Wayne Newton, who's about to become E! Entertainment Television's answer to Donald Trump, met with critics this afternoon while seated on a gold throne upholstered in red velvet, flanked by his minions -- OK, executive producers -- a full head below him on black leather couches.

Starting Jan. 23, the Vegas veteran's headlining in "The Entertainer," a talent search for a performer good enough to join Newton onstage for an entire year.

(Catch phrase for his firings: "You're not the entertainer.")

But don't let the throne fool you: Newton still has the common touch. And when a couple of us approached him tonight at an E! party -- because when are you going to get another chance to talk to Wayne Newton? -- he was, as one of my fellow critics had promised, "as nice as can be."

Even to the extent of answering a question from Newsday's Diane Werts about his startlingly dark hair, which she remembered being a reddish-blond in his younger days.

After explaining that it had been lighter once -- "bleached by the sun," he joked -- Newton, 64, opened a few buttons on his shirt to prove to us that, well, everything matches.