Dollywood dinner theater deal a dud

The Dixie Stampede, an Orlando dinner theater attraction partly-owned by country music star Dolly Parton, laid off its 162 workers in January pending the sale of the I-4 tourist attraction.

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Orlando Premium Outlets, the group interested in purchasing the property, now is not going through with the deal for an undisclosed reason. The successful outlet mall neighbors the dinner theater property and was going to expand its popular outlet malls.

“We never said we were buying it; we said we are looking at it,” said Michele Rothstein, a spokeswoman for Chelsea Premium Outlets, a division of mall-owner Simon Property Group and operator of Orlando Premium Outlets.

Man whacked with vase for "Keeping Up With the Kardashians"

A 46-year old Port St. Lucie woman is facing battery charges, police said, after hitting her boyfriend in the nose with a vase during a fight over his fondness for Kim Kardashian in particular and his pornography in general.  TCPalm said the boyfriend told police Naomi Masuda began arguing with him while he was watching "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," and she also complained about his porn. The man said she started throwing things at him, and the vase hit him in the nose, causing bleeding.  He then ripped out his phone and trashed his own possessions before calling law enforcement, the police report said. Masuda, who "appeared highly intoxicated" according to the newspaper, admitted throwing the vase but said hitting her boyfriend was an accident.

"Spectacular escape" attempt awaits government paperwork

Las Vegas-based illusionist Criss Angel (warning -- turn computer speakers down/off) will pull off a spectacular escape on Clearwater Beach at the end of the month as long as the needed permits are in place, according to TampaBay.com, and a city official says that should happen.

"If they get the permits, he's coming," Clearwater city spokesman Doug Matthews said. "I'm fairly confident we're moving forward with this, and I don't see any reason why it won't happen."

Needed are a demolition permit from the city and an asbestos abatement permit from Pinellas County.

Angel's representatives recently approached the city of Clearwater about staging an escape during the demolition of the 9-story Spyglass Resort hotel building on July 30. The vacant hotel is being razed so make room for a large hotel.

"He's going to be in the building when they do the demolition, and somehow he magically escapes to the roof and is whisked off into the darkness," Matthews said after city officials met today with representatives of Angel's hit cable TV show, Criss Angel Mindfreak, which is shown on the A&E network.

NBA star to become real estate savior

NBA superstar Shaquille O'Neal has already mastered the basketball court and the television screen. His next project is the real estate business. Thousands of Orlando-area residents facing home foreclosure are pleading to O'Neal for help after he announced that he will buy up loans and offer new mortgages with better terms with the homeowner, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The homeowners will keep their homes and O'Neal will turn a small profit.

A big man with big bills to pay

The Shaq is a mess. How else to explain the $22,190 Shaquille O'Neal spends on maids - every month. The 35-year-old Miami Heat center spilled that revealing detail in court papers filed as part of his ongoing divorce from his wife of five years, Shaunie, the Miami Herald reports. Some other expenditures (keep in mind, these are monthly numbers): $156,116 on mortgages, $110,505 on vacations, $60,417 on gifts, $26,560 on baby-sitters (they have four kids together, and each has one from a previous marriage), $24,300 on gasoline,  $17,220 on clothes and $12,775 on food. O'Neal's $20-million annual salary makes him the second-highest paid NBA player, behind the Boston Celtics' Kevin Garnett.

It's tough being Debra Lafave, especially when you're not

That's Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi on the left. On the right is teacher-turned-sex-offender Debra Lafave. One of them really would rather not be mistaken for the other. [Times files]

It's not unusual for people to comment on Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi's looks. But in recent weeks, some people have mistaken Bondi for another blue-eyed, blond-haired beauty: teacher-turned-sex offender Debra Lafave.

It happened twice last Thursday, when Lafave was due in court. Bondi heard the whispers as she walked to a hearing for ex-American Idol contestant Jessica Sierra and wasn't exactly pleased to have people thinking she was a registered sex offender.

So here's a little tip to help bystanders tell the two women apart: Lafave is the one with all the cameras and reporters trailing her every move through the courthouse.

Colleen Jenkins, Times staff writer

Machine impaired, not Mickey Rourke

It was the breathalyzer that was impaired, not Mickey Rourke, the Hollywood bad-boy says, the Miami Herald reports. Rourke was arrested on drunken Vespa driving charges in Miami Beach last month. But he's already gotten his license back because the  machine that found him impaired malfunctioned: One test showed him drunk, the other did not. The tie goes to Mickey, his attorney says. Rourke told police that night he hadn't been drinking "that much.'' So, was he targeted because of his reputation as a hell-raiser? Says his attorney, Michael Grieco: "A lot of times, probably most of the time, it's good to be Mickey Rourke. This was not one of those times.'

Porn peddlers prepare sex tape of Jessica Sierra

Just when you were wondering how bad things could go for Jessica Sierra, TMZ.com reports that a porn company has obtained a sex tape of the former American Idol runner-up and is preparing to distribute it.

Sierra, who was arrested in Ybor City over the weekend in a public spectacle that included her spewing racial epithets and an offer to perform oral sex on a police officer, is show in various sexual poses in a cheap hotel room, the gossip web site reports.

The tape is supposed to be released by the end of the year, in time for the next season of American Idol.

Word of the sex tape broke late Thursday after the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office released an audio tape of Sierra cursing police in a jailhouse phone conversation with an aunt.

Sierra's attorney, John Fitzgibbons, told WFLZ-FM radio's MJ in the Morning Show today that he had learned recently about the existence of the sex tape and said it was just the latest example of the public melt down his client is going through. She needs help for alcohol and drug addiction soon, he said, or her life could be in jeopardy.

MJ listeners, meanwhile, were calling this morning to complain about the show bashing Sierra. "Maybe I'm assisting her in reaching rock bottom,'' said Todd Schnitt, a.k.a. MJ, whose morning show is No. 1 in the Tampa Bay market.