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Tags: POTUS Hotels / Barack Obama / Miami Hotel Mambo / Fontainebleau Hotels / → All Tags
POTUS Hotel Hopping Hits the Fontainebleau in Miami
Miami’s Fontainebleau Resort is no stranger to celebs, from Frank Sinatra to Dennis Rodman. But last night the revamped resort got a return visit from the most famous person on the planet: POTUS.
President Obama has been on a bit of a hotel tour lately, doing his Democratic Party fund-raising at a series of fancy dinners across the country. Last night, his arrival at one of these events was marked with protests as about 200 people carrying placards lined Collins Avenue across from the Fontainebleau.
Inside, around 450 people paid between $500 and $15,000 a head to hear POTUS talk, raising an estimated $1.5 million all up. (We’re guessing that’s just a little over what LIV or Hakkasan rakes in on an average Monday night.)
Tags: Celebrity Scoop / Dennis Rodman / Miami Hotel Mambo / Bad Celebrity Guests / → All Tags
Dennis Rodman Continues To Be The Worst Hotel Guest in Miami
What is it about hotels that makes Dennis Rodman act like a serious perv? The bad ex-baller has now been accused of groping a woman at the LIV nightclub at Miami's Fontainebleau Hotel. In the past year alone, he has also been accused of inappropriately groping gals at the Gansevoort South, The London West Hollywood, The Hard Rock Las Vegas and another Los Angeles-area hotel.
This time at LIV, the alleged victim said that Rodman approached her, whispered in her ear and then touched her inappropriately. The woman notified security officers who then called the police. While a friend of Rodman says the club's surveillance video will exonerate the friend, the police are still investigating. Rodman could face charges of simple battery but we're hoping there's a way that the law could enforce a permanent hotel blacklist as well.
Tags: Hotel Music Videos / Miami Hotel Mambo / Celebrity Scoop / Kanye West / John Legend / → All Tags
Kanye, John Legend and Consequence Do 'Whatever You Want' at The Fontainebleau
A tipster sent us this video saying, "Pretty good song but really bad video shot at Fontainebleau." I'ma let you finish, but normally we'd say any video with John Legend in it, has to be good. But this music video for Consequence's song, "Whatever You Want," featuring Kanye and John Legend makes Pit Bull's video for "Hotel Room Service" (filmed at the EPIC Hotel) look like an Emmy-winner.
The boys don't even make good use of the Fontainebleau property. There are some pool scenes and some LIV nightclub shots but really it's just girls in trying-to-be-sexy one-piece bathing suits and extra long ponytails gyrating around. No suites, no room service, no mini-bar sex kits.
The John Legend bit on the beach, however, doesn't disappoint. And at least the video is way better than Lionel Richie's.
Tags: Hotel Woes / Fontainebleau Hotels / Miami Hotel Mambo / → All Tags
More Financial Blues for The Fontainebleau
You’ve probably already heard that the still-under-construction Fontainebleau Las Vegas went bankrupt. (Although the Miami Herald reports that the property’s lawyers won an additional three weeks in bankruptcy protection this week, as they try to sell the sucker off.)
But what about the Fontainebleau Miami? Well, things aren’t quite so sunny in SoFla either. While the former Rat Pack playground was re-launched with grand Victoria’s Secret-fanfare last year, it appears that the Soffer family who owns the landmark hotel might have overdone it with the $500 million they spent on renovations.
Tags: Hotel News / Hotel Woes / Miami Hotel Mambo / Hotel Closings / → All Tags
The Roof Caves In at The Fontainebleau
UPDATE: A Fontainebleu rep tells us that contrary to early reports, LIV and Blade sushi were NOT totalled but rather just closed that evening as a safety precaution. All of the Fontainbleau outlets were open and fully operational the next day.
Over the weekend, a rough bunch of storms swept through Miami Beach and did some may-jah damage to The Fontainebleau Hotel, which opened only seven months ago after nearly $1 billion renovations were finally completed. While South Florida has been dealing with heavy rains for several days, the storm that blew in brought along with it hail, something maybe those renos didn't account for.
According to Metromix South Florida, parts of the roof in the main lobby and entrance caved in and the hotel's nightclub, LIV, was flooded as was its sushi restaurant, Blade. A Twitterer says the sushi restaurant was totaled and LIV will be closed for a while. Meanwhile, the hotel hooked up the guests with a complimentary buffet and open bar on Saturday night.
Other hotels were affected by the storm and subsequent flooding too. The Florida Room at The Delano was closed just because of the downpour and the area around the Standard Miami was entirely flooded. Nobu at The Shore Club was also reportedly under two feet of water. One place that was reportedly high and dry? BLT Steak at the just-opened Betsy Hotel.
