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Clooney, Pitt and Pacino Cruise Vegas, It's Still a Madhouse at Beacher's and Robin Talks Italy
It's great to be back after two weeks away from our desert kingdom and instantly join the ranks of megastars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Al Pacino and Nicholas Cage. These are just a few of Hollywood's temporary exiles who will be bringing Vegas back to the big screen. As Clooney was setting up home here, I was enjoying a vacation in the Italian countryside, not too far from where he keeps his normal summer home -- but more on my wining and dining through Umbria a little later. George has recruited Brad, and his other casino criminals, for 'Oceans 13', which began pre-production filming here this week, and will continue through the fall. They may still be here long enough to become honorary grand marshals at our 2nd Las Vegas Marathon in mid-December and fire the starting pistols! This is all exactly as Luxe Life exclusively predicted months ago at the start of this year!! The big question is if Al Pacino -- recently spotted all around our Glitter Gulch, allegedly doing gaming research with, amongst others, the pit-bosses at Caesars Palace -- will play the casino-owner targeted for George and Brad’s new heist!! In the meantime, Al has become a regular at PURE nightclub in Caesars.
There’s no question, though, that Nicholas Cage, who filmed 'Leaving Las Vegas' here, is back with gorgeous actress Jessica Biel for their movie 'Next', which is all about a man with super-powers targeted by the FBI, which wants him to prevent a terrorist attack. Cage plays a Vegas magician who has the gift of precognition. (That’s the ability to see into the future and then alter it!) Nick, along with his wife, partied with Jessica and her boyfriend at Tangerine in Treasure Island mid-week to celebrate the movie's success, after being on location out in Red Rock Canyon desert land and downtown’s Fremont Street Experience. The Oscar-winning actor has affection for our Neon City, having also filmed 'ConAir' and 'Honeymoon in Vegas' here. Julianne Moore also stars in the film as the mother of his future child.
MADHOUSE MYSTERY
Yours truly with Jeff Beacher and crew at auditions for the new Beacher's Rockhouse.
Mystery surrounds this weekend and next weekend’s Beacher's Comedy Madhouse shows at the Hard Rock Hotel. Both are being filmed as a pilot for Fox, as a possible late-night series to go against NBC’s ageing Saturday Night Live. But my column colleague in nightlife notes, the Xtraordinary Xania Woodman of www.thecircuitlv.com, who has also just returned home from a vacation and wrote a brilliant, “it's good to be back,” editorial this week, is pondering if Jeff Beacher’s zany show will continue at the Hard Rock now that Peter Morton has sold it to another hotel group. Xenia says one insider told her that these are the last two Beacher shows there before moving to his new Fine Theater, alongside TAO at The Venetian. Another insider says next Saturday’s show will be a “litmus test” for the new owners to either keep it in place or kick it out. All of this surprise drama plays out against the nasty feud Luxe Life first reported earlier this week. (Click here for the juicy details- about a myriad of “cease and desist” letters flying between Beacher and the producers of Simon Cowell’s new NBC 'Americas Got Talent' series hosted by Regis Philbin.) Check back here early next week after I’ve visited Beacher’s boisterous brazen brigade to get the full lowdown!
INCREDIBLE ITALY
Yours truly with the guard in Italy.
As much as I love Las Vegas and its 21st Century exciting experiences, it's necessary for me to take flight every now and again to restore, recharge and rejuvenate my European roots. Although 100% English, I am an unabashed fan of Italy and its wondrous wines (vino fantastico), fabulous foods (meraviglioso alimento), charming countryside (affascin campagna) and spectacular sightseeing thru timeless hilltop towns (storico collina citta). My actress friend, Joan Severance and I, have toured various areas of Italy over the years with a lot of our visits based from Tuscany.
Our villa where we were able to restore, recharge and rejuvenate.
