“VEGAS” STAR & SUPERMODEL MOLLY COOKS UP A CHARITY WINNER
Wholly Guaca-molly! She’s gorgeous. She’s a supermodel. She’s funny. She’s talented. She’s personality plus—and she cooks up a storm.
Actress Molly Sims who is a TV favorite here from her five seasons of starring on NBC’s Las Vegas show with James Caan, Josh Duhamel and in this last season, Tom Selleck. Although the show has been cancelled the blonde-tressed beauty returned to her adopted “hometown” to host the opening of The Palazzo’s new Dos Caminos restaurant—her favorite mod-mex hangout back in her real hometown of New York City.
Owner Steve Hanson and executive chef Scott Linquist were on hand to welcome her and she didn’t think twice about going into his kitchen to get some more cooking tips. “I have his mod mex cookbook. I’m a huge fan and I’ve slowly been making all the recipes from the book at home—I just wanted some specific tips from him,” she told me. And because it was a fundraiser for her favorite charity, the Friends of El Faro Molly also wanted to have guests enjoy her version of the signature Guaca-molly!
To-date she’s raised over $400,000 for the Tijuana orphanage for abandoned infants. “It’s more than just raising money though. I go down there over the San Diego border as often as possible and you’ll find me buying food supplies at Costco and flipping burgers for them—really sweating over the stove,” she added. Molly told me it was her acting coach that got her interested in the children’s charity needs.
Now that her NBC-TV show has been cancelled she’s embarked on a movie career and has three new films to be released: Pink Panther 2, Yes Man with Jim Carey and Fired Up which she’s currently filming. In fact she commuted in from Los Angeles on a brief shooting break. She was recently scene in The Benchwarmers with Planet Hollywood Resort headliner David Spade and comedian Rob Schneider produced by Adam Sandler.
She admitted she fell in love with Vegas while she was filming the TV series and even found time for her favorite games of blackjack and craps. “I did really well one night turning a few dollars into $1100. That felt good,” she laughed. “Everybody at Greenspun Media has been wonderful to work with. They put me on the cover of Vegas magazine. Tell them all that I hope to be back this summer for your 10th anniversary CineVegas Film festival too.”
As we relaxed at the dinner table of the new sensational restaurant Molly revealed she’d never set out to become a star. From her home in Murray, Kentucky she went onto study at Vanderbilt University and planned to be a lawyer and work as a criminal defender. Her roommate urged her to submit photos to modeling agencies and she was soon signed by Next Models and appeared on covers of all the European magazines. Her showbiz career began after she landed the coveted role as host on MTV’s House of Style. In addition to her contract with MTV at the time, Molly won more recognition after signing an exclusive, multi-year contract with Cover Girl Cosmetics, along with her Old Navy commercials, advertising campaigns for Chanel, Maidenform and Armani, her sultry images in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue over four-consecutive years and her association with Victoria’s Secret.
“But I’m a stay at home girl,” she confided. “Happiest at home cooking for friends or playing with my puppies. But for now the focus is on these poor children in Tijuana. I so desperately want to help them and end their poverty and misery. It’s great that my friends at Dos Caminos let me tie our charity into their gala opening.”