Columnist Kate Maddox: Retracing LaPier’s lost weekend

Kate Maddox

Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2001 | 8:26 a.m.

Kate Maddox's column appears Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 259-2309 or kmaddox@lasvegassun.com.

Darcy LaPier made quite a pricey splash in Las Vegas over the weekend. You might remember LaPier as the on-again, off-again wife of Jean-Claude Van Damme (the couple filed for divorce and reconciled numerous times before finally splitting in 1999.) After deflating the Muscles from Brussels, LaPier met and married Mark Hughes, the fortysomething multimillionaire founder of Herbalife.

To make a long, "Dynasty"-esque story short, Hughes died in his sleep last year, and LaPier, a beauty queen from humble Oregonian beginnings, became the richest widow in America. And it appears she's having a little trouble figuring out what to do with all that cash. On Friday and Saturday night LaPier bunked with friends in a high-roller suite at Mirage and partied like a rock star.

By late Saturday more than a dozen empty bottles of Cristal (at $400 a pop) littered the room, where LaPier strolled comfortably in front of hotel employees while wearing little more than a tiny towel.

"It was out of control," one witness said. "She seemed out of it, to say the least."

"(She was) just sprawled out on the floor," another said.

LaPier, who also summoned some of the best hair and makeup people in town to her room to work on her and her entourage, finally managed to put on a $30,000 Versace Couture outfit (so short I hear it was an "I-see-London, I-see-France" kind of deal) and headed out late -- to Kokomo's, the rain forest-inspired chophouse downstairs.

Inspired by her father's movie, Jennifer Crystal held a decidedly more civilized fete at Hyatt Lake Las Vegas over the weekend. Crystal, the 28-year-old daughter of funnyman Billy Crystal, invited 15 pals to one of the resort's private Casbahs for her husband's birthday. The Casbah they selected was the same as the one used in "America's Sweethearts," most of which was shot on location at Lake Las Vegas. Billy Crystal wrote, produced and starred in the Julia Roberts/Catherine Zeta-Jones/John Cusack romantic comedy.

And just in case you thought big-budget movies didn't do anything for hotels in town -- besides cause major logistic headaches -- the number of Hyatt Lake Las Vegas customers has jumped a whopping 40 percent since the film's release last month.

The Stanley Cup paid a visit to Vegas this weekend, accompanied by Colorado Avalanche head coach Bob Hartley. Hartley toted the trophy around with him and his group of companions, which included Celine Dion's table-loving hubby Rene Angelil, as he made the scene at Caesars Palace. Hartley and the team's other managers and coaches were at the property for a conference. The group later got in a round of golf -- no word on how the Cup played.

Monti Rock III is out at the San Remo. Just when he'd finally talked a property into hosting his one-man show about ... well, no one's really sure what it's about, but the flamboyant Rock had a falling out with management, reportedly over marketing issues. Not to worry, though, as rumor has it "Midnight with Monti" will be resuscitated at Olio! as a one-time only deal.

Got a sneak peek at Venus on Wednesday night. The soon-to-open Venetian lounge is decidedly Old Vegas and will be a huge draw for nightclubbers hoping get away from bars fitting that tired, old "sleek, upscale, chic" description. Venus boasts an authentic tiki bar with hand-carved wooden fixtures, a dance floor with windows facing the Mirage volcano across the Strip and a stunning mural of the 1950s-era Vegas in the cocktail lounge. Venus is set to open Sept. 15.