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Linda Ronstadt Ejected From Aladdin Casino For Praising Michael Moore
US singer Linda Ronstadt was booed off the stage and kicked out of a Las Vegas casino after praising polemical filmmaker Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11," the casino said.
The management of Las Vegas Aladdin Casino and Resort evicted the famed crooner from the premises during a concert after members of the audience reacted furiously to her praise of Michael Moore, whose film bashes US President George W Bush.
"She was removed from the hotel towards the end of the concert," a hotel official who declined to be identified told AFP.
"The company decided to remove her from the property after she dedicated a song to Michael Moore."
"This angered our guests who spilled their drinks and demanded their money back," the official said.
The liberal Ms Ronstadt, 58, a 10-time Grammy Award-winner and an icon of the politically-agitated 1970s, praised Mr Moore as a "great American patriot" who "is spreading the truth."
She also dedicated the song "Desperado" to Mr Moore and urged the audience to go and see "Fahrenheit 9/11," which mercilessly slams Mr Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq and his handling of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
According to local media, members of the 4,500-strong audience stormed out of the concert hall, tore down concert posters and tossed cocktails into the air.
Hotel president Bill Timmins then ordered security guards to escort Ms Ronstadt off the premises.
Mr Moore reacted furiously to the hotel and casino's decision in an open letter to Timmins on the filmmaker's website.
"What country do you live in?," Mr Moore asked in the letter.
"For you to throw Linda Ronstadt off the premises because she dared to say a few words in support of me and my film, is simply stupid and un-American," Mr Moore said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200407/s1158278.htm
"She was removed from the hotel towards the end of the concert," a hotel official who declined to be identified told AFP.
"The company decided to remove her from the property after she dedicated a song to Michael Moore."
"This angered our guests who spilled their drinks and demanded their money back," the official said.
The liberal Ms Ronstadt, 58, a 10-time Grammy Award-winner and an icon of the politically-agitated 1970s, praised Mr Moore as a "great American patriot" who "is spreading the truth."
She also dedicated the song "Desperado" to Mr Moore and urged the audience to go and see "Fahrenheit 9/11," which mercilessly slams Mr Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq and his handling of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
According to local media, members of the 4,500-strong audience stormed out of the concert hall, tore down concert posters and tossed cocktails into the air.
Hotel president Bill Timmins then ordered security guards to escort Ms Ronstadt off the premises.
Mr Moore reacted furiously to the hotel and casino's decision in an open letter to Timmins on the filmmaker's website.
"What country do you live in?," Mr Moore asked in the letter.
"For you to throw Linda Ronstadt off the premises because she dared to say a few words in support of me and my film, is simply stupid and un-American," Mr Moore said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200407/s1158278.htm
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They should have arrested the patrons for disorderly behavior and thrown their asses out of the joint.
Las Vegas tourists got an impressive show on the strip Wednesday evening, but it wasn't your typical performance. Thousands of union supporters demonstrated in front of the Aladdin Casino demanding that the property allow workers to unionize. News 3's Gerard Ramalho reports the workers want the Aladdin to unionize before the property changes hands.
As we've been reporting, Planet Hollywood is buying the bankrupt Aladdin. The incoming CEO has indicated he will maintain the current work force, but many of the employees who work there say it's time the property unionize, just like most of the other casinos on the strip.
The cheers are part outrage, part optimism. A crowd of nearly 3 thousand, standing together hoping to form a union. The target of all this activity is the bankrupt Aladdin Casino, one of only two strip casinos without a union. Liz Moore is a union supporter. "I understand that the Aladdin has not been cooperating and respecting the right of workers to organize, and I think that's wrong."
Soon, the Aladdin will change hands to Planet Hollywood. The new CEO this week published a letter in the newspaper saying Aladdin team members would be retained and at the same wage and benefit level. But the workers say that's not enough. And their cause gained strength in numbers thanks to the UNITE Union Members Convention taking place in town this week.
Even long time civil rights activist Jesse Jackson appeared to lend his support. "Unite, and stay united. Let nothing divide you. Culinary workers we will win the fight of the Aladdin, we will win this fight!" Current employees say organizing has been a struggle. "We've been threatened, we've been harassed and they know it, and they're up there. They know it."
It may be weeks, even months before Aladdin goes Hollywood, but these workers say they're job security can't wait. The last time Jesse Jackson appeared at one of these demonsrations was a couple years back when the Palms opened. That event was also stragically staged when a national union convention was in town.
http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=1373656&nav=15MUH4pP
As we've been reporting, Planet Hollywood is buying the bankrupt Aladdin. The incoming CEO has indicated he will maintain the current work force, but many of the employees who work there say it's time the property unionize, just like most of the other casinos on the strip.
The cheers are part outrage, part optimism. A crowd of nearly 3 thousand, standing together hoping to form a union. The target of all this activity is the bankrupt Aladdin Casino, one of only two strip casinos without a union. Liz Moore is a union supporter. "I understand that the Aladdin has not been cooperating and respecting the right of workers to organize, and I think that's wrong."
Soon, the Aladdin will change hands to Planet Hollywood. The new CEO this week published a letter in the newspaper saying Aladdin team members would be retained and at the same wage and benefit level. But the workers say that's not enough. And their cause gained strength in numbers thanks to the UNITE Union Members Convention taking place in town this week.
Even long time civil rights activist Jesse Jackson appeared to lend his support. "Unite, and stay united. Let nothing divide you. Culinary workers we will win the fight of the Aladdin, we will win this fight!" Current employees say organizing has been a struggle. "We've been threatened, we've been harassed and they know it, and they're up there. They know it."
It may be weeks, even months before Aladdin goes Hollywood, but these workers say they're job security can't wait. The last time Jesse Jackson appeared at one of these demonsrations was a couple years back when the Palms opened. That event was also stragically staged when a national union convention was in town.
http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=1373656&nav=15MUH4pP
oh my, is there any footage of this anywhere? I want to see them ripping down posters of her and demanding their money back.
