A few people have suggested I read Blender magazine's May 2007 Vegas package.  I finally got a copy last night. Of special note is  "Rent a star" by Michael Joseph Gross, an article about the fight for celebrities between the various resort nightclubs. I  recommend the story highly for the interviews with some key players on the nightclub scene on a topic that very few people in Vegas (in a position to know) are willing to talk about: paying celebrities to come and play.

 

Digression: Vegas is very good at controlling the view of national media (and,  I am sure, often, my own). The resorts create a massive illusion meant to blind people briefly to both their problems at home and, perhaps, more to the point, to things like the laws of chance. Reporters, in general, can become as taken (in all ways) with Vegas as anyone else. But there is another difference that the current of money flowing through Vegas makes. Unlike some other entertainment industry towns (like Hollywood or New York publishing), even the people at the very, very bottom of the food chain (the lowliest assistants) at a Vegas resort eat well. No one a reporter is likely to encounter is ever going to risk a job by talking about an employer off message in any way. This town presents a very united front that way. The traditional rule of thumb from the resort perspective: if they have a message to get out they can buy advertising. Reporter access has always been seen in Vegas as very discretionary. Back in the day, if the reporter was totally unknown by people in Vegas, the story was often deemed by resort marketing as too risky to allow any access for interviews and especially to photographers (a shrewd way to try to sabotage a story from appearing). As Blender points out, George Maloof at the Palms began to change that starting in 2001. But things haven't changed that much as the fundamentals in Vegas are the same. So, really, to get the best information in Vegas, you need real interviews with actual players in town. But, of the people who matter here, those with a tendency towards too much candor,  well, those people quickly decide not to talk to the press.

 

 

Now, back to the article in Blender.  One of those people in a position to know the secrets of Vegas by any stretch is Steve Davidovici, a partner in Pure Management Group (Pure, Tangerine, etc.). My hats off to Gross for getting an interview with him. That could not have been easy.  Stevie D., as he is known, is both a creative visionary and also very much a detail driven and hand's on nightclub operator. He also has no interest in talking to the press. Here is my Stevie D. anecdote. A few years ago, I started out on a behind-the-scenes story on the opening of a nightclub at a resort. The story didn't wind up going very far.