Red Carpet Report: Derek Stevens bets $350K on March Madness, Holly Madison, John Cena, ‘Gold Rush’
Downtown casino owner Derek Stevens of The D Las Vegas bet $350,000 on Sunday on Thursday’s opening March Madness NCAA Tournament games. Derek bet $11,000 on each of the 32 opening-round games.
He ponied up the big bet during a live broadcast of Brent Musburger’s new Vegas Stats and Information Network program on Sirius XM Radio in the studio set up at South Point. You can follow Derek’s betting plays on his Twitter feed @DerekJStevens.
NICE PROFIT
Former “Peepshow” actress, Playboy beauty and reality-TV star Holly Madison, who now lives here, made a nice profit when she sold her Los Angeles home over the weekend. The 8,500-square-foot mansion with six bedrooms and nine bathrooms was listed at $8.225 million, but buyers jumped at the opportunity to own the Hancock Park estate.
Holly sold it for $225,000 over the asking price. The author and mother of two purchased the house three years ago for $7.1 million, so it’s a profit of $1.1 million in three years. That’s SoCal real estate for you!
TRICKSHOT POOL CHAMPION
My pal Venom, the prince of pool-trick shots, aka Florian Kohler, broke three Guinness World Records for table shots by noon today in an exhibition of his pool mastery at Gorilla Cafe on East Tropicana. The Las Vegas record-holder has two more records to break before evening, which then in themselves set a sixth mark for most Guinness Records in a day.
His incredible skills have been viewed more than 500 million times on YouTube. Florian will give an exhibition of his incredible pool table talents at 6 p.m. Thursday at Gorilla Cafe. Here’s a YouTube video preview of what to expect.
NEW SERIES
While “Gold Rush” star Parker Schnabel was in Las Vegas last week for ConExpo, he revealed that he is going to premiere “Parker’s Trail” on Discovery Channel on March 31. On the new series, the 22-year-old miner, who has unearthed $13 million in gold, will re-create the Klondike Gold Rush trail.
From 1896 to 1899, more than 100,000 brave souls set out on the perilous journey into the frozen North, but most never made it to the end. Only one in three completed the treacherous journey; their comrades were killed or scared off by bears, raging torrents and minus-40-degree temperatures on the rough terrain.
Cameraman James Levelle will get an assist from Parker, wilderness guide Karla Ann and foreman Rick Ness in lugging 60 pounds of gear. They are an unlikely team of climbers, and the series will chronicle if they overcome deadly obstacles and incredible odds to make it.
ACTION STAR
WWE superstar and actor John Cena, who was a 16-time world champion with the league and starred opposite Amy Schumer in the hit comedy “Trainwreck” and opposite Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg in “Daddy’s Home,” can add another title to his list: Action Star of the Year.
John will be presented with the CinemaCon Award at the official annual convention of The National Association of Theater Owners at Caesars Palace on March 30.
STAR SURVEILLANCE
NBA legend Julius Erving, aka Dr. J, attended The PAC-12 games at T-Mobile Arena before heading over to Top Golf behind MGM Grand, where he hit from the third level. Snoop Dogg’s son, Cordell Broadus, joined a group of friends to hang out in a nearby booth.
Celebrated drummer and producer Travis Barker of Blink-182 made his Drai’s live debut at Drai’s Beach Club atop The Cromwell. He was met with thunderous applause as he took to the stage for a solo performance.
Carly Chaikin (USA’s “Mr. Robot”) attended “Le Reve — The Dream” at Wynn Las Vegas. The actress posed with the production’s world-class divers and swimmers post-show.
