The Real World at Gold Spike

The Real World is filming an upcoming season in Las Vegas. Gold Spike downtown has been reported by multiple sources as the residence for the show's participants.

The Real World was one of (maybe the first?) reality television shows when it first debuted on MTV in 1992. This upcoming season will be the show's 31st overall, and third time in Las Vegas.

The 12th season of The Real World in 2002 took place at The Palms. The popularity of that season cemented The Palms as the place to be for younger tourists to party in Las Vegas in the early to mid 2000's.

The 25th season in 2011 also took place in Las Vegas at The Hard Rock. By this time the show's popularity wasn't as high, so I don't think it gave The Hard Rock the cool factor boost they were hoping for.

Gold Spike definitely has the hip factor being owned by Downtown Project and recently removing their old-people casino in favor of millennial approved board games and live music.

It will be interesting to see if the TV show will attract any additional foot traffic to the struggling Downtown Grand across the street.

Las Vegas Pool Season 2011 Begins

Summer comes early in Las Vegas, as many of the pools around the Strip are open and ready for business.

A few of the more popular day-club type places will be holding grand opening parties this weekend.

Rehab at the Hard Rock:


Wet Republic at MGM Grand featuring Kim Kardashian:


Encore Beach Club featuring Michael Phelps:


The new kid in town this year is the Marquee day club at Cosmopolitan. Victoria's Secret Angel Alessandra Ambrosio was on hand for the opening last weekend and tweeted this picture of the pool:

Hard Rock Fined by Gaming Control Board

The Hard Rock Hotel was fined $650,000 by the Nevada Gaming Control Board for incidents involving drugs and other illegal activities taking place at hotel nightclubs. I'm not sure why Gaming Control cares about stuff that's happening outside of the casino, but I guess they have the power to regulate the entire hotel, and chose to use that power.

It will be interesting to see if this fine changes how the Hard Rock and some of the other "party hotels" around town do business. I'm guessing some of the more overt violations will be taken care of, but it's unlikely that the hotels will change their party atmosphere.

I'm also wondering if the Control Board will go after any other hotels or if this was a one time thing. I think the Hard Rock was probably used as an example of what could happen if you don't follow the rules, and so I doubt we see many more fines like this anytime soon.

Source: News 3.

Real World Returning to Las Vegas

The Real World is rumored to be returning to Las Vegas for its 25th season. This time the MTV reality show will be located at the Hard Rock.

In 2002 The Real World put the Palms on the map when the show was located in a penthouse suite at that hotel. The success of that show led to the Palms becoming a hot spot for the 20-something Vegas club crowd.

This should be a mutually beneficial relationship between MTV and the city of Las Vegas. From what I understand the show's ratings have been a bit down recently, and so having it in a city like Vegas could boost that a little. On the other side having Las Vegas in a popular TV show will definitely create some buzz and might expose Las Vegas to the younger MTV viewers.

Source: MTV Real World News Blog.

Get Him to the Greek - Las Vegas Scenes

Movies and TV shows like to take creative license when filming in Las Vegas. The NBC show "Las Vegas" was famous for their fictional hotel which seemed to change locations up and down the strip every episode. In the movie 21 the characters had a suite at the Hard Rock (off the Strip) that seemed to magically overlook the Bellagio fountains. The iconic Vegas movie Swingers had the characters entering the Stardust, but the interior scenes were actually shot at the Fremont hotel. The Hangover actually did a pretty good job with their Vegas exterior shots. I love the scene where they are overlooking the strip from Caesars and then night fades to day focused on Flamingo and Bally's.

Earlier today I saw the new release Get Him to the Greek. Aside from looking like a reasonably funny movie, I heard that part of the film was in Las Vegas, which was an added incentive to see it. Turns out the Vegas scenes are kind of minor. The characters have a suite at Planet Hollywood. They then see the Rat Pack is Back show at Plaza. After that they are partying in another suite which I guess is supposed to be their original suite at Planet Hollywood. The only problem is the view overlooked the strip from a vantage point which looks south from Trump. The characters then exit the hotel and appear to be around Fashion Show Mall, which makes sense... but then the camera cuts and they are suddenly in front of Paris going north. I'm sure 99% of the moviegoers wouldn't notice this, but it was a pretty obvious goof for Vegas geeks to spot.

So bottom line, Get Him to the Greek was a pretty funny movie, but if you were going for the Las Vegas scenes you might want to wait for DVD.

SKYBAR opening at Hard Rock

As part of the $750 million hotel expansion, the Hard Rock is announcing a new pool / lounge. SKYBAR is located above the Hard Rock Beach Club and will offer party-goers an exclusive day to night atmosphere.

SKYBAR has been a hotspot in LA for 14 years, and the Las Vegas location will look to re-create that success. When I first read the press release I was thinking this sounds like a mini "rehab" but it might be a little more low key.



Source: Hard Rock Press Release.