David Furnish, the partner of Sir Elton John, is planning to open a champagne
lounge and bar at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. 

After undergoing an operation to have his appendix removed earlier this month, Sir Elton John vowed to be back on stage in time for a four-week residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.  His civil partner, David Furnish, is, meanwhile, keeping himself busy. 

Mandrake hears that Furnish, a 50-year-old film producer, is planning to open a champagne lounge and bar at Caesars Palace, the ostentatious hotel and casino complex on the Las Vegas Strip. 

“It’s all true,” Furnish confirms to me, excitedly.  He declines, however, to provide more details. 

It is understood that Furnish, who entered into a civil partnership with Sir Elton on the day that same-sex ceremonies became legal in England in 2005, will be working with Michael Greco.  Greco, a nightlife impresario, moved to “Sin City” from New York in 2004. 

The bar will house pieces from the extensive art collection owned by Sir Elton and Furnish.  The couple had a private gallery built at their home near Windsor, in Berkshire, to display what is the greatest private collection of 20th and 21st-century photography. 

A bar could be seen as an unlikely venture for Furnish, who is credited with helping Sir Elton to become sober after their relationship began in the Nineties.  The musician said last year that he should have died from Aids because of his self-destructive way of life while he was addicted to alcohol and cocaine. 

“By all rights, I shouldn’t be here today,” he said. “ I should be dead – six foot under in a wooden box.  I should have contracted HIV in the 1980s and died in the 1990s, just like Freddie Mercury, just like Rock Hudson.  Just like so many friends and loved ones of yours and mine.  Every day I wonder, 'How did I survive?'” 

Caesars Palace was once the scene of regular performances by Liberace, whose life with Scott Thorson was turned into a Hollywood film, Behind the Candelabra, starring Michael Douglas as the flamboyant pianist and Matt Damon as his secret young lover.