Actor-singer’s transition visible in Vegas visit

The Disneyification of America keeps churning out stars. Disney TV gave unto the world Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, then Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens of "High School Musical."

This weekend brought to Las Vegas a Radio Disney icon who also wants to make that big leap into broader success: Jesse McCartney -- singer, actor and swoon maker of teenage girls.

"I've had him hanging in my locker since the 6th grade, and I'm not ashamed of it," Paige Leonard, 17, said at one McCartney-hosted event this weekend.

McCartney came to Las Vegas for two very different events, one for kids and one for adults.

For 3,000 squealing teens and preteens: He premiered a movie and sang at the Mandalay Bay pool to raise at least $100,000 for the Lili Claire Foundation, which treats kids who have neuro-developmental conditions.

For late-night partyers: He sang at LAX nightclub, where women in sexy dresses roared.

At age 21, could McCartney's Vegas visit help turn him from teen scream to tabloid dream?

If you're like most adults, you don't even know McCartney was on "All My Children" as a boy, sang in a Radio Disney-friendly boy band named Dream Street, then acted in the WB's short-lived drama "Summerland."

This summer, he went solo on tour with "American Idol" winner Jordin Sparks and sang his hit "Leavin'," a synthesized R&B pop ballad in which he coaxes a girl this way:

"Man, that thing you got behind you is amazing. You make me want to take you out and let it rain ... I know you got a man, but ... why won't you tell him that ... you found somebody who does it better than he can?"

The video for the song was less naughty than some TV commercials. But it was McCartney's first video Disney wouldn't show. Then again, Disney Radio spun the song, as they always do for him.

With his clean image in tow, McCartney came to Vegas and quickly began his promotional invasion by arriving via limo at Palo Verde.

The high school won a Jesse McCartney contest by selling more concert tickets than any other local school, raising thousands of dollars for Lili Claire. He thanked a group of assembled students.

Then he left to meet Palo Verde teens elsewhere, in between doing media interviews at Red Rock Resort's Regal Cinemas, where his first star-feature film, "Keith," will debut publicly this Friday.

Twenty eager teens waited in the movie lobby while a hairdresser prepped McCartney's 'do in a back room. Of the 20 fans, 17 were girls. I asked them why they love McCartney so.

"He's hot," a bunch of fans chimed in near unison.

Another girl answered, because "everyone knows who he is."

Wait, I said, there are lots of hot guys in the world. Why were they into Jesse in particular?

"He can sing, he can act, he can do everything. He is the man, and he's hot, too," Sinclair Johnson, 14, said.

Palo Verde's student body president, Taylor Bryan, 17, was wearing eight bangles on each wrist.

"I didn't know which one to wear," she said when I inquired. But bangles or not, she spoke with an intensity and professional diction that would make some local casino bigwigs jealous.

One of the few boys there, Jake McInnis, 16, pulled out a photo of Barack Obama, hoping McCartney would soon sign it. Why Obama?

"Why not Obama?" he replied.

But before the teens got their McCartney moment, it was my turn to interview McCartney in a supply room-turned hair station. His mother/manager, Ginger, sat to his right.

More than most Disney stars I've interviewed, he chatted like a regular person. To put it in old-person-speak, he seemed like a "very nice boy." Also -- ambitious.

"I've been away for so long," he said, "away from the cameras a couple of years, just working on a record and writing and producing. So it's good to be back. It's good to see it all worked out and the fans are reacting positively."

McCartney said he wasn't surprised Disney didn't screen his music video for "Leavin'," which essentially shows a woman in undies sitting in a room then cuddling with him on a sheetless bed.

"It's a little bit more sensual," McCartney said. "They've been playing the song on Radio Disney. I owe a lot of my early stages of my music career to them. They started playing my music before I was signed. It's good to keep Disney happy."

Disney aside, McCartney was looking forward to his appearance that night at LAX.

"Actually I turned 21 in Las Vegas last April, and I partied at LAX. That's why they asked me to come back," he said.

I asked him what he did on his birthday here. With his mother observing, he smiled:

"I gambled, drank lots of chocolate milk and got to bed at a reasonable hour every night."

"I'm not a huge gambler, but I like blackjack, and I know how to play now. And I love Texas hold 'em. I lost all my money yesterday playing blackjack," a loss of "a couple hundred."

This season, he will be featured in a one-episode arc on "Law & Order: SVU" as -- a murder suspect.

"I'm playing a Christian boy who ended up ..." he said, but I promised not to reveal the outcome to you.

As you see, he is twisting his Disney image -- portraying a heavy on "Law & Order: SVU," appearing officially at a club and making more mature videos.

"Part of the challenge is doing something that's not you," he said. "Bring it on. I'm ready."

Was he ready to sign the picture of Obama that the Palo Verde guy brought?

"Great, yeah," he said then added with gusto, "Yes, I will sign an Obama picture. I'll sign a pig with lipstick, too."

Afterward, though, McCartney bid me a fair adieu, walked into the lobby and, when Jake pulled out the Obama shot, McCartney's "bodyguard took it away. But he was cool," Jake said.

Later that night, McCartney sang at LAX, where the official grown-ups were pleasantly surprised that even more women showed up than expected, and more than a few sang along to "Leavin'."

Then, on Saturday night, it was back to the teens and preteens at Mandalay Bay pool. A few single-digit girls did cartwheels. It looked as if every fourth fan was photographing McCartney on stage with their cameras held high above their heads.

At one point in the concert, his band's cover of "Jessie's Girl" paused midway so a backup singer could point to girls in the crowd, promising to find "Jesse's girl." Young females in fantasy screamed like mad to get McCartney's attention.

"I told you we'd find her in Vegas," a band member said.

The girls screamed louder somehow. McCartney stood totally still, pointing to the young ones adoring him so.

Then he finished the show, screened his movie, walked off stage in his sweat of smiles, greeted more fans backstage, and left Las Vegas with his mother-manager for the next city of "Jesse's girls" and slightly older people who might say, "Jesse who?"

Doug Elfman's column appears on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 383-0391 or e-mail him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He also blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.