Tuesday, August 31, 1999
Celebrity look-alikes fool folks
BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It happened again — Eye's fourth call in two days on a celeb sighting that, well, isn't.
Two callers saw Elton John in downtown Newport. Another saw Madonna in the same neighborhood. Another saw Elton and Madonna at Skyline. Right.
Actually they're members of the cast of Legends in Concert, the show of impersonators at Newport's Syndicate since Aug. 6. They're all living at Newport's Hannaford, so sightings are to be expected.
So are mistaken identities. Cast members playing Elton and company are dead on.
Dead on enough that when Donna Presley, Elvis' cousin, came in from Memphis last week to see Peter Alden do Elvis, she was skeptical, then so impressed she's coming back.
Dead on enough that when Mitch Adams (Elton), Grace Rodriguez (Madonna) and Steve McCoy (Jones) lunched at the Fourth Street Skyline last week there were people who insisted they were the real thing.
“You'll think I'm crazy, but Elton John was at Skyline with a woman who looked like Madonna,” said Dianne Waller in an afternoon call.
When told who they were, we heard: “You weren't there. That show might be in town, but this guy was real.”
Uh, OK.
The cast is planning an appearance today at the annual Celebrity T-shirt auction where Imperial Sovereign Queen City Court of the Buckeye Empire sells T-shirts with celebrity autographs — Lauren Bacall, Reba McEntire, Bette Midler, John Travolta, Liz Taylor, Dolly Parton. It's 6:30 p.m. at the Syndicate.
THREE DOG NIGHT: Going to prove again, there's no such thing as stopping for one cocktail. Especially with Mickey Esposito around.
Peter Noone, as in Herman's Hermits, played Mason's Heritage Fest Saturday, but came in Friday to see Three Dog Night at Taste of Blue Ash and visit pal Bruce Henry, assistant city manager.
Which he did. Then went bar hopping (Noone doesn't drink, but his band does) to Village Tavern, then J Arthur's, where Esposito was doing his Vegas-style lounge act.
One drink indeed. Noone got so into Esposito that he closed the place at 2:30 a.m.
Ray Charles, meanwhile, played Taste Saturdayto a crowd of 80,000, then had to sneak in the back door of the Cincinnatian because the lobby was so full of fans.
He went to the Presidential Suite, knocked off some Dom and had a cigar — too tired to hang out at the Cincinnatian bar.
Knip's Eye View appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
