One of Las Vegas' richest men is being feted at a 50th birthday party this weekend.
Hair-care product king John Paul DeJoria was once homeless. Now he is a multimillionaire who sits atop the John Paul Mitchell empire.
He is also a partner in entities ranging from The Foundation Room at the House of Blues to Patron Tequila and some energy companies.
This weekend his model wife, Eloise, is rounding up some of her husband's Las Vegas pals -- from Robbie Knievel to Robin Leach -- to do some shopping and take a road trip.
First, there are plans to hit the hot new Alexander Julian fashion wardrobe collection, which just arrived at Neiman Marcus at Fashion Show mall -- Leach is a devotee of the line.
Then they are all going to Austin, Texas (Eloise's hometown), to meet with Peter Fonda and do some easy riding across the prairie on some new Harley-Davidsons, starting at dawn on Sunday.
Fonda is bringing what he says is the actual bike he rode alongside Dennis Hopper in "Easy Rider" for DeJoria to ride -- but not to take home.
Fonda says he "borrowed" the bike after the film ended and has kept it in tip-top condition.
When "Easy Rider" came out in 1969 DeJoria had fresh memories of living on the streets of East Los Angeles.
"I was homeless twice in my life, mainly because I was too proud to ask anybody for help," DeJoria said.
After bouncing around with a series of sales jobs, he and friend Paul Mitchell borrowed $700 and, in 1980, started a new company.
Mitchell did hair shows and introduced hair-sculpting, a revolutionary hair setting and styling method. DeJoria handled sales, marketing, administrative duties and everything else.
Within a decade, they were world-class players in their industry.
The secret of DeJoria's success?
"The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people do a lot of the things that unsuccessful people don't want to do," DeJoria said.
"Like when the door is slammed in your face 10 times. You go to door number 11 with just as much enthusiasm."
Also, sometime this fall DeJoria is speaking at one of Las Vegas resident Jim Bickford's "American Dream" motivational seminars.
With Woods
As Tiger Woods tries to win his third straight Masters this weekend, his friends continue to RSVP at a furious pace for his "Tiger Jam VI" at Mandalay Bay April 19.
Among those that organizers say will attend are Ray Romano, Lauren Holly, Marcus Allen, Kevin James, Marc Anthony and "American Idol" judges Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson.
Cookin' at night
Now that Wolfgang Puck dominates the food scene, he's looking to hold onto customers for the rest of the evening.
VegasBeat got a sneak peak of OPM on Thursday, the new nightspot above Puck's restaurant Chinois at the Forum Shops at Caesars.
Two of the OPM partners, Albuquerque impresario Michael Goodwin and his childhood friend John Padon -- the Emmy-winning comic who appears in "X" -- said things are on schedule for a late May opening.
Caesars Palace, devoid of any nightclubs, also plans to throw a lot of support behind OPM.
Among the selling points: The club will serve Chinois food all night (ever try getting good sushi at 1 a.m.?), and it will have separate valet parking and an entrance off Industrial Road to accommodate people (mainly locals) who want to avoid the Strip and a long walk across the casino floor from the parking lot to get there.
Press man
Ed Fancher, the man who virtually invented the alternative press when he started the Village Voice newspaper with Dan Wolf and Norman Mailer in New York City in 1955, was in Las Vegas on Thursday.
Early in the evening he entertained the crowd with stories from the olden days at the opening of Bradley Ogden's restaurant at Caesars Palace.
Then Fancher and his wife, Vivienne, went to Celine's show.
Among those spotted at Ogden's soiree: Caesars President Mark Juliano, Roger and Sandy Peltyn, Channel 8's Lisa Johnson and Casey Roebuck, David Kirvin, Rob Powers and Robin Leach.
VegasBits
Former teen idol and Las Vegas resident David Cassidy turns 53 on Saturday. He'll celebrate privately in Florida with his wife, Sue Shifrin-Cassidy (her birthday is Thursday), and their son, Beau, 13 ...
Scores of original leases are coming due at Forum Shops. The first big change is that the Dunhill smoke shop shut down this week. A Mont Blanc store is planned for the space ...
Joan Collins' longtime personal assistant and stand-in body double, Summerlin resident Judy Bryer, appears in "Joan Collins: An Intimate Portrait" at 7 p.m. Monday on Lifetime (Cox cable channel 26) ...
Angela Torres left the publicity department at MGM Grand this week to start a similar gig with Clark County ...
Sweet stuff: Larry Ruvo's Southern Wine & Spirits of Nevada hosted a launch party for Absolut Vanilia at ghostbar Thursday night ...
Entertainer Sunny Thompson, who left "Showgirls" at The Rio last year, just opened "Blondes & Boy Toys" at Harrah's in Reno. Her husband, Greg Thompson, produces ...
On the other end of the age spectrum, "Bottoms Up" is gearing up for its 44th anniversary celebration. Patrick Maes, Dick Feeney and Breck Wall are premiering a new edition of the show April 24 in the Flamingo Showroom ...
Among the many things disrupted by the war in Iraq was VegasBeat's regular Friday appearance on KNUU 970-AM (K-NEWS). Happily, the 24/7 war coverage is in remission, and we're back on the air today at 5:10 p.m.
From Sun wires
NBC is hurrying development of a movie about the rescue of POW Jessica Lynch.
The network is meeting with potential writers and producers for a made-for-TV film intended to air early in the 2003-04 season, a network spokeswoman said Thursday.
NBC is attempting to get official rights to her story but is willing to proceed with a script based on news reports and other public information, Daily Variety said Thursday.
A picture is worth ... : Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas on Friday won their lawsuit against a celebrity magazine that published "cheap and tacky" photographs taken by paparazzi who crashed their wedding. The amount of damages was not immediately announced.
Testifying to a packed courtroom on Feb. 10, Zeta-Jones complained that the "cheap and tacky" images published by Hello! magazine made her look overweight and the reception appear to have "bad disco lighting."
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