ML - Vegas Magazine

2013 - Issue 3 - May/June

Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.

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FROM TOP: Zach Galifianakis, Graham, Todd Phillips, and Bradley Cooper at a 2009 charity poker tournament at Caesars Palace; Graham on the set of The Hangover Part III with Helms and Cooper; Graham gets into the act at Kà. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES (GALIFIANAKIS); DENISE TRUSCELLO (KÀ); MELINDA SUE GORDON (ON SET) A lot of people go to Las Vegas to live out a forbidden fantasy or revel in the decadence of the city's guilty pleasures. Heather Graham is no different—although her secret desire is unexpectedly G-rated. The star of The Hangover Part III admits she became so obsessed with Cirque du Soleil when the movie was being shot in the city, she arranged a private backstage visit to Kà in order to attempt one of its dazzling aerial maneuvers. But when she realized how deathdefying the trick was, she nearly chickened—and passed—out. "I was like, 'I want to do this, but do I?'" she confesses, her big blue eyes growing as wide as saucers. "It was so frightening!" Of course she went through with the warrior-worthy stunt; Graham is not the kind of woman to back down from a challenge, a toughness belied by her ethereal beauty. "Heather has no fear, and she loves to mix it up," says Todd Phillips, director of The Hangover and its sequels. "That makes her a perfect member of the Wolfpack." Although Graham's character, Jade, the stripper with a heart of gold and a baby named Carlos/Tyler, was absent from the second Hangover film, set in Thailand, she has returned for more high-stakes high jinx with the guys (Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, and Ed Helms) in the final, return-to-Vegas installment of the $1 billion franchise, out May 24. "Heather brought such a nice light to set every day," says Galifianakis. "There is a calmness about her that is hard to describe. She is a friendly, classy lady." The script, of course, is as highly guarded as the Hand of Faith at Golden Nugget, but Graham will allow that Carlos/ Tyler, now 6, is played by the same actor, and that Jade is no longer working the pole. "It's not just a perfunctory thing," says Helms about Jade's return (his character, Stu, married Jade in a quickie Strip wedding in the first movie). "It's worked into the story in a smart and relevant way." Graham is aware of her good fortune at being cast in a role that every actress in Hollywood coveted. "It's pretty awesome," she says, sipping a glass of basil lemonade at a café near her Hollywood Hills home. "Being the only girl with a bunch of guys, you get a lot of attention." Also awesome, she says, was seeing how super-successful the actors in the Wolfpack—a nickname coined by Galifianakis's character in the first Hangover—got after that movie became the highest-grossing original R-rated comedy in US history. While they have bigger trailers this time around, she says, they've all remained grounded. "Bradley is super cool and supportive. Ed's so sweet and charm- "[Graham's character's return] is worked into the story in a smart and relevant way." —Ed Helms VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 125 122-127_V_Feat_Heather_Graham_MAY/JUNE_13.indd 125 4/19/13 12:01 PM

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