AMERICAN IDOL INVASION FOR TRYST’S SECOND ANNIVERSARY

Television’s hottest male stars Simon Cowell, Ryan Seacrest and Randy Jackson from American Idol arrive in Vegas today (THURS) to host the two-year anniversary celebration of Tryst. The nightclub at Wynn run by hotel mogul Steve Wynn and French nightclub entrepreneur Victor Drai has been an unbelievable success story—and at midnight there will be yet another stunning surprise revelation. Luxe Life will have those delicious details right here tomorrow (FRI) morning.

Simon, Ryan and Randy were last together at the Wynn when co-star Paula Abdul was honored with “Woman of the Year” by the Nevada Ballet at its Black and White Ball last year. Tryst is a 12,000-square-feet nightclub with an open area and dance floor extending out towards a breath-taking 90 foot waterfall that cascades into a secluded lagoon. The sophisticated elegant club has played host to everybody from Britney Spears and Pamela Anderson to Sir Richard Branson and Rupert Murdoch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

JAY-Z SPENDS BIG BUCKS FOR BEYONCE’S BLING BLING WEDDING RING

Vegas fans of newly-married Jay-Z and Beyoncé might get a first-hand look at her new ring when the rap-mogul and Mary J. Blige bring their concert tour to the MGM Grand Garden Arena next Saturday night, April 19.

 

It’s described as a “massive chunk of diamond”—and now decorates her wedding band finger. The new Mr. and Mrs. Shawn Carter will also spend time at their 40/40 sports ultra lounge club at the just opened Palazzo resort casino alongside The Venetian while here on the Strip.

NEW NETWORK TV SERIES STARTS FRANTIC COMMUTER TRAVELS FOR JOHN O’HURLEY CELEBRATING SPAMALOT’S FIRST ANNIVERSARY

Former Seinfeld star John O’Hurley has double-reason to celebrate this week. It’s the one-year anniversary of his hit Spamalot show at the Wynn and launch week of his new—and highly ambitious—Secret Talents of the Stars CBS-TV series. Both are live—and that means that John is doing two-trips a day back and forth between Vegas and Hollywood to juggle the crazed schedule. The network’s new primetime hit premiered on Tuesday with John introducing judges Debbie Reynolds and Brian McKnight and “contestants” country singer Clint Black, Olympic ice-skater Sasha Cohen, singer actress Maya and my old Star Trek friend George Takei. Clint’s secret talent was standup comedy, Sasha showed her unknown contortionist skills, Maya proved a secret tap-dancer and George surprised crooning as a country singer.

 

 

 

 

Next Tuesday John will welcome live country singer JoDee Messina, boxer Roy Jones, Joshua Morrow and Girls Next Door Playboy Playmate Bridget Marquardt—click here for Monday’s Luxe Life where we revealed Bridget’s training sessions with the “O” cast at Bellagio as a high-dive trapeze artist. Upcoming, our favorite internet pinup queen Cindy Margolis will perform a magic act thanks to Monte Carlo headliner, Lance Burton who has been training her and will appear with her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Returning to Vegas after rehearsals for the TV show and before going on stage at Spamalot I chatted with my old friend John about the Monty Python musical’s first year anniversary and the new Secret Talents show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RL: Do you still “look on the bright side of life” everyday?
JO: Absolutely. I have always believed that one phone call can change your life and everyday the phone rings for me. We celebrated the show’s one-year anniversary even though I took a four-month hiatus to finish up Family Feud.

RL: What is the secret to Spamalot working so well? It is a British-themed show here in America.
JO: I know you would like to think that is the reason. I think it is a style of humor that preceded Seinfeld. It is the same humor. It takes silly to another level. Silly humor is smart humor. It pre-dated Seinfeld in the sense of humor. It doesn’t have to rely on vulgarity it still has its fart jokes, which makes it appealing to the kids as well, but it relies really on slick writing. The language is very smooth. It also relies on a low-tech format in an age when everything is trying to get super sophisticated like Cirque where the stage is the show and not the performance. This is wonderfully low tech. Even the killer bunny still has the staples in it. It looks like the remnants of a third grade play.

RL: Were you a big Monty Python fan?
JO: I grew up on it and really kind of got my ideas on Python humor back in the 70’s in college. Those were the shows that we all watched; those were the shows we all quoted. I have to pinch myself to think that I am now doing it.

RL: Any idea why it has such longevity to it? Why does this silly little troop of players and what they wrote still work 40 years later?
JO: If you look at the demographics, it certainly was a style of humor that attracts baby boomers and I will go back to Seinfeld and it was a baby boomer type of show. It is that type of humor that followed that population around and for many people it is a time to go back to their youth when they first heard it at 10, 15, 25 years old.

RL: How often does creator Eric Idle come to look at this Vegas production?
JO: The show is in good shape right now so no one has to come too often, Eric is coming back out shortly because we have just had a shift in the cast. We changed five of the principals—all of them except Sir Robin. It’s a whole new cast and that gives us a whole new life. It has given the show a whole new energy. I really like it. I think our show now is the best it has been. They were very selective with the people they chose and the scenes are more brilliant than when we first started. I have made a decision to stay with the show permanently with no end in sight and it is going to be easier for me to do that. I want to be here when they do the opening of the new Encore Tower in November because that will give us a whole new audience too.

RL: That makes you a new permanent full time Vegas resident?
JO: It kind of does. I will be doing what I am doing now which is living in an airplane flying back and forth to LA. This is one of two commutes I am making to LA today alone.

RL: Two commutes in the same day?
JO: I fly out during the day to do my stuff at CBS, then I fly back to do a long rehearsal and then I will fly back to do the show again.

RL: Is the new Secret Talents of the Stars show recorded or live?
JO: It is totally live. It is so live, and this is changing the entire stage in a commercial break. It is going to be an enormous undertaking. I can’t wait to see.

RL: Is this the biggest challenge of your TV career so far?
JO: No, I had to do five live commercials in the Evening News back in ‘92 and they had exactly 30 seconds for me to do that each time. I don’t think anybody ever did measured commercials to time like that live ever before. That was good training for this new show! So Bridget from Girls Next Door did her diving practice at the “O” show here, but she’ll do it for real live on the show next Tuesday. All of it will be live. They will set up a trapeze in the studio to high dive. During each commercial break the entire stage is reset. It is not just a show; it is an entire production number. I think is has enormous legs. They went through 500 celebrities who have these little things that they like to do. Pierce Brosnan was a fire swallower; Christopher Walken was a lion tamer. It expands on the notion of Dancing with the Stars, but our stars will be doing that and much, much more.

RL: Do you have a secret talent?
JO: I compose, I sing, I write. It has all been done. For some of these people it will be a great audition tape. Part of the fun is the risk of doing it live. I’m like the ringmaster of a celebrity circus. They have really ambitious plans. Today in the studio all the electricity went out. Who is to say that would not happen during the broadcast—I guess if it did we wouldn’t be live anymore! But I’m ready for anything as it happens.”

John will keep up his seven-day a week commuting schedule twice daily for the seven-weeks of the live CBS shows. The stars will be eliminated by viewer voting in a tournament brackets-style with the first season finale set for May 22 with four finalists competing one last time for the home viewers vote live. One overall winner will be announced live on that broadcast.