Columnist Kate Maddox: Serious staff carnage at Channel 3

Kate Maddox

Friday, Jan. 28, 2000 | 9:47 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 recent shake-ups at KVBC Channel 3 left most of the staff tight-lipped and fearing for their jobs -- and, as it turns out, with good reason.

Sources report that over the past 60 days, between 25 and 30 station employees were either fired, resigned or transferred. Most of the departures occurred during December, around the same time that popular anchor Rikki Cheese made headlines with her dismissal.

With a staff totaling somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 people, this mass overhaul obviously signifies that something is up. One person close to the situation, however, indicated that the worst is behind them and that those workers who managed to hang onto their jobs through the upheaval can now breathe a sigh of relief.

Rumors floating around concerning reasons for some of the firings have ranged from monkey business with the accounting books to interoffice hanky panky to temper tantrums, but no employees will comment or confirm the stories for fear of professional repercussions.

One thing no one can deny is the timing of the staff overhaul with the naming of station owner Jim Rogers as a candidate for interim school superintendent -- a position that is in desperate need of filling. Rogers, a media mogul who is president of Sunbelt Communications, offered his services to the school board, but no decision has been made to date.

A source close to Rogers was recently heard commenting on the fact that now that the boss has "cleaned house," he can be superintendent. We'll have to wait and see.

Attention Elvis impersonators: Call your agents and dust off your blue suede shoes. The new Kurt Russell/Kevin Costner flick, "3,000 Miles to Graceland," is set to start shooting here in the next few weeks and some of the scenes will revolve around life at an Elvis impersonator convention.

Russell will play a guy posing as the King who is attending the event but who is secretly plotting to rob the Riviera hotel -- where the convention will be taking place. And we can guess that it will be Costner's job to try and stop him.

Dennis Rodman, who was this close to ending up as a permanent resident in the "where are they now" file, will attempt to re-launch his career in a new syndicated series set in Las Vegas.

Reports out of Hollywood say that Rodman is set to star with former WWF star Sable -- who now goes by her real name, Rena Mero -- in an action-adventure show called "The Consultants."

The former L.A. Laker will play a role perfectly suited to his high-profile persona. Rodman, known for his "brilliant" life choices (take, for example, his ill-planned quickie marriage to Carmen Electra and goofing away a multimillion-dollar career in the NBA), will star as a genius strategist who has a bullet lodged in his head, apparently the result of a stint in Bosnia where the "genius" spent time in the military.

Rodman, Mero and other former sports heros who spent a little time in the celebrity limelight at some point or other will fight crime and solve mysteries on the Strip. The show is in the planning stages now. No debut date has been set.

Although 18 Las Vegas restaurants walked away with honors at the first annual Las Vegas Life Epicurean Awards on Wednesday night, the real star of the show was the emcee -- Clint Holmes.

The crowd of almost 300 -- which included chefs and representatives from some of the finest eateries in town -- couldn't stop talking about what a fabulous job the debonair Holmes did as he introduced the winners and kept the evening flowing smoothly. He chatted up the winners and joked with the guests, surprising the event's planners with his witty ability to keep the crowd attentive.

Look for Holmes to be back at next year's awards and, in the meantime, catch him in his new show at Harrah's.

No, that wasn't your imagination, that really was international supermodel Heidi Klum playing on the slot machines at the Stardust Wednesday night. Klum was in town posing at various casinos for a spread in fashion mag Marie Claire.