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Friday, January 07, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
COLUMN: NORM!
Singer takes exotic path for wedding vows
Measured on Las Vegas' Richter scale of excess, this was off the charts.
Caesars Palace, no stranger to fairy-tale extravagance, was transformed into an opulent scene from "Arabian Nights" for the renewal of marriage vows Wednesday between singer Celine Dion and manager-husband Rene Angelil.
The set alone, consisting of six Berber tents surrounded by animals, cost a reported $1.5 million. Tack on the all-expenses-paid trips of 200-plus guests, and the result might be the wedding of weddings in Las Vegas.
Vows were exchanged in a ballroom chapel transformed into an ancient mosque. Decor and music reflected Angelil's Lebanese and Syrian background.
"Each of the tents represented a scene from 'A Thousand and One Nights.' The magic and the mystery were enhanced by jugglers, musicians and singers," said a media release issued by the couple's publicist. "Men were dressed in black, women wore gowns in the colors of precious gems."
Dion, the recording superstar whose career was shaped by Angelil when she was a teen-ager, wore a gold gown; Angelil a djellaba, a white, gold-laced Arab costume. Both were designed by Givenchy.
After the vows, guests joined the couple on brightly colored cushions for a five-course feast prepared by chefs from Montreal, Lebanon and Syria.
In what was billed as Canada's wedding of the century, the two were married in a traditional Roman Catholic wedding in Montreal on Dec. 17, 1994. Their renewal of vows came after a health crisis -- Angelil, 58, was diagnosed with skin cancer in March but is in remission -- and Dion's desire to take a career break and have a child.
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The Elvis Years: He got married here, jump-started his career here and started his jumpsuit years here.
Happy birthday, Elvis, wherever you are.
Say it ain't so: His 65th birthday would have been this Saturday.
At Elvis-a-Rama Museum, they're marking the date with cake and an impersonator. The Harley-Davidson Cafe is playing Elvis all weekend and serving up specials of peanut butter and banana sandwiches and chicken-fried steak in tribute to The King.
Casino exec Kirk Kerkorian was responsible for the Elvis years. Kerkorian, owner of the International Hotel, now the Las Vegas Hilton, signed Elvis to a four-week, $1 million deal -- unprecedented in that era -- starting July 31, 1969. Six months later, Elvis was back in the hotel's new 2,600 showroom. And he kept coming back.
Nelson Tobin, who worked security at the hotel for 25 years, remembers Elvis' No. 1 rule.
"He never wanted any fans pushed or roughed up by security," a tough task when Elvis fans came in waves.
But it was a single fan that almost cost Tobin and his security colleagues their jobs.
"We always brought Elvis down the service elevator and down the back hallway. We used to have to make sweeps to make sure no one was there.
"Well, one of the dealers knew that Elvis was coming through the back hallway to the back stage and told his girlfriend to go to a restroom back there and wait until she could hear when a group was coming through."
The female fan burst out of the restroom and asked Elvis for an autograph.
"We got chewed out pretty good," Tobin said. "She got her autograph, but the dealer lost his job."------
The Scene and Heard: Mayor Oscar Goodman in a bright red Speedo? I know, I know. Bad career move. But the fact is Hizzoner had lunch Monday with the producers of "Baywatch," and they invited him to be on an episode. "No, they did not offer me a starring role," he said at his Thursday news conference. The meeting was part of Goodman's efforts to attract TV and movie production studios to Southern Nevada. And it could happen, as long as the mayor keeps his shirt on. ... Fans of the TV series, "Friends," will know this: Actor Courteney Cox's character is named Monica Geller. Well, the real Monica Geller lives in Las Vegas, and she's been getting double takes from classmates, cops and bank clerks since "Friends" became one of the most watched shows. "One time a lady (clerk) went around the bank showing my check to everyone," said Geller, 18, a hostess at the Harley-Davidson Cafe on the Strip.
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Sightings: Dion dining on rack of lamb with Angelil at Caesars Palace's Palace Court after her New Year's Day show. When she walked in, David Osborne, pianist at the Palace Court, greeted her with her hit "To Love You More" on the same Steinway played by Frank Sinatra. ... Porn stars Lexington Steele and Ron Jeremy dining Thursday night at Star Canyon restaurant. They are in town for the industry's version of the Oscars on Saturday night.
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The Punch Line: "How many more bathroom-window curtains must die needlessly to clothe golfers?" -- Mike Lough.
Norm! appears in the Review-Journal on Friday, Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. Call Norm! at (702) 383-0244 or e-mail him at Norm@lasvegas.com.
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Printable version of this story
Singer Celene Dion and manager-husband Rene Angelil, at Caesars Palace, prepare Wednesday to renew their wedding vows. They were married in 1994, and the renewal comes after Angelil was diagnosed with and treated for skin cancer.
Associated Press photo
NORM CLARKE
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