The world's most exciting city got even wilder with a major announcement this morning (Wed., Jan. 4). The aging, fading Stardust Hotel (catty-corner to hotel tycoon Steve Wynn's new opulent palace of pleasure) will be the next grand dame of the Strip to be blown up and demolished in a year's time. Construction on a new, massive $4 billion luxury entertainment and hotel high-rise of 5400 suites will begin early 2007, for a grand opening in early 2010—right alongside rival hotel mogul Donald Trump's newly planned condo/hotel property.

It will be known as Echelon Place and not only include two towers with 4000 of Boyd Gaming's own guest rooms, but also versions of the hip boutique hotels The Delano (Miami Beach) and Mondrian (Sunset Strip) originally developed by Studio 54 founder Ian Schrager. Their separate locations on the same 63-acre site will include another 1000 rooms. On top of that, Shangri-La—Asia's top hotel group—will have their own 400-room super-luxury facility with a 20,000 sq. ft. spa! Boyd, which owns the stunning new Borgata resort casino in Atlantic City, will also add a 650,000 sq. ft. expo center, 175,000 sq. ft. of conference rooms and a 350,000 sq. ft. luxury shopping promenade featuring fine dining and nightlife attractions. Founder and chairman Bill Boyd even promises a 4000-seat theater with stadium seating for concerts, another smaller 1,500-seat theater for solo stars on tour, plus covered hotel parking for 8000 cars!

Since its 1958 debut, the 1500-room 9-story Stardust has occupied a legendary spot in Vegas history, with its 188 ft. long lightbulb sign as the largest and brightest such American landmark. It was the once longtime home of Wayne Newton—and where illusionists Siegfried and Roy began their Strip careers. Today, it attracts such stars as Don Rickles, Jackie Mason, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, and is home for Rick Thomas' daily magic shows. It's been the "star" of numerous movies including 'Showgirls' and 'Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.' Once upon a time it was the regular desert playground for Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz, Dean Martin and Bob Hope.

Experts here tell me that when Echelon Place arrives, Vegas will be home to the world's top two expensive resort hotel complexes. As you faithful Luxe Life readers know, MGM Mirage is already at work on its $6 billion Project City Center (that's the model at right, and click here to see more details from our previous journal). In fact, next Monday (Jan. 9) the old Boardwalk Hotel on the Strip will shut to make way for that initial construction. Meanwhile another old property, the Westward Ho is being torn down to make way for a condo/hotel/ casino project, complete with the world's largest Ferris wheel as its dominant attraction. The Stardust, with its 2+ acres of gardens featuring two massive pools, will remain open thru the end of this year (2006), so click here to see our video of its Havana Night Show spectacle—and catch it in person before it has to find a new home!

Echelon Place's opening will also represent a symbolic shift of the Strip's center northward from the Flamingo corner where it is today (Caesars, Bellagio, Bally's, Flamingo) to the Spring Mountain corner (Venetian, Palazzo, Treasure Island, Wynn and Fashion Show Mall). And I can promise you that as Vegas never stops morphing and changing, even more astounding and extraordinary developments are on their way. Stay tuned…

Meantime, this week Vegas hosts a battle between the earls of electronics and the princes of porn! Two of the wildest conventions blew into town today which might seem like a study in contrasts, even though they are tied together at the transmission terminal of tech-trends. The annual Consumer Electronics Show is the mother of all tech trade shows, and this year the largest ever, with 2,500 exhibitors stretched out over the equivalent of 28 football fields [at the LV Convention Center, Sands Expo Center, Hilton, Rennaissance…] and attracting over 130,000 participants—including all the titans and tycoons of technology. Organizers estimate a record high of $126 billion in electronic sales in 2005. Down the hall [at the Sands], but in full view, is the Adult Video News sex industry show, where the parade of pornography is…probably priceless to some. The AVN says the adult entertainment industry at large will announce $12.6 billion in revenues for 2005 before the weekend! An astounding figure, including $4.2 billion video sales and rentals alone! Expect a huge array of sponsored celebs to make CES appearances—and who knows, maybe some crossover mingling with the "adult" stars. We'll give you updates right here throughout the next few days…

