Her show does not need a name. Unlike Celine Dion ("A New Day"), Bette Midler ("The Showgirl Must Go On") and even Elton John (The Red Piano"), this experience needs only her moniker: Cher. I admit to my irrelevance at the outset. Cher's show at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace is critic proof. This is the must-see show in Vegas right now and will probably be so until it closes. Get a running start if you want tickets, and don't expect any discounts.

I will tell you there are a lot of bad things to be said about the show called Cher. The reliance on footage you can see on YouTube during costume changes makes for significant drops in energy. Few have mishandled a Bob Dylan cover as inanely as Cher's halfhearted "All I Really Want to Do." A lot of the choreography is hopelessly stuck in the '80s, with flinch-worthy results. And, of course, there was the predictable duet with a video image of Sonny. At close to two hours, the show runs longer than the energy and ideas deserve.

But none of this matters. Cher has created a monstrously entertaining experience that (even more than "A New Day," which actually relied on a Cirque alumnae) captures a sort of ultimate state-of-the-art Vegas production show and places that in the midst of a Cher concert of resplendent diva glory. There are aerialists and contortionists clearly inspired from Cirque, eye-catching set changes of the sort passed off for illusions in magic shows on the Strip, a better use of the Colosseum's massive stage than any previous tenant. The sets head up to the lip of the audience, and the band glides on and off stage to make room for the props and dancers, and Cher comes to the stage via floating in a cage over the audience.

Unlike most divas, Cher is not possessed with a stellar voice capable of the big notes. But time has lowered her singing to a darker-hued sound that within her range is as powerful as a punch. And, her power is a large part of what makes the show so intense at its best points. She certainly does not hide behind her background singers and is game for mixing live vocals with hard choreography in ways that the Britney Spears generation abandoned long ago. Then there is Cher's insanely perfect appearance in an ever-changing array of Bob Mackie outfits that only Cher could get away with wearing. Perhaps, like Mick Jagger or Frank Sinatra does for men, Cher, 62, represents to her audience an ideal fantasy of aging.

I also tried to explore the Cher store but was turned back by so many clashing odors of overdone perfume worn by the adoring fans who filled the store that the place should have an air-quality warning from the health department.

Cher Convention: August 11-12, 2008 at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas

Robbie’s Mom shares her impressions of the Cher Convention and reveals the Chicago Connection!

The first convention was held in Chicago and at the time we lived in the Milwaukee area so it would have been easy to get down there to attend. Well, it was during our birthday weekend that year (Robbie’s birthday is July 14th, mine is the 15th) and I begged off, not wanting to “work” during my birthday. That first event was a smashing success and the CCA kids in attendance with their parents couldn’t sing praises enough and we regretted not attending. So, when 2002 rolled around, Robbie and I did indeed attend. It was in Vegas and it was everything we were told it would be. What an incredible group of people coming together to enjoy their shared “fan”aticism for Cher while helping this cause.

Robbie was one of Cher’s first “CCA kids.” She met him when he was very little, just 2 almost 3, backstage at her concert in Milwaukee. Later that fall at 3 years, he traveled to Washington DC with me to join Cher and a contingent of families from across the nation for a congressional hearing about the problems families face with insurance coverage for corrective surgeries of craniofacial conditions. (Obviously not cosmetic operations but necessary reconstructive procedures and I’m afraid that battle continues still.) Cher really got to know these kids and she has followed Rob’s progress all his life.

When we saw Cher again after the Cher Convention we told her all about it... how it was like a Star Trek convention, except with all things “Cher.” She was intrigued.

Each year when the convention is held, we share tidbits of Rob’s ‘Cher experiences’ and the attendees seem to enjoy hearing about how she really lives up to the awe she inspires. One Christmas Eve, Cher called Robbie out of the blue. Word had gotten back to her about how he was being picked on at school and how one of the mean kids had broken his glasses. Her loving support has bolstered these kids through the years and they really feel her caring friendship. How nice when a celebrity really is “all that” and more!

Rob feels the same way about the Cher Convention people. He has grown up with them. He sees these people more than some relatives and he feels their support and love just as if. Rob counts the organizers and impersonators among his good friends and he has met many wonderful people who’ve joined the convention events. This means the world to these kids who are pretty sharp and who definitely know insincerity. But, these are folks who like the kids unconditionally. Yes, they treat them as “special” but CCA kids don’t have to worry about the true nature of this befriending. It is pure acceptance that comes from belonging to this group; a group with huge hearts who raise funds to help CCA.

I guess any of us who have been left out of anything we’ve wanted to be a part of or who have been laughed at or ridiculed, would understand this important acceptance. We can’t wait to see everyone again and to meet all the new folks! The feeling of belonging to this group is overwhelming.

All proceeds from the Cher Convention go to the Children's Craniofacial Association.

Donations can be made to the Children's Craniofacial Association through the CCA website at ccakids.org

By Ann Powers

LAS VEGAS—Like the temples of the ancient Roman world that it simulates, the Colosseum at Caesars Palace is an environment suited to extravagant immortals. The artists who've graced its huge stage have all achieved that status in which one name not only serves but also explains and expands upon whatever the star projects.

Cher's occupation of the Colosseum, where she will play 200 shows over the next three years (rotating with Bette Midler and Elton John), is the most appropriate thing to happen to Las Vegas since rumors started flying that rock 'n' roll magician Criss Angel was dating former Playboy Playmate Pamela Anderson.

Like Vegas itself, the 62-year-old queen of over-the-top pizazz bridges several eras of entertainment. Since the 1960s, when she and her former husband, the late Sonny Bono, transformed from would-be folkies into mainstream translators of the counterculture, this singer-actress-fashion extremist has crossed a surprising number of musical boundaries.

