‘LOVE TO LAST FOREVER’ VOWS CIRQUE DU SOLEIL FOUNDER … PAUL MCCARTNEY, RINGO STARR, YOKO ONO AND OLIVIA HARRISON RE-UNITE FOR FIRST ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF ‘LOVE’ … DOT-MATRIX GLASS PORTRAIT PLAQUES OF JOHN LENNON AND GEORGE HARRISON UNVEILED … UPDATE ON CRISS ANGEL AND ELVIS PRESLEY CIRQUE SHOWS
“Love is forever,” Cirque founder Guy LaLiberte told me late yesterday, “so our musical can run 20 years, 30 years and then forever.”

As promised: Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison all showed for last night’s first anniversary celebration and, as promised, here’s our Luxe Life coverage from The Beatles LOVE musical by Cirque du Soleil at The Mirage. The new ‘Fab Four’ unveiled unique dot-matrix glass portrait plaques of John Lennon and George Harrison. Yoko and Olivia had personally selected the photos of their late husbands for the ceremony.

Paul, who landed after a $175,000 private jet flight direct from London just minutes before the dedication, was supposed to have been shown the photos on his limo-ride in from McCarran but that didn’t happen, and thus his genuine surprise when he and Ringo pulled the white cloth away.
“That’s not a plaque,” he laughed. “That’s a portrait, I was expecting a plaque!” Ringo interjected: “Whatever it is they are from silver platinum like our records.”
CNN anchor Larry King served as master of ceremonies for the brief event.

He said: “The concept for this show and everything about it works so well. To hear the fantastic Beatles music with this environmental sound design with 6000 speakers is extraordinary. There has never been anything like it. Sir George Martin and his son Giles mixed this powerful and moving soundtrack so brilliantly, it is incredible. So again, congratulations on the success of this special production, and I salute The Mirage for it too. Today we celebrate and honor the extraordinary George Harrison and John Lennon. The ceremony and my CNN live hour with all of them was put together in just two weeks. I’m proud of that because this is an incredible undertaking—maybe with its success we will be seeing LOVE in many other cities. Who can tell where this is all going?”
Guy La Liberte told me later: “That won’t happen. The only place in the world you will ever be able to see LOVE forevermore will be in Vegas. I have no idea where he got that idea from.”

It was actually King’s third flub of the day having initially saluted George as the tanned actor George Hamilton instead of Harrison, and then mis-pronouncing Guy’s name. He also told an out-of-context story about his Miami speeding ticket, which prompted McCartney to rib him “Now it’s the Larry King show.”
Larry laughed back: “I’ve got one hour live with Paris Hilton back to back with the one hour live with The Beatles, so that’s all about being tired from getting ready for two blockbusters.”
I asked Larry if the two interviews were his best ever. “No. That would still be Ross Perot and Al Gore, but these are right up there.”

Ringo also jabbed at the veteran news anchor, saying it was the first time he’d seen him standing up and not behind a desk!
Mirage president Scott Sibella commented: “Much of the recent evolution of The Mirage has been helped by the success of LOVE and we know there will be many more successful years to come.” He then introduced Cirque’s founder as “the one man who has done more for Vegas entertainment than any other in history.”

Said Guy: “LOVE is much more than that. It’s a celebration of a great journey that started a year ago. Cirque can really be proud of what we have done with this project. The Beatles committed to work together with Cirque and this is now one of the greatest achievements we have done. Thanks for all the support from the population around the world and hopefully we will be here in 10, 20, 30 years! From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everybody.”
Then Ringo added: “It’s an honor to do this today. It is, however, not a great pleasure because I would prefer the men were standing beside me. But that’s life as we know it. George and Guy had the initial conversation of putting this all together. Can you imagine our music and these mad crazy people? George was a great musician. A dear friend. I love him and miss him, God bless, but I know he’s smiling right now wherever he is.”

