Britney Spears Lip-Syncing Two-Year Residency Concerts at Las Vegas' Planet Hollywood

Here's the story at the New York Daily News, "Britney Spears caught lip-syncing during 'Britney: Piece of Me' residency shows in Las Vegas, despite management denials."

And her problems don't stop there.

At LAT, "Review: Britney Spears offers just a 'Piece of Me' in Las Vegas":

Wow… perfect audience for the 1st #PieceOfMe show! That was AMAZING! I <3 you Vegas!!! pic.twitter.com/7w0mGIH3BJ

— Britney Spears (@britneyspears) December 28, 2013

Scheduled to run through 2015, with Spears playing approximately 50 shows a year at the 4,600-seat Axis, “Piece of Me” represents a potential pivot point for the singer and the state of entertainment on the Las Vegas Strip.

For Spears, 32, the steady gig promises a path out of the turmoil and disappointment that have surrounded her since 2007, when she attacked a paparazzo’s car with an umbrella after shaving her head at a Tarzana salon.

Though Spears’ personal life appears to have stabilized, her career is still hurting: This month her album “Britney Jean” opened with the lowest sales of the singer’s 15-year career; it sits at No. 27 on the Billboard 200, well behind records by Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus, both of whom showed up Friday night as a sign of respect to a trailblazer.

Filling the Axis, the thinking seems to go, might restore some of Spears’ luster without her having to engage in direct competition with her younger successors.

Las Vegas, meanwhile, stands the chance to further dismantle its reputation as a home for has-beens. Successful casino shows by the likes of Celine Dion and Elton John have advanced that effort, but with its jackhammering dance beats and recent-vintage radio hits, “Piece of Me” bridges the gap between those old-school extravaganzas and the superstar DJ sets that have increasingly come to define the city’s night life.

In terms of show-business strategy, it seems to make sense. Yet as a concert experience Spears’ opening-night performance came up awfully short....

Whatever the scale of the number though, the singer’s presence felt so diminished -- her dancing a tentative shadow of what it used to be, her vocals apparently lip-synced for the majority of the show -- as if to make the production’s title seem a taunt.

That was never more true than in the song “Piece of Me,” which on 2007’s “Blackout” -- perhaps Spears’ best album, released right in the thick of her public meltdown -- arrived like a searing indictment of the tabloid surveillance state. On record the track still stings, yet here it flat-lined, with none of the intensity, energy or strut that made Spears such a focal point of mainstream pop.

RTWT.

Well, maybe she's right for Vegas after all. A lot of performers have wound down their careers on the Strip.

Fabulous Kate Hudson Steps Out at iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas

At London's Daily Mail, "Kate Hudson shows off her sculpted legs in purple playsuit as she supports fiance Matt Bellamy at iHeartRadio music festival":

Having given birth to two children, actress Kate Hudson is one hot mama.

The 34-year old showed off her gorgeously sculpted pins, donning a purple playsuit while supporting her husband at the iHeartRadio music event in Las Vegas on Friday.

Rocking her blonde tresses straight, the married actress made a bold beauty statement, wearing a bright red lipstick.

Definitely hot.

More at the Los Angeles Times, "iHeartRadio 2013: Katy Perry, Elton John roll out the hits."

Britney Spears Confirms Las Vegas Residency in 'GMA' Appearance

Hey, maybe I'll check her out next time I'm in Vegas.



More at London's Daily Mail, "Britney Spears takes a gamble in plunging jumpsuit as she is greeted by 1,000 screaming fans in Nevada desert to announce Vegas residency deal."

Black Sabbath Concert Review

From the band's performance Tuesday night at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, from Randall Roberts, at LAT, "Review: Black Sabbath visit hell at a sweaty L.A. Sports Arena":

If you listened very closely on Tuesday night during Black Sabbath's return to the city, you could hear the Big Bang of heavy metal echoing through the sweat-drenched Los Angeles Sports Arena.

It was buried in the slow, menacing guitar lines of guitarist Tony Iommi, and propelled by Geezer Butler's cavernous bass lines. And it was in the unholy yowl of Ozzy Osbourne, 64, shuffling along the stage like a retired vampire in search of a blood nurse, who long ago moved beyond a parody of himself to become a virtual trademark in black.

Performing songs from the band's first decade (before Osbourne was booted from the group for drug-fueled debauchery, replaced by Ronnie James Dio), Sabbath offered distorted rock music as simple yet as inarguably useful as your basic table or chair. That they all wore black is understood.

