Holly Madison accuses 1923 Bourbon and Burlesque of secretly recording showgirls

Reality TV star and Las Vegas showgirl Holly Madison said managers at Mandalay Bay’s 1923 Bourbon and Burlesque watched secret, intimate recordings of her and other women in their dressing room.

Madison and her company, Awesometown Inc., filed a lawsuit Monday against multiple individuals involved with her show, 1923 Bourbon and Burlesque by Holly Madison. A second suit was filed on behalf of the other dancers by the same Las Vegas firm, Garcia-Mendoza and Snavely.

The court documents allege that the corporations and managers who hired Madison and ran the venue filmed, transmitted and disseminated images of the women naked and changing costumes for about five months last year without the women’s knowledge or consent.

Robert W. Sabes, Noel Bowman, Robert Fry and Avi Kopelman, the individuals named in the suit, are accused of secretly placing a digital video recorder capable of storing 17 days of film in the women’s changing room. Video was then streamed to the men’s computers and other digital devices, according to the lawsuit.

Kopelman, general manager of 1923 Bourbon and Burlesque, kept his office door open, so any employee could have also seen the dressing room feed, according to the lawsuit. Court documents said Burgendy Candace Kirtz, one of the dancers who is suing, and the show’s stage manager, Andrea Benitez-Moody, found out about the camera after they saw themselves on Kopelman’s office computer last year on Aug. 7.

The women confronted Kopelman the following day. According to the filing, he confirmed that the women had been recorded since the show began in April and told Moody to deal with it herself, because he “didn’t have time.”

Madison’s agent, Jason Verona, met with Sabes and Bowman to complain about the camera on Aug. 19. According to the suit, Sabes responded ,“It’s not a big deal.” The women all quit the show shortly afterward.

In addition to the men named in the lawsuit, the action targets the corporations involved, Fat Hat LLC, ICE Lounge Las Vegas LLC and J. F. Sabes Investment Inc, as well as 20 unnamed people and corporations, which were involved in building the dressing room and setting up the surveillance camera.

Not only did Madison and the other women have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their changing room, but according to her contract, the headliner was entitled to an appropriate dressing room, the court documents said. Only the women were allowed in the dressing room—the dancers were vigilant about making sure everyone else knocked and got permission to enter.

Despite the inclusion of the word burlesque in the show’s title, none of the women ever performed topless or nude. And Madison only gave permission for her likeness to be used in promotional materials and had the right to decide how her name and image would be used, the filings said.

The lawsuit was not a surprise to the club, which is ready to litigate.

The club asserts its relationship with Madison soured when the quality of her performance was questioned during contract negotiations last summer. That conflict went to mediation in December, but a settlement wasn’t reached. A source close to the club said the camera in question was positioned in a hallway facing an exit, and dancers were changing in the walkway.

“No evidence exists that images were captured or published,” attorney Jared Kahn, who represents the club, said.

Kahn said the camera situation was immediately rectified once the club found out about it.

“This is a publicity stunt by Holly to promote her upcoming book and attempt to extract a seven-figure settlement from 1923,” he said.

Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Find him on Twitter: @WesJuhl.