Stardust: 1958-2006; Prince Takes Over the Rio; Robert Mapplethorpe Exhibit Raises Eyebrows

At Noon today, the Stardust shut its doors as the last guests, including Frankie Avalon and Shecky Greene, checked out, ending its 48-year-run as a major Strip resort. It's set to be blown up on New Years to ring in 2007. It will eventually be replaced by the $4-billion Echelon Place mega resort, opening in 2010. (Click here for our pre-closing coverage in Luxe Life last Friday) Stragglers from the Fetish and Fantasy Halloween Ball were still strutting home in their high-heels and racy, ribald censor-crazed costumes as the sun came up this morning. Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum. Throughout the years, the Stardust was home for such stars as Siegfried & Roy, starting their American careers there in 1978, and singer Wayne Newton's home for a 5-year-run that began in 2000. Also, Elvis Presley often hung out in the lounge there, according to my pal, Norm Clark the Review-Journal's man about town. Norm also noted that Hollywood stars Goldie Hawn and Valerie Perrine were part of the Stardust family. Valerie danced topless in the 'Lido de Paris' shows before winding up in Hollywood, winning an Academy Award nomination for best actress opposite Dustin Hoffman, and Goldie was the covergirl model for the Xmas '67 issue of Stardust News for guests!

Dancer Laura Diane was selected as the feathered feature Stardust showgirl for the "teary-eyed" closing ceremonies. She threw the last craps dice, pulled the last slot machine spin and turned the final blackjack hand. Then she pulled the front-doors closed as security locked them tight as the famed resort casino came to its extraordinary ending. The shutdown made history as the legendary property wrapped its 48-year-run prior to January's implosion and wrecking ball!

We bid the Stardust a warm adieu and promise that at each step of the new Echelon development Luxe Life will keep you right up-to-date with all its progress.

DIG IF YOU WILL

After all his late-night partying and club touring in Vegas, and exactly as Luxe Life predicted... the one-named pop-royal Prince will launch his new entertainment shows as of next Friday, Nov. 10 at the Rio, one block from the Strip center cross-roads and a block across from its rival, the Palms. Rio officials confirmed this morning that its deal with the Minneapolis-based musician, singer and producer is all "set in concrete" and will be a regular multi-night weekly venture as a live entertainment and club cuisine concept. Prince is re-branding the former Club Rio operation as 3121 and adding a restaurant called 3121 Jazz Cuisine, which will take the place of the Rio's old Fiore restaurant and be run by his personal chef Lena Morgan, who used to work for Wolfgang Puck at Spago.

Every Wednesday night Prince will present various artists; either friends of his or other special guest performers. Ticket prices will start at $31.21, to tie into his latest CD release. Every Thursday will be 3121 Latin Libido night, again with the $31.21 cover charge. On Friday's, Prince himself will perform at 10PM, but ticket prices soar up to $125. However for $312.10 per person, with a minimum of 2-guests, (ca-ching total $624.20) it will include the show and dinner at 3121 Jazz Cuisine.

Word is that Prince got his "feet wet" in his new venue lastnight, with a private, invitation-only show for a auto-parts manufacturers attending the SEMA convention. No word on what he was paid, but probably more than $30,121 and less than $312,100!!

Keep reading Luxe Life as we bring you regular up-to-date reports of Prince's ongoing appearances and guest-star performers. The Rio is currently undergoing a pop makeover and the PURE management group is opening a bowling-alley, night-time dance game club next year as the old beach party premises are winding down on final construction.

CONTROVERSIAL PHOTOS

The late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe won praise for his startling black and white prints that recreated modern scenes of the masters' imaginations such as Michelangelo. But he caused headlines and controversies for his erotic series of nude men in S&M poses. One Ohio art museum exhibitor even got arrested on sex-charges for displaying the work. So, when an exhibition of his work -- with only a couple of really eyebrow raising portraits -- was opened at The Venetian's Guggenheim Museum, I just had to ask director Elizabeth Herridge (pictured) a few questions:

RL: Mapplethorpe was one of the most controversial, if not the most controversial photographer ever. What made you say this was perfect for Vegas?