Paul, standing beside Yoko and indicating that their long-time rift is slowly healing summed up: “As usual, Ringo has said it all before me. But to quote John: ‘Turn left at Greenland.’ On a serious note, it is great to be unveiling this because the guys aren’t here, but it’s their show which encapsulates our success and our music together. So the show is from our great times. It’s very sad obviously, but moving. They were magnificent men and it’s an honor to unveil this plaque.”
Yoko commented: “I just know John is very happy and proud that his show is a success.” Olivia revealed that it was Ringo’s idea to all be in Vegas for the first anniversary of the show.
“I thank Mirage for being our home here. I thank Cirque and the artists. The show is so demanding on them because their lives revolve around 10 performances a week. George wouldn’t be surprised at the success of this collaboration. He knew, before he died, it was going to be successful in many ways.”
Ringo said he felt like a musical director as he orchestrated the unveiling, and then Paul knelt down, encouraging the other three to follow his example so they could be photographed beneath the two portraits—but nobody budged! Then the four super-celebs went into the Beatles Revolution lounge for Larry King’s live CNN telecast, the first time in more than 10-years that they’d all been together for an interview show!
But on the “strictly closed set” he had to start by interviewing the widows and the remaining Beatles separately in different segments and per orders from the Beatles Apple management company, and the only subject for discussion was the LOVE show and their music. Larry agreed to the demands but still managed to get a loaded question in on Paul’s current tumultuous life because of the bitter divorce with Heather Mills. But Paul shut him down saying “Yes, it is very difficult and that’s why I don’t talk about it and won’t now.” Questions about the long-time feud between Yoko and Paul were also off-limits.
“It’s all about total control of the media and protection of the brand” one high-ranking PR executive told me. No questions at all of the foursome were permitted by the hand-picked small press-corps that included yours truly for LUXE LIFE.

Olivia and Yoko sat together with their families and guests for two consecutive nights watching the LOVE show. Ringo and his wife, the stunning former actress Barbara Bach, managed to squeeze in some shopping at the Forum Shops of Caesars Palace. Larry King had dinner with members of the Maloof family (who own the Palms resort casino) in the Onde Italian Winebar restaurant in The Mirage. Cirque threw a super-private party for the Fab-Four and the LOVE cast and crew at the large Mirage pool that was shutdown under heavy security for the night.
“It was decorated beautifully,” one executive told me, “but unlike Guy’s birthday party there last year nobody wound-up going in the water this time.”
McCartney left well before the 2 a.m. ending for an overnight stay at his California home before today’s return to England. Ringo and Barbara will go on to their Beverly Hills home today.
Cirque’s top creative couple, Gilles Ste Croix and Dominic Champagne admitted they’ve tweaked the show during its first year.


“The opening is now different, and although we kept the music of Blackbird intact, the scene is now in a totally different form. There’s always room for changes. The show is now really tight and so much better as the artists took control. The choreography is better also because we have some new pieces and everything just came together better. When we make such changes we have to adapt the music so it follows the changes. That involves special sessions where George and Giles Martin will return from England to adapt their soundtrack. LOVE has such strong potential that the possibilities of changing it are endless. We’re always trying to get the best out of the show so in the next year we’ll continue having slight changes all over the place. We think LOVE will be the Cirque show that runs the longest of them all. If Jubilee! can run 25 years, then we know we can run 25 years too. Bobby Baldwin, the MGM resorts chief, predicted our first show Mystere would be here forever but, we know that since love itself lasts forever, LOVE will be forever too.”
The two Cirque officials told me that advance planning, costume design and creative movements for the new Criss Angel magic show at the Luxor set for next September is moving along well.
“It’s really going great,” said Gilles. “Our Elvis Presley show for City Center will be the next show in the creative pipeline, but we haven’t started even thinking about that yet because Criss comes first. We have decided that the ice-skating show we talked about once is now no more!”
Early next week when we’ve had time to catch our breath we’ll bring you the highlights of Larry King’s interviews with Ringo, Paul, Yoko and Olivia plus a full breakdown of the show’s new look from director Dominique Champagne.
Guy LaLiberte summed it all up for me: “Our first year has been a great success story, and we have been sold out for every performance for the last 12 months. That is an extraordinary accomplishment which speaks to the talents of the Beatles and our Cirque performers. When you look around Vegas, in terms of all the other competing shows, we can be very proud of LOVE, and I know in my heart and feel strongly that it should run forever - even after all of us have gone. Future generations will enjoy The Beatles and LOVE forever.”
Click here for more LOVE coverage from yesterday.