>> The Switch
>> Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
>> The Other Guys
>> Salt
>> Inception
>> Cyrus
>> The Last Airbender
>> Grown Ups
>> Toy Story 3
>> The Human Centipede

Opening 9.10.10
>> Resident Evil: Afterlife (R) [trailer]
>> Bran Nue Dae (Limited) (Not Rated) [trailer]
>> Heartbreaker (Limited) (Not Rated) [trailer]
>> I'm Still Here (Limited) (Not Rated) [trailer]
>> Legendary (Limited) (PG-13) [trailer]
>> Lovely, Still (Limited) (PG) [trailer]
>> The Romantics (Limited) (PG-13)
>> The Virginity Hit (Limited) (R) [trailer]

Coming To DVD/Blu-Ray 9.7.10
>> Supernatural: The Complete Fifth Season [buy]
>> The Office: Season Six [buy]
>> Smallville: The Complete Ninth Season [buy]
>> Jillian Michaels: Shred-It With Weights [buy]
>> Criminal Minds: Fifth Season [buy]

Las Vegas: Satan Vacations Here
by Victoria Alexander
February 12, 2007

The Producers comes to Paris Las Vegas, Heavy Honey, Paris Hilton: America’s Viper, Schedule 1 Entheogens, Strange Culture, Spiritual Minister Hoyt Robinette, The Devil’s Guide to Hollywood, and more...

“Some people would never have fallen in love if they never heard of love.”
La Rochefoucauld

The Producers Comes to Las Vegas. On Thursday, February 8, I went to the VIP Media Opening of “The Producers,” the Mel Brooks musical comedy sensation that has won more awards than any show in history. “The Producers” features David Hasselhoff in the role of the outrageously flamboyant Roger DeBris and Brad Oscar as scheming, down-on-his-luck Max Bialystock.

Thanks to the great staff at Preferred Public Relations, I scored 7th row center seats!

Everyone knows “The Producers” storyline: a crooked producer and his meek accountant cook up a scheme to present an eye-popping lavish theatrical fiasco, “Springtime for Hitler,” and pocket the money before the curtain falls.

“The Producers” opened on Broadway in 2001 and won 12 Tony Awards including Best Musical. Nathan Lane (Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical) and Matthew Broderick starred as Max Bailystock and Leo Bloom.

In the Las Vegas version of “The Producers,” it is David Hasselhoff who is the star. And frankly, he deserves it! Whenever Hasselhoff takes to the stage he not only owes it, he actually loves it. His thrill to be on stage in this musical is evident. Hasselhoff is extravagantly fabulous and indulges DeBris’ campiness with panache. If he decides to stay in Las Vegas, I predict he will be our town’s new Wayne Newton.

The streamlined 90-minute show, minus the hallowed Broadway intermission, stars Brad Oscar as Bialystock (who played the role for 3 years on Broadway, on tour, and in London’s West End) and Larry Raben (who played opposite Oscar on Broadway) as Bloom. While it once was Bailystock and Bloom’s show, and they still do a lot of talking and take the final bow, none of DeBris’ show-stopping scenes are shortened.

Las Vegas is now focusing on Broadway hit shows. Thank God! I’m sick of magicians. There is room here for hit musical shows and more Cirque du Soliel masterpieces. With “Love,” “The Phantom,” and “The Producers,” (with “Spamalot” coming soon), Las Vegas will become Broadway West. Las Vegas venues have the huge stages and standards of excess that can pull in the audiences.

After the show, the entire sold-out audience went to the Paris Ballroom for a fantastic (in fact, people were moaning in ecstasy) Parisian desserts-and- cocktails reception. All the magnificent desserts were made by chefs-in-attendance. It was a brilliantly-conceived party!

For performance dates and times, click on the Events Calendar. For tickets (priced from $143.50 to $75.50), visit the Paris Box Office from 8:30 am to 8:00 pm every day or call 1-888-727-4758.

Paris Hilton: America’s Viper. "I am nursing a viper in Rome's bosom," Tiberius observed, and named Caligula his adopted son and successor.

