The Bellagio's Gallery of Fine Art has made a deal to exhibit one of the rarest of all art treasures, the Kremlin Museum's Faberge collection. About 125 Faberge items will make up the "Faberge and The Age of Imperial Russia" exhibit. The display will be at Bellagio for five months starting Aug. 30.

Treasures from the imperial wardrobe including ball gowns and the coronation uniform of Nicholas will accompany the collection.

Australia's "Thunder From Down Under" will be moving to the Excalibur and opening on Friday, July 5. The steamy male cabaret revue features handsome buffed men, who create a show that's perfect for ladies night out.

"Thunder From Down Under" will perform in Merlin's Theater, which is also home to the "Catch a Rising Star Comedy Club." The showroom is located at the Excalibur on the Medieval Village Level. Show times will be 7:30 p.m. nightly except Thursday, with an additional 11:30 p.m. show on Saturday. Tickets are $34.95 inclusive, call 702-597-7600.

The 16th annual "Ribbon of Life" show, the largest fund-raiser for Golden Rainbow, a non-profit organization helping AIDS victims, will take place a 1 p.m. on June 22 and 23 in the Storm Theatre at Mandalay Bay. Tickets for the freedom-themed production are $25, $50, $75 an $175, call 702-384-2899 or go online at www.goldenrainbow.org.

Singer Jimmy Hopper, who sings weekly in the lounge at Bellagio, will make an encore performance and open the show with his highly moving rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner." The show will also feature nearly 300 performers from production shows on the Las Vegas Strip, as well as members from "Honky Tonk Angels."

This is probably an idea long overdue. Las Vegas will play host to the

Las Vegas Comedy Festival at the Stardust from Sept. 4 through 8. The festival will include a comedy trade show, seminars on everything from how to perform comedy to hiring an agent, and comedy competitions. One seminar of particular interest will be on how to be a late-night talk show host.

The contestants for the comedy competitions are being selected during three nights of competitions in ten major cities. The first selection process began in Los Angeles this week. The other nine cities will include Phoenix, Dallas, Atlanta, New York City, Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle and San Francisco. The competition will continue through Aug. 10.

Professional and amateur comedians will be competing in seven categories, including seniors, teen, youth, college, mainstream standup, original parody or comedy song, and props for ventriloquists, magicians, jugglers, 18 through 64. Winners of the competition will receive an all-expense paid trip to Las Vegas for the Las Vegas Comedy Festival.

The trade show will appeal not only to comedians but also to anyone who uses comedy in front of audiences such as politicians, clergy and businessmen.

Winners of the competition will be announced at a banquet during the festival. Also at the banquet, two special awards will be given - the Steve Allen Pioneer of Comedy Achievement Award and the Las Vegas Comedy Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. After the banquet, winners will perform in the Wayne Newton Theater at the Stardust.

The festival will be followed by a cross-country tour with a few selected contestants joining a headline comedian for a series of encore performances in each of the original preliminary-round cities.

Two new-to-Vegas musicals - "Beauty an the Beast" ((Nov. 12-17) and "Miss Saigon" (May 12-18, 2003) lead the lineup for the 2002-2003 season of Broadway at the Aladdin. The theater series will also include two longtime favorites that have visited Las Vegas before "West Side Story" (July 2-7) and "Jesus Christ Superstar" (Nov. 26-Dec. 1).

The Smothers Brothers will return to the Las Vegas Hilton, June 18-28. The duo has been a household name since they first appeared on national television in 1961.

Tom and Dick Smothers are best known for their groundbreaking television shows, "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" and "The Smothers Brothers Show," a sitcom where Tom played an angel and Dick acted as his playboy brother.

In addition to television, the brothers have also managed to record 12 top-selling albums.

The Smothers Brothers will be joined by comedian and sitcom writer Ed Yeager on June 19 and 20, and then comedian and musician Gary Mule Deer for the remainder of the engagement. Tickets are $30 and $40 plus tax and handling fee, call 800- 222-5361 or 702-732-5755.

The "I Love LaFong" comedy show starring comic, impressionist, ventriloquist Michelle LaFong and her stud puppet boyfriend "Paco," has moved to the Royal Hotel and Casino on Convention Center Drive. Tickets are $34.95 plus tax and gratuity with two drinks included. Show times are 8 p.m. nightly, call 702-321-8000.

