Vegas Popular

The news that NBC's 'Las Vegas' will have a life in a post James Caan-Nikki Cox world doesn't surprise me. Other shows would have to jump the shark to keep the audience tuned in, but with 'Las Vegas,' when two of the show's stars cash out their chips, the Montecito, the show's fictional casino, is still accepting guests for at least a fifth season.

Tom Selleck is reported to take over as the fun-loving and charming owner of the Montecito in a typical Selleckian role, but one of the biggest stars in 'Las Vegas' is well, Las Vegas. Vegas is a big sexyland with an energy and aspirational lifestyle, people want to read, watch and live Vegas, if even vicariously through films television and movies. There's so many TV shows and movies made and/or set in Vegas and so many stars crawling the Vegas Strip on any given day, that the argument can be made that Vegas is the new Hollywood.

There's even a lot of stars hanging around the Montecito. For Tom, this will be the actor and his moustache's first regular small-screen gig since his days as Ferrari-driving private investigator Thomas Magnum. Both Magnum and 'Vega$' P.I. Dan Tanna had shiny red cars and were big pimpin' before pimpin' was cool.

Las Vegas also has a starring role in one of the most popular shows shows on television this decade: 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.' The show follows the Las Vegas forensics team and even after almost seven years on air, 'CSI' is consistently the number one scripted show with more than 20 million weekly viewers. The show spawned two Top 20 spin-offs based in Miami and New York City and has created an nation of arm-chair crime scene investigators with a warped sense of forensic science.

Even big Vegas-based events like the World Series of Poker are getting fictional treatments with the new Drew Barrymore movie, 'Lucky You.' I got a preview of the movie at last year's World Series and the movie follows the life of a professional gambler through the gambling halls of Las Vegas and into the 'main event' at the annual month-long poker fest that is the WSOP.

Directed by native Nevadan Curtis Hanson (8 Mile, LA Confidential, Hand That Rocks the Cradle), the film, according to the producers, is about human relationships (i.e. a love story), but poker fans and Vegas fans will appreciate the sites and sounds including cameos by poker greats like Doyle Brunson and Jennifer Harman.

FELT FOR FANTASY
Since the business of fantasy is a reality in Las Vegas, some of the best reality TV is filmed right in Sin City. Whether it's the recent 'Fame Games' on VH1, the sexy Shana Hiatt's 'Poker After Dark' on NBC or even Miss America for the last two years, everything is sexier and shinier in Vegas.

'Mindfreak' magician Criss Angel has set up home at the Luxor while shooting the third season of his top-rated show on A&E. He opened up a store at the Luxor and starting next year, his army of fans known as the 'Loyals' will be able to see him nightly in Vegas starring in a Cirque du Soleil production also at the Luxor.

The cast of 'The Real World Vegas' are reuniting at the Palms in their posh suite that inspired the Palms Fantasy Suites. The six-part show plays catch up with the cast members in the five years since they were livin' large in the $2-million suite. Another popular Palms-based shows was Jennifer McCarthy's Playboy's 'Party at the Palms' -- a weekly glimpse into the sextasticness of Las Vegas.

SHUFFLE UP AND (TELEVISION) DEALS
There are literally so many televised poker shows on just as many networks coming out of Vegas that it's hard to keep up with them all. From the Poker Dome to ESPN's wall-to-wall WSOP coverage to another NBS show "Heads-Up poker Championship, about the only poker show that won't ever have a Vegas setting is the Heartland Poker Tour. And now there's the Ultimate Blackjack Tour with some Vegas locales.

General casino reality shows like 'King of Vegas,' 'American Casino' (Green Valley Ranch), 'The Casino' (Golden Nugget) and 'Caesars 24/7' (Caesars Palace) have given viewers inside glimpses into casinos that were previously only experienced through the pretend world of the movies.

CIN-EMA CITY
Adding to the Hollywood allure of Las Vegas is one of the hot, up and coming national film festivals known as CineVegas. While the festival celebrates local filmmakers and Vegas-based films, the majority of the festival entries reaches beyond the Las Vegas Valley and showcases top talent in filmdom. Self-billed as the world's most dangerous film festival, the nightly parties are star-studded events of premieres, accolades and general partying.

Brenden Theatre at the Palms, which has hosted the festival over the last few years, even has its own version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Megaplex mogul Johnny Brenden, who is the grandson of Ted Mann of Mann's Chinese Theatre, bestows Celebrity Stars on the hottest entertainers in the world of movies, music and sports. Recent inductees were The Girls Next Door and Toni Braxton.

Vegas as seen in the movies joins Hollywood and New York as one of the great cinematic settings. An opening shot almost anywhere in Vegas evokes an emotion and often a memory and the casinos going up and down almost overnight, it seems Las Vegas is one big movie lot being rearranged for new adventures.

So many of the Vegas-based movies like 'Vegas Vacation,' 'Casino,' 'Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas,' 'Leaving Las Vegas,' 'Honeymoon in Vegas' (also starring James Caan) and the old or new versions of 'Ocean's 11' are instant classics.

Just as Vegas doesn't seem to be slowing down in nightlife and casinos expansion, there doesn't seem to be any slowdown to Vegas films and shows. The Internet is next with Web-only shows, but I'll leave that for a different post.

In the meantime, I'm going to put in the 'Viva Las Vegas' soundtrack, head over to the Montecito and hope that one day soon Robert Ulrich and Aaron Spelling will be honored with a DVD release of 'Vega$.'

'You can't be a quitter when you're caught in the glitter'

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