Monday, March 24, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

SHOOTING STARS: Preparations wrapping up for Celine Dion's television special

Home: 2, Visitors: 2.

That's how the production scoreboard reads this week, as two hometown projects share the spotlight with a pair of out-of-towners.

When your home base happens to be Caesars Palace's new Colosseum, however, everybody watching TV is invited to the opening-night party.

Preparations began over the weekend for Tuesday's scheduled CBS special "Celine in Las Vegas ... Opening Night Live!" The hourlong special spotlights singer Celine Dion's debut as a Las Vegas headliner. (Of course, we Left Coast time-zone types have to wait for the tape-delay version -- unless news coverage of the war in Iraq disrupts the schedule entirely.)

Justin Timberlake of 'N Sync hosts the special, which spotlights Dion's "A New Day" extravaganza, created and directed by ex-Cirque du Soleil wizard Franco Dragone.

Musical highlights range from a tribute to Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee ("I've Got the World on a String" and "Fever") to her latest release, "I Drove All Night.")

Cossette/Ehrlich Productions' Ken Ehrlich writes and produces the special. And it's hardly the first time he's worked with Dion; his previous credits include her "All the Way" special.

Elsewhere on the network TV front, the NBC/Dreamworks pilot -- still carrying the working title "Las Vega$" -- branches out from its Mandalay Bay base in its second week of shooting, according to location manager Ron Carr.

In addition to a Mandalay Bay high-roller suite, the Palms gets into the act with scenes at the hotel's spa, Amp Salon and top-of-the-tower restaurant Alizé.

The hourlong pilot -- about a casino surveillance team -- also will film on surveillance-room sets installed at a local warehouse, Carr notes.

While the main "Las Vega$" unit captures actors in action, experts from Stargate Digital are busy "virtualizing Las Vegas" for the show's "signature look," explains Stargate president Sam Nicholson. (You've already seen Stargate's work on shows from "ER" to "CSI.")

Most of the photography -- on 35mm film, on video operating at the same 24-frames-per-second speed, and about 10,000 high-resolution digital shots -- was completed last week, according to Nicholson.

But smaller Stargate crews continue work this week and next, compiling images that will take the NBC pilot -- and the series that could follow -- into the realm of "photo-real virtual reality."

Along with providing green-screen backdrops that re-create authentic casino atmosphere on a soundstage -- thereby avoiding inconvenience to the paying customers -- the digital images also expand the show's visual horizons.

Unlike the pseudo-realistic "ER," for example, Stargate is "pushing" the visual style for the "Las Vega$" pilot, Nicholson notes. "We're flying into elevator shafts and popping out, rushing down halls. It lends a high-octane philosophy and point of view."

Which perfectly suits the show's Las Vegas setting, Nicholson adds.

"It's a very kinetic environment," he observes. "Everywhere you look, it's a shot." Little wonder, then, that the "Las Vega$" pilot represents "the most difficult virtual reality project we've ever taken on."

Elsewhere on this week's location menu, the Food Network's "The Best Of" -- and co-host Marc Silverstein -- begin a weeklong visit today, exploring epicurean attractions from "Breakfast Spots" to "Happy Hours."

Today's schedule calls for Silverstein to visit Mandalay Bay for a "Fine Dining Tables" segment at the 3950 supper club, while Tuesday finds him at the new Ritz Carlton's Medici Café and Terrace for "Divine Desserts" and Paris' Eiffel Tower, an appropriate entry in the "Sky High Spots" category.

The show returns to Paris Las Vegas on Wednesday for a "Hip Hop Spots" segment devoted to the new Ah Sin and Risqué. Bellagio's Circo claims Thursday's "Pasta Places" spotlight, while the show also visits Neonopolis' Saloon for "Happy Hours."

The visit wraps up Friday morning with a breakfast visit to Mandalay Bay's Bleu Blanc Rouge.

"The way we do each show, we have segments from five different states," explains Kathleen Quaid-Weisz, "The Best Of's" senior producer. "But the only way to make it work is to do one state at a time."

Returning to the home front, the independent feature "The Bewitching" -- written, directed and produced by Las Vegan Gary Sax -- begins a six-day shoot Sunday at Jaguars.

The horror-tinged thriller stars Los Angeles-based scream queen Beverly Lynne, a former Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders whose straight-to-video credits include "The Zombie Chronicles," "Demon's Kiss" and "The Coven."

In "The Bewitching," she's Gretchen, a 1,000-year-old witch who yearns to escape her coven -- and does so by transforming herself into a ravishing beauty who travels to Las Vegas to lure unsuspecting victims (played by Tezz Yancey, Steve Reaser and Lysander Abadia) to their dooms.

Las Vegans Danielle Raushi and Mary Elizabeth round out the starring cast as, respectively, Gretchen's fellow witch Jezebel (who pursues Gretchen to Las Vegas) and Benja, the coven's head sorceress.

And if you're interested in joining them as an extra, contact the Sax Entertainment Group at 870-7293 for more information.

Elsewhere on location this week, the Animal Planet special "Guerilla Magic: Taking It to the Streets" is scheduled to wrap up primary shooting at The Venetian and downtown, according to executive producer George Ciccarone of By George Productions.

The special -- which focuses on magicians returning to their street roots, from Lance Burton to Penn and Teller -- has added another cast member. He's former "Saved by the Bell" regular Ed Alonzo, who'll be escaping from a straitjacket -- accompanied by a live duck. (Befitting the Animal Planet connection, all the tricks involve animals.)

Although today's shoot marks the end of primary shooting, a grand finale will be staged in the coming weeks, Ciccarone notes.

Telemundo's "Al Rojo Vivo con Maria Celeste," meanwhile, returns to Las Vegas Monday to interview "Crazy Girls" cast member Eliset Lobato (stage name: Lola Marcel) at the Riviera, where the show is based. Lobato, a Buenos Aires native, previously danced in Miami -- in a show, produced by her father, that also featured her mother in the dancing cast.

Also on the international front, a Japanese TV documentary begins a week-long shoot today, exploring various Southern Nevada locales, including the Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas.