This is a reason to visit the Aladdin
Or at least buy a meal there if the hotel room price is too rich.
Hat tip LGF.
LAS VEGAS - Singer Linda Ronstadt not only got booed, she got the boot after lauding filmmaker Michael Moore and his new movie "Fahrenheit 9/11" during a performance at the Aladdin hotel-casino.
The president who is British by the way had this to sayTimmins . . . was watching the show, decided Ronstadt had to go — for good. Timmins said he didn't allow Ronstadt back in her luxury suite and she was escorted off the property. Ronstadt's antics "spoiled a wonderful evening for our guests and we had to do something about it," . . . "As long as I'm here, she's not going to play," Timmins said.Well there is one place Ronstadt won't be working anymore, but maybe she wanted it that wayIn an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal before the show, Ronstadt said "I keep hoping that if I'm annoying enough to them, they won't hire me back."It may not be a bad idea to send the Aladdin an email saying good job. If nothing else, it will hopefully remind entertainers that when they are doing a show, they need to concentrate on the show and save their editorial opinions for their own time (like the rest of us mere mortals).
ED. UPDATE: The Las Vegas Review-Journal report is online and is more interesting to read than the AP wire feed. My theory is that Ronstadt had a beef over promotion with the Aladdin:
"Our management is incredibly upset," [Aladdin director of PR Tyri] Squyres said. "We're just very disappointed because we hired her for a good evening of entertainment for our guests.
"It was like she came in with a chip on her shoulder," Squyres said.
Ronstadt allowed no meet-and-greets and no photographers.
Squyres said Ronstadt "inaccurately" told the crowd she saw a billboard that promoted a greatest-hits show. Ronstadt's camp had provided and approved all ads, commercials, billboards and news releases, Squyres said.
I've seen some performance contracts (riders) at the Smoking Gun that have stated very stringent conditions on promotional materials. For example, Don McLean's rider specifies (courtesy the Smoking Gun):
And Blood, Sweat and Tears rider says, "Do not advertise as a reunion tour"
You get the sense that musicians are a little touchy about their pub? My theory is that Ronstadt was that kind of touchy, felt that she had been wronged and got back at the Aladdin in the only way she knows how.
UPDATE 2: Smash reminds us that Ronstadt got booed before. . .for the exact same thing.
UPDATE 3: The Las Vegas Sun provides Jerry Fink's review of the Ronstadt concert:
Although she still has that powerful, distinctive voice, Ronstadt was merely going through the motions.
The only song she had trouble with was "Blue Bayou." She stumbled over the lyrics, seemed to gasp for breath at one point and ended the song in Spanish, screaming the words rather than singing them.
Her performance was uninspired and generally flat. She lacked stage presence, doing little more than sleepwalk from song to song.
The fiasco at the end was the most exciting part of the show.
This is beginning to look like a case of an old rocker looking for some excitement (and maybe pub) because the career has gone its way.
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