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.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/607470
photography by brad swonetz A s 2015 draws to a close, it's safe to say this was the year of the diva in Las Vegas. In the past 12 months alone, Diana Ross, Mariah Carey, Bette Midler, and Celine Dion, among ot h- ers, have taken the stage on the Strip. But if you missed your cha nce to see t hem live, t here's one place you ca n a lways catch them in residence: Madame Tussauds Las Vegas. During a recent visit to the Grand Canal Shoppes museum, we found Dion's $300,000 fgure undergoing routine maintenance, which in this case mea ns a fresh coat of oil-pa int ma keup a nd some ha ir spray. She looked nearly as fawless in wax as she did in the "My Heart Will Go On" music video—and there's a reason why. "It wouldn't be very fattering to 'age' the women," explains Cole Kouvaris, t he Vegas museum's market ing manager. "I don't t hink t hey'd take ver y kindly to it." Instead, t he Tussauds team const ruct s what Kouvaris calls "moment in time" fgures of certain (usually female) celebrities; in Vegas, for example, guests encounter Miley Cyrus straddling a wrecking ball—a fgure that will remain even as she ages. In fact, here it's the men who get the most fre- quent cosmetic enhancements, courtesy of the museum's studio artists. And while some updates are only minor—like "contouring" Channing Tatum's face with paint to refect subtle weight fuctuations or darkening Matthew McConaughey's hair—others require a substantial amount of elbow grease. Figures who are undergoing more invasive work are booked for stays in Club Tussauds, whose current guests include Cameron Diaz and Will Smith. "We've had a Ben Affeck fgure for years now," Kouvaris says, "but we thought it wasn't truly representing how he looks anymore." In addition to carving crow's feet into Affeck's face, artists applied a sprinkling of gray hairs to his scalp, a painstaking three-week process that involved heating the wax ever so slightly, then inserting each new strand individually with a sewing needle. Meanwhile, just a few steps away, the fgures of honorary Las Vegan Britney Spears and future headliner Jennifer Lopez (who's starting her own Planet Hollywood residency in January) have remained remarkably untouched by time, save for a costume change or two over the years, Kouvaris tells us. It turns out that in the world of Madame Tussauds, the divas are the lowest- maintenance stars of all. madametussauds.com V CosmetiC enChantment A Trip Behind The SceneS AT MadaMe Tussauds reveAlS SurpriSing TruThS ABouT The divAS Who hAve cAlled lAS vegAS home. by Tess eyrich No expensive rhinoplasty necessary for this version of Celine Dion, just some hair spray and a fresh coat of paint. Living Las vegas 128 vegasmagazine.com