She found new commercial appeal in classic pop forms, such as women's blues and burlesque, by linking them to hippie rock, pop rock and disco; though her mega-hits aren't that numerous, she's managed to make a commercial mark in every decade. What grounds her many incarnations is a sexy unpretentiousness that's straight out of the Mae West handbook.

"I'm old, but I'm tough," she said after floating from the rafters to the stage Tuesday night on a sparkling contraption she called "the Flying Wallenda Evel Knievel Deathmobile," wearing a huge feathered headdress and singing U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." The elaborate entrance established that this Cher show would be bigger and better than the others; the endearingly rambling monologue that followed assured fans that this was still the same old Cher.

The show was lavish, non-stop fun, with the usual array of outlandish Bob Mackie costumes and stage sets that reworked Cher's story as a spangled fantasy. The content will be familiar to anyone who has seen her last few tours.

There was a medley of the Sonny Bono-era hits, with appropriate costume changes—a Gypsy outfit for "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" and a floor-length feather headdress and a loincloth for "Half Breed." More recent songs, such as "If I Could Turn Back Time" and the must-have closer "Believe" (perhaps the greatest disco song written after the alleged death of disco), filled out the set list, along with covers she's long favored, such as "Love Hurts." Screen montages paid tribute to Cher's television and film career, with special, sentimental emphasis on Sonny. Her live band behaved like rockers, with flashy guitar solos and hot moves, even when the music was dominated by dance beats. Eighteen dancers raced about in in varied costumes: leatherette, pompom wigs, sequins, of course. Aerial acrobatics found a special niche now that she's down the block from several Cirque du Soleil shows.

Highlights included a lovely aerial pas de deux and another routine that can only be described as goth mountain climbing. This business was entertaining, though some of it clearly existed to allow Cher time to climb into another one of those Mackie get-ups.

Though she remains in decent voice, Cher didn't place that much focus on her singing, going big and torchy on only a couple of ballads delivered fairly late in the show from inside a giant, glittery pearl. She seemed more eager to integrate herself into dance routines or to display her costumes in old-fashioned tableaux vivants than to take any diva spins as a singer.

One last tribute must be paid to the Colosseum's new goddess. Any sixtysomething who can wear flesh-colored body stockings, even with the hint of a corset beneath, is truly supernatural.

By Steve Friess

LAS VEGAS — She floated down on a small, neon-lit platform that descends from the upper reaches of the Caesars Palace Colosseum to reveal her crooning I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For in a shimmering silver and gold gown coated by hundreds of feathers that also crowned her head.

About two hours later, she departed with a rousing, 30-chorus rendition of her over-you anthem Believe in a shredded white rhinestone-encrusted get-up with a headpiece of strings that fall to the small of her back.

And in between, Cher opened her 200-show, three-year run in the Strip's most prestigious theater by serving generous helpings of her multi-era hits in that distinctly nasally, low rumble of a belting voice punctuated by large doses of the ultimate chameleon's nostalgia. The show is already in such high demand that her first four-week run is sold out and additional dates have been added to her next round in August.

Premiere night was a low-wattage event, with a more formal, star-studded official opening to come later this month. Cher's children, Chastity Bono and Elijah Blue Allman, attended, as did Las Vegas Hilton headliner Barry Manilow and retired Vegas illusionists Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn.

Instead, the Colosseum was filled with folks like Roni Heinze, 60, and her niece, Kim Alexander, 50, of Seattle, who wore black T-shirts decorated with scanned images of Cher in various looks as well as their ticket stubs from the more than 15 Cher concerts they'd seen. The duo already have tickets to see Cher six times at Caesars, including Wednesday's second-night show, two shows later this month around Cher's 62nd birthday on May 20 and two more in Augustwhen she's back.

"She's just the greatest," said Heinze, who with Alexander had spent $1,500 on this two-night trip. "It's a small price to pay."

On stage, Cher greeted her audience warmly if nervously.

"You guys are first-nighters, so you'll be the first kids on your block to see this," she confided to the sold-out crowd of 4,000 in the theater made famous by Celine Dion and co-occupied these days by Bette Midler and Elton John. "We have things that are so unbelievable — if they work!"

By and large, everything did, although the show ran nearly two hours and is expected to be shorn to a Vegas-standard 90 minutes. Cher barreled with great energy through I Found Someone, All Or Nothing and Love Is A Battlefield, and slowed down appropriately for ballads Love Hurts and Walking in Memphis. A highlight came with the love song After All, for which she arrived on stage standing in a boat wearing a gray, body-length, fur-collared robe and a pointy silver cap standing in a boat. In all, she sang about 17 songs live; at least three were presented entirely in videos during costume changes.

That said, though, Cher's show is far more a straight-up concert than what her counterparts have done with the vast room.

Her band is prominently stationed on the stage throughout, the performer herself leaned over to high-five audience members as she rocked through Song For The Lonely and the show does not build theatrical stories around the songs. At the end, after she sauntered around the stage in the skin-baring black outfit and big black wig associated with her hit If I Could Turn Back Time, the audience is forced to applaud for almost five minutes before she does the predictable encore of Believe. Dion, Midler and John don't do encores.

Indeed, the concert-like sensibility led to some confused expectations. Groups of fans, upon hearing the first strains of If I Could Turn Back Time, raced to the front and into the aisles to dance, only to be directed back to their seats. And, while fan-pleasing, this production borrowed heavily from features from a variety of tours while throwing in such dashes of Vegas elements as aerialists and acrobats doing some sequences also seen in specific Cirque du Soleil shows at neighboring hotels.

