Columnist Kate Maddox: ‘Puffy’ goes poof, so does Chung in LV

Kate Maddox

Monday, Jan. 3, 2000 | 9:51 a.m.

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

The Las Vegas millennium celebration turned out to be a much quieter affair than anyone imagined it would be, despite precautions taken by local hotels such as Caesars, which erected a fence around their property, and the Mirage, which greased the trees out front in order to discourage climbers. And most of the celebrities to hit the Strip were headliners at their own shows, or were already in town working on other projects.

Even Sean "Puffy" Combs and Jennifer Lopez opted out of a much-rumored Las Vegas wedding celebration. The stories floating around town had the couple -- who were recently arrested by NYC police after cops found a 9mm gun in their car following a nightclub shooting -- arriving in Vegas just in time to tie the knot at (A): a secluded off-Strip wedding chapel (B): one of the Bellagio's ballrooms or (C): a nightclub wedding/party at the Venetian's C2K as the clock struck midnight.

And even though reporters from entertainment, music and tabloid magazines descended on Vegas at the last minute just in case the couple did make it here, it was not to be.

Puffy chose to party with MTV at their Times Square bash, and Lopez was nowhere to be found. So much for the rumors.

Las Vegas missed ABC's coverage of the millennium here with broadcaster Connie Chung due to local news pre-empting national coverage during the last couple of hours before the countdown. Chung, who was stationed at the Bellagio, interviewed Mayor Oscar Goodman. And the promised live feed of a song or two from the Barbra Streisand concert was also unavailable to locals.

Those of you unwilling to shell out the big bucks to catch the singer in concert at the MGM shouldn't fret, however. Rumor has it that there will soon be a CD and possibly even a home video of the highest-grossing New Year's concert.

Streisand did personally accommodate a handful of special friends, Joe Torre among them. Babs offered the New York Yankees manager four prime tickets to her New Year's show.

On the nonmillennial front, rumors about greediness at Disney sprang up recently as the multimedia giant launched the release of the updated animated classic "Fantasia/2000."

The buzz from movie chain owners had Disney strong-arming its way into the nation's coveted IMAX theaters. Disney insisted that chains with the special theaters book "Fantasia/2000" on an exclusive basis for four months -- or else risk not getting regular Disney company films, which are consistent box office heavy hitters.

Most of the theaters complied, with the exception of one or two in Los Angeles, which claimed to be too jammed with other films to hold the movie for such a long run. No matter, Disney went ahead and built its own temporary IMAX in L.A. to the tune of a reported $4 million, just to show "Fantasia/2000."

The animated adventure began its four-month run at the IMAX theater in the Luxor on Saturday.

Actor Danny Glover, who recently launched a much-publicized crusade against New York City taxicab companies -- he claims cabbies resist picking up minority passengers -- was the subject of a story floating around town last week. The star of the "Lethal Weapon" movies was apparently an unhappy camper on a recent L.A.-to-Las Vegas flight on National Airlines.

Passengers reported that Glover allegedly made quite a ruckus from his seat in first class. Apparently the actor was trying to make a connecting flight and time was running out, so he did what any demanding celebrity might do when faced with such a situation: He demanded that the pilots speed up the plane.

Glover felt that the 757 wasn't traveling fast enough, and he asked the flight attendant to please tell the pilots to step on it. When his request was refused, the actor reportedly didn't quit his quarrel without giving the attendants a bit of a talking-to. Some passengers report that when the flight crew got firm with the actor about his behavior, cheers and applause rang out from travelers in coach. Glover could not be reached for comment.

If popularity was measured by the number of invites received for New Year's parties, illusionists Siegfried and Roy would win the prize -- hands down. The pair received more than 1,400 invitations to millennial bashes all around the world.

But, despite the astonishing demand for their presence, S&R had a prior commitment and turned them all down -- they were performing their regular sell-out show at the Mirage on New Year's Eve.