LAS VEGAS – Elton John has returned to Las Vegas for a three-year headlining gig at Caesars Palace.

The five-time Grammy winner performed Wednesday night for the first of 16 shows scheduled through October, the first performances of a new show titled “The Million Dollar Piano.”

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Elton John performed on Wednesday night the first of 16 shows scheduled through October at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. File photo

Gisele Bundchen

Rosie O'Donnell and Oprah Winfrey

John took stage in a dazzling sequined cape and garnered standing ovations from parts of the crowd after each song. John spent about two hours going through hit after hit from his lengthy catalog – though he skipped his top hit, “Candle in the Wind.”

The remainder of John’s shows during the three-year run have not yet been announced.

John says the show is named for his new piano, which took manufacturer Yamaha four years to build.

He said the grand piano, black with a video screen on its side, is named Blossom, after jazz singer Blossom Dearie, John said.

“It has a spin cycle washer in the back, a microwave and an aquarium,” he said.

The only thing it’s missing: “A barbecue,” John quipped.

His return comes more than two years after a five-year stint that ended in 2009. The run was originally planned for three years but was extended because of demand.

“This isn’t like the old days,” John said of the new show. “It’s going to be certainly different from anything you’ve seen from me before, as was ‘The Red Piano,”‘ his previous show at Caesars.

“The Red Piano” included risque imagery – with high-tech videos and large, inflatable props.

Bundchen’s lingerie ad draws women’s rights group ire

SAO PAULO – A Brazilian government agency says it wants a TV ad starring a lingerie-clad Gisele Bundchen to be taken off the air because it is sexist.

The Women’s Rights Secretariat says in a Thursday statement that it has asked the National Advertising Council to suspend the ad. It says the ad reinforces stereotypes of women as sex objects.

The ad shows Bundchen clad in underwear telling an unseen husband that she crashed the car and exceeded her credit card limit.

The Brazilian lingerie maker Hope says it wanted to show that a “Brazilian woman’s sensuality is her best protection when delivering bad news.”

Russell Brand to be Rosie’s first guest

CHICAGO – Rosie O’Donnell gets her wish: Russell Brand will be the first guest on her new talk show.

The Oprah Winfrey Network announced Thursday that the comedian and actor will appear on the Oct. 10 premiere of “The Rosie Show.”

O’Donnell has said she’s fascinated with Brand and called him a genius. She previously said she would love to have him as her first guest.

The show will air on the Oprah Winfrey Network, which promises Brand will be “one of many notable celebrities” during the show’s first two weeks.

O’Donnell will tape in Chicago’s Harpo Studios, former home of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” until it ended in May after 25 years.

Country singer in rehab

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Joshua Scott Jones, the male half of country duo Steel Magnolia, has entered treatment for alcohol and substance abuse.

Jones made the announcement Thursday afternoon on the duo’s web site.

“God has been on my heart to announce and make public that I have entered a rehabilitation and treatment facility to address issues related to alcohol and substance abuse,” Jones wrote in the statement to his fans.

Jones’ girlfriend and singing partner, Meghan Linsey, announced Sept. 23 that the duo would cancel a handful of shows because the 31-year-old was unable to perform, but didn’t specify why.

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