Celebrity Gossip From Las Vegas With Robin Leach | Luxe Life Digest

Before Luxe Life continues with exclusive The Beatles 'LOVE' coverage, we just have two quick juicy tidbits!

Whispers shot around town last week that Cher’s people said their new contract was signed, sealed and delivered at Caesars. Not so, I am reliably informed. It’s down to the very final strokes, but there’s such a wide difference of opinion about “perks” that the entire contract could go up in smoke right at the last moment.

It’s particularly interesting because lined up alongside that deal is Bette Midler -- who could sign a Caesars deal solo or join ‘Cher and Friends’ as Cher’s replacement when she takes vacation breaks!

Ah, the intrigue of it all – but we’ll stay close to our secret sources to bring it to you first and fast – as always.

CORPORATE UN-TAKEOVER?
A very recent hotel mega-deal may be between a rock and a hard place! You couldn’t quite call it a “fast flip,” but the proposed owners may well be seeking a partner to eventually buy it at a pre-determined price before they even take it over. One Vegas gaming mogul has been shuttling back and forth to New York for urgent meetings with the hotel group who desperately needs a gaming license holder to make the project pan out. If the deal comes undone, he could automatically step in as the new buyer or take it over after the first part of the transaction has closed.

Complicated? Oh yes, very much so! I’m also reliably told we haven’t heard the last of this financial fine-line tight wire balancing act! Whichever way it goes, neither would have to change the initials on the towels if the other gets it!!!  

OUR BEATLES BONANZA CONTINUES : WILL YOU FIND THE HIDDEN SECRET MESSAGE ABOUT VEGAS & WAYNE NEWTON IN THE NEW LOVE MUSICAL? IS YOKO PASSING ON HER SLAIN HUSBAND, JOHN LENNON’S MESSAGES FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE?



We’ll continue to give you the answers and a whole lot more in the remaining two days of continuous coverage exclusive interviews and photos as the new $165 million majestic musical readies to open tomorrow night with its first preview performance.

Today meet Cirque’s Director of Creation, and the show’s concept creator, Gilles Ste-Croix.

RL: Where were you when you first heard a piece of Beatles music, and how young were you?

GSC: I was 12, I was in a hospital bed from an accident, it was in January ‘64, and I was 13. It was their first Ed Sullivan TV show in New York. I literally just said ‘what was that?’ And the guy beside me said, ‘well, that was The Beatles.’ I had to ask who they were because I was in a boarding school, and we could not watch TV there. So I did not know anything about them or that they were coming. We could not hear anything by The Beatles in that boarding school.  He told me they were the hottest thing in music and they were reinventing music. So, the first time was in black and white, and it was that song ‘She Loves You (yeah, yeah, yeah).‘

RL: So more than 45 years ago! What do you think John and George would say if they were alive today and sitting in this theater this morning?

GSC: I think first they’d find it very funny we had a fire alarm interrupt our first showcase for the media. ”Bloody fire alarm,” they’d laugh. I always ask myself what they would say when we are doing a run through or a rehearsal, because it is their work, but I think that John would say “told you I would finish up in Vegas.” We actually have them in a recording studio clip talking about Vegas. They were only here once in their very first tour in 1964. The Sahara brought them in with tickets at $7.50 each!! But nobody understood the phenomenon and the theater at the Sahara was too small, so they had to move them to the Convention Center, but they had no idea they were even in Vegas. It didn’t matter where they were: Phoenix, Miami, they were just moved from airport to hotel room to concert and back to the airport. They never saw any of the cities they were in. (I can testify to that because I traveled with the Beatles on that very first USA tour). Nobody had ever dealt with crowds of adoring fans so huge ever before so it was safer to move in and out pretty quickly!

RL: Let’s talk about the mechanics of this show. When you achieve something you always try to take the next thing to another level, to be bigger and better than the last. It is the natural instinct of creative people. The stage here has a cutaway octagon effect like jigsaw puzzle pieces. Is this mechanically tougher that ‘O’ and ‘Mystere’ and ‘Zumanity’ for the artists?

GSC: It is harder. The automation is very difficult. We have lifts, to raise the characters and also mechanical attractions that bring people in, like the four flying girls. In the roof there are also big pits with motors for people coming in. This automation kit is very, very complicated and difficult. I think it is hard to beat ‘KA,’ but our Beatles show has more cues in five minutes than any other show on Earth. We also have to make it a very safe show because we have flying humans. This is not just about scenery moving in; it is people and their movements in and out are coming nonstop all the time.