Ultimately, the factor driving the ebb and flow here was not the music or Cher's personality but her 15 or so costume changes, usually occurring after just one or two songs at a time. The production felt like a Cher-scored Bob Mackie fashion show, with Cher disappearing repeatedly for minutes at a time to change into yet another outlandish get-up of sequins, rhinestones and bizarre headpieces that also showed plenty of skin. The repeated use of video montages, mostly from her Sonny and Cher days, and lengthy Cher-less dance routines that included a rendition of YMCA complete with Village People impersonators to encouraging the audience to play along, prompted grumbles from audience members who had paid in many cases more than $300 a seat. (An obvious vertical tear in one of the gigantic screens was also distracting.)

But the emphasis on Cher's trademark fashion sense didn't bother Naomi Ryan, 33, of Chicago, who toted with her a decorated sailor's cap to toss on stage during If I Could Turn Back Time, a Cher concert tradition ever since her 1989 video in which the singer dons one on the deck of the USS Missouri.

Cher promises 'the most special show we've ever done'

By MIKE WEATHERFORD

She had the loudest show on the Strip in 1980.

The most expensive ticket in town in 1990.

Now, Cher is the most anticipated Las Vegas arrival of 2008, and she's promising "the most special show we've ever done" in 200 dates during the next three years, starting today in the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

Cher and Las Vegas are much alike, reinventing themselves over the years without abandoning their mutual zeal for going over the top.

Some fans plunking down as much as $250 for a ticket may not pause to realize Cher has been working the Strip for 39 years.

The diva who turns 62 on May 20 never comes off as retro or nostalgia, perhaps because she has never left the public eye long enough to be missed. "Cher, she's her own thing. She's got one name, she's been around 45 years doing this," said Doriana Sanchez, the singer's longtime director and choreographer.

"There's so much to draw from in every era. In every era she's had a hit, in every era she's won an award," Sanchez said. "She continues to create, and that's exciting for me."

"Las Vegas and I are a very good fit," Cher noted in February during an interview to launch ticket sales for the first engagement, which continues through June 1 (publicists said she is too busy for an update).

Las Vegas never knew Sonny and Cher as the fur-vest and dingo-booted hippies who charted with "I Got You Babe" in 1965 and "The Beat Goes On" in 1967. But after that initial wave, Sonny Bono abandoned, as he once described it, "that fruitless pursuit of the young crowd."

The two charted a new course, trading the jeans for dresses and tuxes. By the time they reached the Flamingo, as Pat Boone's opening act on July 3, 1969, "we were so thrilled to do it," Cher recalled.

"We started out in these really dicey places and we were working ourselves up through the Fairmont chain. ... For us, this was the big time."

The experience on the nightclub circuit paved the duo's way to "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" in 1971 and honed their trademark banter.

"People really hated us when we started; they just didn't get it," she said. "We were trying to do our best. Sonny was in a tuxedo, I was in a long dress." Still, "we were just dying on the road. Nobody would show up. We started doing jokes for the band because there was nobody in the audience. That's how we got our talking to each other.

"If something was funny we'd leave it in."

TV success promoted the duo to Las Vegas headliners. But their personal breakup also went conspicuously public in late 1972 with canceled shows at the Sahara and reports of Bono hitting his spouse. Even before the meltdown, Las Vegas Sun columnist Joe Delaney noted "customer complaints stating, 'Why doesn't he talk less and let Cher sing more?' "

Sing more she did, on her own at Caesars Palace. Cher was in the showroom rotation from 1979 through 1982, with one 1980 midnight show making news when state officials leveled a $180 fine for sound levels exceeding 115 decibels.

"It was nice except it was so hard, two shows a night every night," Cher remembered of the Caesars era. "That is something I don't miss at all. There was such a long lag between the first show and the second show, it just killed me."

Those were lackluster years for the Strip as well, and the singer yearned for more. "The truth is, I wanted to do movies and I wanted to do something else. I didn't hate going there, I just hated that it was the only place I could go. I remember Mike Nichols coming in one night (saying), 'You're so great, why aren't you making movies?' I just started sobbing hysterically."

Nichols cast her in "Silkwood," launching a film career that kept Cher away from the Strip until 1990, when casino operator Steve Wynn routed her rock arena tour to the new stage at The Mirage. "This is going to be a very strange show for a lot of you," she told those who paid a then-record $82.70 to hear "I Found Someone" and other hits reinventing the star for the MTV era.

By the time HBO cameras captured a 1999 special at the MGM Grand Garden, Cher was an arena regular. After the "Living Proof" tour made its fourth pass through Las Vegas in 2005, the Celine Dion way of staying put was looking better and better. "We were exhausted," Cher said of those Vegas stops, adding, that nonetheless, "it was just a little bit more exciting than the other places. Not Madison Square Garden though, because that's the most exciting place you play."

"Living Proof" was billed as a farewell tour, and the future will tell how true that turns out to be. For now, it's the fans who will be doing the traveling. The star plans to make it worth their while.

"Cher loves her fans, and she really wants to surprise and make her fans happy," said longtime collaborator Sanchez. "I know most artists do, but she wants them to be really surprised about what she wears and what we do."

Last week ET's MARK STEINES went exclusively backstage with CHER to talk about her all-new show at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

Now, Cher is being joined by none other than TINA TURNER and OPRAH in Las Vegas -- and Mark's got 'em in another ET exclusive!

"This is trouble right here; this is trouble waiting to happen," jokes Oprah.

Lady O and her crew traveled to Sin City for a once in a lifetime opportunity to see these two legendary superstars in action, and now "The Oprah Winfrey Show: Oprah, Cher and Tina in Vegas" is scheduled to premiere this Thursday!

Catch ET tonight for Mark's one-on-three interview with Oprah, Cher and Tina!

CHER has an all-new show at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, debuting Tuesday, May 6, and only ET's MARK STEINES is inside her dressing room for a sneak peek at the BOB MACKIE-designed looks she'll be wearing for her big show!

