Katie Rees: woman of the night
You can't keep this deposed beauty queen down.Last week Katie Rees, most famous for being a fired Miss Nevada, was arrested. But last night found her partying at Bellagio's Bank as one of the "Women of the Night," meant to honor "the sexiest movers and shakers" of the Vegas hospitality industry.
And don't let the faux jailbird outfit fool you into thinking Katie Rees
has reached Paris Hilton wannabe status. After all, she wasn't hosting; she is
just one of the women of the night.
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Underage nightclub veteran tells secret
Strip resorts are so heavily regulated that the opportunities for malfeasance are fairly limited.
That is why I always enjoy the enterprising cleverness of entrepreneurs who find ways to subvert the system. Their thinking never ceases to amaze me.
Yesterday, I had lunch with one: a former VIP hostess for a couple of the hottest nightclubs and shows in Vegas. I met her as she worked a high-profile gig at one show at a major resort. After she had worked there for about a year, I next met her as she helped lord over the opening of one the hottest clubs on the Strip at another resort. This was about two years ago.
She knew everyone and was among the more popular people on the scene. But a little over a year ago she vanished. So when we ran into each other one night a few weeks ago, I insisted we have lunch to catch up on what had happened to her all this time. As with every life there has been a lot that happened, from serious health concerns to horrible romance.
"As a person I have been through so much," she said. It was true. "I am only 22."
That is why I always enjoy the enterprising cleverness of entrepreneurs who find ways to subvert the system. Their thinking never ceases to amaze me.
Yesterday, I had lunch with one: a former VIP hostess for a couple of the hottest nightclubs and shows in Vegas. I met her as she worked a high-profile gig at one show at a major resort. After she had worked there for about a year, I next met her as she helped lord over the opening of one the hottest clubs on the Strip at another resort. This was about two years ago.
She knew everyone and was among the more popular people on the scene. But a little over a year ago she vanished. So when we ran into each other one night a few weeks ago, I insisted we have lunch to catch up on what had happened to her all this time. As with every life there has been a lot that happened, from serious health concerns to horrible romance.
"As a person I have been through so much," she said. It was true. "I am only 22."
That caught my attention because the entire time I knew her she was as an employee and activist in the club scene. I checked her driver's license, and she hasn't even been 22 long. How did she manage to get those jobs without the clubs or resorts knowing she was underage?
"I was a great liar. Everyone knew me. And I set up a company. When clubs wanted to hire me, I told them they had to hire my company and I gave them the corporate tax number and that way my age never came up. And I act older."
"I was a great liar. Everyone knew me. And I set up a company. When clubs wanted to hire me, I told them they had to hire my company and I gave them the corporate tax number and that way my age never came up. And I act older."
Of course, she was eventually caught and lost her jobs. But definitely, she gets points for inventiveness managing to work coveted, high-profile and important club jobs in Vegas at hot venues while she was too underage to have even gotten past the front door.
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The Trinity: Paris, Britney, Lindsay
Paris is in jail. Lindsay is in rehab (and not the popular Hard Rock pool
event). Then Britney is scamming her fans with expensive tickets to her
ridiculously short self-esteem building exercises that impersonate a concert,
yet look more like a 15 minute aerobics class featuring an instructor with too
much ego.
But, while none live here, these women are the three biggest draws in Vegas
nightlife. Britney was Pure's main attraction on New Year's Eve. Paris has been
featured on almost every major red carpet in Vegas (sometimes two a night) for
the past year. And, Lindsay is still set to attend a reportedly heavily
compensated, contractually specific, birthday party next month at Pure when she
turns 21.
On one level, it is worth pointing out that none of these stars have ever
gotten into trouble with the authorities in Vegas. Not that Paris hasn't had
issues with things like walking into walls and finding bathrooms and there was a
room trashing rumor involving an old boyfriend; but, hey, nothing to go to jail
over if you can pay to clean up the mess. Obviously, none of these people are
known for driving themselves in Vegas. We are a town that sends limos.
