Columnist Kate Maddox: Nightclub guru fesses up for HBO

Kate Maddox

Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2000 | 9:42 a.m.

Kate Maddox's column appears Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at kmaddox@ lasvegassun.com.

One local celebrity-fringe inhabitant will soon have some of his private bedroom habits aired for the world to see. Nightclub impresario John D. Guzman was caught on tape by HBO when the cable spies were last in town to shoot scenes for the reality-based "Taxicab Confessions" series.

Guzman, the wunderkind who runs "Naked Hollywood" club night, is never one to shy away from free publicity, but word is this "confession" gave him pause.

Guzman and his girlfriends (yes, that's plural) were picked up late one evening by a taxi at the Olympic Gardens strip club. The nosy cabbie then got Guzman and his lovely female escorts to, uh, open up about what they had planned for later in the evening. (By the way, if you've never seen the show, the cabdrivers delve into their passengers' lives, digging for salacious material. Makes for good, if not a tad troubling, television.)

Well, blah, blah and a few dirty details later, the driver then sprung a release form on the group, enticing them to sign on the dotted line and have their lives revealed on HBO.

Guzman hesitated and refused to sign, apparently wanting a better deal for himself and his party. In what might have been a snazzy business/PR move, the young club guru managed to put HBO in a predicament. Needy for juicy Vegas vignettes, the producers allegedly forked over some cash to Guzman to air his story. Satisfied, he signed.

Catch Guzman and more of our city's finest when they take a ride in "Taxicab Confessions" later this fall.

And speaking of Las Vegas residents getting TV time: Producers, along with correspondent Keith Morrison of "Dateline NBC" spent Saturday with Rick Tabish and Sandy Murphy. The duo, who were sentenced Friday for the murder of Ted Binion, were interviewed for a "Dateline" special set to air later this year.

"Moral Court," a new show from the creators of "The People's Court," is looking for people stuck in sticky ethical situations. Although the show is being filmed in Los Angeles, producers are coming to Las Vegas to cast the real-life contestants. What? Like we're more morally challenged than L.A.?

The battle for righteousness will take place in a mock courtroom, with a mock judge, and the person who acts the most moral has an opportunity to walk away with anywhere from $500 to $2,000 -- just for being upstanding.

A local radio station will soon have the details of where and when all of you sticklers can sign up for the chance to be right, and get paid for it. Stay tuned.

The cast of "Ocean's Eleven" has been shuffled slightly. The Rat Pack redo, which is being touted as one of the hottest scripts in Hollywood, will be shot in Las Vegas, but don't look for hottie Mark Wahlberg. The star had to drop the project to begin work on yet another remake, "Planet of the Apes."

Not to worry, however. Matt Damon has expressed interest in the role abandoned by Calvin Klein's former poster boy. Damon would join Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Julia Roberts, who are already on board.

Call me a cynic, but the rumored relationship between Helen Hunt and Kevin Spacey sounds like a well-orchestrated PR move. The Oscar-winning duo shot most of their latest film, "Pay It Forward," in Las Vegas, and some gossip rags now have the couple falling in love on the set. Seems to me as though the recently separated Hunt (whose July '99 marriage to Hank Azaria crashed and burned in a year) and the sexually ambiguous Spacey put their heads together (and probably nothing more) to hatch a little romance plan, conveniently timed with the release of their newest movie. Just a guess.