Your weekend entertainment really runs the gamut. There's the glitz of Madonna, Lindsay Lohan and celebrity poker tournaments. There's the "yeehaw" dirt fun of the world finals of the Professional Bull Riders. There's even a dorky "close-up" magic party with DJ music.
On Saturday and Sunday, Madonna sings mostly new songs at the MGM Grand Garden arena ($75-$375). As longtime Madonna fans know, she doesn't reprise a lot of hits. For this tour, she's not doing that whole singing-from-a-cross thing. Jason Bracelin writes about the star in today's Neon section.
The choice rubbernecking spot is at 11 o'clock tonight when Lindsay Lohan and her girlfriend, DJ Samantha Ronson, walk the red carpet into Pure at Caesars. Ronson will spin music later in the club. Lohan often pops up at the DJ deck when Ronson works. They're very supportive of each other.
Lohan also is promoting her fashion line of leggings -- that's right, leggings -- for a cause, the Women's Cancer Research Institute and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
On Sunday and Monday, the World Series of Poker wraps up at the Rio. The tournament started in the summer, but the main event, featuring the last nine players, was pushed all the way till this weekend, when ESPN covers the championship.
If the World Series of Poker isn't enough poker for you, the Hard Rock brings in a slew of star players for a new team-based tournament called Dream Team. It's billed as "social networking" gaming. Players help each other while trying to defeat other teams.
Scheduled to show up at Dream Team for your gawking pleasure: Holly Montag from MTV's "The Hills"; Mekhi Phifer (Dr. Pratt from NBC's "E.R."); Sal Masekela from "E!"; former basketballer Chris Mills; Yancey Arias from NBC's "Knight Rider"; Sam Simon, ex-"The Simpsons" writer and animal welfare leader; and poker champs David Benyamine, Erica "Poker Babe" Schoenberg, plus many more.
This is the final weekend of the Professional Bull Riders World Finals at the Thomas & Mack Center ($31-$41). If you've never been to a bull riders event, it's sort of what you'd expect. Guys get on bulls in pens, then try to ride them for eight seconds (about 10 bucks of the bull), while a crowd of adults (not many kids go) drink some beer, and then drink some more beer. If you read today's Neon section, you'll find my column, chronicling my first time watching the dirt-tacular.
On Saturday after PBR, singer Jewel and her husband, the bull-riding hero Ty Murray, party at LAX at Luxor. And Jewel is scheduled for some kind of performance there. Otherwise, the official day and night parties for PBR are at the Silverton. You can ride free shuttles from PBR to the hotel.
And if you're a magic dork, an event called Wonderground goes down from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. today and Saturday at Palace Station's Sound Trax Showroom, where resident magician Jeff McBride hosts an interactive club party featuring "close-up magic," performance art, a psychic sideshow and DJ music ($10).
Doug Elfman's column appears on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 702-383-0391 or e-mail him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He also blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.