SHOOTING STARS: On the run with ‘Fugitive Chronicles’

  Las Vegas has seen more than its share of playboys through the years.
  But it’s the “Playboy Fugitive” that brings A&E’s upcoming eight-part series “The Fugitive Chronicles” to Las Vegas.
  On Friday, the show is scheduled to shoot driving shots of the Strip and the desert for an upcoming hourlong episode devoted to “Playboy Fugitive” John Hawkins.
  Hawkins, a former model and bartender, collected a million-dollar payout in an insurance scam; he earned his “Playboy Fugitive” nickname “because he romances his way around the world whilst on the run,” according to series producer Mary-Jane Mitchell.
  As for the Vegas connection — beyond the usual all-roads-lead-to link, that is — Hawkins’ mother lived in Las Vegas (and worked in a casino). And Las Vegas is, naturally, “where he is known to have gone when he first cashed the insurance check,” Mitchell notes.     “He returned there to visit his mother numerous times while he was a fugitive.”
  The episode will air on A&E this fall.
  Venturi venture: Legendary husband-and-wife architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown shook up the design world with their landmark 1972 book “Learning From Las Vegas” (co-written with Steve Izenour).
  And now, the world will have the chance to learn more about Venturi and Scott Brown in the upcoming documentary “Learning From Bob & Denise,” produced and directed by their son James Venturi.
  Fittingly, the documentary will film this week at a variety of Las Vegas locations, including the Strip, the Fremont Street Experience and the Neon Museum.
  Of course, Las Vegas doesn’t quite look the same as it did when Venturi and Scott Brown first visited in the late ’60s — or when “Learning From Las Vegas” appeared in 1972, startling the design world with its droll appraisal of the Strip’s neon-bedecked casinos and their appeal to visitors from automobile-oriented Los Angeles.
  Such changes “are definitely a topic of our trip,” Venturi acknowledges.
  “If you understand why they liked Las Vegas then, you understand why they’re not as interested in Las Vegas now,” he says. “Certain things have stayed the same, and certain things have not.”
  The documentary project, now in its sixth year, should be completed early next year, Venturi says.
  Fight on: Spike TV’s “The Ultimate Fighter” continues production through July 6 on its first all-heavyweight season.
  And while “The Ultimate Fighter’s” format resembles a lot of reality series — hopefuls live together and compete against each other — its outcome does not, maintains host (and UFC president) Dana White.
  On most reality series, “when the show’s over, you never see ’em again,”  White says of the contenders.
  But after 13 weeks of watching “Ultimate Fighter” to see who wins the mixed martial-arts title, “there are four or five guys” who don’t win the competition, yet will go on to compete in the UFC, White explains. “You can continue to follow all these contestants.”
  Flying solo: Speaking of reality series, in the Style Network’s new series, “Giuliana & Bill,” newlyweds Giuliana and Bill Rancic — she’s an E! News anchor based in Los Angeles, he’s a Chicago-based real estate developer — juggle the demands of their long-distance marriage and careers.
  Over the weekend, however, Bill was expected to visit Las Vegas with a group of buddies — and without Giuliana — for an upcoming half-hour episode. The group was booked at the Palazzo, where cameras were scheduled to catch them in action at the hotel, pool and restaurants.
  “Giuliana & Bill” premieres on the Style Network Aug. 5.
  On hiatus: That’s showbiz speak for “on vacation,” which is where your humble correspondent will be for the next two weeks; Shooting Stars will return July 6.