America sings a new song of celebrity censorship
A furore over a Linda Ronstadt gig is the latest in a series of rows about politics that is casting a shadow over the world of US entertainment. By Andrew Gumbel
21 July 2004
The scene was the Aladdin Theatre in Las Vegas last Saturday night. Linda Ronstadt, the fifty-something folk-rocker, was just coming to the end of a concert backed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the crowd gave her a standing ovation.
Then she offered one last song, the old Eagles hit "Desperado", and dedicated it to Michael Moore, the rabble-rousing film-maker whose Bush-bashing documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 has polarised the country like no other cultural event of the early summer.
Suddenly, all hell broke loose. Depending who you believe, either the audience ran out of control or the Aladdin's management did. Either way, the upshot was that Ms Ronstadt was hustled off stage and out of the building and told she would not be welcome back, now or ever again. She was not even allowed to return to her hotel room to pack. Hotel employees checked out for her instead.
"We needed her off the property," hotel spokeswoman Tyri Squyres told local reporters. "She wanted to incite the audience, and she incited them to the point where they were very upset."
Hard though it is to imagine a diminutive middle-aged woman with a bob haircut and a honey-sweet voice starting a riot in America's very own Sin City, the Ronstadt Affair seems destined to go down as the latest surreal episode to mark this contentious, jumpily hostile election season.
Ms Ronstadt's fellow liberal entertainers were quick to cry foul yesterday about suppression of free speech and what they see as a climate of fear fostered by the Bush administration. (Ms Ronstadt herself has chosen not to comment.) The blow-hard opinion makers on the other side, meanwhile, were equally quick to accuse her of woefully misreading her audience and turning what was meant to be a pleasant piece of musical entertainment into a wholly inappropriate piece of political grandstanding.
Amid the furore, it was almost impossible to discern what actually happened in those fateful few minutes last Saturday night. According to the Aladdin's president, an expatriate Brit called Bill Timmins, Ms Ronstadt's dedication to Michael Moore - and her urging that everyone who has not yet gone to see the film do so -- pushed the audience into a frenzy of indignation. Soon they were throwing cups at the stage, storming out of the auditorium en masse and ripping down promotional posters as they stomped to the box-office to demand their money back.
"It was a very ugly scene," Mr Timmins, who was in the audience himself, told the Associated Press. Ms Ronstadt, he charged, "spoiled a wonderful evening for our guests and we had to do something about it". It was his decision to call security and have the singer escorted out of the building. She was scheduled to play just the one night, so she didn't lose any performances, but Mr Timmins made clear she could forget any future dates at his establishment. "As long as I'm here, she's not going to play," he said.
Not everyone present agreed with Mr Timmins' account, however. Paula Francis, a news anchor on a local television station, told the Las Vegas Review Journal that her experience of the concert was quite different.
"I was so stunned to read in the newspaper that anyone had a negative reaction," she said. "Everyone who was leaving when I was leaving was just thrilled. They thought it was a good concert." At the moment of the Michael Moore dedication, she said, "there were loud boos and there was quite a bit of applause. But everyone calmed down right away and seemed to enjoy the rest of the encore."
Whatever the truth of the matter, it is clear that the atmosphere surrounding performers and celebrities who express their political views - particularly, though not exclusively, when those views are hostile to President Bush -- has deteriorated significantly in recent weeks. A similar spasm of tension and partisan hostility surrounded the entertainment business in the run-up to the Iraq war at the beginning of last year, when radio stations organised a boycott of the country trio The Dixie Chicks and a conservative internet group led by a North Carolina housewife entitled Citizens Against Celebrity Pundits organised letter-writing campaigns to have prominent Hollywood liberals booted out of their jobs and off the airwaves.
The latest round was almost certainly kicked off by the massive wave of publicity surrounding the release of Mr Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. Despite his protestations to the contrary, Mr Moore's own free speech rights have not suffered one jot and his film has to date taken in just shy of $100m (£53m) at the US box-office - five times as much as his previous record-breaking documentary Bowling For Columbine. But his gleeful needling of the President, both in the film and in the surrounding publicity campaign, have infuriated Bush loyalists and set the scene for a cultural, as well as a political, stand-off in the run-up to the 2 November presidential election.
Earlier this month, the comedian and actress Whoopi Goldberg became a target for Republican Party operatives after she made genitalia jokes about the President's name at a celebrity-studded fundraiser for Democratic candidate John Kerry. Not only did the Republicans denounce the whole affair, at New York's Radio City Music Hall, as a "hate fest" revealing the true colours of both Mr Kerry and the Hollywood establishment. Ms Goldberg also lost her job as a pitch woman for the diet-food company Slimfast, which is based in the electorally sensitive state of Florida where President Bush's brother Jeb is governor.
The issue has been further stirred up by Sir Elton John, who said in an interview with New York magazine this month that he saw an "atmosphere of fear" in the United States like nothing else since the McCarthy red-baiting era of the early 1950s. He said artists were afraid to speak out and had shied away from the kind of anti-government criticism that marked the protest songs and political theatre of the Vietnam War era. "Everyone is too career-conscious. They're all too scared," he said.
Sir Elton's remarks could probably do with a little careful parsing. Although the attacks on performers do indeed raise questions about freedom of speech, they have also been used and abused by people on both sides of the argument to further their own agendas. That has been particularly true of Mr Moore, who expertly manufactured a controversy over the release of Fahrenheit 9/11 to generate invaluable advance publicity - accusing Disney of censorship because the company wanted nothing to do with him and told him to find a distribution deal elsewhere, which he duly did.
Yesterday, Mr Moore leapt on the Ronstadt Affair and somehow managed to make it all his own. On his website he posted the cover of Ms Ronstadt's album Living In The USA and added the slogan: "Thank-you Linda Ronstadt!" He also posted an open letter to Mr Timmins of the Aladdin, taking him to task for gross over-reaction.
"What country do you live in?" Mr Moore wrote. "Last time I checked, Las Vegas is still in the United States. And in the United States, we have something called the First Amendment. This constitutional right gives everyone here the right to say whatever they want to say.... For you to throw Linda Ronstadt off the premises because she dared to say a few words in support of me and my film, is simply stupid and un-American. Frankly, I have never heard of such a thing happening."