More at that top link.

The band played the MGM Grand last Sunday. I tweeted from the hotel:

Black Sabbath playing @MGMGrand tonight. Punk rockers must love Ozzy. They're swarming the place. #Vegas pic.twitter.com/pdGr7VknGi
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) September 2, 2013

When we were checking out on Monday we saw a couple of tween girls with Black Sabbath t-shirts in the elevator on the way down. Turns out the parents let the girls attend on their own. I saw them and said, "So, how was it"? The kids just smiled and Dad said he'd given his tickets to them. Pretty cool.

My wife and I had two tickets on offer from MGM, by the way, but chose instead to be comped four nights at the hotel. Maybe another time, if Ozzy's still rocking, that is.

Oh, that video at top's from Birmingham, England, 2012, at the Black Sabbath YouTube page. High quality. They're really tuned in.

Kate Moss for Versace

Here's the huge billboard outside the Versace store at the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace, seen last night when I had to run over to the Apple store to pick a new charger for my son's laptop.

And see London's Daily Mail from June, "Maybe blondes DON'T have more fun? Kate Moss turns brunette as she poses in sexy skintight latex for new Versace campaign."

#Vegas Beggar Dude Needs a Beer

My kinda panhandler, on the bridge between the MGM Grand and New York New York hotels, Las Vegas, Nevada.



I'm in Vegas for the holiday weekend with my wife and youngest boy. I've been posting photos and commentary to Twitter.

Off-Duty CHP Officer Killed in High-Speed Carjacking in Vegas

Well, the obvious lesson here is to just let the mf's take your damned car. Call the cops and let them make the chase.

At LAT, "Off-duty CHP officer is killed in Las Vegas carjacking":

An off-duty California Highway Patrol officer who was in Las Vegas over the weekend for his bachelor party was killed during a high-speed carjacking on the Strip, authorities said Monday.

Jesus Manuel Magdaleno Jr., 33, of Visalia was loading luggage Sunday into the back of his 2009 Nissan pickup with his brother-in-law Felix Brandon Cruz outside the Flamingo hotel when a thief jumped into the truck and got behind the wheel.

The carjacker then sped off, as Magdaleno jumped into the bed of the truck to join Cruz, 31.

Magdaleno was thrown from the truck after the driver struck another vehicle a mile away. The CHP officer died at the scene. Cruz, who also was ejected, remained in critical condition Monday, authorities said.

Video here, "CHP Officer Vehicle Procession in Las Vegas."

Britney Spears to Announce New Las Vegas Show

At Hollywood Gossip, "Britney Spears to Announce "Cool, Hip" Las Vegas Show."



More at the Other McCain, "Former Disney Child Starlet News."

Frank Citro Jr. Blackballed by Las Vegas Casinos

An interesting piece.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Trapped between the covers of Nevada's Black Book":

Casinos Frank Citro Jr. is on the list of undesirables blackballed by casino regulators. At 68, he's trying to do what no one has ever done: Get off while he's still alive.

Read it at the link.

Heading Back to the O.C.

We should be on the road by now. Regular blogging will probably pick back up tonight and tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

#TheEagles at @mgmgrand. Amazing concert. Love those guys. And glad my whole family made it to the show! #RockandRoll twitter.com/AmPowerBlog/st…
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) March 24, 2013

The Eagles at @MGMGrand

A way cool tweet from Lorenza Ponce:

Soundcheck at The Eagles show MGM Grand Las Vegas. They are f'ing great. twitter.com/lorenzaponce/s…
— Lorenza Ponce (@lorenzaponce) March 24, 2013

I'll look for more. I took the whole family to the show. My boyz were digging it. That made me feel good. Rock and roll. The great generational equalizer.

More later ...

The #BudLight Hotties!

These casino lovelies were hangin' out at MGM Grand:

Hot #BudLight ladies at @mgmgrand #LasVegas twitter.com/AmPowerBlog/st…
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) March 24, 2013

Socialist Roseanne Barr Expropriating the Tourist Expropriators at Las Vegas Tropicana Resort

So we pulled into the MGM Grand Hotel yesterday, and it turns out that Roseanne Barr's playing across the way at the Las Vegas Tropicana Hotel.

