VEGAS INVASION!!!
Smash scopes out the Palms and sits down with George Maloof to talk MTV’s Video Music Awards
By: Casey McCabe
"The suite right here, Kanye West will be in this suite." Palms head honcho George Maloof tells me. It’s the Playboy Suite and this suite is sweet. Old school Playboy posters mounted on the walls, 3 plasma flat panel TVs, a huge maroon wrap around couch (with plenty of room for your bunnies) and an outside patio where a bed faces a strip view and this is just the media room. I'm sitting on the couch where Kanye West could quite possibly seal the deal on his next collaboration. Maybe I should leave a note for Kanye about re-making “Money for Nothing,” I can’t get that song out of my head.
The next room over is where all the action is taking place. As we speak girls in teeny bikinis are sitting in the Playboy pool with an MTV VJ giving viewers something far better to look at than the Vegas strip. It's hard to notice the large film crew behind the cameras when you have about 20 hot blondes and brunettes adjusting their bikini tops and striking their best "Paris Hilton" pose. There's even one gentleman sporting some aviator shades doing his best to make sure his lower abdomen are flexed for the camera by constantly tugging on his board shorts. It’s something you would see on an episode of "Entourage," except Drama, E, Turtle and Vince are nowhere to be seen. This is just the beginning of the constant party and celebration of the VMA's taking place at the Palms.
To the typical man, local or tourist, “partying like a rock star” inside the Hugh Hefner Sky Villa suite, is a mere $40,000 a night. September 9th these rooms will be filled with Moon Man winners and losers. Who will walk away with this years Moon Man? Solo artists like Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Rihanna and Kanye West are this years frontrunners though you will find rockers Linkin Park and Amy Winehouse with 3 nods and Fall out Boy with 2 nods.
“What great nominees! They truly reflect a stellar year in music and videos and show some love to the new faces that burst onto the scene this year,” -MTV President, Christina Norman.
During this years VMA's keep an eye out for some new categories like Male Artist of the year/ Female artist of the year, Most Earth shattering Collaboration, Monster Single of the year and the Quadruple Threat award. The Monster Single of the year category is this years largest consisting of ten nominated artists compared to your typical 5 or 6 nominations in any given category. Aside from having new categories the 2007 VMA’s will also break in a new host. This year’s host will be the Palms Casino itself and hosting the VMA's shouldn't pose any problem for the Hotel at all. The Palms Hotel is no stranger to the big lights and flashy cameras; they've done it before with MTV's Real World, delivering in my opinion one of the best seasons ever. The Real World Suite is one of the most recognized suites on the strip.
With the dream team collaboration of MTV and the Palms, history
will be made once again with the combination of celebrity guests and rock star performances. Each year we’re blown away by a mind blowing super secret guest artists or some over the top P. Diddy performance. Unless you’re BFF’s with Timbaland or happen to be related to MTV President Christina Norman you have no idea what’s in store. It’s not easy to out do previous VMA’s. Check out the track record, in 1984 the first ever VMA's were hosted by Bette Midler and Dan Akroyd where Madonna gave her bow chinka bow bow performance, "Like A Virgin." The following year Eddie
Murphy hosted and we were all inspired to give a lending hand with the "We
are the World" performance by Michael Jackson, Sting and many more. Who could forget Howard Stern as Fartman during the 1992 VMA’s the same year Van Halen won Best Video of the Year for “Right Now.” In 97' Chris Rock hosted and a pre-sentenced Martha Stewart presented an award with her homeboy Busta Rhymes. In 2003 Chris Rock returned for his second VMA hosting gig where every mans wildest dream came true with the infamous Madonna, Britney and Christina lip smacker. That was awesome. Now in 2007 the Palms will play host to the VMA's and George Maloof is here to give us some insight on how it all came together.
SM: How did it feel to see some the VMA nominations announced from the Palms?
GM: It looked great. I went over there and took a peak at some of
the images. I mean its kind of unbelievable and I'm not
taking anything for granted, I just can't believe it's here.
SM: How did the Palms become the home of the 2007 VMA's?