The Aladdin quickly sought to deny that it was suppressing anybody's rights. "It did not come down to the statements she had said, per se," a spokeswoman said. "It's about using our venue for political commentary versus being an entertainer. She was hired to entertain, not to preach."
That explanation, in turn, seems a little disingenuous, since Ms Ronstadt has been dedicating Desperado to Mr Moore throughout her current tour and announced the fact in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal published last Friday, the day before her concert: "They say the country is evenly divided, and boy is that true. One half of the audience cheers and the other half boos," she said.
She added: "I don't understand this country sometimes and I really fear for it. The government is making everybody in the world hate us, including the people that used to be our friends."
Besides her music, Ms Ronstadt's political views are probably the best-known thing about her. In the 1970s she had a much-publicised romance with Jerry Brown, the liberal governor of California who went on to make two unsuccessful runs for the presidency. In a show in San Diego on Sunday night, she made overt references to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent attacks on "girlie men" in the state legislature. Her dedication to Michael Moore - which she clearly has no intention of dropping - split her audience in two but caused no undue ructions, according to an account in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
As Ms Ronstadt's experience shows, the atmosphere in the United States is not one of systematic censorship so much as extreme volatility: there is no knowing when a political statement is going to cause an adverse reaction. The Dixie Chicks episode, triggered by a comment made on a London stage by lead singer Natalie Maines, who told the audience she was ashamed to come from President Bush's home state of Texas, might have been a non-event but for the concerted efforts of a handful of online Bush supporters and the sympathetic hearing they received from pro-administration radio station owners.
One radio chain, Cumulus Media, even arranged for a tractor to crush Dixie Chicks CDs, tapes and videos in an episode that was so extreme as to backfire. The trio, buoyed by the torrent of publicity, was soon back on the top of the charts and was even honoured by a neologism - dixie-chicked - to denote anyone unlucky enough to suffer a political hate campaign.
Whoopi Goldberg appears to have been a victim of another such concerted campaign, this time arranged by the Republican National Committee. Her liberal politics and dirty mouth are hardly secrets to anyone who has followed her career with even minimal attention over the past 15 years or so, and one imagines that Slimfast knew what they were taking on when they hired her to speak on their behalf.
In an interview with the New York Daily News immediately after the furore, she pointed out the manufactured nature of the outrage. "America's heart and soul is freedom of expression without fear of reprisal, I find all this feigned indignation about 'Bush bashing' quite disingenuous," she said. "For the Republican Party to pretend this is new to them seems a little fake."
Fake it may be, but we can expect plenty more of the same between now and November.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=542990
A furore over a Linda Ronstadt gig is the latest in a series of rows about politics that is casting a shadow over the world of US entertainment. By Andrew Gumbel
21 July 2004
The scene was the Aladdin Theatre in Las Vegas last Saturday night. Linda Ronstadt, the fifty-something folk-rocker, was just coming to the end of a concert backed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the crowd gave her a standing ovation.
Then she offered one last song, the old Eagles hit "Desperado", and dedicated it to Michael Moore, the rabble-rousing film-maker whose Bush-bashing documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 has polarised the country like no other cultural event of the early summer.
Suddenly, all hell broke loose. Depending who you believe, either the audience ran out of control or the Aladdin's management did. Either way, the upshot was that Ms Ronstadt was hustled off stage and out of the building and told she would not be welcome back, now or ever again. She was not even allowed to return to her hotel room to pack. Hotel employees checked out for her instead.
"We needed her off the property," hotel spokeswoman Tyri Squyres told local reporters. "She wanted to incite the audience, and she incited them to the point where they were very upset."
Hard though it is to imagine a diminutive middle-aged woman with a bob haircut and a honey-sweet voice starting a riot in America's very own Sin City, the Ronstadt Affair seems destined to go down as the latest surreal episode to mark this contentious, jumpily hostile election season.
Ms Ronstadt's fellow liberal entertainers were quick to cry foul yesterday about suppression of free speech and what they see as a climate of fear fostered by the Bush administration. (Ms Ronstadt herself has chosen not to comment.) The blow-hard opinion makers on the other side, meanwhile, were equally quick to accuse her of woefully misreading her audience and turning what was meant to be a pleasant piece of musical entertainment into a wholly inappropriate piece of political grandstanding.
Amid the furore, it was almost impossible to discern what actually happened in those fateful few minutes last Saturday night. According to the Aladdin's president, an expatriate Brit called Bill Timmins, Ms Ronstadt's dedication to Michael Moore - and her urging that everyone who has not yet gone to see the film do so -- pushed the audience into a frenzy of indignation. Soon they were throwing cups at the stage, storming out of the auditorium en masse and ripping down promotional posters as they stomped to the box-office to demand their money back.
"It was a very ugly scene," Mr Timmins, who was in the audience himself, told the Associated Press. Ms Ronstadt, he charged, "spoiled a wonderful evening for our guests and we had to do something about it". It was his decision to call security and have the singer escorted out of the building. She was scheduled to play just the one night, so she didn't lose any performances, but Mr Timmins made clear she could forget any future dates at his establishment. "As long as I'm here, she's not going to play," he said.
Not everyone present agreed with Mr Timmins' account, however. Paula Francis, a news anchor on a local television station, told the Las Vegas Review Journal that her experience of the concert was quite different.
"I was so stunned to read in the newspaper that anyone had a negative reaction," she said. "Everyone who was leaving when I was leaving was just thrilled. They thought it was a good concert." At the moment of the Michael Moore dedication, she said, "there were loud boos and there was quite a bit of applause. But everyone calmed down right away and seemed to enjoy the rest of the encore."
Whatever the truth of the matter, it is clear that the atmosphere surrounding performers and celebrities who express their political views - particularly, though not exclusively, when those views are hostile to President Bush -- has deteriorated significantly in recent weeks. A similar spasm of tension and partisan hostility surrounded the entertainment business in the run-up to the Iraq war at the beginning of last year, when radio stations organised a boycott of the country trio The Dixie Chicks and a conservative internet group led by a North Carolina housewife entitled Citizens Against Celebrity Pundits organised letter-writing campaigns to have prominent Hollywood liberals booted out of their jobs and off the airwaves.
