Las Vegas Weekly

September 13, 2009 · 9:25 AM

Photo Gallery: CSI, Frankie, Luis, Matt, Nicole, Vince sparkle and shine

By Robin Leach

Matt Goss, Mariah Carey and George Maloof.

Photo: Denise Truscello/WireImage

Nobody does it better than Las Vegas when it comes to superstars, premieres and parties. There’s simply no place on Earth where it shines brighter than our glittering and glamorous city! Wow, what an amazing night!

Here, the first, fast and furious shots from an all-star posse of platinum photographers who were editing until dawn even as the stars continued partying until sun up this morning. And it doesn’t end with the amazing all-night-long action because Vegas never stops, and we’ve got even more planned for this evening!

I interviewed CSI star Marg Helgenberger and creator Anthony Zuiker at the grand opening of the interactive CSI: The Experience exhibit at the MGM Grand. We’ll have those conversations tomorrow with a full photo gallery. The entire cast of the 10-year hit CBS show that hometown hero Anthony told me is worth some $6 billion as a franchise was on hand except for Laurence Fishburne. Meantime, here’s the official “yellow tape” ribbon cutting ceremony shot by Brian Jones of Las Vegas News Bureau, and Marg struck a pose when we finished chatting for contributing photographer Erik Kabik.

Another Vegas resident hero, rocker Vince Neil, is on an at-home, 10-day break from Motley Crue’s Crue Fest 2 and performed a 30-minute showcase of six songs with his own Vince Neil Band before declaring his new Ink tattoo parlor officially open. If you followed our real-time Twitter alerts throughout the night, you’ll know that Vince told me he plans to open 25 Ink salons in tandem with his Dr. Feelgood’s Rock Bar & Grill funhouses in the next three years. Our full interview with Vince as he and Motley Crue get ready to celebrate 30 years of rock and roll with a new album in 2010 will run here tomorrow with an amazing photo gallery. Scott Harrison captured these first shots of Vince posing at Ink and performing at Masquerade Village in The Rio.

Two long-career stars from the music world on both sides of the border had sold-out crowds last night: Luis Miguel celebrating the start of weeklong celebrations for Mexican Independence Day that culminates Saturday with the Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight and former teen idol Frankie Avalon still going strong with 50 years of hit records under his belt -- and bandaged hand! Our lens masters at Las Vegas News Bureau Darren Bush and Glenn Pinkerton captured both singers in full song. We’ll have a full Erik Kabik photo gallery tomorrow of Luis performing at The Colosseum in Caesars Palace. Somehow Erik also found time to hot foot it into Pure at Caesars Palace for another live-action shoot with hip-hop star Bow Wow, who thrilled the crowd. We’ll also have that gallery tomorrow.

But it was the official premiere of British crooner Matt Goss that knocked the ball out of the park in his own, new The Gossy Lounge at the Palms. Palms owner George Maloof even brought superstar singer Mariah Carey along to congratulate Matt on his star-studded opening. (Mariah had concerts at The Pearl in the Palms on Friday and yesterday.) Pussycat Dolls lead singer Nicole Scherzinger and MTV beauties Daisy Fuentes and “Downtown” Julie Brown were front and center leading the cheers with pop singer turned actress Deborah Gibson! Our leading lens lady Denise Truscello has an amazing set of photos for our gallery tomorrow, but here’s the first two. Nicole jumped onstage to sing with Matt as the band blasted away, and the sexy Dirty Virgins dancers strutted, stomped and seduced.

Past midnight for the closing number, the musicians and dancers went into the audience so the stage spotlight was solely on Matt and Nicole. A total triumph! Click HERE for our preview coverage last weekend, but this premiere was a real knock-your-socks-off priceless party.

This is Vegas, baby, where nobody does it better! Check out for yourself the eye-popping airline uniforms in which producer Robin Antin of Pussycat Dolls fame has dressed the cocktail servers. Hard to believe they will be even sexier and shorter next week complete with garter-belt and seamed stockings! Everybody will want to fly Gossy Air Flight 007 with blue-eyed hunk Matt as the pilot for the mile-high experience! I’m getting my frequent flyer boarding pass right now! No wonder I had tweets from as far away as London and Australia wanting more of the big night.

Somehow, Nicole made it to her own song set at LAX in the Luxor at 1 a.m. Somehow our photographers managed to turn around these first photos. And somehow I managed to get up early enough to pen these words. Now it’s time for a massage at Palms Place to regain some strength for tonight’s continued merriment with Zowie Bowie as their Vintage Vegas is unveiled at the Monte Carlo, plus we’ll also join Siegfried & Roy for the launch of MagiCares at The Orleans. Click HERE for that story we broke last week.

Check back to Vegas DeLuxe tomorrow for the full photo reports of all these incredible weekend happenings. As I said at the top, nobody does it better than Las Vegas. We are No. 1 even in these times of doom-and-gloom economic headlines -- and always will be!

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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