Las Vegas Weekly

September 27, 2009 · 11:05 AM

Bam! Emeril’s star-studded premiere party for Lagasse’s Stadium

By Robin Leach

Emeril Lagasse and Danica Patrick at Lagasse's Stadium in the Palazzo.

Photo: IS Photography

It was the sports party to end them all! Bam! Celebrated chef Emeril Lagasse opened his new luxury Lagasse’s Stadium -- a sports book bar and grill -- in the Palazzo over the weekend, and there were more stars there than during a Super Bowl weekend!

We have incredible photos and fabulous stories from talking with all the celebrities, and we’ll post them right here at Vegas DeLuxe tomorrow. Meantime, we wanted you to have a sense of the excitement in advance, so thanks to regular Vegas DeLuxe regular Richard Corey, who uploaded his videos to YouTube for us:

My notebook is filled with gems of gossip and delectable dish!

*I’ll never forget Dancing With the Stars beauty Melissa Rycroft, formerly with The Bachelor and now with Good Morning America, showing me her blinding diamond engagement ring and the sexiest of stilettos as she did the double dip with fiance Tye Strickland. They spilled all the secrets of their upcoming bachelor and bachelorette parties here in Las Vegas -- and their December wedding!

*I'm still in awe of Olympic swimming hero Dara Torres pulling up her skirt to show me her muscles above the knee. She told me during our chat that whereas most people, including me, twitch 30 times per minute in their leg muscles for swimming, she twitches 70 times a minute, which explains why she’s jet propelled in the water!

*Khloe Kardashian’s stepdad, Olympic champion Bruce Jenner, let me in on the inside story of her high-speed wedding today in Los Angeles to L.A. Lakers star Lamar Odom. I’m just asking, but since Keeping Up With the Kardashians is filming the entire ceremony and E! is picking up the million-dollar wedding costs for crucial November ratings sweeps month, is it a real marriage or a TV wedding? Bruce will walk Khloe down the aisle later today, but he flew to Las Vegas to escape all the tension behind the scenes of putting it together in just seven days. Some 250 guests will be at my friend Irving Azoff's home for the “nuptials,” but whispers indicate that this could just be the filmed wedding, with a promise to do the real thing down the road when there's less of a frenzy and pre-nups are signed!

*I talked with satellite radio superstar Howard Stern’s beautiful wife, supermodel Beth Ostrosky, and her co-host Carson Kressley about the new show Face of Vegas they are filming here for ABC’s January schedule. It’s a four-week assignment, and they've just reached the halfway point with Vanessa Minnillo playing a significant part of the model-contest reality show.

We have hundreds of photos of the stars at play in Lagasse’s Stadium to edit our way through for our photo gallery tomorrow, and then on Tuesday, our one-on-one interview with Emeril himself, plus his personal guided tour of the new property. He reminded me that it was exactly a year ago to the day that he first revealed to me he was planning the sports book bar and grill. Now exactly 12 months later, the dream has come true!

“It’s turned out bigger and better than I ever thought possible,” he told me.

Check back tomorrow and Tuesday for full photo coverage and reports loaded with gossip you will find absolutely nowhere else!

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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