Las Vegas Weekly

January 6, 2009 · 12:29 PM

Entertainment and sports celebrities are living the life of XS

By Robin Leach

Playboy Playmate Raquel Gibson and friend.

Photo: Jacob Dallegos/Tryst

Ever since the new mega club XS opened New Year’s Eve at Steve Wynn’s new the Encore, it has been mobbed and become the hottest club on Earth! Last night, thousands of people lined up for the debut hospitality industry night.

I sat with Elaine Wynn, XS owner Victor Drai, boxing mogul Bob Arum and Saved By the Bell actor Dennis “Mr. Belding” Haskins, and all of us marveled at the sensational scene. The lines of guys and gals dressed in the smartest and sexiest of outfits -- and all well and neatly behaved -- stretched more than 100 yards in two different directions, snaking through three lanes apiece of winding roped aisles!

In all my days of covering nightlife in the world’s top hotspots, I’ve never witnessed such a tremendous turnout like this one that was still rocking strong at 4 a.m. today!

Click HERE for the video tour of the Encore, and click HERE for our exclusive video interview with hotel tycoon Steve Wynn about his nightclubs.

The stars have discovered XS, too, and when 21-year-old pop music heartthrob Jesse McCartney turned up at the sold-out party, he was so awestruck that he even joined in with a spontaneous performance of his hits on a mic right from his dance floor VIP table. He sang his latest smash “Leavin’ ” and his previous hits “Beautiful Soul” and “It’s Over.”

Several NFL players also were spotted at XS, including the Oakland Raiders running back trio of Darren McFadden, Justin Fargas and Michael Bush. Other NFL players there were Kansas City Chiefs safety Jarrad Page, Chicago Bears linebacker Lance Briggs and Carolina Panthers defender Michael Coldean. Also in the smart, fashionable crowd were UFC fighter Tito Ortiz -- on his own without gal pal Jenna Jameson, who is about to deliver their twins -- and actor comedian Pauly Shore.

Meantime, Steve and Victor’s original next-door nightlife palace Tryst at the Wynn isn’t forgotten or unloved! Oakland Raiders wide receiver Javon Walker was partying there with friends at a dance-floor VIP table along with Cleveland Browns wide receivers Braylon Edwards and Donte Stallworth, Playboy Playmate Raquel Gibson, FHM model Vida Guerra and actress Alisa Reyes.

Elaine told me: “I think we have the two most beautiful nightclubs in the world -- that’s what everybody in Vegas tells us. It might have taken us three years of hard work but so worth it in the end because XS is the immediate No. 1 club anywhere.”

She told me that her husband’s recent reluctant price-cutting of room rates to stimulate Las Vegas visitor counts had worked incredibly well, with two records of room-night reservations being shattered, selling more than 60,000 room nights in one 12-hour period.

She laughed when I talked about her husband having “developer’s disease” and always wanting to build bigger and better.

“We have to open the new tower in Macau at the end of this New Year first, and then we’ll think about what next for Vegas,” she said.

What is next for Mr. Wynn, one wonders?

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