SHOOTING STARS: Country singers, aspiring dancers share location spotlight

  Las Vegas reasserts its showbiz supremacy this week with not one but two returning network television showcases.
   This weekend, the Academy of Country Music returns to Las Vegas for the eighth time — the fifth time at the MGM Grand Garden — for the 45th annual Academy of Country Music Awards, which go live (at least on the East Coast) on CBS at 5 p.m. Sunday. (We locals will get the tape-delay version at 8 p.m.)
  And this year, the showbiz pros aren’t the only ones getting into the act.
  “One of the academy’s initiatives this year is to really be fan-friendly,” notes executive producer R.A. Clark. So “fans are incorporated into our set look on the stage.”
  That’s just fine with the show’s performers, he adds.
  “All the artists love being close to the fans,” Clark says. “It changes the energy of the performances.”
  To capture the energy of those performances, the show will add “a couple of new high-tech cameras” similar to the ones used at sporting events, according to Clark. After all, “we’re in an arena,” he points out, so an “arena-cam” or two makes perfect sense.
  “Every year, everyone says, ‘What are you going to do for an encore?’ ” he notes.
  In part, what the show does is hope for, and showcase, those moments that underline the immediacy and impact of being on live television.
  “It’s what we live on,” says Clark. “This is the closest thing we have in television to a live theatrical performance.” And while starting (and finishing) on time was “ground into us” by Clark’s father, broadcast legend Dick Clark, “you can’t control everything.”
  Not that they don’t try.
  The show’s crew members have been on the job since last week, hanging equipment and set elements; rehearsals will take place Wednesday through Saturday, before Sunday’s show goes on.
  In addition, there’s a second show that will go on next Monday: a Brooks & Dunn special being taped for broadcast May 23. (As always, stay tuned to next week’s Shooting Stars for more details.)
  Gotta dance: If it’s callback week on Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance,” it must be Planet Hollywood.
  For the seventh season, the talent competition takes over Planet Hollywood’s Theatre for the Performing Arts for its trademark callback process.
  About 130 hopefuls in hip-hop, ballroom and contemporary dance (among other disciplines) will vie for the chance to continue; only 10 (five men, five women) will make it, notes executive producer Nigel Lythgoe, pictured, who’s also one of the judges.
  “Sometimes, some of the best dancers don’t get through,” he points out.
  But it’s not for lack of trying.
  From Wednesday through Sunday, hopefuls “will be working very hard” on solos, duets and group numbers, according to Lythgoe.
  And, new this season, they’ll also participate in a “personality development course” — inspired by such legendary choreographers as Jerome Robbins and Jack Cole — that’s designed to bring out their individuality.
  “We’ve all got this little firefly inside us,” Lythgoe explains, “but for some it never lights up. As a performer, you’ve got to light up.”
  Determining who lights up the stage, in addition to Lythgoe, will be such experts as choreographer-turned-director Adam Shankman (“Hairspray”), ballroom champ Toni Redpath and Emmy-winning choreographer Mia Michaels, whose credits range from “So You Think You Can Dance” to Celine Dion’s Caesars Palace show “A New Day.”
  Cat Deeley hosts the show, which returns to Fox May 27. (And speaking of Fox and talent competitions, keep your eye on “American Idol” for a possible Las Vegas visit; the show took out a Clark County film permit to shoot last week.)
  Quick takes: Magician Lance Burton, pictured, materializes Saturday and Sunday for Germany’s RTL network, opening his high-tech Henderson castle to cameras for the first time during the two-day shoot for RTL’s “Exclusiv.” Burton recently announced that Labor Day weekend would mark the finale for his long-running Monte Carlo show.
  South Korean automaker Hyundai is scheduled to hit the Strip (and Fremont Street Experience too) for a commercial touting its Tucson SUV. But don’t look for the spot on U.S. television; the ad is intended for the Korean market only.
  And, on a musical note, Canadian pop singer Aleesia recently shot a music video for her latest single, “Headlights,” on the road to Nelson.
  “We chose this location for the old Texaco gas station, the incredible mountainous backdrop and beautiful desert landscape,” explains producer Alastair Waithe. “We came to Las Vegas from Toronto for the incredible scenery and it definitely paid off.”