Famed Las Vegas Celebrity Reporter Norm Clarke Dies

Posted on: March 20, 2025, 01:34h. 

Last updated on: March 20, 2025, 04:58h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

Las Vegas entertainment reporter Norm Clarke died on Thursday morning in the town he loved. Clarke authored the “Vegas Confidential” column, which ran in the Las Vegas Review-Journal from 1999 through 2016. He succumbed to cancer at age 82.

Norm Clarke was the man about town for the Las Vegas Review-Journal from 1999 through 2016. (Image: The Smith Center)

Like a lot of entertainment reporters, Clarke delivered concise, no-fluff paragraphs about the most outrageous celebrity sightings, all-night benders, and embarrassing restaurant tips in his hometown.

Remarkably, though, he proved it was possible to succeed as a gossip columnist while being the opposite of a gossip columnist.

He was a kind, humble, fun person everyone wanted to grab a drink with. And everyone invited him to. Beelines made their way for Norm, who was easily recognizable from across every room he entered by his trademark eyepatch and cotton-ball hair. (Losing his right eye in a childhood accident, he learned to embrace his distinctive black patch as a calling card after years of struggling with prosthetics.)

Clarke’s likeability enabled him to wire all of Vegas. Blackjack dealers, cab drivers, and casino managers all fed him dirt — sometimes risking their livelihoods to do so — because they admired and trusted him.

Humble Roots

Clarke began his career as a sports reporter in his home state of Montana, where he grew up in the tiny town of Terry. He joined the Associated Press in 1973, covering Cincinnati, San Diego, and LA. In 1984, he moved to the Rocky Mountain News, where he debuted his first “man about town” column 12 years later.

“Being remembered as a reporter was always my hope,” he told the R-J  a week before his death. “With all the time I put in with the Associated Press, wearing the mantle of AP reporter meant everything to me.”

Norm Clarke, left, lunches with friends including David Brenner, George Wallace, Anthony Cools, Gilbert Gottfried, and Carrot Top at Mon Ami Gabi in 2011. (Image: Jonathan Scott)

When Norm arrived in Las Vegas from Denver in 1999, the R-J took out a prominent billboard reading “NORM!” with an eye patch drawn over the O.

His arrival coincided with that of the internet as a major force, and at the same time Hollywood began emptying out onto the Las Vegas Strip every weekend.

By the time the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) introduced the ad slogan, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” in 2003, it was already a lie thanks to Norm.

National Prominence

All of the major gossip columnists in the US — including Richard Johnson at the New York Post, for whom this reporter worked at the time — read Norm every day to get a handle on anything percolating in Las Vegas. (The Post ran this tribute to Norm this morning.)

Norm was the one who broke Ben Affleck’s 2004 blackjack binge, during which he played $20K hands – sometimes three at a time — at the Hard Rock, the hotel that, years later, banned him from its tables for card counting.

Britney Spears’ infamous 55-hour marriage in Las Vegas to a dancer in 2004 also first appeared in Norm’s column, as did Michael Jackson’s secret move to town in 2006.

A visit by Norm to the R-J newsroom, where this reporter worked from 2005 to 2011, was always a treat. Norm would make the rounds, saying hi to every reporter, copy editor, and photographer, complimenting each of us on our recent stories and asking about our families.

Clarke and this reporter’s daughter in 2015. (Image: Corey Levitan)

He did the same at parties and restaurant openings. Norm would circle the entire joint, shaking every hand and remembering every name. By the time his circle was completed, he was gone — onto the next dinner, party, or premiere. In Vegas in the aughts, there were usually several a night.

As a result of all that about-towning — and a tireless need to verify every fact before publishing — if you read something in Norm’s column, you knew it was true.

Becoming the Story

Clarke buries the hatchet with Pete Rose. (Image: Norm Clarke)

Norm was such a celebrity in Las Vegas that he occasionally became the story — which he never seemed too comfortable with.

He famously feuded with magician Criss Angel and, in 2005, while dining at the N9NE Steakhouse at the Palms with reporter Matt Drudge, got slapped in the face by baseball legend Pete Rose.

The two had their run-ins when Norm covered the Reds for AP in Cincinnati, but this was about Norm ranking Rose No. 5 on his list of “10 Worst Celebrity Tippers” in a 2005 book about Las Vegas. (The two patched things up years later, shaking hands for a photograph.)

And today, Norm becomes the story again. Though he made a living spilling secrets, his health battle was known only to a tight-knit group of close friends. For nearly the last 20 years of his long and storied life, he struggled with Stage 4 prostate cancer. He entered Nathan Adelson Hospice on March 12.

The Smith Center announced it is establishing the Norm Clarke Entertainment Journalism Fund for student reporters at the Nevada High School Musical Theater Awards. The program is part of its education fund.