EXCLUSIVE—BREAKING NEWS: NEW DONNY & MARIE CONTRACT IS FINALIZED
Signed, sealed and delivered! Its now official—Donny and Marie will become resident headliners on the Strip and begin a new run of shows starting in September at the Flamingo.
Luxe Life had exclusively reported the negotiations were close to being finalized late last month.
The remaining final points of their contract were hammered out and agreed to late yesterday (WED). Their lawyers and business agents and the lawyers and top executives at Harrah’s, the Flamingo’s corporate parent, spent the afternoon polishing the last unresolved points—with the singing entertainers accepting all the terms and signing the documents.
Luxe Life has learned that the agreement calls for Donny & Marie to perform at least 20-weeks of shows a year on a rotating headliner basis in the main Flamingo showroom. It’s currently home to Toni Braxton and George Wallace who appear nightly and where magician Nathan Burton is set for late afternoon shows as of next month.
I was told last night: “Donny and Marie are really hot all over again. They know how to fill seats and they will make a great addition to the entertainment lineup at the Strip’s oldest hotel. They will add tremendous numbers to the casino. In a sense they get to cherry pick the weeks they will appear and the weeks they will take off but it will all be keyed to important calendar dates.”
In fact, Donny and Marie will be hosting their first primetime TV show since 2000 when they emcee the upcoming April 11 NBC-TV live telecast of the Miss USA 2008 beauty pageant for Donald Trump at the Planet Hollywood resort casino. They will be back in Vegas again for a one-week run of eight shows starting July 17 at MGM Grand’s Hollywood Theater.
Meantime Marie is still appearing regularly on the QVC home-shopping TV channel with her successful line of crafts and dolls. Donny has just completed filming Disney’s College Road Trip with Raven Simone and Martin Lawrence for summer release. He will start a British and Asian tour in mid-May after filming new episodes of the Pyramid Challenge, which he hosts for British television.
“It’s a raft of giant publicity and promotion to kick off their Flamingo headliner shows, “I was told. “It’s the ongoing 50th anniversary of the Osmond family and their huge fan following throughout Europe and Asia guarantees the Flamingo a ton of overseas business also. It’s a big win-win for everybody involved.”