Monday, March 31, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

SHOOTING STARS: ABC's 'According to Jim' prepares for three-day shoot

Jim Belushi stars in the ABC sitcom "According to Jim."

Alphabet soup's on the menu this week, with ABC, NBC, FX and HGTV among the visitors.

Beginning alphabetically, ABC's sitcom "According to Jim" hits town Wednesday for the show's season finale.

Bally's "Jubilee!" and The Venetian's gondolas figure in the three-day shoot, along with the Caesars Palace casino and "something at Paris," notes executive producer Suzanne Bukinik.

In the hourlong episode, title character Jim (a contractor played by Jim Belushi) and his architect brother-in-law, Andy (Larry Joe Campbell) come to Las Vegas from their Chicago area home to attend a builders' convention.

But Jim's wife, Cheryl, (Courtney Thorne-Smith) has an ulterior motive: reunite Jim with his long-estranged sister Roxanne, a hairstylist hoping to land a chair at an upscale salon. (She's played by guest star Jennifer Coolidge, who's already had plenty of salon experience as "Legally Blonde's" lovelorn manicurist). Series regular Kimberly Williams, who plays Cheryl's sister Dana, also joins the trek.

The episode -- directed by Mark Cendrowski and written by Bob Nickman, Jeffrey B. Hodes and Nasaran Dibai -- marks the first time "According to Jim" has ventured beyond its Southern California base to shoot scenes, Bukinik says.

Ironically, the show's Vegas-based guest star, Wayne Newton, will have to fly to Los Angeles to tape his scenes next week, she adds.

The NBC pilot "Las Vegas," meanwhile, heads into its third and final week of principal photography, shooting in Mandalay Bay's casino and lobby and a warehouse where surveillance rooms have been constructed.

Those surveillance rooms provide a window on "Las Vegas' " world, presided over by "Big Ed" Deline (James Caan), surveillance chief for the multibillion-dollar Montecito hotel and resort chain.

"Las Vegas" co-stars include Cheryl Ladd as Deline's wife, Jillian; supermodel Molly Sims as their trouble-making daughter DeLinda; Danny McCoy, Big Ed's protegé, played by Emmy-winning soap star Josh Duhamel; Nikki Cox (who previously starred in the Las Vegas-based sitcom "Nikki"); Vanessa Marcil, another soap veteran; and model Marsha Thomason, who plays the boss of the casino's pit bosses, explains Gary Scott Thompson, the show's creator and executive producer.

A successful screenwriter ("The Fast and the Furious," "Hollow Man"), Thompson developed the pilot when NBC officials he'd worked with the previous year -- on an an unsuccessful pilot -- asked him to create a Vegas-based show.

The "evolution of Vegas and the megaresorts" sparked his interest, says Thompson, who says he hopes the pilot will show Las Vegas "in a light that hasn't been seen. `Ocean's Eleven' tried to do it, but it still has that backlash of yesteryear. In this, you will see the new stuff -- with homage to yesteryear."

Thompson and his collaborators will learn in late May whether NBC wants "Las Vegas" as a series, but "everything is in our favor," he comments. "NBC is completely behind it," repeating others' comments that "it's not just the best pilot this year but the best pilot in the last five years."

One successful Las Vegas-based pilot that spawned a series, FX's "Lucky," begins its run April 8. On Thursday and Friday, however, FX will capture promotional footage in Las Vegas for the show, which features John Corbett as boom-and-bust poker ace Michael "Lucky" Linkletter. ("Lucky's" local launch takes place Friday at a premiere party scheduled for the Palms.)

HGTV's "Las Vegas Green," meanwhile, explores a different kind of green than the cash collected at casinos.

Befitting HGTV's home-and-garden focus, "Las Vegas Green" explores the lush flora at seven different resorts during an eight-day visit beginning Thursday.

From Bellagio's conservatory to Bally's topiaries, "they all have something different," notes Dan Sexton, executive producer of the hour-long special.

Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden at The Mirage and the Flamingo's wildlife add a touch of fauna to the show's emphasis on flora, he adds. Rounding out the itinerary: the MGM Grand's exclusion Mansions area, Caesars Palace and the Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas.

HGTV host Paul James is scheduled to join the show's four-member crew Saturday; the special will air later this year.

On location this week, Comedy Central's "Trigger Happy TV" returns for more candid-camera craziness today through Wednesday at the Fremont Street Experience, on the Strip and points between. (Consider yourself warned.) Las Vegan Susan Simone of Spotty Dog Productions helped scout locations Sunday for the show's three-day stopover.

Speaking of locals, "The Bewitching" -- written, directed and produced by Las Vegan Gary Sax --continues this week with a major casting change. Judy Lombino now plays Jezebel, an ancient witch who pursues fellow coven member Gretchen (played by Beverly Lynne) to Las Vegas, where Gretchen has transformed herself into a ravishing beauty luring unsuspecting victims to their doom. Rusty Meyers serves as associate producer on the erotic thriller.

Shooting continues today at Jaguars, Floyd Lamb State Park and the Strip provide additional locations for the "Bewitching" shoot, which is scheduled to conclude Friday.

On Friday and Saturday, the Asian show "Dream Factory" comes to Las Vegas -- to capture a dream wedding-chapel ceremony between an award-winning Elvis impersonator from Singapore and his wife, who will dress as Priscilla Presley for the occasion, to be held at the Viva Las Vegas Chapel. Another Elvis impersonator officiates at the ceremony, of course. The show will be broadcast in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

And in this week's casting corner, Image Casting needs nonunion extras (and some principals) for two upcoming commercials: one for Treasure Island, one for the Flamingo.

Open calls will be between 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday at 7473 W. Lake Mead Blvd., Suite 100. Bring head shots and resumés (if you have them). For more information, call Image at 562-8110.