Las Vegas Weekly

October 28, 2009 · 2:04 PM

A few notes from This Is It premiere at the Palms

By Robin Leach

Johnny Brenden, Joe Jackson and Don King at the Joe Jackson and family celebrity star presentation at the Brenden Theatres in the Palms on Oct. 27, 2009.

Photo: Erik Kabik/Retna/www.erikkabikphoto.com

Hopes for a Jackson Family Memorial Museum to be built in Las Vegas have failed -- now it will be located in the family’s hometown of Gary, Ind. Rudy Clay, the mayor of Gary, has donated 10 acres as the site. The announcement is planned for today at the Brenden Theatres in the Palms, where Joe Jackson and his family received a celebrity star last night. Movie theater owner Johnny Brenden has donated the first $10,000 to the capital fund being started for the building’s construction.

I talked to Joe shortly after the movie This Is It premiered last night, and he was very unhappy that Michael’s one-time manager Frank DiLeo and attorney John Branca received co-producer credits in the screen titles. “They had nothing whatsoever to do with Michael’s creativity on this project and documentary. Their names shouldn’t be there. Yes, Michael truly was brilliant, and the film captured his creativity, but what do you expect? He was a Jackson! Michael was a great entertainer all over the world, and he was liked all over the world -- he just happened to be my son.”

Joe gave TV interviews in Johnny’s celebrity suite at the Palms to crews from Extra, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood and Las Vegas TV affiliates.

I hadn’t really known fully just how much of a boxer Joe had been in his early days growing up in Gary, so that probably explains why his friends Chuck Liddell, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and promoter Don King attended.

Don is a longtime pal of mine, and he told me that he’s joined forces with another maverick, Phil Ruffin, the new owner of Treasure Island, to present first-time boxing there. His debut promotion, “Fright Night -- a Halloween Thrilla,” kicks off on Halloween with Joseph “King Kong” Agbeko vs. Yonny “El Colombiano” Perez and an undercard of Ray “Rainman” Austin vs. DaVarryl “Touch of Sleep” Williamson. Love Don’s sense of humor: The person dressed up best like him gets $1,000!

Said Don: “From Foreman and Ali at the Rumble in the Jungle to Ali and Frazier at the Thrilla in Manila to this Halloween Thrilla, when I unleash King Kong as the eighth wonder of the world at the T.I., this is going to be super sensational. I can’t say enough about Ghana’s favorite son King Kong Agbeko, who is following in the footsteps of the country’s greatest world champion fighters.

“This first promotion with Phil Ruffin harkens back to my beginnings in boxing when I helped build Las Vegas into the international destination it is today. I started at Caesars then with Kirk Kerkorian at MGM, then the Las Vegas Hilton and returning to Caesars. Now I’m starting fresh yet again with another visionary: Phil Ruffin. I hope this will become a permanent boxing home on the Strip.”

Said the new Treasure Island head honcho: “I have admired Don’s work in Las Vegas and around the world for years, and I want our first boxing event to be the best it can be. That’s why I sought him out.”

The gorgeous, sexy singer-dancers from The Sirens of T.I. will be recruited to dress up the ring activities, along with cast members from Cirque du Soleil’s Mystere -- both shows are based at T.I.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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