Cher's show at The Colosseum is full of chart-topping hits spanning from the '60s to today, from "Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves" to "If I Could Turn Back Time." The spectacle features extraordinary choreography, state-of-the-art lighting and special effects and, of course, those signature, breathtaking costumes.

Cher says she wears 17 costumes throughout the show, and, "My fastest change is a minute-forty five, from head to toe."

Now that the ageless legend is in fighting shape for her performances, would she ever consider competing on "Dancing with the Stars"?

"I don't want to do that kind of stuff," she says honestly. "I've worked myself too hard and too long and tried to achieve -- I have a [expletive] Oscar, okay? I have to do 'Dancing with the Stars'?"

It's not as if she has any time for the hit ABC show anyway, since her Vegas show opens Tuesday and runs four nights a week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

CHER is back with an all-new show at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, debuting Tuesday, May 6, and the ageless diva pulls no punches with ET's own MARK STEINES in an exclusive interview!

"Everybody thought I was such a ho ... because of the way I dressed," the Grammy winner says about her early days in show biz. "People would make fun of [SONNY BONO] and I. Actually, they used to punch him in the nose because we looked so weird and they were so frightened of it. People don't look beneath anything."

Cher says her new show at The Colosseum is full of chart-topping hits spanning from the '60s to today, featuring extraordinary choreography, state-of-the-art lighting and special effects and, of course, her signature, breathtaking costumes. But will this be her last hurrah onstage?

"Who knows," she muses. "Every year critics say, 'She's on her way out,' but I'm still here and who knows why? I have no reason why!"

Plus, she's already contemplating what she'll do for an encore: "I'd do acting again because I love it," she says. "I'm not really a singer; I'm a better actress."

Cher's 90-minute show will be presented four nights a week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

By Steve Friess

LAS VEGAS — Tina Turner will be strutting her stuff on tour again this fall.

During a taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show here on Saturday, the 68-year-old singer said she was egged on by actress Sophia Loren, who asked when she was "going back to work." Turner's first concert tour in eight years kicks off Oct. 1 in Kansas City; she didn't say how many shows she'll do or where else they'll be. Tickets go on sale May 12.

Turner appeared with Cher for a joint interview with Winfrey on stage at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The show is scheduled to air May 8, two days after Cher's Las Vegas production premieres. The two singers performed Turner's signature Proud Mary together and chatted about the debts left them upon their divorces from Sonny Bono and Ike Turner, both of whom are now deceased.

In addition, Cher previewed a number from her new Vegas show, Take Me Home, wearing a shredded blue Bob Mackie dress with a matching blue headpiece flanked by a dozen dancers in 1970s outfits. Winfrey showed video of Cher and Mackie in Mackie's studio looking over some of the 17 costumes Cher will wear.

Perhaps the oddest moments of the taping, though, came off-camera. During a break, Winfrey offered a long aside to the audience about the high-tech toilet in her Caesars Palace suite. The john, she said, lifts its lid automatically and cleans and blow-dries the user's nether regions.

"I swear, I gotta get one of these on the show and show everybody," Winfrey said. "I'm coming back here!"

Winfrey also spoke of having just come from the home of Tom Cruise in Telluride, Colo., for his first Oprah appearance since his infamous couch-jumping moment in 2005. Winfrey quipped that she did not jump on Cruise's couch, and she spoke of holding on to him during a snowmobile ride.

"There's something about being scooched up to his butt that makes you want to sing Take Me Home, Tom," Winfrey said. "Now I know what (his wife) Katie (Holmes) sees!"

Winfrey said the Cruise episode airs Friday

Set your TiVo!

OPRAH WINFREY is going "all in" for the hottest acts in Vegas – CHER and TINA TURNER!

Lady O and her crew will travel to Sin City next weekend for a once in a lifetime opportunity to see these two divas in action. She'll tape the special at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, which will feature exclusive performances as these legends unite for a Vegas spectacular!

"The Oprah Winfrey Show: Oprah, Cher and Tina in Vegas" is scheduled to premiere Thursday, May 8.

In response to overwhelming ticket demand, Cher at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace is releasing 18 additional shows scheduled for September and October for public sale on April 13, 2008.

Cher at The Colosseum, an extraordinary production designed exclusively for the 4,300-seat venue, will feature countless chart-topping hits from the artist's unparalleled career. The show will be complemented by extraordinary choreography from Doriana Sanchez, state-of-the-art lighting and special effects and breathtaking costumes designed by the world-renowned fashion icon, Bob Mackie.

The 90-minute show will be presented at 7:30 p.m. four nights a week on Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday (dark Monday, Thursday and Friday). Tickets from Sept. 2 through Oct. 5 can be purchased by calling 1-866-510-CHER (2437) or online at www.ticketmaster.com, keyword "Cher". Tickets may also be purchased in person at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace Box Office open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. For groups of 20 or more, call 702-731-7208.

Ticket prices are $95, $140, $175 and $250. Visit www.cher.aeglive.com for more information on Cher at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

CHER, WHOOPI GOLDBERG, JOAN RIVERS, BETTE MIDLER and Naomi Campbell are backing a campaign to help the homeless in New York.

The stars have autographed brooms which will be auctioned for homeless charities at June's (08) annual SoHo Stroll.

The event, founded by Manhattan philanthropist Henry Buhl, will include a walk through downtown New York, as well as a sale of brooms signed by more than 30 celebrities.

By MICHAEL CIDONI
Cher said farewell, but not goodbye.Two-and-a-half years after the final show of her three-year "Farewell" concert tour, the Oscar-, Emmy- and Grammy-award winner announced last week that she'd signed on for a three-year, 200-show engagement at Caesars Palace.

Cher told AP Television the move was no mere change of heart.

