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Celebrities Enjoy A Comfort Zone In Las Vegas

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By STEVE FRIESS The New York Times

Published: February 11, 2008

Updated: 02/10/2008 07:11 pm

LAS VEGAS - For some time, Michael Jackson and his children have lived at the Palms resort here while he records a new album in its studio.

This might not be so surprising, considering Jackson's nomadic ways as well as the affinity that celebrities have for Vegas.

What is stunning, however, is that the star managed to live at the Palms for at least two months before a local gossip columnist wrote about it Jan. 16.

How is it the whereabouts of a tabloid target such as Jackson could stay concealed for so long? Well, one might have noticed what did not happen after Norm Clarke's article appeared in The Las Vegas Review-Journal.

No swarm of paparazzi descended upon the Palms. No enterprising photographer sneaked inside to snap Jackson heading to an elevator. No hotel guest made a cell phone video to sell to TMZ or post on YouTube.

"Does that surprise me? Not really," said Larry Fink, public relations director for the Palms. "The celebrity media here is - I don't want to say they're well behaved - but there's a certain level of respect between us and them."

It's true. Despite the constant star visits and red carpet events in Vegas, few if any images of pantyless pop stars, married actors getting lap dances or paparazzi mobs chasing celebutantes into limousines have appeared online or in print.

The most notorious illicit video out of Vegas in recent years was footage of an intoxicated David Hasselhoff crawling on the floor of his hotel room trying to eat a hamburger. It was shot by his daughter and leaked by a member of his family.

Vegas is where stars can avoid the aggressive breed of stalker photographers who shadow their public events in Los Angeles and New York. At the very least, stars exert more control over their exposure. Ensconced in protective resorts and guarded by private security teams, the stars find the celebrity news media in Las Vegas far less invasive.

"In Vegas, I don't have to worry about photographers waiting outside my house every day because they can't wait outside my hotel room," Spencer Pratt, a star of the MTV reality series "The Hills," said in early January as he and Heidi Montag, his co-star and girlfriend, posed for photos on a red carpet on the way to an event they were paid to attend at the Jet nightclub at the Mirage.

Indeed, as the city rolled into the year's biggest betting weekend, the Super Bowl, stars aplenty were expected to be in the nightclubs and sports books. But they were not expecting to be trailed by what Robin Leach, the former host of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and the unofficial dean of the Las Vegas celebrity news media, refers to as "wild roaming packs of paparazzi."

"All of our photographers are known to the casinos almost as if they're registered," said Leach, who writes the Vegas Luxe Life blog for Las Vegas Magazine. "If a photographer breaks the spirit of the unidentified terms of his access, that's the last time he gets red carpet or nightclub privileges."

That powerful threat is the difference between Vegas and other cities. The casino resorts are private property. Many have private elevators, tunnels and garages for those not wishing to be seen.

The celebrity photos that do emerge from Vegas are generally less compelling because stars rarely go about their everyday business here, said Harvey Levin, managing editor of TMZ.com.

Even when celebrities do embarrass themselves in Vegas, their actions rarely receive widespread coverage.

"There's more to shooting than getting someone falling down a staircase," Robin Roth, a photographer and writer for Entnews.com, said in late December as she waited for Beyonce and Jay-Z to arrive at the opening of the rap star's sports bar, the 40/40, at the Palazzo resort. "They're here to promote this event, and that's what we're here to shoot. So we're trying to get the best of them. I'm going to try to get the nicest shot of them."

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