VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Celine Dion Helicoptered to and From Caesars Palace

Las Vegas Myth Revised: Celine Dion Takes Helicopter to and from Caesars Palace

Editor's Note: "Vegas Myth Busted" is published every Monday, with a flashback edition on Fridays. Today’s entry in our ongoing series originally appeared on June 5, 2023. Happy birthday (tomorrow), Celine Dion!

Celine Dion has had enough misfortune. A rare degenerative neurological disease, stiff-person syndrome, has thrust the Canadian star back into the spotlight and forced him to cease all musical activity for the foreseeable future.

It's time to give her a break and dispel once and for all the disgusting myths that have plagued her for 20 years.

In 2002, Dionne and her late husband, René Angélil, built a $5 million home in Lake Las Vegas, a remote community in Henderson, Nevada. Dion still reportedly lives there with her three children, just 20 miles from Caesars Palace.

Did she actually fly from the house to the rooftop of Caesars in a helicopter the first time during two stays in Las Vegas between 2003 and 2007?

Considering Dion's first residency in Las Vegas was a complete game-changer, as the title "A New Day" suggests, this diva-like move seemed like a smart move at the time .

This is the first residency concert created by a famous director (Franco Dragone, ex-Cirque du Soleil).

It's located in a 4,000-seat Colosseum theater that was custom-built for Dion at a cost of $90 million.

Dion's original three-year contract promised to pay the singer a record-breaking $80,000 per show. Her contract was subsequently extended for another two years, undoubtedly with a higher salary.

Very jealous?

Las Vegas has never seen anything like it, and not everyone in Las Vegas is happy to see it. In particular, a tight-knit group of Las Vegas Strip headliners at the time, including Wayne Newton and Sheena Easton, worked tirelessly to keep their names on the resort Above the tent's $9.99 buffet specials.

The headliners reportedly often meet for dinner and gossip at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in town, but they're not happy with the best-selling singer of all time strolling into town and cashing in on the loot without bringing in the money Not excited about the idea. Work she deemed necessary.

"This woman is like an alien whose spaceship landed here for a few years, sucked all the oxygen out, and then flew away," Newsweek quoted one on March 16, 2003. famous Vegas headliner" but she rejected the woman's claims. name. “You never see them at other people’s opening events or anything like that.

"She's just not Vegas."

This sentiment may have fueled rumors that Dion lip-synced parts of the performance and that ticket sales were weak due to high ticket prices. In fact, "New Day" would have grossed $385 million five years later, based on the assumption that nearly 3 million people paid an average ticket price of $135. It remains the most successful residency concert of all time.

Near, far, wherever you are

The same Newsweek article is also the source of Dionne's mythical helicopter ride.

“Plans to commute by helicopter were scrapped after neighbors objected,” the author claims in an off-the-cuff comment designed to subtly frame the next message: “Céline can fly — well, with a cable or two is working – but in front of the world’s largest LED screen and over half an acre of stage.”

Although Newsweek reports that the helicopter chartered by Celine never flew, the idea of singer Dion flying just to save a 20-mile commute was as popular as the imagined helicopter itself.

It even raised eyebrows from Larry King when Dion appeared on his CNN talk show on November 7, 2004, and February 15, 2010. The late host was famous for not preparing for interviews, and apparently, on both occasions, I didn't realize beforehand that Celine's flight wasn't the same thing.

"I don't know who started this," Dionne told King when he first asked. "It's never been a problem for me - we live 30 minutes away. We have a driver."

At the time, Dion blamed the rumors on "the media" and "industry insiders."

"They had to try to find something to make it spicier - it was spicier enough that they sometimes had to add more curry in it. Not hot enough, you know. Nothing. It was just a little thing in the newspaper. "

Titanic Lies

Apparently, denying celebrity isn't enough to bust the myth. But it is easy to refute whether these flights took place using circumstantial evidence. A New Day has a total of 714 performances. A total of 1,428 helicopter flights are expected.

There is not a single photo, either in traditional or social media, of Dion entering and exiting the Caesars rooftop helipad, or in front of neighbors allegedly affected by the riot who were upset and would do so, landing in Las Vegas Lake Vegas I had a good reason to photograph it. The real question, however, is whether plans for the route were ever submitted by and then opposed by neighbors. The Lake Las Vegas Masters Association was asked to comment for this story. Unfortunately, but understandably, it has a policy of never publicly identifying any residents out of respect for their privacy.

But we don't even need their help. The myth collapsed under the weight of a fact confirmed by Kaiser security officials that apparently no one had bothered to check the facts before...

Caesars Palace has never had a helipad. Look for “Vegas Myth Busted” every Monday