MTV awards changes up game plan

Sit down and shut up.

That's the usual TV awards show formula. But MTV's 24th annual Video Music Awards, set Sunday at the Palms, has a new game plan.

Unlike a traditional ceremony, the VMAs will take place throughout the resort, from The Pearl Concert Theater to four Fantasy Suites.

And the Palms provides an ideal backdrop for the novel setup, according to executive producer Jesse Ignjatovic.

For one thing, the resort "really caters to a celebrity lifestyle," he points out. For another, there's an already existing musical atmosphere, from the Palms' "state-of-the-art recording studio" to The Pearl.

To say nothing of the previously existing MTV-Palms connection, which began when the cast of "The Real World: Las Vegas" checked into a special 28th-floor suite in 2002.

That suite won't be on-camera during the VMAs, Ignjatovic says, but Justin Timberlake and Timbaland, the event's "maestro," will hold court in the Hardwood Suite, complete with basketball court. Kanye West, Fall Out Boy and Foo Fighters, meanwhile, will preside over other Palms party suites.

The Pearl serves as the setting for "most of the show's business and four major performances," the executive producer notes, but Rain nightclub also will score some camera time.

And while the show's multivenue format adds excitement, it also complicates the actual production, Ignjatovic acknowledges.

"It's quite a sweater to knit," he says, adding that, "when you start talking to all our technical people, they say, 'Dude, are you crazy?' "

Shooting hoops: If you need proof that basketball's an international sport, look no further than DreamVision Studios, where production is scheduled to wrap Tuesday on a TV commercial for the Chinese market -- featuring Argentina's national basketball team, in town for the FIBA Americas Championship at Thomas & Mack Center.

The commercial features a regulation NBA basketball hoop, bleachers for more than 100 expected extras, green screens on the floor and wall of the 11,000-square-foot studio (to provide background for computerized effects), plus a plexiglass box that will provide a see-through playing surface so a camera can shoot up through the "floor" and catch the team in action.

Telethon on: The 21 1/2-hour Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon winds down today, with the nationwide telecast scheduled to conclude at 3:30 p.m. on KTNV-TV, Channel 13. (Local coverage ends at 5 p.m.)

For the second consecutive year, a South Point ballroom serves as studio for the national telethon.

"We redesigned the set for the South Point," explains producer Lee Miller. "It takes us two weeks to set it up."

Carol Cling's Shooting Stars column appears Mondays. Contact her at 383-0272 or e-mail her at ccling@reviewjournal.com.