Lance, who appears nightly here at the Monte Carlo Resort told me it took volunteers over 7,000 hours to prep and decorate his float, using 15 different varieties of roses including Hocus Pocus, Abracadabra, Black Magic, Magic Lantern and White Magic. The Genie himself was on an animated hydraulics system to rise 30 ft. in the air! Two quick TV notes from Lance, by the way: his comic-juggler pal Michael Goudeau, who co-stars nightly with him at the Monte Carlo, will appear on Bobby Flay's Food Network BBQ show from Vegas this Friday (Jan. 6); and Discovery Channel's 'Dirty Jobs' show will be filming at Lance's show on Saturday Feb. 11, spotlighting Randy Williams, who looks after (read: cleans up after) the 70+ birds (doves, geese and ducks) appearing in the show. You can watch Lance's exclusive personal behind the scenes tour of his show right here onAOL's All Access Vegas videos…

I had a lovely New Year's Eve lunch at Olives overlooking the Bellagio lake with Australian comedy star Barry Humphreys (right)—but his alter-ego Dame Edna (below) was nowhere in sight! It's Edna, though, who gets the credit for "outing" the serious romance between fellow Aussies Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban. The actress and the country western singer (along with Nicole's sister Antonia) were cuddled up side-by-side in his opening night Luxor audience when the 'Dame in the Desert' spotted them. Edna, amidst her mostly off-the-cuff 2 hour show, singled them out saying she looked just like Nicole when she was younger. Then she spotted the diamond engagement ring on Nicole's left hand. "Edna just couldn't contain herself—that's her kind of jewelry," chortled Barry! "They're very comfortable together— it's a good romance that fits well."

Looking at the dancing waters of the Bellagio fountains, I swear, I heard him mutter: "Now just imagine Edna dancing right through those waters, possums. That would look very good on a television special." We talked about British and Australian showbiz journalists. We talked about the death of highroller Kerry Packer ("I'm surprised they didn't decorate the hotels in black crepe for that," he laughed). We talked about longtime mutual friends from London…and before we knew it, 2 wonderfully lazy hours had ticked by. He had to run off to find 2006 gladiolas—he claims it's the national flower of Australia—to hand out at his closing concert (refusing to let his protégé Edna be upstaged with Paris Hilton's 2006 pink balloons). His/her 2 week run at the Luxor was a grand success and he/she will be back. While here, Barry got to see KA, the Cirque spectacular at the MGM, and when he returns he says "over the hump to Pahrump, to check out Heidi Fleiss' proposed pleasure palace of gentlemen who know how to make a Dame feel divine…"

My zany-comedy pal Carrot Top (right) appears tonight on Jay Leno's 'Tonight Show'—and coincidently, Jay will be in Vegas this weekend for two shows at The Mirage—but both guys say they'll be unable to watch each other's shows! For those who wandered by and wondered on New Year's Day, yes, that was Carrot Top playing roulette with funnyman Mel Brooks at the Bellagio…

Only local nightclub queen Xania Woodman, who publishes her own Circuit e-news blitz on the internet each week, could find this deliciously tasty gossip item: she claims legendary singer/songwriter Kenny Loggins fell asleep New Year's Eve on the bountiful bosom of his female companion while at Wynn's ultra lounge Lure. Apparently, he didn't even wake when the DJ played Kenny's raucous '80s classic "Footloose." But he did rally when security tried to relocate him for some last minute VIPs—and by flipping out, kept his seat!!!!

The night before New Year's, two other surprising scenes: After 1st season 'Survivor' contestant Susan Hawks (a Vegas resident) had been hypnotized into a total state of deep unconsciousness on stage at 11:00 p.m. by new Stardust hypnotist Michael Johns, she invited him to the piano bar at the New York-New York hotel for drinks, and a sing-along. At 3:00 a.m., Mike clicked his fingers and Susan snapped out of her amazing trance! She didn't realize she'd been hypnotized, and he didn't recognize her (though others in the bar did) as the girl who almost won the first 'Survivor'…Guests dining at Hannah's Neighborhood Bistro that same night got the surprise of their lives when Santana's lead singer Andy Vargas suddenly showed up with cameras shooting his reality TV show. He launched into an impromptu performance as cameras rolled on the shocked diners…

Congratulations to the 'Star Trek Experience,' which celebrates its 8th
anniversary today at the Hilton. Actress Suzie Plakson, who played Dr. Selar in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation,' Q in 'Star Trek: Voyager' and Tarah in 'Star Trek: Enterprise,' came in for the anniversary and signed photos for fans. On New Year's, Klingons from the Borg Invasion 'conquered' the new Vegas Monorail to ride two ends of the Strip between the Hilton and the Sahara. Since groundbreaking back in 1996, the entire Star Trek project has cost over $75 million and now occupies 40,000 sq.ft. of space!

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Read previous columns from Robin Leach at: journals.aol.com/robinsvegas/LuxeLifeVegas