Rob Pilatus, left, and Fab Morvan show off Grammys. Harrison Ford is the man about town. Jodie Rocco divulges a secret. Karena Dawn shines at Coyote Ugly.

A Las Vegas woman who forced the Milli Vanilli scandal to go public hopes a planned film "will be some kind of vindication."

Jodie Rocco and her twin sister, Linda, were backup singers for the German-produced dance-pop duo that was stripped of a best new artist Grammy in February 1990 when the lip-synching scam was exposed.

Rocco, a public relations executive for nightclubs.com, said she gave Frank Farian, a powerful German music producer, an ultimatum at the time: Confess to the scheme, or she would blow the whistle.

Farian called a news conference and acknowledged the fraud but has "continued to lie and cover up," Rocco said.

She said in an interview Sunday that it is the first time she has divulged her role in exposing the scandal.

Milli Vanilli sold 30 million singles and 11 million albums before the con job was revealed. It turned out that Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus were models who couldn't sing. Pilatus died of a combination of drugs and alcohol in April 1998.

Through digital trickery in the recording studio, Farian produced three No. 1 hits, "Girl You Know It's True," "Baby Don't Forget My Number" and "Blame It on the Rain."

Digital fakery "was commonplace at the time," said Rocco, who moved from Germany to Las Vegas in 1990.

She and her sister received about $100,000 each for their efforts on all the projects. Asked what she thought she was cheated out of, Rocco said "between $8 (million) to $9 million," if given a standard 1 percent to 2 percent of the net earnings.

MUSICAL LOVE

Caesars Palace headliner Celine Dion, who unveiled her new song, "I Knew I Loved You," at the Oscars on Sunday, had a mommy moment recently.

In an interview in the Feb. 26 issue of Newsweek, she said her 6-year-old son, Rene Charles, has fallen in love with heavy rock and The Doors.

The first song he hummed to her was Jim Morrison's "Hello, I Love You," the Doors' No. 1 hit in 1968.

"I think it comes from the video games," she said. "The Wii is the hottest thing on our TV right now."

SIGHTINGS

At OPM (Forum Shops at Caesars) on Saturday night for Jerome Bettis' birthday party: Bettis, being presented with a giant yellow-and-black cake (Steelers colors) by 20 beautiful models. Celebrating with their ex-teammate, Clark Haggans, Hines Ward, Vernon Hayes, Willie Parker and James Farrior. Also at OPM: Tupe Peko of the Green Bay Packers and Domata Peko of the Cincinnati Bengals. ... At Pure (Caesars Palace) on Saturday: Harrison Ford, Ben Roethlisberger, Jared Leto and members of 30 Seconds to Mars, Marco Coleman, and martial arts fighters Frank Trigg, Nick Diaz, Allister Overeem, Antonio Neguera and Mauricio "Shogun" Rau. ... Lamborghini model Karena Dawn at Coyote Ugly (New York-New York) on Saturday. ... At the Pride fighting championships at the Thomas & Mack on Saturday: Ford, Nicholas Cage, Chuck Norris and ex-IBF heavyweight boxing champion Chris Byrd of Henderson. ... Rossi Ralenkotter, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, honored as the Arthritis Foundation Man of the Year at the Oscar event Sunday at the Rio.

THE PUNCH LINE

"In the spirit of going green, the Academy wanted me to recycle some jokes from earlier in my career. Here we go. What about that 'Gilligan's Island'?" -- Oscar host Ellen DeGeneres

Norm Clarke can be reached at 383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com.