Posted 5:17 PM by Robert

Why Wynn?

Steve Wynn carries on extensively about the recent tiger attack on Roy Horn in an interview with a CBS affiliate in Las Vegas:

Casino mogul Steve Wynn is one of the people who know Siegfried and Roy best. He is one of the duos closest of friends and hired the illusionists when he built The Mirage in 1990. He even built a special theater just for their show.

Wynn gave an exclusive interview to Eyewitness News Anchor, Gary Waddell on Wednesday. He says that, "What happened Friday night was a fluke, something that never should have occurred. And something that no one could have foreseen."

Except that Wynn was not even in Las Vegas when the incident occurred. And he is no longer involved with the management or operations or any other aspects of the Mirage Hotel and Casino - a property now entirely owned, controlled and managed by MGM Mirage, Inc., a public company controlled by Kirk Kerkorian.

So why is Steve Wynn blathering on about this incident? Why does the CBS affiliate listen to him about it at all? And why does its article not even mention that Mr. Wynn no longer has anything to do with the Mirage, a casino which - as the article does misleadingly point out - he had built, but which he lost in 2000 when he lost his entire company in a semi-hostile takeover.

There is not even a note as to whether MGM Mirage, Inc. agrees with - or is even aware of - a word of these second hand tales offered by Mr. Wynn - a known fabulist who lost the company that built the Mirage after he lost all credibility with Wall Street.

UPDATE: MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman cautioned that the full story probably won't be known until Horn can talk.