasted Space rock lounge tomorrow at the Hard Rock Hotel. Also there was the mysterious stunt-magician David Blaine, who could probably collect all the ducks by himself and stay underwater there for the four hours of partying if he so chose! Tonight, the man who makes the music is Chris Clouse as guest DJ!

Over at George’s Moon nightclub, his friend, billionaire basketball rival Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks, was holding court! He was in a group of 10 and posed for our photos with N9NE Group cocktail servers Nicole and Lauren. Mark, a former bartender once fired from his first job as a computer salesman in Dallas for not opening the store on time, wound up selling his first Micro Solutions business for $6 million back in 1990 and then started Broadcom.com, which he sold to Yahoo for $5.9 billion just four years later! Dressed casually in jeans and a blue T-shirt, the man who could buy anything stuck with So-co lime and a Miller Lite! Other basketball players partying at the Moon nightclub included Kevin Martin from the Sacramento Kings, who danced until 3 a.m., and Terry Porter, head coach of the Phoenix Suns with star player Dan Majerle in a group of eight guypals. All four members of the alternative rock group Hoobastank -- vocalist Doug Robb, lead guitarist Dan Estrin, drummer Chris Hesse and bass guitarist Josh Moreau -- were 2 a.m. late-night arrivals at Moon but they did stay until pre-dawn closing hour! They weren’t wild rockers because they ordered plenty of Fiji water to go with their shots of Patron, Jagermeister and Jameson!

Photo: Palms Place

DJ Samantha Ronson and motocross champ Carey Hart turn out for the Palms Place party.

Late-night TV comedy cutup Jimmy Kimmel, originally from Vegas and back on the singles scene, dined at NOVE Italiano restaurant in the Palms Fantasy Tower and posed for a souvenir photo with chefs Barry Dakake and Geno Bernardi before a 90-minute visit to the Playboy Club upstairs. News leaked out later that the reason he was solo -- and not on the arm of five-year girlfriend, comedienne Sarah Silverman, is because they’ve just broken up. Sarah, who appeared recently at the Hard Rock, had her public relations representative confirm the split saying, "there would be no further comment." Apparently the breakup was a mutual decision but the couple has kept quiet on the reasons!

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