Columnist Kate Maddox: Hopper hopping over to Ra

Kate Maddox

Tuesday, April 11, 2000 | 9:12 a.m.

Jimmy Hopper, formerly the star act at the Rio's VooDoo Lounge, is about to take up residence at another Strip property. Starting May 2, Hopper and his band will be at the Showroom at Ra, at the Luxor hotel-casino.

The hotel is hoping that its nightclub crowd will turn up a couple of hours earlier than usual and warm up with Hopper, who left the Rio at the end of January.

Hopper's music, a collection of hits by artists ranging from Sinatra to Sting, packed in the crowds at the VooDoo Lounge and all bets are on the same thing happening at Ra. Hopper plans to infuse his show with everything from rock to opera, to Broadway and classical. He'll be returning with two new band members, bringing the group total to six, including himself.

Hopper, who has only been performing in town for a little over a year, was unsure whether he had made the right move when he turned down the Rio's offer of a 2 1/2-year contract extension at VooDoo, but with his new headliner status at Ra, he's now certain that holding out for a new offer was the smart choice.

"I didn't want to be roped in to the category of 'lounge singer,' " the singer admits, "I was hoping that a deal like this one would come along and I can't wait to begin." Hopper has signed on for at least 20 weeks, but the plan calls for an indefinite run.

For all of you Titanic junkies out there, thank your lucky stars for the dedicated folks at the Titanic Exhibition at the Rio. The exhibit, which has some new, never-before-seen artifacts fresh from the restoration project on display, will be open all night Friday so that those of you who MUST celebrate the 88th anniversary of the ship's sinking can have a safe haven with other Titanic-lovers.

Why be alone when the clocks strikes 11:40 p.m. -- the actual time the "unsinkable" ship hit that iceberg -- when you can share the moment with fellow addicts, admiring recovered items including: a porthole, a gold wristwatch, clothes, jewelry, double water faucets, a silver dish, handwritten and typed letters, and more?

Hang in there until 2:20 a.m. and you will have waited out the time that it took for the actual ship to sink. The exhibit, which has been open since November, is expected to remain in Las Vegas at the Rio until the end of the year.

Shooting for the season's final episode of CBS' "Nash Bridges" will take place in Las Vegas next week. Show stars Don Johnson, Cheech Marin and former "Baywatch" beauty Yasmine Bleeth will be filming scenes at the Desert Inn and the Mirage. The cop dramedy, which is usually set in San Francisco, follows the adventures of a streetwise cop (Johnson,) and his smart-alecky partner (Marin.)

In other Las Vegas TV news, it looks like there might be a new show in the works for Fox based on a character who is an undercover cop by day and ... magician by night?? (Like I said, it's Fox.)

The show, which is already in the scripting stages, will be produced by the same people who brought the world "Magnum P.I." and "The Fall Guy." However, I think those two successful series would have suffered a worse fate had Tom Selleck or Lee Majors spent their down-time pulling rabbits out of hats or making tigers disappear.