The latest round was almost certainly kicked off by the massive wave of publicity surrounding the release of Mr Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. Despite his protestations to the contrary, Mr Moore's own free speech rights have not suffered one jot and his film has to date taken in just shy of $100m (£53m) at the US box-office - five times as much as his previous record-breaking documentary Bowling For Columbine. But his gleeful needling of the President, both in the film and in the surrounding publicity campaign, have infuriated Bush loyalists and set the scene for a cultural, as well as a political, stand-off in the run-up to the 2 November presidential election.
Earlier this month, the comedian and actress Whoopi Goldberg became a target for Republican Party operatives after she made genitalia jokes about the President's name at a celebrity-studded fundraiser for Democratic candidate John Kerry. Not only did the Republicans denounce the whole affair, at New York's Radio City Music Hall, as a "hate fest" revealing the true colours of both Mr Kerry and the Hollywood establishment. Ms Goldberg also lost her job as a pitch woman for the diet-food company Slimfast, which is based in the electorally sensitive state of Florida where President Bush's brother Jeb is governor.
The issue has been further stirred up by Sir Elton John, who said in an interview with New York magazine this month that he saw an "atmosphere of fear" in the United States like nothing else since the McCarthy red-baiting era of the early 1950s. He said artists were afraid to speak out and had shied away from the kind of anti-government criticism that marked the protest songs and political theatre of the Vietnam War era. "Everyone is too career-conscious. They're all too scared," he said.
Sir Elton's remarks could probably do with a little careful parsing. Although the attacks on performers do indeed raise questions about freedom of speech, they have also been used and abused by people on both sides of the argument to further their own agendas. That has been particularly true of Mr Moore, who expertly manufactured a controversy over the release of Fahrenheit 9/11 to generate invaluable advance publicity - accusing Disney of censorship because the company wanted nothing to do with him and told him to find a distribution deal elsewhere, which he duly did.
Yesterday, Mr Moore leapt on the Ronstadt Affair and somehow managed to make it all his own. On his website he posted the cover of Ms Ronstadt's album Living In The USA and added the slogan: "Thank-you Linda Ronstadt!" He also posted an open letter to Mr Timmins of the Aladdin, taking him to task for gross over-reaction.
"What country do you live in?" Mr Moore wrote. "Last time I checked, Las Vegas is still in the United States. And in the United States, we have something called the First Amendment. This constitutional right gives everyone here the right to say whatever they want to say.... For you to throw Linda Ronstadt off the premises because she dared to say a few words in support of me and my film, is simply stupid and un-American. Frankly, I have never heard of such a thing happening."
The Aladdin quickly sought to deny that it was suppressing anybody's rights. "It did not come down to the statements she had said, per se," a spokeswoman said. "It's about using our venue for political commentary versus being an entertainer. She was hired to entertain, not to preach."
That explanation, in turn, seems a little disingenuous, since Ms Ronstadt has been dedicating Desperado to Mr Moore throughout her current tour and announced the fact in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal published last Friday, the day before her concert: "They say the country is evenly divided, and boy is that true. One half of the audience cheers and the other half boos," she said.
She added: "I don't understand this country sometimes and I really fear for it. The government is making everybody in the world hate us, including the people that used to be our friends."
Besides her music, Ms Ronstadt's political views are probably the best-known thing about her. In the 1970s she had a much-publicised romance with Jerry Brown, the liberal governor of California who went on to make two unsuccessful runs for the presidency. In a show in San Diego on Sunday night, she made overt references to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent attacks on "girlie men" in the state legislature. Her dedication to Michael Moore - which she clearly has no intention of dropping - split her audience in two but caused no undue ructions, according to an account in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
As Ms Ronstadt's experience shows, the atmosphere in the United States is not one of systematic censorship so much as extreme volatility: there is no knowing when a political statement is going to cause an adverse reaction. The Dixie Chicks episode, triggered by a comment made on a London stage by lead singer Natalie Maines, who told the audience she was ashamed to come from President Bush's home state of Texas, might have been a non-event but for the concerted efforts of a handful of online Bush supporters and the sympathetic hearing they received from pro-administration radio station owners.
One radio chain, Cumulus Media, even arranged for a tractor to crush Dixie Chicks CDs, tapes and videos in an episode that was so extreme as to backfire. The trio, buoyed by the torrent of publicity, was soon back on the top of the charts and was even honoured by a neologism - dixie-chicked - to denote anyone unlucky enough to suffer a political hate campaign.
Whoopi Goldberg appears to have been a victim of another such concerted campaign, this time arranged by the Republican National Committee. Her liberal politics and dirty mouth are hardly secrets to anyone who has followed her career with even minimal attention over the past 15 years or so, and one imagines that Slimfast knew what they were taking on when they hired her to speak on their behalf.
In an interview with the New York Daily News immediately after the furore, she pointed out the manufactured nature of the outrage. "America's heart and soul is freedom of expression without fear of reprisal, I find all this feigned indignation about 'Bush bashing' quite disingenuous," she said. "For the Republican Party to pretend this is new to them seems a little fake."
Fake it may be, but we can expect plenty more of the same between now and November.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=542990
This is the best contact info I could find. If anyone comes up with more direct info to contact the Aladdin's manager Bill Timmins and tell him how you feel about his abridgement of free speech rights, let us know:
Main line:
702-785-5555
Aladdin Casino and Resort
reservations [at] aladdincasino.com
Aladdin Theater
702-785-5010
Tyri Squyres or Sara Gorgon
Main line:
702-785-5555
Aladdin Casino and Resort
reservations [at] aladdincasino.com
Aladdin Theater
702-785-5010
Tyri Squyres or Sara Gorgon
For more information:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/...
