Monday, April 05, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

SHOOTING STARS: `CSI,' `Will & Grace,' `Dr. Vegas' headline busy week

When it comes to Las Vegas location work, there's no such thing as a "no vacancy" sign.

If there were, however, it might go up this week, as three visiting TV projects check in.

Fittingly, one of them is CBS' top-rated "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," the show that ignited TV's current Vegas craze. "CSI's" in town this week to shoot scenes for the final two episodes of its fourth season.

NBC's hit sitcom "Will & Grace," meanwhile, arrives today to capture footage for its hourlong, sixth-season finale.

And CBS' drama pilot "Dr. Vegas" begins a three-week shoot today, hoping to catch the prime-time Vegas wave that includes NBC's "Las Vegas."

"CSI" is scheduled to begin a four-day shoot today, with regulars William Petersen (alias "CSI" chief Gil Grissom), Marg Helgenberger (investigator Catherine Willows), Gary Dourdan (investigator Warrick Brown) and Paul Guilfoyle (detective Jim Brass) expected to make the trek for "No More Bets," the show's 22nd episode. (Details on the season's 23rd and final episode, "Bloodlines," had not yet been determined at press time.)

Locations range from the Rampart Casino at the Resort at Summerlin to downtown's neon boneyard, Main Street and that inimitable local landmark, Bonanza Gifts.

"Will & Grace," meanwhile, checks into Caesars Palace today for a whirlwind one-day shoot on an hourlong season finale.

Titled " `I Do.' `Oh, No, You Di-in't,' " the episode centers on the wedding of Karen (played by Megan Mullally), who hops a plane to Neon Nirvana with fiance Lyle (John Cleese) and faithful friends Jack (Sean Hayes) and Will (Eric McCormack), opting for a Vegas elopement rather than an elaborate New York wedding.

The script calls for the visitors to bump into a vacationing Jennifer Lopez after arriving in Vegas. But Lopez already has shot her scenes in Los Angeles and won't be making the trip, according to Jamie French, the show's publicist. (The fourth member of "Will & Grace's" Emmy-winning star quartet, Debra Messing, also will miss the Caesars shoot; her doctor has ordered mandatory bed rest while the actress awaits the birth of her first child.)

But guest star Harry Connick Jr., who plays Grace's husband, Leo, will be at Caesars, where locations range from the casino to the rooftop. (The actual wedding, however, will be shot on a Los Angeles set, French reports.)

The Las Vegas trip has been in the works for about two months.

"We went to New York for Grace's wedding" last season, French says. "And when you think of Karen, you think of Vegas."

Sitcom legend Jim Burrows (whose credits include such classics as "Mary Tyler Moore," "The Bob Newhart Show," "Taxi," "Cheers" and "Frasier") will direct the two-part episode, which was scripted by executive producers Jeff Greenstein and Jhoni Marchinko, Kari Lizer and Sonja Warfield. The show is scheduled to air April 29. Las Vegas-based Baskow & Associates cast almost 200 extras for the shoot. "Dr. Vegas," meanwhile, launches three weeks of production with Rob Lowe as the title character, who lives and works in a fictional casino, attending to guests' medical needs. The cases reportedly range from swimming pool and slip-and-fall accidents to a movie star who's using drugs -- and discovers she's pregnant.

Ironically, "Dr. Vegas" is scheduled to spend its first week on location in Henderson, at Station Casinos' Green Valley Ranch, which also has turned up as part of "Las Vegas' " make-believe Montecito casino empire. (At least Green Valley Ranch gets to play itself on the Discovery Channel's upcoming reality series, "American Casino.")

All this activity -- and next week's arrival of the big-screen sequel "Miss Congeniality 2" -- means plenty of background work for locals.

Wild Streak Talent, which is casting extras for "CSI" and "Miss Congeniality," will hold an open call from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at 3355 W. Spring Mountain Road, Suite 264, for those who have not yet registered. Call 252-8382 to schedule alternate audition dates.

And Lear Casting, which is handling background players for "Dr. Vegas," will hold an open call for extras between the ages of 21 and 55 from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday at Val Com Lear Studios, 41 N. Mojave Road. For more information (or if you can't make the Saturday call), contact Sally Lear at 385-9000.

Britain's Sky One satellite channel, meanwhile, checks into the Hard Rock Hotel for the live finale of "Double or Nothing," a multipart unscripted series that follows professional gambler Ashley Revell, who's sold everything he owns to bankroll a $100,000 "ultimate bet," to be telecast live in Europe.

Camera crews will follow Revell as he makes himself at home in a Hard Rock penthouse suite, preparing for his make-or-break bet, to be featured in the show's final minute, explains "Double or Nothing's" David Spence.

The Vegas experience -- on a somewhat more limited budget -- also figures in a 30-second commercial for the Internet travel site Hotwire, one of six spots to be featured in a new national campaign.

The Aladdin, the Fremont Street Experience and other Vegas experiences will figure in the ad, which focuses on three guys on the town -- and will be shot on digital video, according to location manager Cathryn Blum of Catbird Scouts.

Also on this week's crowded location calendar: ABC'S "Extreme Makeover," scheduled to shoot a makeover "reveal" Tuesday; Japan's Asahi network, expected in town Friday for its "Tabi-Salad" travel show; and "Dream of Floating," a feature documentary on two male Austrian synchronized swimmers, who are scheduled to take in Bellagio's splashy "O" show and visit with cast members.