News briefs from around the globe

It’s the end of an era at Hard Rock Rocksino in Ohio. This week it becomes MGM Northfield Park, a completely uninspiring handle that reeks of insecurity. Dan Gilbert, if you’re ever going to make a run for the top spot in the Buckeye State, now’s your chance. The Hard Rock brand powered the slots-only racino to #1 consistently. The switchover will be an acid test of the power of the MGM brand against the Hard Rock one.

MGM Resorts International doesn’t have a physical casino in Japan yet but it already has a culinary team for “MGM Japan.” We know this because they paid a visit to MGM National Harbor, along with taiko drummers and Ceelo Green, to kick off the National Cherry Blossom Festival. Judging by the exposure it’s getting lately in company publicity, National Harbor is MGM’s unofficial new HQ, strategically positioned within eyeshot of Capitol Hill.

The company is to be commended on its Women Inspiring Women evening at Bellagio. The gala raised money for charitable causes, such as last year’s winner, Shade Tree Shelter, which received a $30,000 check. Shade Tree provides a safe harbor for women in abusive relationships in the Las Vegas area and we’re thrilled to see MGM supporting in such george fashion.

Speaking of Bellagio, it’s redone the dancing fountains to sweep and sway in time with the Game of Thrones theme music. Unfortunately, MGM makes the official video available only in MP4 format, which S&G can’t support. However, here’s a fan-shot vignette:

Credit goes both to composer Ramin Djawadi, who provided a slow intro to the main title, and the team at WET Design, who ring new changes on their aquatic creation. I could quote MGM’s press-release rhapsody but actually I think the water show speaks pretty well for itself. Enjoy.

* Think twice before you buy a hoagie at Earl of Sandwich or sit down at Planet Hollywood in the Forum Shops. Those are just two of the Earl Enterprises franchises to have been victimized by a 10-month-long hack. Credit card data was among the information snared by point-of-sale malware insinuated into Earl Enterprises’ computer system. As a result, over two million black-market credit cards found their way onto the market, giving new meaning to the query, “What’s in your wallet?” The breach has been “contained,” said a less-than-fully-reassuring dispatch from Earl Enterprises, cold comfort to those who have already been victimized.

* In what will surely be Las Vegas’ highest-profile murder prosecution since the death of casino heir Ted Binion, a former Playboy model has been detained in connection with the murder of psychiatrist Thomas Burchard. His body was found stuffed in the trunk of a car and an autopsy detected death by blunt-force trauma. (Burchard could have beaten himself to death, but we kind of doubt it.) If you want to visit the scene of the crime, drive State Route 147 to mile marker 14. Kelsey Nichole Turner has been jailed in Clark County following her extradition from California. She looks a bit willowy for such a brutal homicide but she’s only 25 to Burchard’s 71, so anything is possible. It also wouldn’t be the first time a much younger woman has been charged with inflicting violence on a (potential) Vegas sugar daddy. This case should be good for a lot of headlines, not necessarily in this venue.

* Remember when Lake Las Vegas was a virtual ghost town and a real-estate disaster area? Evidently things have turned around dramatically. American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe has put his waterfront McMansion on the market for $4,999,000, according to the Los Angeles Times. Wouldn’t that be an open house worth sneaking into? In other high-end real estate news, the owners of Michael Jackson‘s Neverland Ranch evidently saw a big hit coming in the backlash of HBO‘s recent exposé of the bizarre pop idol. L.A. Biz reports that the asking price for the ranch was preemptively slashed from $69 million to $31 million. I guess those notions of dismantling it and re-erecting it near Palace Station are kaput.

* Add Nicolas Cage to the list of act-first/think-later Vegas newlyweds. The washed-up actor filed for annulment four days after tying the knot in Sin City. KTNV-TV reports that Cage and his bride drank “to the point of intoxication” before the nuptials. Upon hearing that, Caesars Entertainment immediately made Cage a member of the Chairman’s Club. (April Fools — just the Caesars part.)

* Transparency is rarely a bad thing in international relations and Nevada just got a big dose of it from the Open Skies program. In return for our surveillance jets being allowed to photograph sensitive military sites in Russia, a camera-packed Tu-154 snapped shots of Creech Air Force Base, Yucca Flats and Area 51 (no word if they found any flying saucers). The Open Skies program has had some ups and downs during the Trump administration but is back on an “up.”