This has nothing to do with free speach, she said it, didn't she? It's about taking responsibility for your own actions and words. She has every right to say stuff like that. Just like the Hotel owner has every right to react to it. If I was invited to speak at an NAACP meeting and I stood up there and said I believed African Americans were inferior to Euro Americans, do you think they would let me finish my speach? Do you think they would invite me to speak there again? Who would be right? Is it not my right under the First Amendment to say that? Should I not be held responsible for my words?
And people who find the way Alladin treated Ronstadt can organize an boycott of Aladdin's properties. Kicking out a well known performer because a few right-wing crazies in the audience are offended by a mention of Moore says a lot more about Alladin than about Ronstadt or the audience. If I were a performer (with right or left wing views) I would think twice before performing at a place that acts this way; it was disrespectful and deeply unprofessional.
The scene was the Aladdin Theatre in Las Vegas last Saturday night. Linda Ronstadt, the 50-something folk-rocker, was just coming to the end of a concert backed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the crowd gave her a standing ovation.
Then she offered one last song, the old Eagles hit Desperado, and dedicated it to Michael Moore, the rabble-rousing film-maker whose Bush-bashing documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 has polarised the country like no other cultural event of the summer.
Suddenly, all hell broke loose. Depending who you believe, either the audience ran out of control or the Aladdin's management did. Either way, Ronstadt was hustled out of the building and told she would not be welcome back - ever.
She was not even allowed to return to her hotel room to pack. Hotel employees checked out for her instead.
"We needed her off the property," said hotel spokeswoman Tyri Squyres.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3579608&thesection=news&thesubsection=world
Then she offered one last song, the old Eagles hit Desperado, and dedicated it to Michael Moore, the rabble-rousing film-maker whose Bush-bashing documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 has polarised the country like no other cultural event of the summer.
Suddenly, all hell broke loose. Depending who you believe, either the audience ran out of control or the Aladdin's management did. Either way, Ronstadt was hustled out of the building and told she would not be welcome back - ever.
She was not even allowed to return to her hotel room to pack. Hotel employees checked out for her instead.
"We needed her off the property," said hotel spokeswoman Tyri Squyres.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3579608&thesection=news&thesubsection=world
What I think is so interesting about this is what it says about the deep-seated, fundamental nervousness the Republicans. They're looking at the polls and seeing their Dubya limping along, a hair behind in a dead heat, they're seeing approval ratings in Gerald Ford territory, they're seeing Iraq coming apart _and_ the excuses for _going_ to Iraq coming apart, they're seeing the economy limp along in a name-only "recovery" that only seems to benefit the rich, they're seeing a Vice President who seems to have stepped out from a Kubrick movie and currently has an approval rating of a stunning 21%, and they're sweating bullets that Bush II is going to go down to the same embarrassing defeat as his dad.
Then along comes Michael Moore, and he ties a bow on all the anti-Bush stuff we've known about for years but which never quite made it onto Fox News, about what a mess Iraq really is, what a mess the reasons for going there really are, and what a mess Bush is himself. The White House policy of ignoring the movie -- wha? movie? wha? -- didn't prevent it from becoming the highest earning documentary of all time by a factor of FIVE -- not counting concert films or IMAX -- and earning more bucks to date than the latest Spielberg/Tom Hanks movie.
And the Republicans are _so freakin' scared_ that people are going to take the movie seriously that they'll throw drinks at Linda Ronstadt for even _suggesting_ it, and then the casino will throw out, not the drink throwers, but Linda Ronstadt.
That's not boorishness -- that's white-knuckled panic. The boys are a-_skeeered_.
@%<
Then along comes Michael Moore, and he ties a bow on all the anti-Bush stuff we've known about for years but which never quite made it onto Fox News, about what a mess Iraq really is, what a mess the reasons for going there really are, and what a mess Bush is himself. The White House policy of ignoring the movie -- wha? movie? wha? -- didn't prevent it from becoming the highest earning documentary of all time by a factor of FIVE -- not counting concert films or IMAX -- and earning more bucks to date than the latest Spielberg/Tom Hanks movie.
And the Republicans are _so freakin' scared_ that people are going to take the movie seriously that they'll throw drinks at Linda Ronstadt for even _suggesting_ it, and then the casino will throw out, not the drink throwers, but Linda Ronstadt.
That's not boorishness -- that's white-knuckled panic. The boys are a-_skeeered_.
@%<
Paula Francis, a television newswoman, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal her experience was quite different.
"I was so stunned to read in the newspaper that anyone had a negative reaction," she said. "Everyone who was leaving when I was leaving was just thrilled. They thought it was a good concert."
At the moment of the Moore dedication, she said, "there were loud boos and there was quite a bit of applause. But everyone calmed down right away and seemed to enjoy the rest of the encore."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3579608&thesection=news&thesubsection=world
"I was so stunned to read in the newspaper that anyone had a negative reaction," she said. "Everyone who was leaving when I was leaving was just thrilled. They thought it was a good concert."
At the moment of the Moore dedication, she said, "there were loud boos and there was quite a bit of applause. But everyone calmed down right away and seemed to enjoy the rest of the encore."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3579608&thesection=news&thesubsection=world
Thanks to negotiations today (July 21) between the Recording Artists Coalition (RAC) and the prospective new owners of Las Vegas's Alladin Theater, expect to see RAC member Linda Ronstadt back at the venue this fall -- with filmmaker Michael Moore on backup vocals.
The singer was the recipient of heavy-handed treatment Saturday (July 17) when she dedicated the Eagles' "Desperado" (co-written by RAC co-founder Don Henley) to Moore, the director of the anti-President Bush documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11."
News reports said some in the audience booed, stormed out of the theater and tore down posters. Reports also said Ronstadt was escorted off the premises without being allowed to return to her dressing room, which she has subsequently denied.
After a day of negotiations, the prospective new owner of the venue, Robert Earl, Chairman and CEO of Planet Hollywood International, Inc., issued the following statement:
"We hope to be approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission to become the new owners of the Aladdin Resort in Las Vegas as early as September 1, 2004. Upon the assumption of ownership, and with a new management team in place, we would like to offer the use of the Theatre of Performing Arts to Linda Ronstadt for a second concert and further to take Michael Moore up on his offer to join her on stage to introduce her and sing a song."