"Well, first of all, there was going to be a big time between ending the show, ending the tour, and going to Vegas," she said. "I wouldn't have to move. I wouldn't have to travel. I could just stay there. Because that's what I really can't do anymore, is I can't go on the road. It's just too much. It's just too impossibly hard. And I started there, and I thought that it might be fun."

"Cher at the Colosseum," set to debut May 6, will include 18 dancers, aerialists, and new costumes designed by Cher's longtime designer Bob Mackie. Choreography will be directed by Doriana Sanchez, a veteran of the "Believe" and "Farewell" tours. But don't expect the same old Cher show.

"They have technology that we've never seen before," she said. "It's like when you went to see 'The Phantom of the Opera' for the first time, and you saw the boat and the candelabra and all that. We can do that stuff. I'm fascinated with being able to do that."

When it was suggested she'd done little between the end of "Farewell" and now — no concerts, movies or albums — Cher laughed: "Little? How about nothing?"

But now along with the Vegas gigs, the 61-year-old is putting out an all-new studio album, her first since 2001's "Living Proof." And she said she's still considering a longtime offer to do a TV musical of "Mame."

"You don't want to stop if you can keep going," Cher said. "I never expected to be going this long. I have no idea how that happened, but it did. It's like an artist, it's like, when was it time for Picasso to stop painting? He had enough paintings, I'm sure, at a certain age. Why didn't he just stop? I guess because he really liked it, and it was some part of his life. You don't want to give up some part of your life that's that important."

Since the inception of the Grammys, the award show has been a staple for the music industry and to the rest of the world by recognizing excellence in music performance, composition and the adjoining faculties that surround this global event. It goes without saying how important it is for the nominees to look their best. For the 50th annual Grammy Awards, Cher set a new standard for fashion Sunday evening by wearing Julia Gerard.

With multiple designers to choose her wardrobe from, Cher chose to wear a fitted piece from high-end designer Julia Gerard to accompany the rest of her evening collection. The match-up from top to bottom was flawless and Gerard's fitted skirt added an edgy rock n roll look to the overall classy and distinguishable pieces Cher had put together for the entire outfit.

Julia Gerard specializes in couture fashion centered on the peace movement. Gerard has managed to carve a niche in the Los Angeles fashion scene and has also captured the attention of the rest of the fashion world from Cher's appearance on the 50th annual Grammy Awards. The J Gerard Design Studio & Peace Gallery is located on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood, CA.

A toned and gorgeous Cher is heading back to the performing arena this May at the age of 61. Toned and beautiful, Cher shared her secrets to staying youthful with Access Hollywood's Billy Bush.

"What are the secrets Cher? Everyone wants to know, because you are flawless at 61?" Billy asked.

"I don't smoke, I don't drink, I eat really good food," she admitted. "I have great genes from my mom and my grandmother. My mom is 80 and looks great, my grandmother is 96!"

Healthy living keeps Cher looking youthful. She says no to Botox, but, is there anything she would do?

"I do what I want to do. If I want to do something I will do it," she said.

Cher is in phenomenal shape as she sets out to perform 200 shows in three years at The Colosseum at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

"If I am good enough, the show is going to be unbelievable," she said.

And the concert will feature a special tribute to the Sonny and Cher era.

"Ten years since he passed away — do you still think about him a lot?" Billy asked.

"Yeah, he turns on the lights in my bedroom. I am sure it is him," she said.

The "Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour," was a hit on CBS in the 1970s and a very young Michael Jackson even guest starred.

"What is your memory of having Michael on the 'Sonny and Cher Show?'" Billy asked.

"He was just this little sweet boy, very timid," she said.

"Did you think when looking at him, 'This guy could have the biggest selling album of all time?'" Billy asked.

"I didn't think about it but he's so talented I mean it didn't surprise me," she said.

By MIKE WEATHERFORD

Vegas has nothing on Cher, and Cher likes it that way.

"Las Vegas and I are a very good fit," says the perennial pop star, who finally can come clean on a long-rumored three-year commitment to play the Colosseum at Caesars Palace starting May 6.

"Las Vegas is way over the top, and the show that I do is way over the top. I feel that it just has to be," Cher, 61, said in a telephone interview. "I guess you could go on in a black dress (and sing), but oh, I would just want to slit my wrist."

Instead, Cher will star in another effects-laden showcase that producers hope to sell out 200 times in the next three years, performed in two long stretches each year. The first stint, which runs through May 31, offers four shows per week, leaving room for the singer to add more if she chooses.
Tickets are on sale, with prices before taxes and fees ranging from $95 to $250.

The 4,200-seat theater built for Celine Dion can accommodate elaborate productions for every song and stage effects that weren't possible even on Cher's lavish tours, which brought acrobats and an elephant puppet to sports arenas.

Cher calls her new venture "the most different show that has ever been put on there," with "things I don't think anyone's ever done."

"You can't give away your surprises," she said of her cryptic promises. But she did offer a clue: "We're going to try this thing that I know no one's ever done before. If we pull it off we'll be great, and if we don't we'll look real stupid."

Costumes will be designed by Bob Mackie, who has come up with outrageous outfits for the star since her variety-TV days of the 1970s.

"She's in the timeless category of Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra. She's like a great wine that only gets better with time," said John Meglen, co-CEO and president of AEG Live/Concerts West, which will produce the show.

For more than two years, Cher was rumored as the most probable star to succeed Dion and share the Colosseum with Bette Midler, who opens "The Showgirl Must Go On" on Feb. 20.

"We were done with the deal a very long time ago," Meglen said. "We've kind of laughed at the different gossip items that have come up (about the deal collapsing) because nothing has changed at all with us."

Meglen said part of the delay came from not wanting to announce the deal before Christmas.