Hey, way to show your capitalist bona fides, right? Well, no actually. During the campaign last year Ms. Barr ran on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket and announced on Sean Hannity's show that what we need is more socialism in the United States: "I do think that we need a little bit more socialism in this country at this time."

Yeah, tell that to the working class rubes turning out for Ms. Barr's nightly gig at the Tropicana. Freakin' progressive hypocrites.

And check Ms. Barr on Twitter, where her stream is filled with all kinds of far-left agitation.

FLASHBACK: At Twitchy, "Roseanne Barr sneers at other people’s jobs, slimes Breitbart; Twitter conservatives strike back."

At the MGM Grand

I'm just now getting back online after arriving in Las Vegas last night, where we stayed at Harrah's for one night. Now we're checked in at MGM Grand. The Eagles concert is tomorrow night. Here's the placard down in the elevator lobby. I'll be blogging tonight and tomorrow and then getting back on the road to Orange County on Sunday. Thanks for reading.

Vegas Fights the Haters

Well, I love the place.

But check LAT, "Taking on the Vegas haters":

They're tourists, bloggers, travel writers and newspaper pundits — an opinionated crowd with one thing in common: They're Vegas haters.

And, oh, do they have their reasons, their ammunition.

They abhor what they see as the mindless Mardi Gras of the Strip and arrogant hand-in-your-pocket connivances of the casino bosses. They criticize such Las Vegas entertainment mainstays as the comedian Carrot Top and the sickening largesse of those all-you-can-eat buffets, not to mention the scruffy characters who shove tacky girlie-show cards into the hands of passing tourists.

And why, they ask, are so many slot machine players perched in wheelchairs, wearing oxygen masks, puffing on cigarettes? Has the place no decency?

"I have to go there to see my family at Christmas — I feel so dirty," one letter writer responded to a blog post about people who despise this town. Author James Ellroy, who feels at home in even the darkest milieu, highlighted the city's disgusting nature, which he called "a testimonial to skeeviness."

A guest opinion-page writer from North Carolina pointed out that, by comparison, Las Vegas lends even Orlando, Fla., an old-world charm. "I can't even stand its name," wrote Tom Nelson, a media professor at Elon University. "Going to a show in Vegas? Where're you staying in Vegas? It's Vegas this and Vegas that. Las is lost. It is a city curtly summoned like a dog. Vegas."

This city, by its nature, is thick-skinned. Think some vampy runway model flaunting some scandalous outfit; she couldn't care less what people think.

But sometimes the insults cut too deep, even for this place. That's when Vegas fights back.

Jeez, it's Vegas, for crying out loud. Folks just need to chill.

More at that top link.

'Take It Easy'

My wife and I caught Showtime's "History of the Eagles" last night. It's worth your time if you get the chance. And it was even more fun since my wife just got an invitation from the MGM Grand to see the Eagles live in Las Vegas on March 23rd. We saw the Eagles at the Honda Center in Anaheim in 2010 and Don Henley at Harrah's Rincon in 2011. But this time we'll be talking our two sons to the show.

In any case, when Travis Tritt made this video for his cover of the Eagles' "Taking It Easy," he asked the original band members to appear, and it turns out that they enjoyed being together again and decided to make their comeback. The Showtime documentary covers all of that and more. A great American band.

Las Vegas Review-Journal's Blistering Attack on Barack Obama

I don't read the Review Journal, and I don't link it --- this is the paper that sponsored Righthaven's copyright trolling. But since the president's probably got Nevada wrapped up, it's a particular interesting commentary when the state's largest paper just hammers this clusterf-k administration.

Twitchy has it, with links, "Brutal: Las Vegas Review-Journal slams Obama over ‘Benghazi blunder’."

Steve Wynn Slams Obama

I saw Wynn on Piers Morgan's a month or so ago, and he was hard on Obama then, but he's really pissed off here. Watch it all the way through. He's brutally unloading on President Clusterf-k:

Canelo vs. Lopez at MGM Grand

There's a big fight this Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

While we were visiting the hotel had placed the fight ring in the main entrance lobby.

And my oldest took a shot of your humble blogger:

PREVIOUSLY: "Labor Day Weekend in Las Vegas."

Labor Day Weekend in Las Vegas

We got back from Vegas late last night. I didn't take many pictures, although my son took this one on his iPhone 4:

We stayed at the MGM Grand. At right is the walk-bridge over to New York New York, and at left is Excalibur. It was a great trip, although I never made over to the Marquee Nightclub. Maybe next time.

More later...