We have two automation engineers and we had split their responsibilities because the cues are too much for one person, but it makes it a very safe show. It also makes it a very fast-moving, flowing pace of the show, and yet it is even more complicated that you have audience all around, the circular stage. That is very hard. You have to have people all over, just like the sound, you have to have it everywhere. It is very, very complicated. When I sold this idea to Bobby Baldwin (president of MGM Mirage division), I said we would have to completely change the Siegfried & Roy Theater. I told him the music had to be experienced just like the fans liked it, heard it back on Abbey Road in 1969 . The people were everywhere: all around their stage, on the building, on the roof and that is what we have recreated here. People will be everywhere sitting all around .We will take people beck to where and how The Beatles were in ‘69.

RL: You deliberately didn’t recreate The Beatles in your show , but there are always 4 characters at the four points of the theater-in-the-round?

GSC: There are characters in fours everywhere. It is always a reference of the ‘’Fab Four’’ as they were known. Four flying girls, four kids, four skateboarders, there is always a reference to four. Sir George Martin, their record producer said they were stronger as four than as one alone and that is the image we wanted to convey.

RL: So, an observation: The Beatles are in front of Cirque this time, rather than being overshadowed by Cirque tradition. Is this how Cirque keeps growing?

GSC: Cirque has become a signature. It is not a circus anymore. Our first Vegas show ‘Mystere’ was a circus when it was in the theater. We have moved forward and we did ‘O’ as a water circus show, then we did ‘KA,’ which is more of a movie. ‘Zumanity’ is solely a sexy cabaret. So Cirque is a signature, and The Beatles music is like the water of ‘O.’ It started as an idea to do something with The Beatles music, so under everything is The Beatles music and from there, we created this show. It is not a circus show. We have created images that this music inspires and tried to put those images with the music. We only had the intention to make a show that is about their music.  

RL: How far along was the show when George Harrison could no longer be involved in it because of his failing cancer fight? Had it developed at all, or was it still just the conversation sstage?

GSC: It was a basic concept of saying that we were not going to use four look-a-likes, but we will use four figures everywhere in the show. We use the characters, through song to impersonate the music. We will create a show where people are all around, this was the basic idea, and that George saw and heard of it, but sadly after that he passed away.

RL: What is the input of Olivia and Yoko -- the widows of George Harrison and John Lennon? You go to great lengths to point out their strengths and involvement. What is their knowledge?

GSC: Olivia came at the end of The Beatles. I think she came in ‘68 in the life of George. Yoko came about the same time, but they know and feel The Beatles music, because they lived with those two guys. They are very supportive of this music. You cannot take John or George from the Beatles, so in that sense they are very supportive.

RL: Does this rebirth The Beatles all over again? Think for a second, that Paul McCartney might be better known to younger generations as the guy from Wings, or as a soloist. So might this bring The Beatles back?

GSC: I think that the presence of The Beatles’ music is still very present in our lives, and every week, you hear The Beatles somewhere. But, I think this will bring the work of The Beatles freshness that really appeals to younger audiences. We created a show that rests upon a young cast and the music makes is fresher. In that sense, I wouldn’t use ‘rebirth,’ but certainly we bring it to another generation.

RL: Is there one thing you love, personally, about the show, and what is the one thing that the public will carry away and tell their friends ‘you will never believe what I saw?’

GSC: We have run this only twice so far with the Cirque employees and we will run it for all the Mirage employees before the public sees it for the first time on Friday.  But, I am surprised that people are so touched. I have seen people cry. There are two moments that I can say in the show are very moving. Even my girlfriend cried, and I asked why and she just couldn’t explain. There is this one point at the end of the show where we bring the Beatles in, the real Beatles for the very first time on video and that moment -- really emotionally -- gets to people. It is the only time you actually see the four of them. The music of ‘All You Need Is Love’ is playing with a projection of The Beatles. That is one very moving and magical moment. My girlfriend also cried during one of the George Harrison songs, It is a mixture of the song, the staging, and the theater lighting. It is all of it, but if I knew the exact recipe we would do it all the time because it affects everybody so differently.



Tune into tomorrow for our exciting conclusion of The Beatles ‘LOVE’ Week at Luxe Life coinciding with the show’s first night of preview performances. Now, back to the regularly scheduled Luxe Life.

MAGNIFIQUE!EXTRAORDINAIRE!

I will always remember my dining experience at the brand-new Restaurant Guy Savoy in Caesars Palace’s new Augustus Tower as one of the most memorable meals of my entire life -- and there have been a few as you can tell from my tummy!!

It was magnificent and extraordinary. Guy Savoy is regarded as one of the world’s top chefs and has created a twin replica here of his famed Michelin 3-star gourmet temple in Paris. The intimacy of highly personalized service and award-winning French cuisine is limited to just 75 nightly guests! How could I resist marching thru the Prestige Menu -- a 10-course tasting for a mere $290, plus 10 matching wines!

