Jimmy Kimmel once made a tour stop in Las Vegas and hardly anyone knew of it.
One of the city’s favorite sons and a Clark High and Kenny Guinn Middle School grad (who also hosts a popular late-night talk show), Kimmel walked the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in October 2019.
An idea was hatched that day: To invite Kimmel to be honored at the annual Keep Memory Alive Power of Love gala. The stars, and star, aligned for Kimmel to be honored at the event Feb. 22 at MGM Grand Garden.
Kimmel has announced he will not return to host the Academy Awards telecast, scheduled for March 22. Ruvo Center co-founder Larry Ruvo confirmed Monday that Kimmel would be honored at the next Power of Love event.
Hosting the Oscars had been a roadblock for Kimmel committing as an honoree of the event (though he attended when Neil Diamond was recognized in 2019, and introduced the pop legend).
The Academy Awards prep has even interfered with Kimmel’s primary gig as host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
The 56-year-old, talk-show icon said this month on the “Politickin” podcast, “I’m all in when it comes to something like the Oscars. I think about it in the morning and at night, and when I have ideas I want to work on them and then my nightly show seems like a nuisance. You wind up pushing everything off until after the Oscars, and you have to do everything you promised to do after the Oscars.”
In his first visit to the Ruvo Center in ‘19, Kimmel spent more than an hour learning of the facility’s initiatives to combat an array of brain disorders. Cleveland Clinic Director Dr. Dylan Wint; Dr. Dietmar Cordes; Center co-founder Camille Ruvo; board member Michael Severino; and Kimmel’s longtime friend, Las Vegas marketing vet Jim Gentleman, took part.
The presentation from Dr. Cordes was heavy with medical data, focused on the Center’s many treatments and initiatives. “I know all of this,” Kimmel said. “I went to UNLV.”
