Byline: Norm Clarke
The owner of a LoDo nightclub said Monday he had a man partying with the Colorado Avalanche bounced from the establishment after the customer threw a drink on a female bartender.
Drew Adelman of Polly Esther's, a popular new disco club near Coors Field, said the incident occurred Saturday night. Adelman said he was certain the ejected patron was a member of the Avalanche because he was with a large group of the players.
He said the man tossed the drink after complaining the service was too slow.
Avalanche veteran Claude Lemieux, reached in Boston with the team late Monday, said, ``Something did happen with someone that I know, but I'm not going to rat. I'm a peacemaker. I tried to settle the issue.''
Before throwing the drink on the bartender, Adelman said the reveler told her, ``I don't have to wait for service in my country.''
After the man was thrown out, he pulled out a $100 bill and ``tried to negotiate his way back in by offering it as a tip to the bartender.''
``That stuff won't be tolerated,'' said Adelman.
Uneasy rider - It was about 20 years ago when Peg Warren Reed, a semiprofessional actress, boarded a shuttle plane in Aspen for a trip back to Denver after doing a TV commercial.
Preoccupied with some paperwork, Reed didn't look up when a passenger sat in the aisle seat next to her. During a very bumpy flight, the passenger repeatedly reached across her to plug in an oxygen mask.
``The plug kept coming out, so I plugged it in the last two to three times,'' Reed said. ``But I was getting exasperated and I whirled around and looked at him.''
She found herself face-to-face with Jack Nicholson, who was more than a little under the weather from the flight - and who knows what else. Reed said she started complimenting him on his movies - Five Easy Pieces and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
But Nicholson was too green around the gills for chitchat.
``Well, honey, you want to know the toughest thing I've done in the last five years?
``Riding on this bleep-damn plane.''
The Scene and Heard - Mayor Wellington Webb was aboard a plane among the Air Force One fleet that made an emergency landing Wednesday in Accra, Ghana, because of a mechanical problem. Webb was a member of the U.S. delegation that was joining President Clinton for his South African leg of his six-country African tour. . . . The folks at 9th Avenue West are positively giddy over their April 17-18 booking of the New Morty Show, an acclaimed San Francisco swing band. How good is this act? In the words of the late Herb Caen, the San Francisco Chronicle's legendary man-about-town, Morty Okin and Connie Champagne ``do the best duets since Louis Prima and Keely Smith in the golden era of Las Vegas lounge acts. Not to be missed, lounge lizards.'' Reservations: 572-8006. . . . Impulse Theater, after 12 years of being known as Comedy Sports, launches its new name with an April Fool's Day romp through four downtown restaurants. You can catch the 15-member troupe doing gigs Wednesday at Wynkoop Brewing Co., Old Chicago, Rock Bottom and Paramount Cafe. . . . Get-well wishes to Denver jazz pianist and singing legend Ellyn Rucker, who is recovering from a heart attack. . . . Thank you, Donna Dewey, for putting some pizzazz in my resume. Not every ink-stained wretch can make the claim ``directed by an Oscar winner.'' Six years ago, Dewey directed a commercial for the Rocky Mountain News that included my slam-dunking ability (OK, so there was a ladder involved) and some other trickery showing a basketball spinning on my finger that put Dan Issel to shame.
The Punch Line - File this under Typos We Love Seeing Other People Make: ``An open house is scheduled for Dec. 12-13. . . . a live flamingo guitarist will play both days.''
CAPTION(S):
Photo (2)
Jack Nicholson.
CAPTION: Ellyn Rucker.
