Las Vegas Weekly

February 26, 2010 · 11:58 AM

Celebrities play major role in Keep Memory Alive fundraiser

By Robin Leach

Siegfried, Larry Ruvo and Roy at the 2008 Keep Memory Alive gala.

Photo: TVT

It’s an all-star turnout with a $15 million goal for the huge gala Keep Memory Alive tomorrow night at the Bellagio. Top chefs Thomas Keller and Wolfgang Puck will be serving up a four-course gourmet meal for 1,000 guests who will all be served Dom Perignon and extraordinary vintage wines.

New Paris headliner Barry Manilow will perform for the star-studded crowd that will include hometown heroes Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, Peepshow beauty Holly Madison, TV hostess Leeza Gibbons, beloved illusionists Siegfried & Roy, actors Danny DeVito and Steve Schirripa, comedians Brad Garrett and David Brenner, Archies lead singer Ron Dante (who was Barry’s record producer for “Mandy” and a slew of his other hits from 1973 to 1981), plus pioneering astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

I will conduct the live auction with my friend Christian Kohlberg, and there also will be a separate silent auction with more than 100 amazing and unique items. You can see all at KeepMemoryAlive.org -- we posted a story about the auction items yesterday.

Funds raised at the 14th annual gala support the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health researching and providing patient care for those suffering from Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s diseases. The Frank Gehry-designed medical center downtown was built entirely by donations from the previous Power of Love galas. The building was designed by Frank in L.A., engineered in Germany with more than 70,000 hours of work, fabricated in China with 65,000 bolts, 500 pieces of steel and 199 unique windows and shipped to Las Vegas for assembly.

This weekend marks its gala open house, and 40 of the Cleveland Clinic’s top doctors have flown in to attend the events. Already treating patients, the official grand opening ceremonies will take place in May.

Organizers hope to raise some $15 million from the gala tomorrow night to further the work of the center, the only one of its kind west of the Mississippi. The Cleveland Clinic is already conducting a feasibility study to expand its role with additional medical facilities here alongside the center, for which Mayor Oscar Goodman has already promised extra land in the Symphony Park area of downtown.

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.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.

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