"We respect artists' creativity and support their rights to express themselves," said Earl. "We were very sorry to hear about the unfortunate circumstances of this past Saturday night and want to make it clear that Planet Hollywood has never, in our 13 year history, restricted any artists' right to free speech and we will continue with that policy once we take ownership."
http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000582932
The singer was the recipient of heavy-handed treatment Saturday (July 17) when she dedicated the Eagles' "Desperado" (co-written by RAC co-founder Don Henley) to Moore, the director of the anti-President Bush documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11."
News reports said some in the audience booed, stormed out of the theater and tore down posters. Reports also said Ronstadt was escorted off the premises without being allowed to return to her dressing room, which she has subsequently denied.
After a day of negotiations, the prospective new owner of the venue, Robert Earl, Chairman and CEO of Planet Hollywood International, Inc., issued the following statement:
"We hope to be approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission to become the new owners of the Aladdin Resort in Las Vegas as early as September 1, 2004. Upon the assumption of ownership, and with a new management team in place, we would like to offer the use of the Theatre of Performing Arts to Linda Ronstadt for a second concert and further to take Michael Moore up on his offer to join her on stage to introduce her and sing a song."
"We respect artists' creativity and support their rights to express themselves," said Earl. "We were very sorry to hear about the unfortunate circumstances of this past Saturday night and want to make it clear that Planet Hollywood has never, in our 13 year history, restricted any artists' right to free speech and we will continue with that policy once we take ownership."
http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000582932
I just have to say that I am so sick and tired of people making excuses. Yes, Linda Ronstadt has freedom of speech, which she used...good for her. News flash, no one arrested her...no one is saying she isn't allowed to say those things. But the Aladdin has every right to protect their establishment. They wanted a concert, not a political rally, there is a time and place for both and Linda Ronstadt crossed those lines. And while we're on the line of excuses, stop blaming Republicans for everything. Every citizen of this country has a responsiblity, if you don't like it...do something about it. Volunteer, help out on Election Day, spread the views of your party...don't sit here and bash people on an internet chat board...you don't have to agree with your President, you don't have to like him, but the fact of the matter is, he's still your leader. If you want changes, make them...but not doing anything about it...well, in the words of Mr. Moore..that's UN-AMERICAN.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singer Linda Ronstadt's eviction from a hotel in Las Vegas, America's "sin
city", for praising filmmaker Michael Moore during a stage show has mushroomed into the latest celebrity free
speech controversy to dog the highly-charged 2004 presidential campaign.
The New York Times ran an editorial condemning the move, Moore demanded she receive an apology and
promised to appear on stage with her singing "America the Beautiful" if she did and a USA Today headline said
the incident was proof that "Celebrities declare own war -- on Bush."
The Aladdin Hotel stood by its decision to remove her to a waiting tour bus on Saturday night. But Planet
Hollywood International which, with others has agreed to buy the casino and is seeking a state gaming license,
said that when it took over one of the first things it would do was invite Ronstadt back to sing.
"We respect artists' creativity and support their rights to express themselves," Planet Hollywood chief Robert
Earl said.
But a spokeswoman for the current Aladdin ownership, Tyri Squyres, said Ronstadt "was there to entertain
not make a politically charged comment."
Squyres added that when Ronstadt praised Moore as a "great patriot" for making the anti-Iraq war film
"Fahrenheit 9/11", about half the audience of 4500 people booed and left and about 100 demanded their
money back even though Ronstadt was singing an encore. Some people said the crowd was "liquored up" and
Squyres said one reason Ronstadt was asked to go was "to defuse the situation."
ANTI-BUSH TIDE?
For some, the incident was the latest example of a rising tide of anti-Bush remarks from prominent
entertainers that has become a side-show to the battle for the White House.
But for others, it was sign that the 2004 election is going to be one of the most passionate and divisive
campaigns since the height of the Vietnam War.
But virtually all agree that Ronstadt's dedication of a encore song to Moore was mild in comparison to
comedian Whoopi Goldberg's obscene comments about the president at a John Kerry fund-raiser or Ozzy
Osbourne projecting of Bush's image onto that of Adolf Hitler's during a rock concert.
And of course, it was extremely mild compared to the criticisms levelled at Bush by Moore in his hit film.
Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke says that Ronstadt criticised the hotel during her show
for advertising it as a "Greatest Hits" concert, which it wasn't and that was a cause of the problem, not just
politics.
"They (the Aladdin) paid big bucks for her to come in and perform and then she bad mouthed the property.
They were able to use the Michael Moore quotes as the main excuse but they were rankled by her remarks
earlier in the show," Clarke said.
The Las Vegas Sun, the city's other daily paper, said that that the Aladdin "overreacted" and "Las Vegas
should be embarrassed at her treatment here."
"The intermingling of politics and entertainment has a long history, one that surely predates all of our
lifetimes. Marlon Brando, Lenny Bruce, Bono, John Lennon ... the Dixie Chicks ...-- the list of entertainers
who have used their time in the limelight to express political opinions is inexhaustible," the paper said.
It added, "Ronstadt has been touring the country since May and has been praising Moore at each stop. Las
Vegas should be embarrassed at her treatment here. Nowhere else but in the Entertainment Capital of the
World has she been treated so inappropriately."
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5099011
city", for praising filmmaker Michael Moore during a stage show has mushroomed into the latest celebrity free
speech controversy to dog the highly-charged 2004 presidential campaign.
The New York Times ran an editorial condemning the move, Moore demanded she receive an apology and
promised to appear on stage with her singing "America the Beautiful" if she did and a USA Today headline said
the incident was proof that "Celebrities declare own war -- on Bush."
The Aladdin Hotel stood by its decision to remove her to a waiting tour bus on Saturday night. But Planet
Hollywood International which, with others has agreed to buy the casino and is seeking a state gaming license,
said that when it took over one of the first things it would do was invite Ronstadt back to sing.
