Will the casino industry suddenly become less sexist? Will the PR war ever end for Harrah's? This week, Lambda Legal Defense ran an ad in the Reno Gazette Journal haranguing Harrah's (Reno) for firing bartender Darlene Jesperson in 2000 because she refused to wear heavy makeup per a company photo showing how female employees should be groomed. Jesperson sued, Harrah's won in the lower court and a decision is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
Why the ad? Why the campaign? Why now?
"To raise awareness ... [of] the setting of different rules that are more burdensome on one sex," says Jenny Pizer, Lambda attorney. "Why should women in the 21st century be made to wear the Maybelline version of a corset?" If the duties of the job are the same for male and female employees such as bartenders, Pizer says, one sex should not be held to different standards.
Harrah's has stopped supplying the photos depicting proper makeup application and has reworded its makeup policy to: "[It] should be tasteful and not excessive." But can a Harrah's female employee still be fired for opting not to wear makeup?
"I really don't want to answer that," says Harrah's spokesman David Strow.
Hey Elton, Tell Lestat to Take a Bite Out of Your (Blood) Red Piano
Sir Elton's become something of a fixture 'round these parts thanks to his recurring show, The Red Piano, at Caesars Palace. But other locales—you listening, San Francisco?—haven't been as welcoming. Or at least their media representatives haven't. Elton John's newest Broadway-bound project, Lestat, based on Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles, and featuring music by John and lyrics by his longtime writing partner, Bernie Taupin, was shredded by critics during a San Fran tryout, postponing Gotham preview performances and its scheduled Broadway opening, according to the Associated Press. This is John's third Broadway musical, following The Lion King and Aida, and he also contributed to the London hit Billy Ellliot. But the San Francisco Chronicle called Lestat "didactic, disjointed, oddly miscast, confusingly designed and floundering in an almost unrelentingly saccharine score by Elton John." And the San Jose Mercury News said the bloodsucker show displayed "few signs of life." Awww. The man needs some Vegas-style TLC. At his Caesars shows this weekend, offer him a hug. Or at least a bite on the neck.
You Had to Be There to See Why It's So Nice to Be Here
It was a reminder of the little perks that go with living in this particular place: Members of the KA troupe appeared Saturday at the Tower Records on Sunset Road. In tattooed body suits or Oriental fighting gear, they emerged quietly from a back room, hopping, whirling and mock-battling for a mostly surprised, thoroughly delighted group of CD shoppers. "Awesome," one girl exclaimed. "I had no idea this was going to happen." It was a nice break for the performers, too. "It's cool to perform where you are so close to the people and can see their reactions," says Terry Kvasnik. And those reactions amounted to this: Bet nothing like this happens on a Saturday in Dayton.
Live TV Commercials!
Reaching back to television days gone by, Marla Letizia's Mobile Billboards of Las Vegas has begun running live commercials during the morning news on KTNV (Channel 13). The first airing, February 2, during the advertising block preceding Good Morning America, featured Marla Letizia employee Susan Haller singing a self-penned jingle, backed by guitarist and co-worker Gavin Smith. The KTNV studio housed the endeavor, with Mobile Billboards' logo superimposed over the blue screen typically used for weather maps.
"We're celebrating five great years by bringing a little music and entertainment to the morning, and we're bringing back some old, great 'Golden Age of TV' stuff," Letizia says of the concept. "We're doing something retro ... how long has it been since somebody performed live commercials?" Actually, the Ford Motor Company ran a series of 60 live national spots in 2001, but it's anybody's guess when a local business actually aired one.
Surprisingly, given the train-wreck potential of live TV, the spot's maiden voyage went so smoothly—Haller sang confidently, Smith played ably and the jingle was at least as catchy as most of Southern Nevada's well-known theme songs—that it was near-impossible to detect it wasn't taped. Haller rectified that during a second airing, wishing viewers a "Happy Monday," and Letizia said she plans to add live voice-overs to future installments.
Answer to the First Item: The Opening of a New and True Mix of Slot Machines, Chicken Wings, and Boobs
While Harrah's gets pummeled for its female makeup policy, Vegas at large gets Hooterized. Last Thursday night the world's first Hooters Casino opened in the former San Remo Hotel. The pre-opening bash saw celebs Brooke Burke, Cindy Margolis, Carrot Top, Dan Marino (who had his own fine dining restaurant inside the casino) and KISS' Gene Simmons, who was kind enough to let big-breasted women sit on his lap for hours at a time.
The casino boasts the décor that all other Hooters locations are known for: tin ceilings and cedar wood floors, nine restaurants and bars—including a Hooters restaurant with famously tasty chicken wings—indoor/outdoor stages for live entertainment, 696 hotel rooms and, most notably, the largest number of Hooters girls in one place! More than 200! They're working as bartenders, servers and dealers, and probably, yes, wearing plentiful makeup.