This year we decided the Umbrian hills around Orvieto, Assissi (remember St. Francis?), Spoleto, Perugia, Todi, Montefalco would be our playground, from a 16th century villa in Collazone. My son, Steven, pals of mine from New York and friends of Joan’s from Houston and Aspen made up the groovy group reveling in wine tastings and new hot restaurants, where every chef we talked to wanted to hear stories of superstar chef Paul Bartolotto, at his Wynn resort-hotel restaurant, and Pierro Selveggio’s Valentino restaurant at The Venetian. They are national heroes throughout Italy for hitting success-stardom in Vegas.
Pictured: LEFT: Yours truly samples an Umbrian truffle. RIGHT: Friend Joan Severance relaxes in Perugia.
Thanks to good friends at Southern Wine, my good friends Larry Ruvo and Mike Severino arranged for us to tour some incredible wineries: Arnoldo Caprai, Montefalco, Paolo Bea and Falesco. We even took part in a medieval costume party at the Castello delle Regine vineyards! We participated in an Italian cooking class and I even hand rolled my own homemade Stromboli pasta, topped off with those amazing black Umbrian truffles. We toured the largest truffle factory and I thought I’d died and gone to heaven with the powerful perfume from the monster mushrooms.
Pictured: LEFT: Joan is having fun in cooking class. RIGHT: Local wines make for a good time.
We played host, in our massive underground wine cellar, to Las Vegas Review Journal man-about-town columnist Norm Clark, who motored down to celebrate his birthday with us. We watched a large-screen TV satellite feed and celebrated Italy’s World Cup win over France with crazed fans in the open-air square at Marsciano, where our dinner had to be served by a foursome of 12-year-old girls earning extra pocket-money, since no waiter would work on that festive nationalistic night. We gave them extra EC tips for their enthusiasm and diligence! We went to the world-famous, 50-year-old, Spoleto Arts Festival, headed by now 95-year-old, Italian-born, American-educated maestro of lyric opera, Gian Carlo Menotti. We tried to get tickets to the Perugia Jazz Festival to see Santana, Eric Clapton or Kenny G., but the tickets had been sold out months in advance, proving they are as hot in Europeas they are in Vegas! We even marveled at the tremendous foreign press coverage for the newly opened Beatles LOVE musical spectacular from Cirque du Soleil at The Mirage -- we were never far from the global reach of Vegas!!!
Our waitresses during Italy's World Cup win over France.
I had two special highlight notes from the trip: My good friend Tom Tellefsen in Los Angeles had visited his friends, Peter and Merle Mullen, at their vacation villa near Todi earlier this year and he wanted us to see the spectacle of it too. Merle insisted on a surprise guest coming to lunch for me, and it turned out to be a 15-year reunion for me and old friend, Oscar and Emmy winner Ben Gazarra, who has a 50+-year acting career. Last time I saw my fellow Virgo (our birthdays are one day apart), Ben, now 76, and I had been flung together in a Russian nightclub cabaret dinner-show in Brooklyn where even the waiters and wine-servers packed pistols!! Ben has successfully battled cancer of the mouth and is as lively, feisty and fun as ever. He promised, after he completes his next movie on location down in South America, he and his vivacious gregarious wife, Elke will stop off in Vegas for me to show them “our town” which he hasn‘t visited in nearly 20-years! What a memorable magnificent sunny luncheon in their outrageous olive grove.
Pictured: LEFT: Yours truly with Oscar and Emmy winner Ben Gazarra. RIGHT: Yours truly with Review-Journal columnist Norm Clark.
We also discovered that for the 14-year run of 'Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous' I had featured Peter’s rare, 1934 historic car in the opening sequences of our TV show. Even though I broadcast it every week, I never knew it was his with him behind the wheelat Pebble Beach!! A very small world indeed, and even smaller when I discovered my friend Paris Hilton had been expected at the Spoleto Festival for the Italian premiere of her movie 'Simply Paris.' However, her schedule couldn’t permit the complicated trek to the mountaintop, but it was fun to see her photos and the sexy Carl's hamburger commercial plastered on every building when we arrived there for a noon-time Beethoven concert. Incidentally, Paris is hot, hot, hot all over Europe. The respected Herald-Tribune, headquartered in Paris, generously publicized her debut CD --being released a week from Monday, on July 31 -- with an advance, paid download of almost 500,000 “captures” of the sexy Malibu beach, skimpy swimsuit video that promotes the 12-track album.
