Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: LVMS wants Spears to rev up race fans

Britney Spears might sing the national anthem at the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 7.

The pop princess is performing March 6 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

"As soon as that date was announced, we reached out to her," track spokesman Jeff Motley told VegasBeat on Monday.

With a live audience of 140,000 and a national television audience, the gig could provide positive exposure for Spears.

Of course, Spears' most recent trip to Las Vegas, on New Year's Eve, caused a global media furor when she temporarily married childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander.

So far, Motley said, there's been no word from the 22-year-old superstar. Track officials remain hopeful, as the singer has a positive relationship with the track.

In June 2002 it was announced that she would co-produce and star in a movie where she would play the daughter of a NASCAR team owner who helps a driver who drops out of racing under mysterious circumstances.

Scenes from what was eventually titled "Trading Paint" were shot at the speedway in November of that year and again in March.

Also, Spears was twice spotted last year at the Las Vegas Richard Petty Driving Experience.

Ann Carli of the production company BSP Untitled, which produced Spears' first film, "Crossroads," said that the NASCAR film was proceeding as planned.

Rockin' Paris

The Queen musical "We Will Rock You," based on the songs of Freddie Mercury's influential Brit pop group, is coming to Las Vegas -- Paris Las Vegas, that is.

Sources at Tribeca Productions in New York -- whose principals are Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal -- told VegasBeat on Monday that the U.S. debut of the smash London production will not be on Broadway, but in Vegas.

Sources close to scribe Ben Elton, who penned the stage story, and a Paris hotel source both confirmed the information, adding that the show would open in mid-August, followed by a month of previews before a gala, red-carpet premiere in mid-September. That would mirror the opening schedule of "Zumanity," last year's big Cirque du Soleil production.

The coming stage spectacle tells the story of a future with no musical instruments, where music is all generated by computers and performed by all-girl and all-boy bands.

Surviving Queen players Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon have supported the production and are expected to attend the Vegas opening.

"We Will Rock You" opened on the West End in 2002.

The Paris source said that the future of its roster of rotating headliners -- including Wayne Brady, Olivia Newton-John, Dennis Miller, Dana Carvey, Kenny Loggins and Hall & Oates -- was not clear.

Franchise

CBS President Les Moonves said at a National Association of Television Program Executives event Sunday that the Tiffany Network is developing "CSI: New York."

The original "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," created by Las Vegan Anthony Zuiker and set in the city, is television's highest-rated show. The franchise also includes the spinoff, "CSI: Miami."

Hall bettor

Pete Rose may not be eligible for the baseball Hall of Fame, but what about the Casino Legends Hall of Fame, the depository of gaming history at the Tropicana? USA Today asked the question over the weekend, and so have we.

Founder and curator Steve Cutler told us Monday that he has received numerous calls from national media outlets asking about possibly including a display on Rose.

"He is not a casino legend. He may be a legend to a lot of bookmakers, but not to any Las Vegas casinos, at least none that we know about," Cutler said. "By our definition, he doesn't warrant induction. But maybe we ought to do it anyway.

"Can you imagine the kind of press we'd get out of it?"

The hall traces the history and development of Las Vegas as the world's premier casino resort destination.

The hall has 15,000 artifacts on display, and it has inducted headliners from Frank Sinatra to Siegfried & Roy and gaming pioneers from Benny Binion to Steve Wynn.

'Road' trip

The 120-foot-long paper scroll on which Beat Generation literary icon Jack Kerouac penned "On the Road" started a 13-stop, four-year, national library and college tour last week.

The scroll, which Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay bought for nearly $2.5 million a few years ago, will be on display at the Las Vegas Library on Las Vegas Boulevard North from March 24 to May 15, 2005.

VegasBits

Secret: Lisa Marie Presley has been booked to play at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay on March 6. Ticket details have not been announced ...

Another secret: Las Vegas talent rep and producer Jaki Baskow had a hush-hush meeting with Sylvester Stallone at Sly's Los Angeles digs last week. But she refused to tell us why -- for now ...

Return: Amazing Johnathan will return to the Golden Nugget, as had been expected. He signed the deal over the weekend and opens his familiar show in the downtown hotel's Theatre Ballroom at 10 p.m. Friday ...

Visit: The ABC daytime talker "The View" will broadcast poolside at Caesars Palace the week of Feb. 16-Feb. 20, the network said Monday. Hosts Star Jones, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Meredith Viera, plus show creator and star Barbara Walters, will be there. A Caesars spokesman said tickets would be available through the network's website, ABC.com ...

Sleuth: On Dec. 2 we reported that "rumors were flying" over the Thanksgiving weekend that Cirque du Soleil "had struck a deal in principle to open another Cirque show in The Mirage's Siegfried & Roy Theatre." The other gossip in town reported similar news Monday.

From Sun wires

Huge gift: The Salvation Army is receiving a donation likely to exceed $1.5 billion from the estate of Joan B. Kroc, the late widow of the founder of McDonald's Corp., the charity announced Tuesday.

The gift was for development of community centers across the country, similar to the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center that opened in San Diego in June 2002.

Terkel to be honored: Rebels old and young were honored this year by the National Book Critics Circle, which announced its awards nominees Monday.

Ninety-one-year-old Studs Terkel, the oral historian and self-described champion of the "uncelebrated," will receive a lifetime achievement prize. Competitive nominations went to two books released by McSweeney's, an irreverent publishing house founded by best-selling author Dave Eggers.

Rather treated: CBS anchor Dan Rather said Monday that he had undergone surgery to remove cancerous skin cells from his face, and he urged viewers to get examined for the disease.

Rather, 72, had been off the air for a few days. He said he expects a full recovery.

archive