Posted on: December 9, 2024, 07:42h.
Last updated on: December 1, 2024, 12:48h.
Ever think you might be lucky enough to catch Adele scarfing down lasagna, her favorite dish, at Sinatra’s at the Wynn? Or that the elevator doors might open on your floor at the Park MGM to reveal Bruno Mars on his way down from his penthouse?
The promise of a chance celeb encounter is one of many false narratives about Las Vegas that its resorts encourage the public to believe. It’s why an old menu at Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill at Caesars Palace stated: “If you think the guy sitting at the end of the bar looks a lot like Gordon, well, it just might be.”
The reality is that celebrities stay, dine and move around in a different Las Vegas than everyone else has access to. This is why you don’t see TMZ cameras roaming the Strip. Las Vegas, unlike Hollywood, is a town built to shield celebrities from their fans, their haters, and the media.
Of course, you could always luck out and stumble into a crew filming Brad Pitt’s latest movie, as happened during this year’s F1 weekend.
You could also win a million-dollar slot jackpot. And the odds of either happening while you’re here are about the same.
Where They Stay
A-list celebrities stay in private areas of Vegas resorts protected by armed guards. These include the Villas at Caesars Palace, the Villas at Bellagio and the Mansion at the MGM Grand.
The Mansion, located in a separate part of the resort, provides guests with 2,500-t0-12K square-foot luxury villas that come with their own pools, a high-limit casino reserved exclusively for Mansion guests, and Rolls Royce pickup.
Celebs also stay in hotel towers. But when they do, it will be in special ones such as the Venetian’s Chairman Suites, the Sky Villas at Aria or the Wynn Tower Suites.
All of these feature elevators that open directly into the suites and descend to a private entrance, separate from the hotel lobby, with its own security, transportation and concierge services.
It is in the best interest of every Las Vegas resort to prevent anything bad from happening to a celebrity on their property as a result of an unwanted interaction with a member of the public.
And, if something bad happens as a result of the celebrity’s own misbehavior, it’s in the best interest of every Las Vegas resort to prevent the media from finding out.
Where They Gamble
All A-listers are invited to gamble in high-limit rooms that are off limits to the low-rolling public, and most will receive free credit or comps to gamble with.
Casinos do not want public figures on their gaming floors. It’s as much of a liability for them as it is for Beyoncé if hundreds of fans encircle a Cosmopolitan craps table to watch her let it ride.
At the Cosmopolitan, celebrities will play in the guarded Talon Room on the second floor. At the Venetian, it’s the guarded Paiza Club on the 36th floor. And at the Bellagio, it’s the guarded Club Privé, which is accessible through a secret entrance across from the The Vault cocktail lounge. (Privé is French for private, while a paiza was a tablet carried by Mongol nobles providing them with special privileges.)
For celebs who don’t even want to mingle with non-famous multi-millionaires and billionaires, private gaming rooms are furnished inside the Strip’s more expensive accommodations, with personal dealers included in the outrageous price that celebs will almost never be charged. (The cost of their entire stay is usually comped — especially if they are in town to help promote that resort or its parent company.)
Where They Eat
When celebrities attend the opening of a Las Vegas restaurant, they’ve usually been paid an appearance fee to do so. In exchange, they agree to enter, exit and eat in full view of the photographers and videographers hired by the establishment.
When they’re not working, however, public figures will almost always keep to private dining rooms. Every modern luxury restaurant on the Strip has at least one.
You can spot these private rooms, when they’re occupied by celebrities, by the security guard posted outside a wall or opaque glass partition toward the back of the restaurant. The guard will most likely be standing in front of a door that’s disguised to blend in. This door is how servers enter the private room, but celebrities won’t usually use it.
That’s because most private dining rooms include their own secret rear entrance. This opens directly into the hallways, tunnels and elevators restricted to resort employees. (A staffer will walk the celebrity and their guests wherever they need to go next to avoid mixing with the public.)
Many private dining rooms have their own restrooms as well.
How They Get Around
The reason you’ve never seen Adele on your taxi line at Caesars is because celebrities usually take limos or car-service vehicles from one publicly inaccessible resort entrance to another.
And they will never walk through the publicly accessible areas of Harry Reid International Airport. In fact, most will land in private jets (often provided as part of appearance contracts) that pull into private terminals.
Their aircraft may even use a private airport, such as Henderson Executive Airport or North Las Vegas Airport.
They Actually Need All This
Now that we’ve got you all annoyed at celebrities for burning unnecessary jet fuel and thinking they’re too important to mix with the likes of you, we’d like to ask you to imagine yourself in their shoes for a second.
OK, so they’re $1,500 Jimmy Choos, but celebrities are people, too.
Even Kanye West.
Yes, they wouldn’t be where they are today without their fans. But celebrities all have to contend with the darker side of modern superstardom.
This includes threats to their lives — and their children’s! — regular attempts at extortion and cancellation, and getting stalked by mentally unstable people who sometimes include Kanye West.
As for catching a glimpse of Chef Ramsay at the end of the bar, he visits each of the six Las Vegas restaurants that Caesars Entertainment runs for him exactly once per year for photo ops, as required by their multimillion-dollar contracts with him.
And the restaurants are always closed to the public when he does.
Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org. Visit VegasMythsBusted.com to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.
