Columnist Kate Maddox: Celine Dion keeps busy schedule in Las Vegas

Kate Maddox

Tuesday, Dec. 14, 1999 | 8:41 a.m.

Kate Maddox's column appears Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays, only in the Las Vegas Sun. Reach her at kmaddox@vegas.com.

Celine Dion and her husband-manager, Rene Angelil, were among the guests at Saturday night's introductory gala performance of impressionist Andre-Philippe Gagnon at the Venetian. Dion, after welcoming guests, took a seat in the back of the showroom. Toward the end of the hour-and-a-half performance -- during which Gagnon impersonated celebrities including Barry White, Elvis, the Rat Pack and the Beatles -- the audience was abuzz with rumors of a live performance with Gagnon and Dion.

After all, one would think: She's there, in the audience, promoting one of her husband's clients who has just embarked on a lengthy Vegas stay at one of the Strip's most popular hotels. Why wouldn't she get up and join him for a song?

Unfortunately, it was not to be and the decision had been made a day or so before the party. It seems that Dion was feeling a little pooped after a long week of live performances, including one at last week's "Billboard Music Awards" on Wednesday, followed by the "Tonight Show" on Thursday.

So instead of a live show, the audience -- which included Steven Seagal, David and Sue Cassidy, ex-"Law & Order" star Jill Hennessey, Kevin Sorbo and some of the hotel's top brass -- was treated to a video duet. Dion's taped image filled monitors set up around the stage and the two performers sang side by side ... sort of.

The video had actually been in the works for quite a few weeks. Gagnon will add the duet to his nightly show. The song, "All the Way," is on Dion's new album and she duets, not with Gagnon but -- through the magic of technology -- with the late Frank Sinatra.

Dion still has more on her plate to accomplish before her "retirement" at the end of the year.

Dion announced on Monday's "Rosie O'Donnell Show" (airing on KLAS Channel 8 at 3 p.m.), that she and her husband are "more in love than ever" and plan to renew their wedding vows in an elaborate ceremony at Caesars Palace.

The wedding will be a big Arabian-themed affair complete with live camels and a turban-sporting groom -- Dion plans to wear a gold metal dress. The 250 guests will also participate in the Arabian theme, dressing in costumes and dining on Middle Eastern delicacies.

Dion and Angelil won't specify the exact date of the wedding renewal, but Dion did say that it will be the "last event" she will participate in before taking her much-anticipated two-year hiatus.

Turns out that the buzz on the "Oceans 11" remake is right on the money. The script of the Rat Pack classic is in the re-write phase of development, and the movie will be produced by Hollywood honcho Jerry Weintraub for Warner Bros.

Look for portions of the film to be shot here in Vegas at one of the Mirage properties. Weintraub is a good friend of Mirage Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn.

More than 600 people turned out on Sunday night at the Four Seasons to roast Mayor Oscar Goodman and benefit Temple Beth Shalom.

Highlights from the evening's festivities included a hilarious rendition of a phony "interview" between Mike Wallace of "60 Minutes" and the mayor.

Wallace and the team from the news program, which recently aired an interview with Goodman to update one Wallace had done in the '80s, dummied up a new interview using outtakes from the real one-on-ones and edited together a very funny conversation with the mayor.

Henry Lewin, Rep. Shelley Berkley, Robert De Niro, Sen. Richard Bryan, Wayne Newton, Judge Mills Lane and many, many more (the party ran late into the night) had good-humored fun mocking the mayor and his past life as a mob attorney.

The event raised more than $200,000 for the temple -- $22,000 of which came from Goodman's law partner, David Chesnoff, who splurged at the live auction on a trip to the vineyards of France.

Despite a handful of misinformed rumor spreaders, Siegfried and Roy are not retiring when Danny Gans opens his show at the Mirage in January.

Gans is getting his own theater, and no one is replacing the magicians -- who are currently on tour in Australia promoting their IMAX 3-D movie "The Magic Box" -- until their contract is up in 2002.

And when that day comes, rumor has it Siegfried and Roy will be replaced by a new Cirque du Soleil show, this one featuring fire instead of water -- as "O" currently does at the Bellagio.