"We figured there was too much clutter there. We decided to let everybody get back from the holidays and pick the right time to do it then," he said, adding that the week of the Grammy Awards seemed "an appropriate time to do it."

Rumors of a Las Vegas residency were logical after Cher's "farewell" tour visited the MGM Grand four times from 2002 to 2005. In 2004, Cher's reported gross was $33.8 million, while Dion grossed $33.1 million at the Colosseum without the travel.

"I almost trashed myself with that 31/2-year farewell tour," said Cher, who repeatedly has battled the chronic fatigue of the Epstein-Barr virus.

"I'm really happy that I did it and I got a chance to see things that were happening with the economy and the people and the jobs market and all kinds of stuff that you don't see if you just stay in one place," she said. "That was great.

"But the reason I wanted to go to Vegas is that I just can't do that anymore. That tour would have killed a girl half my age, or a third my age."

Cher is no stranger to the Strip. She first played the Flamingo as Pat Boone's opening act in 1969, when she and late ex-husband Sonny Bono performed as Sonny & Cher.

The duo played the Sahara during the height of their TV popularity in the '70s. She went solo after divorcing Bono and frequently played Caesars Palace from 1979 to 1982, before setting her sights on a serious acting career.

Meglen said he isn't concerned that Cher and Midler will compete for ticket sales by having the same demographic appeal.

"I look more at the middle-America appeal," he said. "I don't think we're at all looking at a gay ticket. I think we're looking at a universal ticket."

In a candid interview with Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush, Cher opened up about her good friend Farrah Fawcett and the latest on her battle with cancer.

“She’s tough. I don’t think I could’ve gone through what she did,” Cher told Billy. “She is now cancer free so this will be a real interesting thing.”

Stunning news from the legendary diva about Farrah’s condition and, in fact, it was Cher who encouraged her friend to seek treatment in Germany.

“It is a completely different kind of treatment,” Cher explained. “She had the cancer and then it went to her liver and so what they do there is, instead of giving you chemo all over, they do a thing called (chemo) embolization where they take whatever chemo that they were going to give you and they put it directly into the tumors into your liver and then when they shrink down smaller enough they do a thing called Cyberknife and they go in and they just take it out."

And Cher knows first-hand about the level of treatment on Germany. She sought treatment herself to help get rid of the debilitating Epstein-Barr virus – an illnewss that got so bad, it left Cher bedridden for two years.

But now the virus is dormant as Cher sets out to conquer Las Vegas with a three-year, 200-show stint at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. But given her health condition, is she up for the job?

“Is it at all a concern?” Billy asked Cher.

“It usually happens when everything is over, because you go and you go and you go and then your resistance is low and that is kind of when it attacks you,” she said.

And while she’s ready to return to the stage, don’t expect to see Cher out and about – the paparazzi are keeping her inside.

The paparazzi, I think they used to be okay when I was younger and then as I got older they got kind of rough and now they’re just treacherous bastards who cut your throat for a picture,” Cher noted. "It's hard to go any place. You feel kind of like a prisoner."

The paparazzi of today would have had a field day with Cher back in the ‘70s had she taken up the offers from the likes of Elvis Presley and Marlon Brando to date her. However, she did date on fellow superstar in the mid-‘80s – Tom Cruise.

“Was it great?” Billy asked.

“Yeah, he was fabulous. Just fun and adorable. Adorable man. He’s got that kind of bad boy side to him,” she smiled. “But no, he was sweet.”

Of course, when you’re Cher, dating isn’t always so easy.

“I read that men are intimidated by you,” Billy said. “Why?”

“I remember this time Michelle Pfeiffer and I were going somewhere and we wanted to go dance. We were on our way to a party and we went to this club in Santa Monica and we sat there and thought ‘Why is no one asking us to dance?’” Cher recalled. “Thank God two of my gay friends came in and we danced for an hour and then we left. I’m sure somebody wanted to dance with us, but nobody came up.”

Reality star, actor and KISS front man Gene Simmons acted as a special correspondent for Extra and went one-on-one with former girlfriend and singing icon Cher.

Cher spills it about everything from her take on drugs and her opinion about Oprah and the presidential election to her new Las Vegas concert and her beauty secrets in the candid interview.

When Simmons asked her how she avoided the pitfalls of fame including drug use, Cher responded, “I didn’t want to [use drugs]. I was having a great time…And it scared me. I never saw drugs do anything good for anyone. I just saw drugs bring everyone down.” She did admit to experimental use saying, “I smoked pot like five times in the ‘70s…because I wanted to be cool but it made me sick so I didn’t do it.”

Cher revealed she’s pulling for Hillary Clinton but believes Barack Obama is a great candidate as well.
“I like Hillary. I think she’d make the best president. I think he’s a good man. I think he’s altruistic. I think he’s smart. I think at some point he can be a great leader. I just don’t think it’s now.”

Cher admits she is apprehensive about the outcome of this election, especially after Oprah came out to support Obama. “I think [that] was rough because she can get a whole bunch of people to see him that would never come. She’s bringing her audience and they get to hear him. I think that skewed it, kind of,” she says.

When Simmons asked Cher what stays so beautiful she says, “Makeup…No drugs, no drinking…[and] good genes.”

In addition to her beauty secrets, Cher revealed three tips to happiness. “If it doesn’t matter in five years, it doesn’t matter. Always be interested in working and try to do it for as long as you can. And try to be in as many relationships as you can.”

Only former flame and good friend Simmons could ask about Cher’s love life. She confirmed that she dated three men “not so long ago” and explained how she juggled them all saying, “One, one day. One, one day, and one, one day.” When asked if it was fun, she responded, “Absolutely… Second time I ever did it my entire life.”

Las Vegas is the host city of Cher’s new concert spectacular and she reveals to “Extra” what to expect. “I’m not going to do what Celine Dion did. I’m going twice a year for I think six weeks or eight weeks…It’s a brand new show…I get to sing all of my songs.”

