DECEMBER

8, 9, 11

The Spice Girls: The girl gang's reunion tour hits Las Vegas. 8 p.m. Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. $75.50-$133, www.thespicegirls.com.

26

"Sirens of TI" pirate show outside Treasure Island will resume after a monthlong break for maintenance.

30

Salt-n-Pepa The first all-female rap crew broke down doors for women in hip-hop, with four chart-topping albums and two Grammy awards over a 17-year span. The duo's new phase of their career includes a reality television show, "The Salt-n-Pepa Show," in which the ladies work together again. 10 p.m., House of Blues. Tickets: $50, 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. 702-632-7600.

FEBRUARY

20

BETTE MIDLER DEBUTS FEB. 20

Bette Midler debuts at 7:30 p.m. at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. Shows at 7:30 nightly; dark on Mondays and Thursdays. Tickets: $95, $140, $175, and $250. www.caesarspalace.com.

ONGOING

Rita Rudner, stand-up comic, appears 8 p.m. nightly (except Sundays) at Harrah's. 702-369-5222, $54.

The Hawaiian Tropic Zone opened last month at the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood featuring a multitiered dining room, a catwalk stage for nightly entertainment, sarong-clad table concierges in full beauty- pageant mode, a big bar, and a two-story waterfall to complete the Island touch. And there's a gift shop. www.hawaiiantropiczone.com.

Michelin guide for Las Vegas: Michelin's inspectors for its finedining guides are notoriously stingy with their praise, anointing just one Vegas restaurant — Joel Robuchon's at the MGM Grand — worthy of the highest three-star rating. Robuchon, who has restaurants all over the world, received his first three-star Michelin rating in 1981 in Paris. Three Las Vegas restaurants earned two stars — Alex, Guy Savoy and Picasso — and 12 restaurants earned one star. According to the guide, three stars denotes "exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey," and a two-star restaurant serves "excellent cuisine, worth a detour." But just being listed in the guide, even with no stars, is considered an honor.

M Resort: The $1 billion project off I-15 at the intersection of Las Vegas Blvd. S. and St. Rose Parkway just south of the Henderson Airport, is under construction. The $1 billion first phase will include an 11-story tower with 390 rooms, a 90,000-square-foot casino, eight restaurants, a 20,000-square-foot spa, and a 100,000-square-foot pool area. The resort is touting stunning architecture, great restaurants, panoramic city views and "old-style" service in its quest to become the leading locals casino. Though similar to the Palms and Red Rock Resort, it will also court out-of-town visitors. Additional phases are planned, with up to 3,000 rooms eventually possible. The first phase of M, which is modeled to some degree after the Rio (which was built by the developer's father), will open in spring 2009, ahead of Encore and CityCenter.

Big bucks: Another $400 million is being tacked onto the cost of the CityCenter project at the south end of the Strip. It's the second such increase this year, raising the cost to a projected $7.8 billion. MGM Mirage Chairman Terry Lanni pegged the increase to the complexity of CityCenter, which required more steel and concrete than had been budgeted.