EH: Oh gosh, a lot of things. We have never done photography here, which I think it is time we do. Our last program was the Reuben's, I think Old Masters are finished in Vegas and we are looking at contemporary kinds of art. I think people's taste has kind of changed and this was something I felt we could do that had a classical element collection of the Hermitage, but also this modern element especially with the Mapplethorpe Foundation and the Guggenheim.

RL: Were you worried at all about the reputation of Mapplethorpe and the characterization and his admiration of the male body?

EH: I was concerned because the initial response when I started to talk to people about possibly doing this show was one of horror and I thought they just don't understand what this is going to be about. So I made a small campaign to try to convince them. Some were more convinced than others, but I knew people would come and look at this but I didn't feel in any danger of being arrested.

RL: Art is designed to be controversial?

EH: Yes, art is designed to be political. People, I think forget this, but Mapplethorpe is really working at a time when we have this explosion of the gay culture and of the punk movement and he is living there in lower Manhattan and is surrounded by all kinds of interesting people, some of whom go on to be other things. I think he lived with Patty Smith for a while and her portrait is in the gallery and he knew people like Warhol who is also portrayed. No question he had a great fascination with bodybuilders male and female; almost this duality of transformation ofoneself and it sells. He loved beautiful bodies and he loved perfection and so if youwere a bodybuilder you were his good buddy. But he had one friend that had a head that he felt was too small proportionally and he refused to photograph the fellow's head, but would photograph only his body.

RL: This explains why Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lisa Lines are photographed here.

EH: Exactly. I think Lisa was a really great woman who became a professional bodybuilder who was competing against or with men. So this made her very fascinating to him. It is helpful to have all the right components for his purposes, but really, when he sees people, it is almost about making sculpture with photography and I think that when you come in and see the images in person you really see that there is a sculptural element.

RL: Now, you said you weren't afraid of being arrested, but certainly controversy swirled around him and the people in the exhibitions and the galleries that showed his work.

EH: Yes, in 1990, the year after he died, in Cincinnati the director was arrested with pandering and child pornography and that was really shocking and I believe that case has only been recently, but freedom of speech prevailed and the charges were dropped. But I think it is interesting to look back at that time which was only 15, 16 years ago and it seems quaint. I mean, the images that we are looking at aren't really so shocking. I don't know if we've changed, or the world has changed or what's happening. In some ways they look very elegant and classical, but in other ways they look very taint and quaint."

So go judge for yourself, but I do think the two more modest S&M males chained and bound will still shock even Sin City visitors!

$KYHIGH REAL E$TATE
Wall Street bankers calculate that Harrah's actually paid $85 million per acre -- the richest in the world -- for its recent acquisition of the Barbary Coast property, although that doesn't frighten the money men, because they say it completes a massive 350-acre land assemblage to rival MGM's mere 86-acre site for Project City Center across the Strip. Incidentally, MGM has just set prices in the four condo developments in its five towers there and rise to as high as $8-million!

SUPER CHEF CONGRATS

The Super Chefs of Vegas (LEFT: Joel Robuchon. CENTER: Guy Savoy. RIGHT: Wolfgang Puck.)

Two Strip restaurants and one of our favorite chefs have just won the prestigious "best new restaurant" awards from Esquire Magazine: Joel Robuchon at MGM Grand, Guy Savoy from Caesars Palace. Our friend Wolfgang Puck's new CUT restaurant in Beverly Hills, which will get its first outpost in The Venetian's new Palazzo Tower in 2007, also got the nod! Notorious food critic John Mariani wrote: "Wolfgang Puck seemed an unlikely candidate to open another revolutionary restaurant like Spago or Chinois on Main yet, by the time I was halfway through my meal, I knew this was the best new restaurant to open in the U.S. this year. The sweeping two-tier space glows with stars (the celestial kind) twinkling through a dramatic slice of skylight and stars (the Hollywood kind) tucked away in the sought-after booths with a menu that includes all the exceptional USDA prime cuts -- aged either 21 or 35 days -- as well as true Japanese Wagyu beef. Cut reasserts that when Puck puts his mindto it, no one else in America can create such excitement in a restaurant. Shame on us for doubting."

