Columnist Kate Maddox: Showroom to become pricey suites

Kate Maddox

Tuesday, March 14, 2000 | 9:49 a.m.

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

In a town where entertainment and high rollers vie for attention from big-name casinos, the closing of the Caesars Palace Circus Maximus showroom will ultimately be a coup for the gamblers.

Instead of housing headliners, the space currently occupied by Circus Maximus will soon become home to some of Vegas' most luxurious and high-priced suites. A spokesperson for Caesars confirmed reports that the large showroom, which is adjacent to the hotel's casino area, will be torn down Sept. 1 and reconstructed as a "villa suites complex."

The high-roller suites will reportedly be larger and far more opulent than Caesars' current pricey pads. As of yet there is no confirmed timetable for the completion of the new rooms, but construction is set to begin in the early fall.

Reports indicate that a new spot for headliners isn't even in the plans and the hotel admitted that headliners will be without a permanent home at Caesars for quite some time.

This brings up the inevitable question of what will happen to the hotel's contracted headliners and regular performers. Caesars said that offers are being worked out with some of the acts and that the headliners will have the option of performing at Caesars' properties in Lake Tahoe or in Atlantic City. Chances are that big-name acts won't necessarily want to decamp to the north or across the country and the buzz is that Caesars may have to bite the bullet and pay out some hefty contracts.

The hotel confirmed that it is trying to be as accommodating to its loyal acts as possible, but that details on the decision to remove the showroom came swiftly and options are limited.

There is the chance that some acts may be re-routed to the hotel's new outdoor arena -- which hosted the Trinidad-Reid fight on March 3. Another option that the hotel is pushing would be for performers to utilize the Palace Ballroom, where singer Celine Dion recently put on one of her final pre-retirement concerts.

Either way, the closing of one of the Strip's oldest and most popular showrooms says a lot about the changes that are happening around town.

On Monday Gladys Knight put in an appearance at Planet Hollywood to help promote her new show at Caesars, "Smokey Joe's Cafe."

Knight was there to immortalize her hand prints in cement for display at the restaurant and to mix it up with the local press. The singer, whose new show will spotlight the songwriting of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, has lived in Las Vegas for 23 years and said that she is "always delighted" when she can work in town for a long stretch of time. The "Smokey Joe's" run begins Wednesday and goes through June 11.

Knight didn't stick around long enough to watch some touristy-types shake their booties -- not pretty -- in a shimmy contest. Two of the "Smokey Joe's" stars led the gang in a brief lesson.

On Wednesday's opening night, look for Mayor Oscar Goodman to make a surprise appearance in the show. Goodman will take the stage to help the cast complete their rendition of Leiber and Stoller's "Charlie Brown." He's scheduled to fill in the "why is everybody always pickin' on me" line.

Celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse will do a live cooking segment for "Good Morning America" on Friday to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Lagasse and the GMA folks are looking for about 100 people to fill in the studio audience at Delmonico's Steakhouse at the Venetian. Two tips: wear green and be a morning person -- the taping starts at 4 a.m.

Busta Rhymes is out, Ice-T is in. In what was already a questionable casting call, the producers of the Vegas-based "3,000 Miles to Graceland" have taken out Rhymes and inserted T -- whose most recent acting gig has been a recurring role on Pamela Anderson Lee's private-eye-meets-"Baywatch" romp, "V.I.P."