Shaq to plug new casino game

Basketball great Shaquille O'Neal will be in the area this Sunday, plugging a new table-slot game named after him at Parx Casino (2999 Street Road, Bensalem).

"ShaqBlackJack," described as a "new, hybrid table-slot game," will be offered exclusively at Parx. Shaq will be on site Sunday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. for a meet-and-greet right before the game goes live on the casino floor.

The concept evolved in the mind of New Jersey-based Dynamic Gaming Systems CEO Charlie Barksdale, who has long been a fan of Shaq, as he contemplated the NBA star's unique brand of humor and his history of lending his name to video games.

Sources say Shaq was completely hands-on in the game development.

"We have worked a long time to make sure this game is fun and easy to play for people who don't ordinarily sit down at a blackjack table," O'Neal said.

Sources say the mayor of Rome, Ignazio Marino, dined at Davio's (111 S. 17th St.) on Saturday night but kept it very low-key during the papal visit this past weekend. I hear he came in with Gary DeVito, shareholder of the Zarwin Baum law firm, and ate tuna tartare, crab cakes, filet mignon and lemon doberge cake for dessert.

I'm also told they tipped well.

Tonight, the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists will host a panel discussion, "Monitoring Hollywood: 'Empire,' Ferguson & the N-word," at the University of the Arts (211 S. Broad St.).

Among the topics to be tossed around will be the value, benefit or downfall of the hit Fox series "Empire," the 2015 hit movie "Straight Outta Compton," and racial and social unrest in Ferguson, Mo.

Panelists include Philly screenwriter Rel Dowdell, WDAS radio host Patty Jackson, British hip-hop radio personality Monie Love and author and Daily News contributor Solomon Jones. Tickets are required for the discussion, which begins at 7 p.m. in Caplan Recital Hall. They're $5, available at eventbrite.com.

This is your ticket to cheesesteak heaven. That's the promise Kevin Baxter is making with the first of what he hopes will become the annual Philadelphia Cheesesteak Festival next month.

It is only fitting that Philly finally has a daylong celebration of the famous food that put us on the culinary map.

"The fact that no one honored this sandwich - a staple of Philadelphia - is just a crime," he told me. "The response has been unbelievable. I'm hoping to make this an annual tradition for Philadelphia."

Baxter, a native New Yorker, came to Philly in 1999 and immediately appreciated the cheesesteak. Every Fourth of July, for years, he's watched New Yorkers celebrate Nathan's Famous hot dogs with the hot-dog eating contest broadcast live on ESPN.

Enough is enough, he finally said.

The Philadelphia Cheesesteak Festival will take place Oct. 24 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Lincoln Financial Field in South Philly. He said he's expecting upward of 30,000 people. A portion of every ticket sold will go toward Alex's Lemonade Stand, which benefits children with pediatric cancer. Tickets range from $20 to $60 and can be purchased at ticketmaster.com.