After viewing items from ParisExposed.com on many web sites, I see Paris Hilton as America’s Viper. Why isn’t anyone questioning the lack of parenting skills of Mommy and Daddy Hilton? IDontLikeYouInThatWay.com

While Mel Gibson, Michael Richards, and Isaiah Washington are crucified for using slurs, Paris Hilton will garner no such negative publicity. She will issue no apologies for using the “N” and “F” words. Her anti-Semitic shout-outs will fade away. Paris will not go to “gayhab” (the new word for when someone goes to rehab for using the homophobic slur “f****t”). Paris’ 5 years of sex tapes and vagina-exposing antics has made this public behavior absolutely acceptable for stars and young people everywhere. Sexual exhibitionism is the new black. Paris’s lifestyle is being widely emulated. She’s a world icon. ParisExposed.com even has photos of a naked Paris on the toilet. What’s coming next? Photos of Paris’ poop?

Everyone is using their cell phone cameras for recording caregivers beating mental patients and even a dictator’s hanging. Celebrities, like new enlistees Lindsay Lohan, Denise Richards, and Britney Spears, are shot “going commando” showing off their genitalia. I do not know what past pundits have called the harbinger of the decline of Western Civilization, but I’m nominating Paris Hilton as Western Civilization’s Torchbearer of Decline. (It’s not just the girls doing it. Photo from PerezHilton.com of Mischa Barton’s rocker boyfriend Cisco, son of legendary music producer Lou Alder.) http://perezhilton.com/topics/mischa_barton

Cell phones record everything but alien abductions.

Confirmation on the above. Insignificant Newsweek reports that celebrities like Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan are a bad influence on America's girls. A Newsweek poll found that 77% of respondents believe the troublesome trio and other young starlets in Hollywood have too much influence on girls - little of it for the better.

VegasFilmCritic.com. Jeff Howard, my good friend, president of the Las Vegas Film Critics Society and TV and radio film critic, has just launched a sensational new web site. No reading – VegasFilmCritic.com is all streaming video. This is high quality, state-of-the-art video production. This is not YouTube.com or Google.com video quality. See clips of movies – not the trailers. Jeff has designed a huge, content-filled web site. Jeff, who interviews every star and director of every film, has put up all his recent interviews. Jeff has a lot of work ahead cataloging all his past interviews.

Jeff has DVD giveaways, free movie passes (just sign up if you live in Las Vegas and like going to free promotional screenings), and a very special feature. Weeks before Jeff does a star interview, he will let VegasFilmCritic.com visitors post questions. He’ll pick one and then ask the star the question. So, if you really want to ask Tom Cruise about Xenu and the coming of 2012, now is your chance.

Jeff, here is my question for Justin Timberlake (“Black Snake Moan”): “How gay is the world of children’s show business?”

My question for Nicholas Cage (“Ghost Rider”): “Why are all male movie stars wearing Eva Gabor wigs?”

My question for John Travolta (“Wild Hogs”): “If Tom Cruise is the new Jesus, are you his John The Beloved?”

My question for Sienna Miller (“Factory Girl”): “Would you ever agree to a PR stunt to be a beard for a famous young gay actor?”

Jeff also has a MySpace and an impressive list of movie star and film director friends. http://www.myspace.com/vegasfilmcritic

Can anyone explain how Scientology has become such a powerful religion if only wildly wealthy people can ascend to its highest ranks? The "levels" through which a participant progresses make up what is called "The Bridge to Total Freedom." Progress through all the levels of the "Bridge" often takes many years of dedicated study and practice, and the cost in fees for services for the Bridge is currently estimated at approximately $300,000 - $500,000 in US dollars.

How much did it cost to follow Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed (May Peace Be Upon Him)?

Strange Culture. My friend Jeff Mishlove (Jeff Mishlove's Blog) gave me an advance copy of Lynn Herschman Leeson’s new film, “Strange Culture,” that recently premiered at Sundance. As a fan of 48 Hours Mystery, A&E’s Investigative Reports, and NBC’s Dateline, “Strange Culture” takes the conventional format and advances it using a filmmaker’s POV to the documentary material.

In May, 2004 artist and college professor Steve Kurtz (pictured) was preparing for a MASS MoCA exhibition offering attendees to test whether food has been genetically modified. Days before the opening, his wife Hope died suddenly of heart failure. Kurtz called 911, but when medics arrived, they became suspicious of his house of biological specimens and called the FBI. Dozens of agents in haz-mat suits sifted through his home and impounded his computers, books, cat, and even his wife's body. The government held Kurtz as a suspected terrorist, and, nearly three years later, the charges have not been dropped. He still faces up to 20 years in prison.