By CYNTHIA MCFADDEN, ALBERTO ORSO and IMAEYEN IBANGA

The quintessential queen of comeback has once again risen like a Phoenix. Singer Cher will open at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas three years after she finished her international farewell tour.

She reportedly is receiving $60 million for her stint, although she initially played coy about her salary in her exclusive interview with Nightline anchor Cynthia McFadden at the superstar's Malibu home Sunday.

"I know it's a lot, but I don't care. If it's a lot, if someone says, 'ooh, it's a lot,' OK. fine. It must be a lot," Cher said.

Cher, who mostly has stayed out of the public eye the last few years, will replace Celine Dion in the city of sin. Among other challenges, she will face the difficulty of topping her profitable and successful last tour.

For more of Cynthia McFadden's interview with Cher watch "Nightline" tonight at 11:35 p.m. ET

Forty Years and Counting

After four decades of success, Cher has managed to become the only artist to have a hit in each of the last four decades. Still, she worries about money.

"Oh, I always think I'm going to be a bag lady," she said. "When Sonny and I were really famous in the beginning, I remember going out and buying two electric frying pans. He said, 'What are you doing with that?' I went, 'Well I'm just saving one in the box in case.'"

With her commercial and financial success, Cher didn't need the backup pan. She has managed to bag almost every major accolade imaginable. She has Grammys, a Golden Globe and an Oscar.

Even with all her successes, Cher has had difficulties. The gay icon said she suffers from depression.

"When you have depression sometimes you feel like, you know, you're completely alone," Cher said.

For Cher, work eases her depression, which may explain why she keeps coming back for more.

"Work helps me a lot. I enjoy the work, but the work keeps you moving as well. It just keeps you moving, it keeps you around people. You don't get a chance to go, 'Oh, what's life about? You're just doing something. You're being productive."

Along with her depression, Cher has struggled with getting older. Even though the 61-year-old looks decades younger than her birth-certificate age, she still finds aging difficult.

"I hate getting old. What can I tell you? I'm sorry," Cher said.

She said it's a fallacy that getting older makes you smarter.

"Somebody keeps asking me that. Like, 'Don't you feel smarter?" as if that would offset all the other crap," she said. "I was about as smart as I was going to get at 40."

Another part of aging she doesn't like is the changes in the body. Cher, who has admitted to having some plastic surgery, claims it's not nearly as much as the tabloids say.

She also has said she never thought of herself as pretty, even when she was young.

"I can create the illusion of it, because a lot of it comes from what's inside of you," she said. "I can do that pretty well."

If She Could Turn Back Time

Though Cher may long for her youth, her past is not without regrets.

"I think you only regret the things you didn't do," she said.

One thing she regrets in not going out with Elvis Presley.

"When he called I was just too frightened," Cher said, "frightened to go to Las Vegas with him for the weekend."

"I regretted it forever. I regretted it with Marlon Brando, too," she added.

Cher may not have gotten with the King or one of the country's most prolific actors, but her dating history never has been dull. Today, her love exploits aren't making news, but in the past they dominated entertainment pages.

Cher even has dated a pre-scientology Tom Cruise.

"He just was the most adorable man that you can possibly imagine," she said. "I have to say, I don't understand the scientology thing because I don't understand it, you know. Sonny was a scientologist. I didn't understand that either."

Cher said she isn't dating anyone now, but would be open to a new love.

"They fall in your lap. You don't go looking. They just, you just stub your toe over guys," she said. "I'm always looking for the same thing, just younger or older. You know, I'm looking for someone who can make me laugh, who I think is cute that wants to go do stupid things still."

Cher has kept abreast of the political situation and has even picked a candidate.

"For me it's a no-brainer. It's Hillary [Clinton]," said Cher.

It's a departure from many of her Hollywood counterparts, who have backed Barack Obama.
"I am sure he's a wonderful person," she said. "But I had dinner once with someone in the White House. The first time he was in the White House, the first night of his presidency, and this man was a saint, and all he talked about was what he wanted to do for this country … and because of his inexperience they cut him off at the knees," Cher said of former President Jimmy Carter.

The Diva said she could never run for office herself.

"I'd be terrible," she said. "I'd be swearing and telling the truth."

By Edna Gundersen

MALIBU, Calif. — Draped Cleopatra-style across a plush sofa, Cher accepts hot raspberry tea from an assistant upstairs in her Italian Renaissance Revival villa, a magnificent 16,000-square-foot estate spread across a bluff offering splendid views of mountains and the Pacific.

A cabinet nearby displays impressive career hardware: a Grammy, Emmy, Oscar, Golden Globes. With these laurels, this luxury and an estimated worth of $600 million, it's understandable that fans and showbiz pundits assume Cher slipped into retirement after her exhaustive and exhausting Farewell Tour ended three years ago.

As she has demonstrated for four decades, Cher is not the retiring type. Starting May 6, she'll be center stage in The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, strutting sass and sequins in an audiovisual extravaganza. She's leaving her seaside paradise and heading to Las Vegas with a high-tech, high-stepping, high-stakes gambol, daring detractors once again to declare her obsolete.

"On every list, I was always on my way out," she says. It's one reason the singer/actress/entertainer is particularly proud of her status as a gay icon.

"Gay men understand that I understand what it's like to be an outsider," says Cher, who'll pop up Sunday as a presenter on the Grammy Awards. "To singers, I wasn't a singer. To actors, I wasn't an actor. I know what it's like to fight for your place. Besides, gay men are very choosy, and they have great taste."

She's scoring fashionista points today for her flashy ensemble: sparkly tie, black vest and pants, fingerless gloves, lace stockings and leopard-print stilettos. At 61, Cher is not dressing, or acting, her age.