The breathtaking Lido on the Lake.
As fabulous and brilliant as this year’s trip to Italy was, I still believe we are so fortunate and privileged to live in the best country in the world; America. As a world traveler, I can tell you that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the fence. And thus, it's really nice to return home to Vegas. We may not have historic buildings and veteran resorts -- but we do have their carefully recreated counterparts. We may not have homegrown wines and handpicked local produce -- but we do have the best restaurants and chefs anywhere in the world. We may not have orchestral concerts at 50-year-old arts festivals -- but we do have unparalleled entertainment. No wonder 40-million people come here to vacation each year, and every now and again we feel it necessary to just step off our merry-go-round of madness and soak in some civilization from yesteryear. How fortunate we are to have the best of both worlds!
BASKETBALL STARS MISS KOBE
This weekend sees an invasion of basketball royalty as USA Basketball opens its training camp here. And, although Kobe Bryant wont play in this summer’s world championships, he will attend the workouts here, as well as assist with the exhibition games in South Korea and China before the world finals in Japan, which take place August 19 through September 3. Kobe had been scheduled to participate, but he elected right knee surgery instead and won’t recuperate in time to play. A total of 24 star players will hunker down forworkouts at the Thomas & Mack Arena before America’s best 12 are selected. Luxe Life will keep an eye open for the three-point heroes who will probably be partying some of the time at the Palms with the Maloof family, which also own the Sacramento Kings. And don’t forget, the All-Star game comes to town next February for Presidents Weekend! Vegas has become NBA action-central!
SHINING BRIGHTLY
A slew of other stars were making the lights sparkle brightly last night, as they began weekend gigs. Country songbird Reba McEntire continues at the Hilton thru Sunday; Red Piano man Elton John continues at Caesars Palace thru July 30; fresh from radio DJ duties, Diamond David Lee Roth was at the House of Blues; heart-throb crooner Engelbert Humperdinck will remain romantic at The Orleans through Sunday night and country-comic Rodney Carrington will continue on with his laugh-filled songs at MGM until July 26.
ROBIN’S ROYAL RUNDOWN
I’ve got two highlights of my own for the weekend: One of my favorite gal-pals, Jenny McCarthy hosts a birthday bash for her younger sister Amy at the Jet Nightclub in the Mirage. I'm wondering if her new beau-friend, actor Jim Carrey, will be hand-in-hand with her. They’ll check out the new Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil production first with a snack at Stack before the festivities. Plus, Palms Casino king Jimmy Tipton throws his annual, “Naughty Nightie” pj high-rollers party around the new pool. If you’ve never seen the flimsy, sheer, next-to-nothings that gorgeous girls wear to bed these days, this is better than a free-pass to Trashy Lingerie, Victoria Secrets and Fredericks of Hollywood combined! Now we’re back to normal. Here’s what we affectionately call ROBIN'S ROYAL RUNDOWN:
Friday July 21
Saturday July 22
We’ll beback on Monday to resume our regular five-day-a-week action-packed Luxe Life columns. Many sincere thanks to all my friends who pitched in with guest columns while I was away. I logged on everyday to check things were in good hands and I hope you found our star-contributors as fascinating and interesting as I did 7,000 miles away in the Italian countryside.
CONTACT US
You can make us sing out loud or dance to the beat with an email to robinsvegas@aol.com. To ensure you don’t miss one magnificent note of the new, high-pitched edition, click here or at the 'Alert Me' up top if you’d like to know simultaneously as the brand new Luxe Life is posted. 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 in your hotel suite featuring a print edition of AOL Vegas Luxe Life, and an incredible directory of attractions, shows and restaurants.
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