Of Guy Savoy's restaurant at Caesars, Mariani wrote: "This, his first stateside foray in 20-years, is a tour de force designed to compare in every respect with his namesake Paris original. And greater love hath no man than to send his only son, Franck, to manage his restaurant. The thirty-foot-high entrance is happily distant from the cacophony of the Caesars Palace casino, and once you're inside, the frenzy of Vegas is replaced by a calming sophistication. And so it progresses, one stunning achievement after the next, as many as you desire, for as long as you want to keep nibbling."

Mariani wrote of Joel Robuchon: "More than once pronounced the world's greatest chef. But his eponymous new restaurant -- one of the most expensive in the U. S., with menus at $360 per person and an a la carte lobster dish alone at $135 -- proves that he's lost none of his fire to compete with the best of the best. The cooking is dazzling but until you dine here, you won't know how good French cuisine can be. Its one of the "most exciting places to dine right now. From breathtaking decor meant to evoke 1930s Paris to a menu that exceeds all expectations, Joël Robuchon is an experience not to be forgotten." Robuchon commented: "Las Vegas has become one of the culinary capitals of the world, and I am happy to play a role in this continued evolution." Gamal Aziz, president of MGM Grand, added: "Chef Robuchon represents the best in the world ofculinary arts. It is fitting that he would receive this distinction at a time when Las Vegas, with MGM Grand leading the way, has truly become a world-class dining destination."

COOL EXPERIENCES
Hypnotist Anthony Cools returns to his own newly-renovated, 240-seat theater at the Paris resort hotel tomorrow night and will then launch a new French-themed, topless variety show for late night, just before New Years Eve. Using bawdy comedy, the hypnotist encourages his audiences to fly free with their sexual fantasies and subconscious naughtiness while under his trance! It's a totally hysterical night of humor. Anthony tells me he's hiring 8 knockout beauties for his planned Boom Boom Cabaretroom not just to dance topless but also to perform various variety acts simultaneously!

WYNN'S WONDERS
Now that the BarbaryCoast has been sold to the giant Harrah's casino operation, people are asking what will happen to the 10-year original Drai's club there. Rumor has it that movie-producer owner Victor Drai will move his after-hours and supper disco to Steve Wynn's new Encore resort neighboring where he has his Tryst nightspot. There's even whispers that a glass-domed pool with a retractable roof might become a part of the new nightclub there. Meantime, new Morgan's Hard Rock honcho Matt Armstrong took Czech supermodel Petra Nemacova to Tryst in the Wynn where she kicked off her shoes to go barefoot dancing.

BEATLE BONANZA
On November 24 the Beatles first CD in over 20-years will be released and Luxe Life has the full "look and listen" report in an earlier posting. Click hear to view the video, the photos, the interviews with producers Sir George and Giles Martin and to listen to the audio pod-cast in a very unique and special presentation.

STRIP SCRIBBLES
Prince sat in on a surprise 4AM set at the House of Blues and finished it by throwing his guitar into the crowd. ... Donald Trump confirmed he and Steve Wynn have discussed a project in Atlantic City, but cautioned the talks are very preliminary. He added the project is big, extremely complex, and "could turn out to be nothing."

TONIGHT'S TIP
We sometimes don't scream loud enough for some of our resident headliner shows because, just like comfortable slippers, they're always here. So, make the extra effort and go laugh along with Rita Rudner at Harrah's, Carrot Top at the Luxor, George Wallace at the Flamingo or Louie Anderson at the Excalibur. If magic is a must, make it Penn & Teller at the Rio, Lance Burton at the Monte Carlo or Amazing Johnathan at the Sahara.

TOMORROW'S TEASE
It's the 20th anniversary of the hot and scandalously sexy 'Crazy Girls' at the Riviera and Luxe Life goes behind the scenes to meet the new dancers and for an exclusive photo tour of their new routines which will really push the exotic, erotic edge of the envelope on the Strip even further!

CONTACT US

You can expose your nice or naughty sides with an email to robinsvegas@aol.com To ensure you don't miss one exclusive eye-popping edition of gorgeous girls in the altogether click here or at the 'Alert Me' up top if you'd like to know the split-second we post the brand new Luxe Life.

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, besure to see Las Vegas Magazine in your hotel suite featuring a print edition of AOL Vegas Luxe Life.

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Stardust: 1958-2006; Prince Takes Over the Rio; Robert Mapplethorpe Exhibit Raises Eyebrows