"How did this happen?" she says of her march into the Social Security zone. "I used to be the youngest one around. I remember talking to my grandmother when she was in her 80s, and I said, 'How does it feel?' She said, 'I only notice it when I go to the mirror.' She was up for anything. So am I. I'd better do what I can do while I can do it."

Cher is especially determined to pull off a dazzling show after recovering last year from another debilitating bout of Epstein-Barr virus.

"I was sick a long time," she says. "I went to Germany for some medicine and treatment. They have things overseas we never dreamed existed. When I was first diagnosed in the late '80s, I had doctors telling me I was crazy. I was sick constantly and almost died from pneumonia. You never lose it, and it really takes the life out of you."

Before she fell ill, Cher spent her post-Farewell days vacationing with friends, going to movies, watching TV (C-SPAN, History Channel, classic films), hanging out with daughter Chastity and son Elijah Blue and raising awareness and money for Operation Helmet. She also had a tattoo removed.

"It wasn't a good one," she says. "I might take some more off. When I got tattooed, only bad girls did it: me and Janis Joplin and biker chicks. Now it doesn't mean anything. No one's surprised. I got a tattoo right after I left Sonny (Bono) and I was feeling real independent. That was my badge."

She also cleaned house, emptying her mansion for a Sotheby's/ Julien's auction that was expected to fetch about $1.5 million. The 780 lots, including art, jewelry, Bob Mackie costumes and a Gothic brass bed, brought in $3.5 million.

"I think about some of those things from time to time, but I don't miss them in the way you miss a friend," she says. "I have a soft spot for certain things and wonder where they are. But I didn't let go of anything that really meant something. And I think it's nice that people are taking special care of particular things they wanted. I found things or they found me, I had them for years, and now they're on another journey."

Cher's journey has taken her farther from designer boutiques and deeper into activism. She and close pal Lou Dobbs often discuss politics. She has worked for Jimmy Carter, Al Gore and John Kerry. Though she's committed to Hillary Clinton, Cher isn't beholden to Democrats.

"I'm supporting her because I know her and I like her and she's smart and a tough girl," Cher says. "But I don't have much respect for either party. I just think Republicans are worse."

To gear up for Vegas, Cher is training on her beloved Power Plate fitness machine and plans to reintroduce yoga to her regimen. Once the show is rolling, she's keen to record an album and perhaps direct a script she has eyed for years. She's not dating but hasn't ruled out a third stroll to the altar.

"I'm not looking for it, but I was never looking for it," she says, noting that her taste in men hasn't changed. "I like someone who's really funny, kind, intelligent; the other things are less meaningful."

She doesn't consider herself unapproachable.

"I find that men are intimidated by who they think I am," she says. "One night, Michelle Pfeiffer and I wanted to go out dancing, so we went to a club, sat down, and no one asked us to dance. I thought, this is crazy. Two of my gay friends came in and we danced with them for an hour. You have this baggage that comes with your image."

Famous since 19, Cher only recently found alarming side effects of celebrity.

"The paparazzi have moved into my town," she says. "I used to be able to run around in my sweats. Now I'm a prisoner. I think 'scum' is a perfect word for these people. They're meaner now. Before, they would be happy to get a picture. Now they want something salacious or to make you look bad.

"Everything's more mean-spirited now. My sister was telling me about a show that hooks people up to lie detectors (Fox's The Moment of Truth). I don't like reality shows. I saw American Idol one time and said, 'Well, I never need to see this again.' I thought it was boring. I wasn't entertained."

Cher's confident she'll reclaim an entertainment niche in a culture awash in trash TV and tabloids. But her shrine of shiny awards hasn't entirely erased her misfit issues.

"In my business, you're only as good as what you do today," she says. "But I think people like me. People feel friendly toward me, maybe because I've been around most of their lives. And their parents' lives."

By Edna Gundersen

Cher beat the odds at every turn in her 44-year career, so it's no surprise she's betting on an artistic rebirth in Las Vegas.

The indestructible diva, who retired from touring in 2005, will star in a song-and-dance spectacle starting May 6 at the 4,100-seat Colosseum in Caesars Palace. She'll perform four shows weekly for one month, then return mid-August through early October, leapfrogging stints with Bette Midler. Her pact with promoter AEG Live extends three years.

Cher, 61, promises a "visually unbelievable" hit parade that entails elaborate choreography, complex staging, eye-popping costumes, 14 dancers and four aerialists.

"Creatively, we're doing something that's never been done with sets," she says. "Getting the whole thing in book form, in pictures, has taken months. Our set moves down from the ceiling, in from the sides, up from the floor. We have screens in the foreground, the center and the back. We can change a city into a forest in two seconds. You'll see a different stage for every song."

The music will access all chapters of Cher's career, from her Sonny & Cher start to her recent dance-pop phase, and she's plotting updates of both old and new hits.

Cher's extravagant 2002-05 Farewell Tour rang up $192.5 million from 273 shows, the ninth-highest-grossing tour in history, according to Billboard Boxscore.

"Cher definitely achieved elite status as a live performer on her Farewell Tour, which was a remarkable endurance test and a hugely popular draw," says Billboard touring editor Ray Waddell. "With her elaborate costumes, long list of hits and over-the-top presentation, I can't think of another artist more suited to Vegas. A Cher concert is just a really good time."

Cher insists her Vegas splash won't recycle Farewell's motifs: "I'd like to be challenged."

She hasn't seen Colosseum concerts by previous residents Celine Dion or Elton John, nor the venue itself ("I saw a picture of it"). She's furiously working out to gear up for rehearsals, and she likes the idea of bouncing between her home in Malibu and a steady gig in Vegas.

But don't look for her at the craps tables: "Let me have a pair of shoes for my money."