Columnist Kate Maddox: Apple no longer part of the ‘Pack’

Kate Maddox

Tuesday, Feb. 29, 2000 | 9:13 a.m.

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

Not all of the original gang is returning to "The Rat Pack Is Back," as previously reported.

Steve Apple, who played the Dean Martin character in the popular show's original run at the Desert Inn, has decided not to return when the show re-opens in the Congo Room at the Sahara hotel-casino in March.

Apple, who said his choice not to return was a "business decision," works as Groucho Marx at Universal Studios in Hollywood -- where he entertains crowds along the theme park's tour route.

Apple says that he had been willing to rejoin the "Rat Pack" because he loves his old castmates and truly enjoyed working with them, but he said that when the show closed at the Desert Inn, most of the gang was promised the opportunity to do the show again at another larger venue -- and Apple presumably assumed that that would mean more substantial "allowances." He found out that wouldn't necessarily be the case and, although he was in talks to return, he ultimately decided that his Universal gig would be the better ticket.

Both the Sahara and co-producer David Cassidy were saying as recently as a couple of weeks ago that the full original cast was slated to return for the show's second-coming, but it looks like that won't be the case.

According to the hotel, the role of Dean Martin will be played by Rick Michael, Apple's understudy at the Desert Inn. Apple, meanwhile, wishes the crew "the best of luck" and says he'll miss the cast as well as working with Cassidy, whom he described as "talented" and "full of show-biz knowledge."

Wayne Newton was awarded a Lifetime Musical Achievement Award on Saturday night by the First Americans in the Arts Association.

The award is bestowed upon "Native artists whose talent has, in a fundamental way, advanced the art of music; and whose accomplishments and body of work have been acknowledged by critics, professional peers and the Native American community." Sounds like Mr. Las Vegas.

Newton, who refers to his Indian heritage in his show quite a bit, accepted the award on tape during a performance earlier this week. The tape was played to the audience at the First Americans Eighth Annual Awards Ceremony.

After giving thanks for the recognition, Newton -- who is one-quarter Powahatan and one-quarter Cherokee -- sang "The Impossible Dream" to the audience.

This is Newton's second recognition from the folks at First Americans. He was honored at their ceremony last year in the category of "Outstanding Guest Actor in a TV series," for his turn as a misogynist shock-jock on Fox's "Ally McBeal."

Fox Searchlight Pictures will be one of the studios holding a meet-and-greet cocktail hour to promote its films and actors when the ShoWest convention comes to town next week.

Searchlight will be parading hot Spanish actress Penelope Cruz, who stars in "Women on Top," as well as Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley, who stars in Fox's upcoming movie "Sexy Beast." Cruz's last picture, "All About My Mother," took home the best foreign film honor at this month's Golden Globe Awards.

Grammy Award-winning singer Natalie Cole will be entertaining a private audience of about 13,500 at Thomas & Mack Center tonight. Cole is part of a celebration hosted by the Las Vegas-based corporation Profitscape. The rather large "private" party will help launch the company's new venture, eNET30. For those who are, like me, Internet illiterate, this start-up techie promotion has something to do with facilitating e-commerce business on the World Wide Web. If they're doing well enough to rent out the arena and hire Cole, we can assume that Profitscape must know what they're talking about.

Mandalay Bay is currently interviewing candidates for their entertainment director position. The main slot, which was vacated when former Vice President of Entertainment Joel Fischman departed last month, is currently being filled internally, but the big post is still up for grabs. Whoever lands the position will have the task of making sure the new show replacing "Chicago" gets off without a hitch.