Columnist Kate Maddox: Hollywood puts Riviera in a bind

Kate Maddox

Friday, Feb. 25, 2000 | 9:06 a.m.

Kate Maddox's column appears Fridays, Sundays and Tuesdays, only in the Las Vegas Sun. Reach her at kmaddox@vegas.com. To subscribe to the Sun, call 383-0400.

The Riviera hotel-casino was in a bit of an awkward situation: It needed to decide whether to cater to Hollywood, or to a loyal casino high-roller.

"3,000 Miles to Graceland," the Kevin Costner picture scheduled to begin filming here in a couple of weeks, ends with a climactic rooftop helicopter escape after a casino robbery. The problem was, in order to keep hotel guests out of harm's way, the entire 29th floor of the Riv would have to be evacuated during filming.

The hotel's top floor is home to its swanky high-roller suites. The scheduled day for shooting the risky chopper scene unfortunately coincides with weekend festivities for one of the casino's big-time gamblers. It seems that this particular guest returns to the Riviera each year for his birthday celebration and he buys out the entire floor for his friends and family.

This posed a difficult choice for the diplomatic folks at the hotel: bow to the movie folks -- whose project will be great for casino exposure -- or stay true to an annual event that is both good politics and good for business.

The Riviera is sticking with their high-rolling birthday boy.

The producers of the movie, who have made a couple of difficult demands already (including wanting to shoot in the casino from 7 p.m. to midnight -- prime business hours), might not be happy with the hotel's choice of catering to gaming clients rather than big-budget Hollywood. The movie people are working on a Christmas release for the film, which makes scheduling tight, but to get the real deal for a movie, there have to be compromises.

In other movie news, Las Vegas appears to have snagged another A-list film for production in town. "The Mexican," starring Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, will use Vegas as a backdrop for portions of the movie. The plot revolves around Pitt completing one last questionable deed in his profession -- he plays a shifty hit man -- before he marries frustrated girlfriend Roberts.

"The Sopranos" star James Gandolfini has also just signed on for the project, which is scheduled to start shooting in May. Las Vegas will be a home away from home for Pitt and Roberts, however: The two will also be in town around the same time co-starring in the Rat Pack remake "Oceans Eleven."

The hit show "Chicago" closes its doors on Sunday and there is still no word from Mandalay Bay as to what will be the replacement show at the hotel's 1,700-seat theater.

Until a decision is reached, however, the word from casino management is that the showroom will be made available to interested headliners passing through town and it will also be open for convention business.

Sources tell me that the Disney production "The Lion King" is still the front-runner in talks to pick a permanent replacement for "Chicago," but a final selection won't be made until late March.

TV insiders and entertainment attorneys are buzzing about possible legal fallout resulting from the "Multimillionaire" debacle. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch in today's litigious atmosphere for bride Darva Conger to sue Fox for letting her marry a bozo like Rick Rockwell. After all, it was their shoddy investigating that allowed her to unknowingly tie the knot with an accused girlfriend abuser. I can see the "Ally McBeal" episode now.

Conger also admitted to Diane Sawyer on "Good Morning America" that she intends to return the $35,000 ring given to her by her husband -- or by Fox, since the network actually picked up the tab.

The diamond ring was custom-made by local jeweler Michael Minden, whose store on West Sahara also opened its doors to the five finalists, who were each awarded $2,500 gift certificates as prizes. Minden is hoping that Conger will try to make the best of an unpleasant gift-giving situation and he has offered to turn the ring into a pendant for the soon-to-be-single-again bride.

He has yet to hear from Conger, who was also awarded, but has yet to receive, a new Isuzu Trooper. But he hopes that his handiwork won't become an unhappy reminder of an astonishingly bad decision on the bride's part. Either way, the jeweler should be happy that his ring is getting so much media exposure.