Columnist Kate Maddox: Lake enjoys ‘Sweetheart’ deal

Kate Maddox

Friday, Feb. 9, 2001 | 9:44 a.m.

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

Field trip, anyone? Although security out at the swank Lake Las Vegas Resort is pretty tight, it's still probably your best bet for spotting celebs this weekend. The Hyatt Regency is playing host to the cast of "America's Sweethearts," a romantic comedy starring John Cusack, Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Billy Crystal.

On Tuesday Zeta-Jones and hubby Michael Douglas, Hollywood's new power couple, reportedly hit the Lake Las Vegas links with pal Sean Connery. Connery isn't in the movie and neither is Douglas, but both are golf nuts and the former 007 hit it off with Zeta-Jones when they starred as lovers (I didn't buy it, either) in 1999's "Entrapment."

A loose-lipped member of Reflection Bay's restaurant waitstaff says the whole cast has been nice and friendly. The leaker also mentioned the production team has been so pleased with service at Lake Las Vegas, they've reserved one of the restaurants for a big cast welcoming party on Saturday night.

The movie, scheduled for a Fourth of July release, focuses on Zeta-Jones and Cusack as a picture-perfect Hollywood couple who have just split but still need to promote a new movie together. Their publicist, played by Crystal, has to convince the press that everything's rosy in Tinseltown.

What with the recent big breakups (Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid, Harrison Ford and Melissa Mathison, Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin, and most recently Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman) the movie could be the timely comic relief fans have been waiting for.

Speaking of Tom and Nicole, divorce papers filed by Cruise in Los Angeles on Wednesday state the couple have been separated since December, which sheds a curious light on their merry post-Christmas Vegas vacation. Those who saw the two during their visit say they appeared happy. The only glitch was having to miss a Van Morrison concert on New Year's Eve at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel.

At the eleventh hour hotel staff was alerted the couple wouldn't be attending after all -- one of their kids was sick and they had to get back to L.A.

Those "Steffi Graf is pregnant" stories making the rounds on sports talk radio are the result of a mailer being sent out to news organizations. Most won't run the "breaking story" because no one will confirm anything. A call to Andre Agassi's local office elicited this shocking statement: "We don't respond to rumors and that's really all it is. So, no comment."

Venetian President Rob Goldstein confirms there are plenty of interested parties looking to bring Broadway to the Strip, but he also says there's little hope of getting them into the C2K Showroom. Reports elsewhere have hinted that C2K would be home to a Broadway-style show.

"Of course we want people to see the best entertainment at our hotel," Goldstein said earlier this week. "But the Venetian doesn't own or operate C2K and that limits what we can do ... But I do get a lot of calls from interested parties who definitely want to be here (producing big shows)."

Unfortunately, the Venetian has to abide by a lengthy and pricey lease deal it signed with H & H of Nevada. The agreement essentially prevents the hotel from having a say in what ends up going into the showroom.

So forget reworking C2K. The real scoop here is that the Venetian will add a multimillion-dollar showroom of its very own in its upcoming $900-million expansion project. Goldstein wouldn't quite confirm that news, but he did give me a coy "maybe." A $20-million room wouldn't be out of the question if it would mean bringing a big-name Broadway show to town.