SHOOTING STARS: Miss America hopefuls hit the Strip for pre-pageant photo ops

The 2011 Miss America Pageant’s not scheduled to air until Jan. 15 on ABC.

But the cameras will start rolling as soon as the 53 contenders for the crown arrive in Las Vegas Thursday.

Mayor Oscar Goodman, pictured, is scheduled to greet the hopefuls at 4 p.m. Thursday at Planet Hollywood for the first of multiple pre-pageant photo ops. On Friday, the contestants will gather at 7 a.m. for a Children’s Miracle Network pancake breakfast at Planet Hollywood’s London Club; 12 hours later, they’re expected at Paris Las Vegas to catch Barry Manilow’s show. And on Sunday, it’s back to Paris to check out the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower attraction.

You can keep up with the Miss America contenders at the pageant’s website, www.missamerica.org, where footage from this week’s various photo ops will be posted.

Reality check: It may be a new year, but Las Vegas boasts the same old allure for reality-TV producers, who continue their seemingly endless fascination with Neon Nirvana and its denizens.

“Vegas is the king of the reality show” locations, observes Charles Geocaris, who heads the Nevada Film Office, noting that more than 60 different reality shows visited Las Vegas in 2010. (Among them: MTV’s “The Real World,” which recently concluded production on its 25th-anniversary season at the Hard Rock; “The Real World” kicked off Las Vegas’ reality boom in 2002, when the show filmed its 12th-season visit at the Palms.)

“There’s so much that goes on here,” Geocaris says. “It’s been an interesting trend.”

Las Vegas-based magician and hypnotist Devon Cage is the latest entertainer to jump on the reality-show bandwagon with “Vegas Interrupted,” which continues production around town through mid-January.

After filming in Detroit, Miami and New York, the Las Vegas-based Cage has returned to his home town to explore the life of a working magician.

“Vegas has a special place in people’s hearts,” Cage observes, because “that’s where the magic happens.”

The show also focuses on Cage’s wife Jamie, a medal-winning ice skater, and their 11-year-old daughter Sydney, who’s “a champion magician in her own right,” the proud papa says.

Also on tap: Chef Hubert Keller’s, pictured, “Hubert Keller: Secrets of a Chef,” which moves onto a new set at Vegas PBS later this month. HGTV’s “Bang for Your Buck” also is expected in town next week, while History’s “Pawn Stars” and E!’s “Holly’s World” continue production.

Double features: Las Vegas-based filmmaker Jeremy Cloe makes the jump from shorts to features with “Liars, Fires and Bears,” which is scheduled to begin production today.

The movie focuses on 9-year-old Eve, a street-savvy orphan, who coaxes Dave, a 27-year-old drunk, into helping her reunite with her brother. Expanded from Cloe’s award-winning short “Sad Story,” the feature will shoot at a variety of Las Vegas locations; as always, stay tuned to Shooting Stars for additional details.

And the Hungarian feature “The Gambler” is expected to begin production next week at downtown locations, following a Hungarian family’s adventures during their Las Vegas visit.

Longtime Las Vegas-based stunt coordinator Rich Hopkins is one of the movie’s producers; although director Szabolcs Hajdu and the major players are from Hungary, 90 percent of the crew members and virtually all of the supporting cast members will be locals, Hopkins notes.

A general casting call for the movie will be held from 2 to 6 p.m. Tuesday at Cool Blue Entertainment, 4305 Dean Martin Drive, Suite 185; click on www.coolbluetalent.com for more information.

Quick hits: An Audi commercial is expected to shoot on the Strip, mostly near the MGM Grand, Wednesday through Friday, while photographer Jasper Carlberg will be shooting video at the Consumer Electronics Show for Danish television.