GM: Well Christina Norman who's the President of MTV came to Las Vegas and
we had a meeting. It was supposed to last an hour and I think it ended
up lasting about 5 or 6 hours. We literally went through every aspect
of the hotel, I gave her a tour of everything with Producer Jessie
and ideas started popping in everyone's head. We'd say lets do
something completely uniquely different that had never been done
before. Lets take artists and pair them together and throw them in a
suite, lets put them in the Pearl, lets make it much more intimate
than the past. Lets make a ticket virtually impossible to get. Lets
do a performance out by our pool, lets do one in Rain, lets literally
just take over the whole hotel and let the Palms be the Host. So we
didn't want to get a specific host, lets just let the hotel be the
host and have the artists and the fans have it speak for
themselves.
George Maloof refers to a man by the name of Jesse. His full name is Jesse Ignjatovic and he’s the executive producer of the MTV video Music Awards. This guy has been around the block and has pretty hefty resume when it comes to MTV programming. He’s been with MTV for 14 years and has developed and produced shows including “Diary,” “Meet the Barkers,” and “mtvICON.” He even has a Grammy sitting at home for co-creating and executive producing “MTV Ultimate Mash-Ups Jay Z/ Linkin Park.” I’m sure he’ll be living it up with his rock star pals in one of the many VIP Suites at the Palms.
SM: Tell us about the suites the artists plan on taking over?
GM: The suite right here, Kanye West will be in the suite.
SM: It's the Hugh Hefner Suite.
GM: Hugh Hefner Suite and Fall Out Boy will be in the Celebrity Suite
and Justin Timberlake will be in the Hard Wood Suite. They'll
bring their friends, so it's kind of like, it's so cool they get to pick
which artists that they want to collaborate with and they get to
pick the people they want in their rooms, their friends, a few fans
they put on a show and it goes back and forth throughout the whole
evening. It heads down to the pool heads back up to the Pearl goes
over to Rain comes over to one of our Suites, the G suite, I mean it's
going to be flying all over the place. In the casino we'll do a live
performance.
SM: This is all Sunday Night. Will there be parties leading up to Sunday nights VMA’s
and maybe Monday as well?
GM: Yeah, there will be parties throughout the city you know. Our focus
is really with the show and MTV so we’ll have a few parties, but
MTV basically took over the whole Hotel. So all the talent, all the
artists are staying here, all the executives are staying here and the
VIP's. You know you gotta come out and check it out. We're
re-doing half of our casino it’s going to look a lot different, we're
taking out slot machines and we're putting in risers and red carpets and
everything.
After the NBA All-Star Weekend some locals think we might not be able to handle any more huge star-studded events. With the tragedies that took place and the controversy surrounding pro football play Adam “Pacman” Jones it makes you wonder if anything else controversial could happen. There will be lots of celebrities from the hip/hop and rock star world with lots of money to throw around. Is Las Vegas ready for another huge celebrity filled event? Can we handle it and will the proper precautions take place?
SM: After a weekend like the All Star Weekend where there were some
problems around town how are you guys preparing?
GM: Well we want to make sure everybody's safe and we'll have plenty of
security. You know at events like this things happen sometimes
so when you bring thousands and thousands of people into town it's
no different than a fight at the MGM or you know the NFR. It's lots of
people, but the town can take it and handle it we're used to it.
SM: Who's the artist you're most excited to see at the VMA's?
GM: I love Fall Out Boy so probably Fall Out Boy….and Justin obviously.
Justin who will obviously be in Las Vegas is also hosting a party with
Timbaland in the Hard Wood Suite. Yes I said the Hard Wood Suite so
ladies now you know and good luck trying to get in. You better have
some special talent or be able to pull a Criss Angel and float across
Moon, past the Real World Suite, make an elephant appear and end up at
the window of the Hard Wood Suite if you’re planning on getting in.
This years Video Music Awards performances consist of Timbaland, Kanye West, Fall Out Boy (Maloof's favorite), Lilly Allen, Amy Winehouse, Chris Brown, Foo
Fighters and Rihanna. Expect big surprises and secret collaborations. Most of the performing artists have been pretty hush hush on what their performance will actually be leaving us all to believe it will be the greatest thing ever. Not only are the performances and kick ass after parties a large component to the MTV VMA’s, but let’s not forget about the tiny little man we’ve all grown to love so much. The Moon Man. This is the guy you really want to be partying with after the VMA’s. Some artists are lucky enough to party with multiple Moon Men. Find out who will be so fortunate September 9th as the “2007 Video Music Awards” take over the Palms Hotel Resort live at 9pm.
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