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

Extra security guards are booked for what will be the most private and exclusive star-studded showbiz birthday party in Vegas history! Hard to believe but our Rocky hero, Sylvester Stallone, turns 60 this weekend -- the star has never looked in better shape! Champagne wishes for a very Happy Birthday, Sly!

A cabal of celebrities with everybody from fellow action-adventurer, Bruce Willis, to real-life boxing legend Muhammad Ali are expected to all check into the Aladdin tonight for the three-day knock-out weekend organized by Sly’s beautiful wife, Jennifer Flavin.

The resort-hotel is even ready if former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, with Maria Schriver, show up as indicated on the preliminary guest list.

But tomorrow’s actual birthday party in the“closed for the night” Curve nightspot --specially decorated for Stallone -- is all top-secret and platinum private: no press, no red-carpet, no cameras. Just a family and friends gathering for 150 of his dearest and closest!

Others who got the Stallone invite include Cher, James Caan, Clint Eastwood, Hulk Hogan, Larry King, Jay Leno, Shaquille O’Neal, Burt Reynolds, Goldie Hawn & Kurt Russell, Melanie Griffith & Antonio Banderas, Penny Lancaster & Rod Stewart, Sharon Stone, John Travolta, Steven Tyler, Tony Robbins and their respective better-halves! Hotelhoncho, Robert Earl, who is presiding over the transformation of the Aladdin into his debut Planet Hollywood Casino, threw the doors wide open for Stallone, wife Jennifer, and their Hollywood VIP friends for the milestone birthday blast. Nice touch is that each guest will find their own gift bedside upon check-in for the weekend-longparty.

It’s expected that Stallone will take several of his birthday group to the Thomas & Mack Center at UNLV for the third match-up bout between Corrales and Castillo (see Robins' Royal Rundown below). Sly, who previewed the first rough-cut of his new Rocky VI movie last week in Vegas (click here for our exclusive story), will also be back on Wednesday June 14 for the CineVegas Film Festival at the Palms, followed by a Penn & Teller-hosted private party for him in the luxurious high-roller suites at the Rio.

LUXE LIFE BEATLES BONANZA

All week long,  in anticipation and celebration of the first preview of The Beatles 'LOVE'  musical from Cirque du Soleil opening tonight at the Mirage, Luxe Life has proudly presented exclusive photos and one-on-one interviews with the heroes of the staggering $165 million spectacular. (click here for Wednesday’s interview with Mirage president Scott Sibella and click here for yesterday’s interview with show creator Gilles Ste-Croix) Today we proudly wrap up our timely tribute with the legendary Beatles record producer, Sir George Martin, and his son Giles Martin who magically and digitally reworked over 270 Beatles recordings down to 130 songs and their fragments (27 full length by the way) plus recorded conversations for the seamless 90+ minute nonstop soundtrack.

IS YOKO A SPIRITUAL MEDIUM PASSING ON JOHN LENNON’S MESSAGES? IS THERE A SECRET DA VINCI CODE HIDDEN INSIDE THE MUSICAL THAT LEADS TO VEGAS AND WAYNE NEWTON?

You be judge and jury as you read this conversation I had with the two musical geniuses and remember it was about 45-years ago that Sir George first recorded them!!!

RL: You have said, ‘the deeper you got into this project, the more you understood the musical genius of The Beatles.’ What was the genius of four boys from a miserable part of England in the early ‘60s?

SGM: They learned the hard way. Ringo was not a part of the group when I met them (Pete Best was the original drummer back then) and Paul and George were both 19 when I met them and they were in a pop group that was pretty rough, really. It didn’t have any sophistication about it, but they had learnedtheir craft in the seedy part of Hamburg and very seedy café bars. They were young and inexperienced, but they got to learn what people liked and disliked. And once Ringo joined, he seemed to be a catalyst. He seemed to be an extra corner of the wall that made them impregnable, and once they got a hit under their belt which was ‘Please Please Me,’ they gained confidence and they wanted to learn about songwriting and recording and their talent blossomed like a hot house plant in a conservatory. You could see it moving up. Of course in a very short space of time they were doing wonderful things like ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ for example, that was a kind of experimental thing that was the beginning of ‘Sergeant Pepper.’ They moved on incredibly quickly because they were so curious. They always wanted to look beyond the horizon and they were coming to me and asking what sounds can you give us? And tell me how we can make ourselves better. They weren’t content with what they could see. They always wanted to go beyond it.

RL:  What do you think George and John would say if they were sitting alive here today seeing what we had just seen? What do you honestly think they would say?

SGM: It is very difficult to conjecture what anybody would say years after they die. But, in both of their cases, I think they would have approved. I think George for example, who was one of the initiators of this with Cirque’s founder, Guy LaLiberte, theysort of cooked the whole idea up many years ago, and I think for that reason, he would have been very much in favor of what we are doing. In the case of John, John and Yoko were so inseparable, not just physically, but mentally, that I believe Yoko can speak for John.

RL: Is Yoko a medium? Is she talking to John beyond the grave and relaying his messages about the show?

SGM: In a way John has passed over into Yoko, if you know what I mean. And Yoko believes that she represents John and her comments have been invaluable. She is very sensible.

RL:  Forty-five years ago, when those four straggly lads came into EMI, did you ever think that you and they would wind up somehow as the ‘entertainment kings of Vegas?’

SGM: Ofcourse not, but back then you never thought about it, you just got on with your job. I wouldn’t have thought that I would become a Knight of the Realm. There are so many things that have happened, and I thank God for all of that. It has been great.

RL:  Giles: you narrowed it down to 35 songs then the final 27. What was the total count that you began working with?

GM: We began working with all of the songs, I think it is 260, but we decided that there were certain songs that would work well in the show and that would have great images, and there were certain songs that The Beatles wanted to be in the show and certain songs that Cirque wanted to be in the show, so we tried to combine those songs and as many different elements as possible. There are over 130 different elements to the songs, but you will hear I think about 30 songs, so it was a creative-random process.

RL:  Now your father said he was a trickster with Paul, kidding him that he could put a Reggae start on one old song, and Paul heard it until he realized it was a joke, a trick. Is there any one hidden trick that you have managed to get into the show that no one is aware of yet?

GM : There are plenty of tricks that people have no idea what is going on, and if anyone can guess what all the elements are that are going on in the show, I’ll award them my car as a prize.

SGM: It is a bit like the‘DaVinci Code’ hidden in the music. Believe me, we wanted to put some surprises tucked into it all, but there is no Holy Grail at the end of it.

However there is a prophetic revelation because Gilles Ste-Croix told me: “During one of the long-ago Abbey Road recording,s there’s this priceless moment when John and Paul are talking that the song, the session is not going very well and John says ‘If we don’t fix this and get it together we will wind up in Las Vegas like Wayne Newton.’ How could we not keep that piece of treasure hidden in the show. Now you have to listen very carefully to hear it, but it’s definitely there and its only one of many!”

ROBIN’S ROYAL RUNDOWN
All eyes will be on tonight’s first debut preview night of the new Beatles LOVE musical from Cirque du Soleil at the Mirage but believe it or not there are many other choices so here’s what we refer to affectionately as the Robin’s Royal Rundown:

Friday, June 2

Top country female artist Gretchen Wilson (pictured) is ‘all jacked up’ over her 8pm concert at the Mandalay Bay events center.
The second anniversary of young producer David Saxe’s, V Theater, at the new Miracle Mile shopping complex in the Aladdin/Planet Hollywood. It’s the home of 5 different afternoon and nightly shows including the incredibly sexy X-show who’s dancers will jump around with you in a “bounce house” to celebrate.

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this