Sherri Shepherd shares tale of dating mishap
I infrequently ask celebrities nitty-gritty questions about their love lives, because stars downplay (lie about) hit-me-ups. However, Sherri Shepherd raised the subject, so here we go.
“I just met a man on a cruise ship,” the Venetian headliner told me. “He was a bass player for a very famous, popular group.”
Shepherd, the former “View” co-host, made a classic mistake. She forgot to look at his ring finger.
“I’m back out in the dating scene, so I don’t know all the stuff I’m supposed to do yet,” she claimed.
After the cruise and its poor cellphone reception, she left the ship, rode home to where she could search the Internet in private and Googled him.
“I went and cyberstalked him, and I found out, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s such a great bassist, he’s got YouTube videos, great reviews and — oh, there’s a wife.’
“If I had found it out (on the boat), somebody would have been floatin’,” she said but wouldn’t rat out his name.
Shepherd is in Vegas to perform Saturday in The Venetian’s all-female “Lipshtick” comedy series. (Tickets: $40-$96.)
The divorcee, 49, is on the romantic prowl following a brutally public divorce from second husband Lamar Sally. Reportedly, she writes him a $4,000-plus monthly ex check, including child support for a son he fathered with a surrogate and the surrogate’s egg. It’s not even her baby, but the judge says it is.
When Shepherd and Sally were a happy couple, she went on three different talk shows and joked if any woman would rent them a pregnancy, “I will give you a free weave for a year and a Hyundai.”
Wouldn’t you know it? Her ex’s lawyer screened that TV joke from all three appearances to the court to aid Sally to victory.
“I’m sitting there going, ‘No, no, no, it was a joke! No! You’ve gotta call Rachael Ray. You’ve gotta call the ladies of ‘The View!’” Shepard told me.
Feasibly, Shepherd could meet a mate on the WE TV matchmaking series she’s hosting and producing, “Match Made in Heaven.” The second season debuted Thursday.
It’s doubtful Shepherd will light up any secret married gentlemen in Vegas, because she’s here with “a Christian cousin” protector who will, among other things, keep her away from her beloved nickel slots.
“I think the family nominated and sent him. We’ll be in church,” she joked, “till the time I get off that stage. I’ll probably be on the street corner with a Bible.”
GO-GO’S SINGER DOESN’T LOVE THIS ONE GO-GO’S HIT
Typically, musicians never bad-mouth signature songs, but Belinda Carlisle, Gen-X rebel, appears ready to break with tradition.
Carlisle is in Vegas this weekend, because her Go-Go’s will perform briefly during Sunday’s Billboard Music Awards in T-Mobile Arena.
Carlisle doesn’t have a problem with “Our Lips Are Sealed” or “We Got the Beat.” The culprit is “Turn to You,” a fan favorite and, coincidentally, the Go-Go’s song I most enjoyed dancing to in the prior century.
Carlisle suggested “Turn to You” isn’t in the natural or intuitive vocal range she prefers.
“I don’t think the song is bad,” Carlisle said. “It’s an awkward song to sing.”
Undaunted, I threw my love for this ’80s New Wave hit onto the mercy of Carlisle’s court. The melody is happy, I said, plus her dynamic vocals are endearingly growly — and I could swear the song speeds up and down like an inebriated punk.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it did speed up at one point on the recording,” Carlisle said, amused. “That’s one of the great things about the Go-Go’s: It’s a runaway train.”
Despite Carlisle’s option to skip the tune during the Go-Go’s farewell tour, which arrives at Mandalay Bay on Aug. 26, the song will be on the setlist.
“It never really worked for me, but fans love it,” she said in a Zen of surrender.
WHO’S NOT FOR SALE, AFTER ALL?
What’s the most amount of money you’ve made on the job in a 24-hour period?
Was it $14,000?
Because that’s what a local, legal prostitute earned in her biggest one-day haul ever, she told Brian Shapiro of KMZQ-AM 670/Yahoo Sports Radio. (Disclosure: I was an unpaid guest on his show Friday.)
The prostitute, who goes by “Summer Sebastian,” mentioned this tiddlywink in passing, while side-guesting on the show with main guest Dennis Hof, owner of Moonlite Bunny Ranch.
Hof exercised a promotional ploy, publicly offering one free night and two free hookers to basketball star Lamar Odom.
Odom, related by marriage to Khloe Kardashian, was rushed to the hospital in a coma in October after holing up in Hof’s Love Ranch South in Pahrump.
Says Hof: “When he was there, he said, ‘Look, I haven’t slept like this in six months. I’m eating good. Khloe is very vindictive. I just had to get away from her.’ He told my manager that in the car.”
SIGHTINGS
Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler took a tour of the firearms inventory of the Vegas Machine Gun Experience on Thursday, posing for a photo that garnered the gun business 26 likes on Facebook as of tea time Friday.
Johnny Manziel, released NFL quarterback and gossip magnet, partied with friends Thursday at Drai’s nightclub, after being spotted “shockingly thin” (the New York Daily News cracked) at MGM’s Wet Republic dayclub.
Former “Real Housewives of New York” costar Kristen Taekman took bartending lessons from mixologist Marcos Tello in Killer Shrimp restaurant in Town Square shopping complex, and then she bartended for a while.
And YouTube singer Troye Sivan chowed on steak and sea bass with friends and family Thursday at Lavo in the Palazzo.
Doug Elfman can be reached at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman. On Twitter: @VegasAnonymous
