Cowell a target at shooting gallery
Taking poor taste and bad timing to new heights, a Las Vegas target range is offering Simon Cowell's face for target practice.
Machine Guns Vegas, in a news release Tuesday, said Cowell's image will join Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi as target options.
Richard Hillgrove, spokesman for Machine Guns Vegas, said, "We agree with Martin Gore from Depeche Mode that Simon Cowell has committed heinous crimes against humanity and single-handedly demolished real musical talent across the planet."
Gore, in a magazine interview, said, "I'm not advocating violence, but I think somebody should shoot Simon Cowell. His influence in the music industry over the last God knows how many years it's been now ... it's just like so many people think that that's what music is."
Hillgrove said his company expects Cowell's target will be "ranking right up there with (bin Laden), which to date has been the most popular."
The publicity stunt by Machine Guns Vegas comes in the midst of the latest gun control debate sparked by the murder-suicide involving Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher.
The debate went viral when NBC's Bob Costas offered commentary on gun control during halftime of Sunday's Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles game.
Costas, through an NBC spokesman, on Monday said he "feels an unfortunate leap was taken that he was advocating taking away Second Amendment rights. He was not."
Rock star Ted Nugent, a gun advocate, went after Costas on Twitter: "Hey Bob Costas we all kno (sic) that obesity is a direct result of the proliferation of spoons and forks. Get a clue."
Costas cited a column by Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock, who criticized the gun culture in the United States and the NFL for not canceling the Kansas City-Carolina game on Sunday.
"Short of terrorist attack and weather disaster, nothing slows the NFL," wrote Whitlock, a longtime Kansas City sports writer.
Whitlock doubled down on Monday during a podcast with CNN contributor Roland Martin:
"You know, I did not go as far as I'd like to go because my thoughts on the NRA and America's gun culture - I believe the NRA is the new KKK. And that the arming of so many black youths, uh, and loading up our community with drugs, and then just having an open shooting gallery, is the work of people who obviously don't have our best interests (at heart)."
REPEAL DAY DOINGS
The Mob Museum marks the 79th anniversary of Repeal Day with a relic from the Prohibition era.
Featured at the 9 a.m. ceremony will be a gin bottle that was discovered during the restoration of the U.S. Post Office and federal courthouse, which was turned into the Mob Museum.
Former Mayor Oscar Goodman will preside at the ceremony, which includes Goodman smashing an over sized bottle.
The bottle of Boord's "Old Tom" Gin, made in England, was found within a wall cavity on the second floor hallway in March 2010 by Lance Bunker of Wheeler Electric.
Since the original building was completed in 1933, the year Prohibition ended, that suggests somebody had stashed the illicit spirit while working on the project.
A Roaring '20s after-hours party is scheduled from 6-10 p.m. The cover charge is $19.33.
SIGHTINGS
At "Peepshow" (Planet Hollywood Resort), checking out Coco Austin in her new headliner role as Bo Peep: the casts of "Absinthe" and "Rock of Ages." ... Arizona Cardinals cornerback Justin Bethel, with teammates at Marquee (Cosmopolitan) on Monday night.
THE PUNCH LINE
"Great Britain's Princess Kate and Prince William are expecting a baby. The bad news: Prince Harry is already planning a huge baby shower in Vegas." - Jay Leno
Norm Clarke can be reached at 702-383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find additional sightings and more online at www.normclarke.com. Follow Norm on Twitter @Norm_Clarke. His weekly segment, "Norm Clarke's Vegas," airs during the "Morning Blend" on KTNV-TV, Channel 13 every Thursday.