"We respect artists' creativity and support their rights to express themselves," Planet Hollywood chief Robert
Earl said.
But a spokeswoman for the current Aladdin ownership, Tyri Squyres, said Ronstadt "was there to entertain
not make a politically charged comment."
Squyres added that when Ronstadt praised Moore as a "great patriot" for making the anti-Iraq war film
"Fahrenheit 9/11", about half the audience of 4500 people booed and left and about 100 demanded their
money back even though Ronstadt was singing an encore. Some people said the crowd was "liquored up" and
Squyres said one reason Ronstadt was asked to go was "to defuse the situation."
ANTI-BUSH TIDE?
For some, the incident was the latest example of a rising tide of anti-Bush remarks from prominent
entertainers that has become a side-show to the battle for the White House.
But for others, it was sign that the 2004 election is going to be one of the most passionate and divisive
campaigns since the height of the Vietnam War.
But virtually all agree that Ronstadt's dedication of a encore song to Moore was mild in comparison to
comedian Whoopi Goldberg's obscene comments about the president at a John Kerry fund-raiser or Ozzy
Osbourne projecting of Bush's image onto that of Adolf Hitler's during a rock concert.
And of course, it was extremely mild compared to the criticisms levelled at Bush by Moore in his hit film.
Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke says that Ronstadt criticised the hotel during her show
for advertising it as a "Greatest Hits" concert, which it wasn't and that was a cause of the problem, not just
politics.
"They (the Aladdin) paid big bucks for her to come in and perform and then she bad mouthed the property.
They were able to use the Michael Moore quotes as the main excuse but they were rankled by her remarks
earlier in the show," Clarke said.
The Las Vegas Sun, the city's other daily paper, said that that the Aladdin "overreacted" and "Las Vegas
should be embarrassed at her treatment here."
"The intermingling of politics and entertainment has a long history, one that surely predates all of our
lifetimes. Marlon Brando, Lenny Bruce, Bono, John Lennon ... the Dixie Chicks ...-- the list of entertainers
who have used their time in the limelight to express political opinions is inexhaustible," the paper said.
It added, "Ronstadt has been touring the country since May and has been praising Moore at each stop. Las
Vegas should be embarrassed at her treatment here. Nowhere else but in the Entertainment Capital of the
World has she been treated so inappropriately."
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5099011
In 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."
I agree all people should have freedom of speech. That doesn't mean that you can breech your contract. Linda was hired to perform and the audience had a right to hear that performance. She wasn't paid to give a political commentary speech; she can do that with the aid of the willing liberal media. There are forums for expressing our views such as community town hall meetings, her personal web page, and how about voting! What about the freedom of speech granted to the 5000+ audience members! I guess their voice was a little stronger. When is the left going to wake up and realize that not everyone believes as they do? When are they going to stop acting like they know everything and actually spend time learning about both sides of and issue before they go off running their sanctimonious mouths? They are, in most cases, one-dimensional academics at best and there opinion shouldn’t mean anymore than that.
(CBS/AP) Imagine "Fahrenheit 9/11" filmmaker Michael Moore and singer Linda Ronstadt onstage in Las Vegas, singing "America the Beautiful" at the very same casino resort where she was booed and told not to come back, because of remarks praising Moore.
It could happen - as early as September.
That's when the Aladdin is expected to change hands, to a new consortium of owners including Planet Hollywood CEO Robert Earl, in a deal that is mostly done but is awaiting a gambling license.
He says he'd invite both Moore and Ronstadt to appear at the hotel, which is to be renamed Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino.
"We respect artists' creativity and support their rights to express themselves," says Earl. "We were very sorry to hear about the unfortunate circumstances of this past Saturday night and want to make it clear that Planet Hollywood has never, in our 13 year history, restricted any artists' right to free speech and we will continue with that policy once we take ownership."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/23/entertainment/main631397.shtml
It could happen - as early as September.
That's when the Aladdin is expected to change hands, to a new consortium of owners including Planet Hollywood CEO Robert Earl, in a deal that is mostly done but is awaiting a gambling license.
He says he'd invite both Moore and Ronstadt to appear at the hotel, which is to be renamed Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino.
"We respect artists' creativity and support their rights to express themselves," says Earl. "We were very sorry to hear about the unfortunate circumstances of this past Saturday night and want to make it clear that Planet Hollywood has never, in our 13 year history, restricted any artists' right to free speech and we will continue with that policy once we take ownership."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/23/entertainment/main631397.shtml
This is the best contact info I could find. If anyone comes up with more direct info to contact the Aladdin's manager Bill Timmins and tell him how you feel about his abridgement of free speech rights, let us know:
Main line:
702-785-5555
Aladdin Casino and Resort
reservations [at] aladdincasino.com
Aladdin Theater
702-785-5010
Tyri Squyres or Sara Gorgon
Main line:
702-785-5555
Aladdin Casino and Resort
reservations [at] aladdincasino.com
Aladdin Theater
702-785-5010
Tyri Squyres or Sara Gorgon
I was looking for ways to contact Aladdin and thank them for respecting my rights as a ticket buyer.
I have recently made an intentional decision NOT to buy tickets to a Don Henley concert due to my concern that I will be regaled with his opinions regarding politics.
I will pay to see any performer no matter their political affiliation, but I pay to see the performance not hear their opinions.
I have long endured the liberal celebrities and musicians who don't have a clue about life as an average American but no longer. I appreciate their right to their opinion and to express their opinion but I denounce their use of my "prepaid" time to tout their politically charged comments.
I encourage any and all patrons of concerts and tours to refuse to buy tickets of those performers who insist on pushing their political opinions upon everyone who sets foot in their audience.
Eventually these mostly under-educated individuals will learn that there are adults in this world who choose to quietly learn about the candidates, make their choices and then go vote. These adults are likely to start boycotting these events where it is turned into a political rally instead of entertainment.
I would be interested in contacting the Aladdin to tell them I support their actions to try and keep performances and the celebrities' comments strictly entertainment.
I have recently made an intentional decision NOT to buy tickets to a Don Henley concert due to my concern that I will be regaled with his opinions regarding politics.
