Posts Tagged ‘Robin Leach’

Way down the list of Tiger Woods’ concerns this weekend in Las Vegas, right next to say waiting a little too long for the valet to bring around his shiny new car, is the idea that a local celebrity journalist is grousing about the lack of interview access. Nevertheless, ahead of the golfer’s series of big weekend charity events in Sin City, that is Robin Leach’s beef:

No questions, thus no answers to any subject. Nothing about his current game. Nothing about old loves and new ones. Nothing about anything. A tough assignment for us who are used to big stars sitting down for one-on-one conversations.

Photographers will get the slightly better run of things during this weekend’s 15th annual Tiger Jam, allowed access at the Mandalay Bay Events Center and later Saturday night for the Kid Rock-Uncle Kracker concert. Tonight, as part of a whole series of poker tournaments culminating May 24, Woods has a $10,000 buy-in event.

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Much like a Harold Robbins novel, the first few pages of Cinderella and the Carpetbagger, Grace Robbins’ recollection of what it was like to be the wife of the mega-best-selling author, reach out and grab you by the shirt collar.

Robbins explains that back in the day, she and Harold threw two kinds of parties. The first were in the grand old Hollywood tradition, packed with A-listers and well-covered by the press. The other were secretly convened bachanals, often abetted by the bartending of Scotty Bowers and a large crystal bowl full of cocaine. It is one of these parties that anchors Robbins’ prologue and helps launch her fantastically entertaining throwback memoir:

“Here” was the master bedroom of our ten thousand square-foot mansion in the famous hills overlooking Beverly Hills – a bedroom so enormous most apartments would easily fit within its space…

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It doesn’t seem possible after 50+ years as a print and TV journalist, many of them with front-line celebrity franchises like the old syndicated guilty pleasure Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, that Robin Leach could still be star-struck. But as his most recent Las Vegas Sun item indicates, that scenario can indeed delightfully still occur.

The occasion was a private dinner at Bellagio’s Tuscany Kitchen, the first in a series dubbed “Epicurean Epicenter 2013.” The food was concocted by super-chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten (who flew in from New York) while the wine poured from the vineyard of an Oscar winner. Writes Leach:

Francis Ford Coppola is far more than a celebrity winemaker; his passion and understanding are beyond measure. It was an honor, a privilege and a rare treat to sit with him for our exclusive interview.

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Following up an item from last month, Vegas man-about-town Robin Leach checks back in to a major topic of Sin City conversation. Locals are increasingly fearful that the upcoming TLC reality series Vegas High Rollers will bathe the Strip in an exaggerated negative light. To which FishbowlLA replies, what else is new?

That’s the M.O. of reality TV. To orchestrate and amp up the confrontations, no matter how real, followed by many sweaty hours in the editing room. It’s a well-worn cliffhanger-pinwheel process seemingly re-confirmed by one of Leach’s sources:

“The truth is that it was a different project that they signed on to, and it has gone in a direction they hoped would never happen. They are totally frustrated. The producers who also shoot Real Housewives episodes promised this would be different – about powerful women who have made it on their own. They know Vegas is a small community where everybody knows everybody involved, not like Real Housewives in much bigger cities.”

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Remember the old Robin Leach Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous punchline “champagne wishes and caviar dreams?” We certainly do, and it came to mind while reading one of the choice anecdotes in Daniel Miller and Matthew Belloni’s Hollywood Reporter magazine cover story about flamboyant (and now embattled) megaupload.com founder Kim Dotcom (a.k.a. Kim Schmitz).

The reporters were unable to secure an interview with Dotcom. But they did correspond via email with Maximillion Cooper (that’s not a typo; that’s how he spells his first name), founder of the cross-continental car rally Gumball 3000. Cooper says he galavanted for a decade around the globe with Dotcom, and remembers one St. Tropez incident in particular:

Cooper recalls a memorable 2001 trip to the south of France on the 264-foot Golden Odyssey, which features a mosaic-tiled swimming pool, gym and coral-reef aquarium that spans two decks. For lunch, Cooper, Schmitz and a “huge entourage” that included what Cooper describes as “Aryan” bodyguards all took speedboats to the shore for lobster and champagne.

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Heading into Labor Day weekend, there continues to be much written about the absence of Jerry Lewis from the MDA telethon. In an op ed today in the Las Vegas Sun for example, Robin Leach suggests that the lack of a Lewis mention in the last two MDA press releases is “not only downright rude and disgraceful, but also a tragedy.”

Hmmm, that may be overstating it a bit. But we get Leach’s overall point, as echoed by many others. What the heck happened between the MDA and its former celebrity champion to trigger such an ugly, public divorce?

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On Wednesday, with a little help from Joan Rivers, the Beverly Hills Courier will officially unveil its new monthly section Fashion Forward! at the Paley Center for Media in New York City. Joining Rivers will be former city mayor Jimmy Delshad, newspaper publisher Clifton S. Smith Jr., and fashion director Tawny Sanders.

The weekly newspaper, which publishes on Fridays, has been around since 1965 and is truly one of the few bastions of print media success left in LA. A lot of that has to do with its monied readership:

The average Beverly Hills Courier reader has a family income of $461,000 and a net worth of over $3.7 million…

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The notions of quiet and Robin Leach don’t usually belong together. But thanks to his ongoing efforts at website VegasDeluxe.com, the former Lifestyles barker has indeed continued to quietly re-invent himself as a reliable scooper of Strip showbiz news.

His latest article of note is a February 3rd interview with Tim Allen, who debuts a new comedy act this weekend at The Venetian. The comedian and brunt of a Ricky Gervais zinger at the recent Golden Globes is contracted for a minimum of ten weekends this coming year alongside fellow regulars David Spade and Rita Rudner. Allen tells Leach:

“In Los Angeles, you’ve really got to work hard to get people out [to a comedy club]. They’re tainted, they’ve seen other great performers in small clubs, they’re used to that. In Las Vegas, it’s a bigger deal. People are out there to have a good time…

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This week in Las Vegas, there is another prominent intersection to be considered besides those massive ones on The Strip: that of grizzled showbiz old-timers Robin Leach and Jerry Lewis.

In his latest Las Vegas Weekly “Luxe Life” item, the fantabulous former host of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous exclusively reveals that Lewis will begin, December 1st, filming his first leading role in 25 years. The shoot will run for 40 days in both Vegas and LA.

Entitled Max Rose, the comedy-drama casts Lewis as a widower combing back through his marriage and family life. Writes Leach:

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