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The Golden Nugget downtown will have a new restaurant on June 29 when Zax opens on the casino-level site formerly occupied by the California Pizza Kitchen. The menu is extensive at both lunch and dinner with moderate prices.

Zax will be open daily for lunch from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; dinner from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.; and late-night appetizers. The bar will remain open way past midnight. There will be happy hour drink specials from 4:30 to 6 p.m. For information, call 702-386-8201.

J.W.'s Tavern will open in mid-August at The Rio with owner Joe Romano, who was formerly Aureole's executive chef.

The remodeled Big Apple Bar at New York-New York has reopened. The 24-hour a day lounge with a glittering big red apple hanging high above the casino floor, features velvet fabric draped from ceiling to floor and burgundy satin walls.

The bar's handcrafted signature drinks, including the Big Apple Margaritas, Forbidden Fruit and Dr. Bob create a stir. Of all the drinks, Dr. Bob received the highest rating from Master Mixolgoists and apparently it is just what the doctor ordered. For a little extra, drinks can be enjoyed in a Big Apple Souvenir Glass.

Sugar Ray, who canceled a show on April 5, will pop into the Palms on Aug. 7 for a show at Rain in the Desert. Tickets are $35, call Ticketmaster at 702-474-4000.

Tickets are on sale for three concerts that will be staged at the Skin Pool Lounge at the Palms. Abba cover band Bjorn Again will take center stage on Aug. 6. and Steel Pulse will perform on Aug. 9. Tickets for both shows are $25 in advance and $30 the day of the show. The Neville Brothers will headline on Aug. 25 and tickets are $35.

The Mandalay Bay Beach summer series is attracting the B-52's on July 19 with tickets priced at $35 in advance and $40 on the day of the show. Billy Idol will sing on July 20 and tickets are $38.50 in advance and $42.50 on the day of the show.

VH1's Triple Shot of Rock tour starring Eddie Money, Loverboy and Survivor will headline at Buffalo Bill's Star of the Desert Arena on Oct. 4. Tickets are $30 and $40, call 1-800-386-7867.

This is the 27th years for the Super Summer Theatre outdoor plays held at the Spring Mountain Ranch State Park located 18 miles west of Las Vegas on West Charleston Blvd. The productions this year are "Godspell" in June, "Lil'l Abner" in July, and "Annie" in August. Performances run each Wednesday through Saturday, starting June 12 and ending Aug. 14. For more information, call 702-594-PLAY (7529) or visit (website closed).

Comedienne Rita Rudner who stars in her own sow at New York-New York is attempting to branch out into television with her own talk show, "Ask Rita." Her own description of the program is a place where "unqualified people give uneducated answers to questions that affect other people."

Celebrity panelists are enlisted to help Rudner answer relationship questions with humor and insight from their personal lives. Two pilot shows were taped at an MGM Grand Adventures theme park theater have aired already.

Arizona Charlie's East on Boulder Highway is Las Vegas' only 24-hour bingo parlor offering sessions every odd hour. The room seats 500.

Filming is always going on around Las Vegas. It's expected that 20 to 40 percent of "Halo," the upcoming "Charlie's Angels" sequel, will be shot in Las Vegas. A second-unit crew captured motocross footage already at Sam Boyd Stadium over the May 4 weekend. The first unit will be back in the fall to do more filming.

An elaborate Ford Expedition commercial featuring female boxer Laila Ali, the daughter of Muhammad Ali, was shot over a period of about ten days. Locations included Fremont Street and Caesars Palace.

"Tequila Express" starring Christopher Atkins has been filming around Southern Nevada, which is doubling as Mexico. The movie is about drug lords who kidnap a government official's daughter.

MTV's "The Real World" is in its third and final month of production in Las Vegas and at its home base at the Palms.

More changes are happening at Caesars Palace: 808 is now open for dinner seven days a week, and the Palatium has discontinued its Emperors Feast dinner.

Mark your calendars. The Desert Inn golf course will close on June 28. The last tournament on the course will be held June 29.

A California woman won the third-largest slot jackpot in history, a $22.6 million Megabucks jackpot at Bally's Las Vegas on May 27. It was the first Megabucks jackpot for Bally's, but the 57th one awarded by International Game Technology since the progressive jackpot originated in 1986.

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