Because Kurtz cannot legally talk about the case, Hershman Leeson enlisted actors, including Tilda Swinton (as Hope Kurtz), Thomas Jay Ryan (as Steve Kurtz), Josh Kornbluth, and Peter Coyote, to interpret the story. Hershman Leeson skillfully weaves dramatic reenactment, news footage, animation, testimonials, and footage of Kurtz himself into a sophisticated documentary about post-9/11 paranoia and the risks artists face when their work questions government policies. This is a riveting story and fascinating documentary.

Why would the government mount terrorist charges against a college professor’s little exhibition that could not possibly have reached many people? When was the last time you went to an experimental museum art exhibition or a performance piece at a college? My theory – not advanced by Hershman Leeson – is that the mere questioning of genetically modified food was the target. The medics were right to be concerned upon entering the premises and seeing biological junk around and a young woman’s dead body, but after that, the FBI’s machine could not be stopped - even after Kurtz grabbed the biological bacteria and tried eating it to show the FBI agents that it was not hazardous.

Was it a warning by - I don’t know who could possibly object to an exhibition about genetically modified foods - powerful conglomerates that genetically modified food could not be questioned? (Pictured, GEO-PIE Project: Genetically engineered tomatoes)

Lynn Hershman Leeson is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis, and an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.

Entheogens. I have to travel out of the country whenever I want to take a spiritual journey since the DEA refers to all entheogens as dangerous to society. The DEA places iboga (pictured), cannabis, ayahuasca and peyote on Schedule 1, the most restricted and highly punishable schedule. Cocaine, crack, speed and PCP only make Schedule 2. The African Bwiti, the Shaivites of India, indigenous South Americans and Mexican Indians all have used these “illicit substances” in ceremonies dating back 3,000 years. The DEA’s Code of Federal Regulations exempts members of the Native American Church from prosecution for peyote employed in bona fide religious ceremonies but not other religious organizations using entheogens. From the Greek “entheos” and “genesthai,” entheogen translates to “that which causes god to be within.”

The Devil Tours Hollywood. “The Devil's Guide to Hollywood: The Screenwriter as God!” by Joe Eszterhas is an entertaining collection of other people’s quotes, tidbits, and self-praise. Eszterhas has come up with a brilliant way to write a big book without actually doing any of the tedious, time-consuming typing. Here is what I imagine he did: Paid a group of college students to go through thousands of magazines, newspapers, and autobiographies, and collect everything any movie star, agent, producer, or screenwriter ever said about Hollywood. Then, another student pulled them together under lists of topics. Some kids then typed them into a computer. Only after all this did Mr. Eszterhas add his own brief comments. There it is! A book you do not have to actually write yourself!

Joe leaves out the most damning things insiders have said about Hollywood. He’s not stupid. He still needs those big Hollywood checks for touching up other people’s scripts. And yes, he did have sex with Sharon Stone and he doesn’t want you to forget it.

I’m not saying that Joe’s complication is not fun reading, or his brief comments are not cute, but I would have loved it if he just published his Hollywood contracts (with his comments added) and had all his audio-taped meetings transcribed. Maybe that is the next book. Amazon.com: the devil's guide to hollywood

Physical Medium in Las Vegas. Ordained Spiritual Minister Hoyt Robinette (pictured) will be at the Spiritualist Desert Church from February 9-12. Reverend Robinette will be conducting 4 seances, one each evening at 7 PM. These will be held at the Spiritualist Desert Church, 3355 West Spring Mountain Road suite 19, Las Vegas, NV 89102, 702 876-8783.

Rev. Robinette summons the dead during ‘blindfold billets’ services. Congregants write names of dead loved ones on pieces of paper, then the papers are handed to Robinette, who has two layers of white tape and a blindfold over his eyes. “It’s all about believing what we can’t see. We have to go on faith,” said Robinette, who said he has been hearing from spirits since he was 13.

If you are interested, Reverend Robinette will also demonstrate Pictures on Silk ($65) on Friday, Feb 9th; Spirit Card Drawing ($65) on Saturday; Pictures on Silk ($65) on Sunday; and a Trumpet Séance ($70) on Monday. Reverend Robinette will also be available for private readings each day, except Sunday, from 10 AM until 2 PM. The cost is $65 for a reading of 45-60 minutes.

If you would like to contact me about this column, or be included on my private distribution list for a weekly reminder, just email me at Masauu@aol.com.

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