I will pay to see any performer no matter their political affiliation, but I pay to see the performance not hear their opinions.
I have long endured the liberal celebrities and musicians who don't have a clue about life as an average American but no longer. I appreciate their right to their opinion and to express their opinion but I denounce their use of my "prepaid" time to tout their politically charged comments.
I encourage any and all patrons of concerts and tours to refuse to buy tickets of those performers who insist on pushing their political opinions upon everyone who sets foot in their audience.
Eventually these mostly under-educated individuals will learn that there are adults in this world who choose to quietly learn about the candidates, make their choices and then go vote. These adults are likely to start boycotting these events where it is turned into a political rally instead of entertainment.
I would be interested in contacting the Aladdin to tell them I support their actions to try and keep performances and the celebrities' comments strictly entertainment.
I pay to hear the performers express themselves. That includes everything -- the staging, the lighting, the banter, whatever, not just the songs. If that includes political commentary, if the performer believes that's part of the message he or she wants to present, then who am I to suddenly say that some great and sacred trust has been violated?
And if someone lays down a political opinion, whether or not I agree with it I'm not going to pretend that some great stone wall has been breached and my faith in the entertainment industry has somehow been shattered. If I wanted to see someone I agreed with about everything, my only option would be to listen to a band composed of my own clones.
When I buy a ticket to the performance, I don't have the right to dictate what that performance entails. It is a vote of confidence in the artist or artists I'm listening to, not a legal contract saying "thou shalt not do X, Y, or Z."
It's interesting that this comes up at a time when the issue is criticism of a sitting President. Those who live in a right-wing cocoon, get their news from Fox, and so on, are now annoyed to discover that their cocoon isn't completely impervious, and that good and thoughtful out there are convincved that Bush is one of the worst, most destructive Presidents we've ever had.
@%<
And if someone lays down a political opinion, whether or not I agree with it I'm not going to pretend that some great stone wall has been breached and my faith in the entertainment industry has somehow been shattered. If I wanted to see someone I agreed with about everything, my only option would be to listen to a band composed of my own clones.
When I buy a ticket to the performance, I don't have the right to dictate what that performance entails. It is a vote of confidence in the artist or artists I'm listening to, not a legal contract saying "thou shalt not do X, Y, or Z."
It's interesting that this comes up at a time when the issue is criticism of a sitting President. Those who live in a right-wing cocoon, get their news from Fox, and so on, are now annoyed to discover that their cocoon isn't completely impervious, and that good and thoughtful out there are convincved that Bush is one of the worst, most destructive Presidents we've ever had.
@%<
Poetic justice eh?
New Aladdin Owners Planet Hollywood Say It Ain't Over
Saturday, July 24, 2004 at 07:00PM
Jerry Wilson
MOORE TO PLAY VEGAS and UPDATE
Posted on Jul 22, 2004
Michael Moore will get his wish. Planet Hollywood, the new owners of the Aladdin, have taken the controversial director up on his offer to return to the venue and sing America The Beautiful from their stage, with Linda Ronstadt. They have also offered Linda a retun engagement after September, when Planet Hollywood officially takes over the hotel. Robert Earl, chairman and CEO of Planet Hollywood, stated: ""We respect artists' creativity and support their rights to express themselves. We were very sorry to hear about the unfortunate circumstances of this past Saturday night and want to make it clear that Planet Hollywood has never, in our 13-year history, restricted any artist's right to free speech, and we will continue with that policy once we take ownership."
UPDATE - July 23.
Linda Ronstadt confirms that she has received overwhelming support for her political position. Supermanager Irving Azoff has notified the Aladdin that his acts will not play there; Azoff manages Christina Aguilera and the Eagles, among other major acts. Linda has received personal messages of support from Sting, Elton John and Keith Richards.
Variety reports that Planet Hollywood, the new owners of the Aladdin, have offered Linda a return engagement as soon as the Nevada Gaming Commission approves their application for ownership.
New Aladdin Owners Planet Hollywood Say It Ain't Over
Saturday, July 24, 2004 at 07:00PM
Jerry Wilson
MOORE TO PLAY VEGAS and UPDATE
Posted on Jul 22, 2004
Michael Moore will get his wish. Planet Hollywood, the new owners of the Aladdin, have taken the controversial director up on his offer to return to the venue and sing America The Beautiful from their stage, with Linda Ronstadt. They have also offered Linda a retun engagement after September, when Planet Hollywood officially takes over the hotel. Robert Earl, chairman and CEO of Planet Hollywood, stated: ""We respect artists' creativity and support their rights to express themselves. We were very sorry to hear about the unfortunate circumstances of this past Saturday night and want to make it clear that Planet Hollywood has never, in our 13-year history, restricted any artist's right to free speech, and we will continue with that policy once we take ownership."
UPDATE - July 23.
Linda Ronstadt confirms that she has received overwhelming support for her political position. Supermanager Irving Azoff has notified the Aladdin that his acts will not play there; Azoff manages Christina Aguilera and the Eagles, among other major acts. Linda has received personal messages of support from Sting, Elton John and Keith Richards.
Variety reports that Planet Hollywood, the new owners of the Aladdin, have offered Linda a return engagement as soon as the Nevada Gaming Commission approves their application for ownership.
For more information:
http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/display/S...
If you are going to allow political statements against my country to be made to a captive audience from your stage then you are making a VERY big mistake. You will not last as long as the Aladdin. You will be catering to people like yourselves who demoralize our armed forces who are right now giving their lives to defend you. Have you no conscience?
If you are going to allow political statements against my country to be made to a captive audience from your stage then you are making a VERY big mistake. You will not last as long as the Aladdin. You will be catering to people like yourselves who demoralize our armed forces who are right now giving their lives to defend you. Have you no conscience?
If you are going to allow political statements against my country to be made to a captive audience from your stage then you are making a VERY big mistake. You will not last as long as the Aladdin. You will be catering to people like yourselves who demoralize our armed forces who are right now giving their lives to defend you. Have you no conscience?
chicken shit spammer.
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