I got to explore the more than 15,000 bottles of more than 1,500 different varieties that range up to a ’96 red at $15,946, a Petrus Bordeaux at $15,000 and a Chateau LaTour at a more modest $11,000. Everything -- from table settings, cutlery, unique crockery and tear-drop shaped glasses -- is unique perfection.

It has become the instant new “power palace” of Vegas. I spotted several of the city’s wealthiest VIPs there plus the entire Frittita Family, who own Station Casinos. (click here for yesterday’s Luxe Life countdown of the highest paid Vegas executives) And where else can you meet a businessman at the adjoining table who presents his business card that simply has a Havana, Cuba phone number on it?

Naturally, I sampled one of the world’s best cigars he happened to have in his own ice-bucket sized tub of them! The restaurant is run by Guy’s son, Franck, daughter-in-law, Laura, and his Parisian executive chef, Damien Dulas, with my friend executive sous chef, Adam Sobel (Bradley Ogden’s former Chef de Cuisine) when Guy is back looking after his 5 restaurants in the French capital.

It’s an absolute must for the lover of fine dining. Try the artichoke soupwith black truffles and brioche! Taste and travel to heaven with the grilled sea bass covered with a delicate dusting of exotic spices. You’ll forget you are in Vegas and will believe you are in France staring rather miraculously at the Eiffel Tower of the Partis Hotel across the Strip!

The food is brilliant and fun with a whimsical touch as he experiments with creations to please the senses of smell, taste and touch! With the addition of Restaurant Guy Savoy to the Vegas dining scene, our desert city can now definitely, and legitimately be crowned the top culinary kingdom of America. Truly an unforgettable masterpiece that could be a highlight attraction at The Louvre!

STRIP SCRIBBLES
A few week’s back, Luxe Life partied with Pamela Anderson and Ryan Seacrest when the first tower of the new Panorama condo-complex opened. We all hung out in multi-millionaire owner Lawrence Hallier’s 25th floor, 3-level, 6,300 square feet palace with its 1,300 square foot patio and hanging Jacuzzi. Well, in a once-in-a lifetime opportunity, he’s selling it for a mere $11.8 million so he can occupy an even larger penthouse pad in the new third tower he’s just started building there! …If you want the chance to appear on Howie Mandell’s hit TV show ‘Deal or No Deal,’ get to the Hilton on Saturday or Sunday (June 3-4) at 10AM as producers will be there auditioning possible future contestants. Incidentally, superstar Celine Dion, who headlines at Caesars Palace, will be Howie’s guest star on this season’s $5 million suitcase finale!!

TONIGHTS TIP: THURSDAY, JUNE 1
It’s the world premiere of ‘National Lampoon’s Cattle Call’ movie at the Brenden Theatres in The Palms. I’ll handle red-carpet MC duties, starting at 7PM and welcome young stars Jenny Mollen (WB’s ‘Angel’), Nicole Eggert (‘Baywatch Hawaii’), Chelsea Handler (‘Girls Behaving Badly’), Thomas Ian Nicholas (‘American Pie’) and Diedrich Bader (‘Napoleon Dynamite’). Lampoon’s comedies that began with ‘Animal House’ have had three decades of laugh-out-loud hits. The merry movie -- a raunchy comedy about a group of friends who start a fake casting agency just to meet gorgeous girls -- will unreel at 8PM and then we’ll have the glittering premiere party in the Rain nightclub at 11PM at which we’ll pick the winning participants of a ‘’Cattle Call’’ audition to appear in the next Lampoon film. … Meantime, imperial illusionist and mind-blowing magician, David Copperfield, begins another amazing run thru June 14 at the MGM Grand.

CONTACT US
You can win us over by casting a call with an email to robinsvegas@aol.com. Join us right here tomorrow as we wrap up our four-part welcome to the new Beatles ‘LOVE’ musical with our exclusive one-on-one interview with legendary Beatles record producer Sir George Martin and his son Giles for all the musical secrets of the Cirque du Soleil spectacular opening in previews tomorrow evening at The Mirage. To ensure you don’t miss one always up-to-the minute edition, click here or at the 'Alert Me' up top if you’d like to know the moment the new exciting Luxe Life is up, up and away!  

Go to AOL Vegas for much more on hotels, casinos, restaurants, nightlife, and everything Las Vegas! Check our travel section for great deals on hotels, airfare and much more!  And when visiting Vegas, be sure to see Las Vegas Magazine (pictured) in your hotel suite featuring a print edition of AOL Vegas Luxe Life, and an incredible directory of attractions, shows and restaurants

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this