WHAT HAPPENED IN VEGAS DIDN’T STAY IN VEGAS FOR #24: In what now seems foreshadowing of the internet-born Kobe Bryant divorce report last Friday, Norm Clarke of the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL on July 20 reported this sighting: “Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, snacking on frozen grapes Thursday at Bare pool lounge, the topless venue at The Mirage.”

Speaking of Clarke, he reports today that “Australian tennis star Mark Philippoussis selected 26-year-old Amanda Salinas in the finale Monday of NBC’s ‘Age of Love.’”

Referring to the Aussie tennis burnout as a “star” is a might charitable, but at least he had the good sense to jettison 48-year-old Jen Braff in the final episode. Braff is “an executive assistant to Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss.”

• The NEW YORK POST reports “within minutes” of Alex Rodriguez hitting his 500th career home run Saturday afternoon, an ad pitching a $129.95 bat commemorating the milestone appeared on YES Network.

Meanwhile, Brian Kowalczyk, the brother of the fan who caught Rodriguez’ 500th home run, to the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS on the team’s negotiations for the ball: “The negotiations at Yankee Stadium were p—s-poor. If A-Rod would have approached him, things would have been different.”

Memo to Brian: ARod doesn’t care (if he did he’d have shown his face). You and your brother will get nothing (after turning down an autographed jersey) and like it.

• Nike has opened a 13,000-square-foot sweatshop store in Bejing. It’s the largest of the company’s 3,000 (!) retail outlets in China.

• Browns defensive lineman Ted Washington to SI.com on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell: “‘I think he’s done a hell of a job. I’d clean up the game too. I’d tell those young guys: ‘All right, you want to play the fool? Fine. I’m taking your money.’”

• The surest sign Notre Dame football is in decline? ESPN.com reports coach Charlie Weis is using an anonymous ESPN-TV analyst to motivate his players.

Safety Tom Zbikowski said this week that Weis used a recent team meeting to spotlight a throwaway prediction by ESPN’s Mark May: “He just basically [talked] about the 1-7 comment (May’s prediction for ND start). It’s kind of hard for the older guys because we’ve been hearing it for three years now … but it still rubs us the wrong way.”

• The CHARLOTTE OBSERVER reports NASCAR driver Tony Stewart on his Sirius Satellite Radio show has gone “out of his way to take shots at ESPN and their reporters.”

• ESPN.com is a day late with coverage of the Jermaine O’Neal Lakers trade demand. Shocking when you consider the source of ESPN’s long-melted *scoop*.

• Clay Travis of CBS SPORTSLINE on our former Central Ohio sports radio partner: “What’s the No. 1 debate that rages across the college football universe, excluding how many women on college campuses Kirk Herbstreit could sleep with if he was single?”