But is there a Vegas connection here? Can it be a coincidence that the top
three draws in Vegas nightlife seem to be turning their lives into train wrecks?
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Light Has a Birthday Party
The Light nightclub at the Bellagio is celebrating its anniversary weekend and it is being promoted without a number because a nightclub never tells her age.
I called over this morning to the Light Group and discovered it is the fourth anniversary. A little more prying and a month and year emerged: Light opened in February 2002. The funny thing is that I am fairly sure I was at the opening. But that was the start of the nightclub boom in Vegas and there have been dozens of openings since then of nightclubs and ultra lounges on and off the Strip.
Almost every casino has one and many have two. More than being among the first, Light championed the high-end customers and did things like bring bottle service to Vegas to get them. In short, it was Light that showed the resorts how to transform a nightclub from a place where barely legal kids on Ecstasy danced to a desirable experience for the big money elites (who are also the sort of people up for some serious gambling). Light's success got the highest compliment Las Vegas has to offer: everyone copied them.
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Hanging with the Beautiful People
While I dedicated my weekend to shameful indulgence of my Bob Dylan fandom, The Movable Buffet's regular photographer, Sarah Gerke, made it to Maxim's big party Saturday night at Wynn's nightclub Tryst and sends in this account (as well as her usual photos):
"While waiting to check in at the Maxim 100th issue party at Tryst at Wynn I heard people saying Brent Bolthouse had just arrived. I actually didn't know exactly who he was, but everyone else did, so I made a mental note to keep an eye on him and figure out who he is. After a quick Internet search when I got home I realized he's one of the ruling nightclub elite in L.A. He didn't stop to be photographed, but he was in the vicinity for most of the time, talking to other important industry people.
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Axl's Vegas Tryst
Guns N' Roses lead singer Axl Rose has been seen at Tryst, the nightclub at Wynn, twice in the past week. Rose recently did an interview with Rolling Stone where he promised his long expected new disc "Chinese Democracy" will be out one day soon. It is a familiar promise. I heard him make it twice: at an early morning New Year's show in 2001 at House of Blues at Mandalay Bay and at another show at the Hard Rock on New Year's Eve 2002. My prediction: China will get democracy before "Chinese Democracy" sees official release
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Jet Opens and Opens and Opens
There is opening and then there is OPENING. Back in 2005 I covered the opening of Jet, the new nightclub at the Mirage. But that was just a soft opening. The Grand Opening happened on New Year's Eve with Kid Rock spinning as DJ. But now the buzz is on for tomorrow night at Jet with what is called the Celebrity Grand Opening Weekend celebration. Among those expected Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and the Hilton Sisters. I will be there, of course, and let you know all that happens. (photo by Chris Greenberg/Getty Images)
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Musical weekend
Good weekend for music fans:
Beastie Boy's DJ Mix Master Mike has signed a deal with the Pure Management group to perform regularly at their Vegas clubs including Pure and Tangerine. Mix Master Mike's first appearance will be at Pure on Friday at a party hosted by Shannen Doherty.
Punk legends Social Distortion will be playing all weekend (January 13-15) at House of Blues at Mandalay Bay.
On Sunday Aaron Lewis the singer of metal band Staind is making a solo acoustic appearance at Rain at the Palms with doors opening at 7.
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New Year's Picks
Here are my picks for the hottest New Year's events, though I have yet to pick where I am going to visit:
Aladdin: Kanye West concert
Caesars Palace: -One year anniversary of the nightclub Pure (featuring DJ AM)
Empire Ballroom: Fetish and Fantasy New Year's Eve Spectacular
MGM Grand: Both Tabu (Naughty New Year) and Teatro (Shining New Year) at only $100 a ticket offer a relative bargain for New Years' on the Strip.
