Perhaps in an attempt to help repair his tarnished image, Duane “Dog” Chapman, the bounty hunter, made an appearance Saturday at a holiday toy giveaway. It was sponsored by the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND), a conservative black advocacy group.
Dog showed up to give out toys and signed copies of his book “You Can Run But You Can’t Hide.” The founder of BOND, Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson said of Dog’s visit “We don’t condone racial slurs, but upon hearing Dog’s apology and after meeting with him and his family, we don’t believe he’s a racist. We also believe that Duane ‘Dog’ Chapman sincerely wants to make amends to the black community, and deserves a second chance.”
It is good that someone believes Dog is sincere after some of his odd statements in his apologies for using the N-word including “I now learned I’m not black at all.”
Back in Las Vegas, an era of sorts has come to an end. Celine Dion has performed her final show at Caesar’s Palace after a five-year engagement. She said that her engagement almost went down like the Titanic when she became pregnant while the show was in development and thought about not going through with it. Her husband, Rene Angelil convinced her too much money and too many people were already involved in the show and she decided to go on.
Deciding to “go on” paid off for both Celine and Caesar’s Palace. Caesar’s built an arena specifically for Celine (the Colosseum) and her initial three year contract was for $100 million dollars. Her show, “A New Day…,” filled the 4,100-seat arena and grossed more than $400 million. Sellers on eBay were listing tickets to her final show for as high as $1,899.
So what is Celine going to do now? She released her first English language album (Taking Chances) in four years last month. She plans to start touring on Valentine’s Day with the first show set in Johannesburg, South Africa. Oh yeah, and she’s said she would like to concentrate on having a little brother or sister for Rene-Charles, who is now 7 years old.
Bette Midler’s “The Showgirl Must Go On,” which will open on February 20th, will replace Celine’s act at Caesar’s Palace.