In Los Angeles, movie premieres are common. Not so in Vegas. And, when they come here, the reason is usually to present movies filmed here or churned-out flicks meant for the masses.

But tonight, "Love in the Time of Cholera" has its exclusive premiere in Vegas. Full disclosure: The company that helped finance the movie, it turns out, as noted in The Las Vegas Sun today, is owned by the family that owns Las Vegas Weekly, where I am on staff. Still, short of giving me a huge raise, I can't think of a way I'd rather see money spent. 

I usually either preview something or write about the event. But I am very excited about what I am covering tonight. Just out of my teens, in 1988, I read the book "Love in the Time of Cholera" when it first came out in hardback.  I even learned the translator's name, I became so enraptured with the prose. I still know the opening from memory: "It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love." If I got a word wrong, don't kill me.

And so I can't wait to see the premiere of the movie "Love in the Time of Cholera." If Vegas seems an odd setting for the premiere of such a film, well, it seems as natural to me as making my own home here.  But the Vegas angle of spectacle has not been neglected: At a charity event before the movie screening, Shakira will shake her hips to her songs on the soundtrack.