Icepack

Amorosi on the news, nightlife, gossip and bitchiness beats.

by A.D. Amorosi

When the results of a college study conducted between 1982 and 2006 — more than 16,000 students for the Narcissistic Personality Inventory — were recently unveiled, American kids were found to be self-loving, self-serving little pricks without a care for their fellow teens. I cried when I heard. Damn me with my no-kid-having policy. I'da loved to've sired one of those brats. Untie the tubes, mang — the ones around my cold, cold heart. 

► Maybe this'll thaw it: That Penthouse mag place whose opening we leaked in 2006? It'll hit Joe Dougherty's lost world, Emerald City on North Second off Callowhill, March 22, for the bare-babe monthly's prototype luxe lounge/restaubar: Penthouse Lounge & Grille. Why Philly? Major market? Sure. Location near a freeway and downtown? Right. An eager licensee in Joe Doc? Yup. So why no naked women? "Legally we can't," says Jeffrey M. Stoller, Penthouse Media Group's director of global club licensing. "Our licensee has to convey what a Penthouse club is and isn't." What they can get away with, along with a "sensual" NoLa-based menu from Chef Michael Cheek, is an intimacy in the floor plan that allows for privacy ("we want it to feel like a great place for couples' dining"). "We can do shadow dancing and sexy fashion shows," says Stoller. "Edgy stuff." 

► Sure, we heard local mogul Sidney Kimmel — producer of Breach and due-flicks like Robert Downey Jr. 's Charlie Bartlett and Don Cheadle's Talk to Me — bought Johnny Carson's Malibu estate for $40 mil. But our bud, local expat Ken P. Fox, has lived in the 'Bu for years. And after producing the Tyra Banks talk show for a year (that's 362 days too long!) he's ceased making sure she's not fat or crazy to ready his first book, Just Call It "Famous."

► Know that Johnny Cash song "I've Been Everywhere"? Dave Stone's Man in Black Revue tribute has been alloverrr; but dignified-like as they (Mia Johnson, Ben Edwards, etc.) offer an "accurate, note-for-note representation of Cash's show sans cheap impersonation," says Stone. Know where Stone's show ain't been since its February 2004 start? The Troc. So, after 98 shows in 2006 and raising over $100,000 to help find missing Alabama teen Natalee Holloway, Stone brings the Man in Black to its biggest stage March 15. "I just turned 45, and headlining the Troc represents an open arms to local boys who done good," says Stone. "And give my best to Needles," says Stone, who precedes the drag-doyenne onto the mainstage as Jones, on March 17, acts as part of Earl Dax's Justin Bond/Penny Arcade Beyond Beyond! "I love those crazy tranny bitches from Philly," says Bond, not necessarily about Needles. "They make us Maryland girls look classy, hon." Jones'll also host the Balcony's Monday show with Radio Eris March 19. The multidiscipline musical improv troupe drops its new CD, Monkey Island, that night. "The title refers to Robert Anton Wilson's observation that it's a mistake to expect rational behavior when trapped on the Planet of the Apes, and that Island represents our experiences with the Million Monkey Method of creation," says Lora Eris. Hmm.

► Not only do I hear the Silver Cloud dancehall on Sansom and 20th is getting ready to rock club-a-dub style, we hear they're hunting to do a big gay Sunday as well as (maybe) stealing Tronco and Reno and Deadboy's Luxx party from Le Mansion for its Thursdays.

► WHOWHATWHERE: Reichen Lehmkuhl may've hosted. And Travel Matters' Andy Petruzelli may've won the title. But when Mr. Gay Philadelphia hit Mask & Wig, it was all Michael Musto and Frank DeCaro's show with questions like "Do you think Anna Nicole was more like Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana or Suzanne Somers and why?" While DeCaro, his partner, Jim Colucci, and GPTMC's Jeff Guaracino hung at Pat's for an after-award cheesesteak, we hear Reichen (who made the gay-bar rounds on Friday) had no interaction with anyone backstage, "texting all night" while offstage. Oy. Spies also saw Extreme Makeover's Ty Pennington at McGillin's. Weird he didn't try to fix that dump. The biz peeps behind Courvoisier and their guests, Musiq Soulchild and Biz Markee, kept World Café Live up pretty late on Monday: 4 a.m. And Paul Wall had his grillz up in there at Goodlife/Urban Socialite's pit stop at Tragos Thursday Experience. "You know how people get when drinks are free and flowing," said one Wall witness. And loogout: Before Sal Mazzotta and Angie Everhart hit Prince Theater March 22 for The Unknown Trilogy's unspooling (and yeah, we hear Abe Vigoda'll be there!), the duo will stop by Howard Stern's Sirius radio jawn March 21 and WIP 610 AM's studios with Angelo Cataldi March 22. We hear Ange is a huge fan of Angie. Know who else other than Van Halen wasn't where they were supposed to be during Monday's Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame ceremony? Jerry Blavat. After having written the 2007 program bit on The Ronnettes under the aegis of Vanity Fair's Holly George Warren, says the Geator: "I forgot that I had a commitment to the Channel 12 fundraising drive. I had a seat at Seymour Stein's table waiting." That said.

► This weekend, it's all about Frank Sherlock — Philly poet struck by meningitis and kidney failure. On March 17, Falling Cow Gallery hosts its first poetry reading in connection with Tim Bowen's "PeopleTIME 2005" series with poets Laura Solomon, Paul Killebrew and Dorothea Lasky. And on March 18, Fergie's Pub hosts a benefit with I Feel Tractor, CAConrad, Ish Klein and Black Landlord. Give it up.

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)