Columnist Kate Maddox: Caesars to close Circus Maximus

Kate Maddox

Friday, March 10, 2000 | 9:03 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.

Come Sept. 1 Caesars Palace will no longer have a venue for headliners. The Circus Maximus showroom is scheduled to close and will either be completely overhauled or moved to another location altogether. Caesars will only say that it is not booking acts past the first of September, and that the plans are in the early stages and no final decisions have been made at this point. But insiders are saying that the hotel-casino is in the throes of some major changes.

Another shake-up in the works will be the remodeling of the Magical Empire, which houses a magic-related dinner show. Plans are not yet confirmed, but the idea is to turn the space into a large "upscale" nightclub, a la the Venetian's C2K or something to that effect. The buffet, which is adjacent to the Magical Empire, will also be "enlarged and improved."

In addition, the Bacchanal will shortly be closing down and the Noodle Shop restaurant will take over the space. Employees of the Bacchanal have already been told of the changes to come. The Asian Noodle Shop is currently part of the Cafe Roma.

But the most significant change will be the exit of the 1,000-seat Circus Maximus, which has been one of Vegas' premiere "big rooms" for years. Some of the most well-known names in entertainment, including Smokey Robinson, Hall & Oates, Gladys Knight, Chicago, Huey Lewis, Tony Bennett and Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme, have appeared there over the years.

Reports out of Caesars indicate that the hotel may try to put some of the headliners in the hotel's Palace Ballroom as an alternative, but the bookings there might conflict with previously scheduled ballroom events. Either way, look for major changes at the Strip property come the fall.

MTV's coming back to town. The music/television network took a liking to Vegas last year and has scheduled more events to be taped here over the next couple of weeks.

The Carson Daly-hosted show "TRL," or "Total Request Live," will be at Fremont Street on Saturday afternoon to kick off the network's annual Spring Break festivities. Look for the band No Doubt to perform and also keep an eye out for celebrity appearances -- MTV has hinted that there might be a couple of surprise visits.

Also, on March 22, MTV will hold a "Real World"/"Road Rules" reunion show at the Joint at the Hard Rock. Scouts are looking for about 300 16-to-25-year-olds to fill the venue for the afternoon and to ask questions of the former cast members.

The ShoWest convention has drawn some big Hollywood stars to the Paris Las Vegas hotel-casino this week. On Wednesday Sony Pictures wowed theater owners and conventioneers with celebrities galore including: Sandra Bullock, Mel Gibson (touting his new action pic "The Patriot"); Matt Damon and Billy Bob Thornton (who co-stars in the movie adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's best seller "All the Pretty Horses"); Arnold Schwarzenegger; and the new "Charlie's Angels" girls, Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore -- who was awarded the Comedy Star of the Year award at Thursday night's ShoWest awards ceremony.

Not missing a chance to pass up the ultimate Vegas experience during their stay, Damon, Thornton and actress Elisabeth Shue took in Wayne Newton's show at the Stardust on Wednesday night. The trio took the time to hit the Newton souvenir shop outside the showroom and when they went back stage to greet Mr. Las Vegas after the show, they had plenty of paraphernalia for him to sign.

Another Newton note: The singer spent the latter part of this week filming a commercial for Miller Lite. The spot, which was shot at the Stardust and said to be quite funny, is scheduled to air in about four to six weeks.