Mirage: Kid Rock spins at Jet Nightclub's official Grand Opening
Orleans: Tiesto (Warning: Tiesto is at the Orleans Arena if you turn the wrong way at the casino you may wind up seeing Guy Lombardo's Royal Canadians).
T.I.: Gradmaster Flash spins at Tangerine with actress Shannon Elizabeth doing the countdown (also only $100 cover).
(photo by Laura Rauch/AP)
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The Mirage Finally Gets More Than a Volcano
Last night I went to a sneak preview of Jet the new nightclub at the Mirage. Also, to open this month at the Mirage is a new restaurant Stack. Both are being run by The Light Group who did this before by creating first Light nightclub(which has been a rare long term success in a fickle business) at the Bellagio and, more recently, Fix, a very hot restaurant, also at Bellagio. So, not surprising is that Jet has similar design elements to Light including a rectangular main room, plenty of tables for VIP bottle service and an all around sense of high-end LA nightlife aesthetics: no camp, no cheese, no tackiness. The large club also has smaller more intimate rooms that feature rock and house music as alternatives to the hip-hop and dance music of the main room.
Both Light and Stack are the fruit of a two year struggle to help bring the Mirage back after the Siegfried & Roy show closed in October, 2003 when Roy was infamously attacked by one of his tigers on stage. Obviously, that tragedy captured the world's attention and almost immediately resulted in the 267 employees of the show being out of work. But Siegfried & Roy were not just any performers; it is safe to say that no casino in Vegas has ever been so entirely branded by their headliners as the Mirage was by S&R. After over 5,000 sold out performances spanning more than a decade attracting millions of customers to the casino: from the rooms to the restaurants to the souvenir shops the Mirage was also devastated. But the Mirage is finally coming back in a big way both with Jet and Stack as well as a planned Cirque show built around the Beatles opening next year.
(photo by Sarah Gerke)
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Of Topless Bars and Taxicabs
The war between taxi drivers and topless bars has escalated. Apparently, according to Jeff German's column, at a meeting on Monday, management of all the major strip clubs agreed to form a united front to end the practice of paying kickbacks to taxi drivers. When I arrived here in 1999 the bounty paid by clubs was around $20 a head for each customer in a taxi. Since then that number has been hitting $70 thanks to the competition between the many high end new clubs that have opened like Treasures, Scores and Sapphire. I hate to side with rich club owners over the taxi drivers. But the arrogance of the taxi drivers is amazing. Greg Bambic, a Vegas taxi driver, is quoted in German's column saying:
I just don't see how the clubs can be successful without the cabdrivers and the limousine drivers. We bring them 85% of their business. They can't get along without us.
This is outrageous since the taxi drivers are already being paid by their customers and there is no reason the drivers should be collecting extra money from the club. This practice is technically not allowed by County regulations. But the County regulations are simply not enforced and, even if they were, don't apply to limousine drivers, only taxis. Tourists are the ones getting shafted in the end with higher covers and more expensive drinks. I have suggested before that the best way you can fight back is to demand that a driver let you out across the street from your strip club of choice. Or, if you allow the driver to take you to the club, make sure the driver agrees to forgive the meter as your ride is being paid for already by the strip club.
(photo by Wendell Donahoo/HBO)
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Rio's Bikinis to go Bowling
Bikinis in the Rio has closed. The club which opened in 2002 never really caught on with locals or tourists.The problem with Bikinis is that it was a huge club---large enough to fit a 12 lane bowling alley---during a time when the trend has been toward small lounges. But what to do with a space that large? The solution: a lounge with a twelve lane bowling alley! The press release heralding the "high end bowling lounge" set to open in Fall 2006 promises: "In addition to the state-of-the-art bowling lanes and sound system, the new venue will feature live DJs on the weekend, making for a bowling and entertainment experience unmatched in Las Vegas." I'm laughing, yes, but not for the reason you think. I am laughing because I think this will work.
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