[Photo: AlfredSpellman]
Tags: Miami Hotel Mambo / Fontainebleau Resorts / Miami Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
Fontainebleau Miami Calls Takebacks On the Whole 'Sexy' Thing
Whoops! Looks like someone wants to go back and revamp the ol' sexpot image and start looking a bit more fam-friendly! And that someone is not Denise Richards.
According to the Miami Herald, our old-new friend the Fontainebleau Resort— who, might we remind you, re-opened after a billion-dollar renovation with, oh, you know, half naked lingerie models (the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show) — wants to de-sexify and reposition itself as more of a family destination. Huh.
Says the Herald:
When the hotel opened, the marketing campaign ''was to play hot and sexy,'' said Howard Karawan, chief operating officer of Fontainebleau Resorts. ``Coming out of the winter, we knew that wasn't going to work. We had to go for family.''
The switch is dramatic. After spending $5 million on the Victoria's Secret bash, the Fontainebleau has all but halted the advertising campaign that melded perfectly with it: a series of black-and-white images of a sultry, nearly naked woman positioned next to the Fontainebleau logo.
Tags: Miami Hotel Mambo / Hotel Renovations / Hotel News / Miami Hotels / → All Tags
Miami's Eden Roc Makes a Classy Comeback
Too much and perhaps, too late? Hotels around the globe are completing renovations just as travelers start to rethink their vacation plans. On the bright side, you will probably be staying in new rooms for less. This week we'll be looking at some of the new-old faces out there and telling you what these spiffed up joints will cost you. Any suggestions? Let us know.
Perhaps afraid of looking like the cougar in the club, the iconic 21-story, 283-room Eden Roc Hotel will officially join the ranks of shiny, newly renovated A-List resort hotels along the Miami shoreline.
This time the magic wand will be waved by David Siguaw, who has put the vamp into revamp in the Hollywood Roosevelt and also the Marriott Marina del Rey, although we hardly think a Marriott can be any sort of vampy.
Tags: Celebrity Scoop / Miami Hotel Mambo / Hotel Concerts / → All Tags
Joaquin Phoenix Claims First Celeb Meltdown at Fontainebleau
Actor Joaquin Phoenix, who has inexplicably launched a hip-hop career as of late, performed down in Miami this week and made a bit of a scene — and we're pretty sure he can now claim the title for First Celeb Meltdown at the newly-reopened Fontainebleau Resort.
People describes the scene:
A disheveled Phoenix, 34, came out on stage smoking a cigarette and sporting his now trademark beard, according to The Associated Press. He was rapping unintelligibly when he became agitated, said, "We have a [double-expletive] in the audience," and jumped down into the packed LIV nightclub at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel.
Nobody really knows whether or not there were any punches thrown in this little altercation, but it's possible that this was all just for show: Casey Affleck, Phoenix's brother-in-law, had been filming the whole scene — thereby making this whole thing reek of celeb reality show a la Ashton Kutcher.
[Photo: Orlando Garcia / JPI]
Tags: Hotel News / Football Hotels / Orange Bowl Hotels / Miami Hotel Mambo / → All Tags
Cincinnati Bearcats Can't Blame Loss on The Fontainebleau or Diddy
Well, the Cincinnati Bearcats lost yesterday's Orange Bowl to Virginia Tech — and they officially cannot blame the loss on P. Diddy or anything else that could have been distracting players at the shiny and newly-renovated Fontainebleau Miami...at which the team did not stay before the game.
The New York Times' Pete Thamel reports that while the team was scheduled to stay over at the resort, there a little bit of a pre-bowl scramble to switch hotels after coaches realized exactly how glitzy and potentially-distracting the place was:
I noticed a large contingent of Cincinnati Bearcat players were waiting outside [the Fontainebleau]. That wasn’t the only thing I noticed, as the swanky digs were filled with scantily clad women returning form the pool, loud conversations in all sorts of foreign languages and just a wild medley of people.
But it was moving day for the Bearcats because Coach Brian Kelly knew that his desire for New Year’s peace and quiet wouldn’t likely happen. Diddy, the star rapper whose fame transcends his many name changes, was hosting a New Year’s party at the Fountainbleau.
We're not hating, but we're just saying: all of this pre-game scrambling could have been prevented if someone had just read a bit of HC before checking the team into one of the most hyped-up hotels in recent memory. Not that it would have helped anyone win an Orange Bowl, really.
[Photo: Fontainebleau Miami Beach Flickr]
Tags: Miami Hotel Mambo / Hotel News / Hotel Food / Fontainebleau Hotels / → All Tags
Kosher Caterers Now Have to Schlep to Fontainebleau
Oh, Page Six. Not only can we always come to you for the dirtiest gossip, but we know we can always count on you for the classiest ledes. Like this one, kicking off a story about the newly renovated Fontainebleau in Miami: "Miami Beach has changed a lot from the days when so many thousands of elderly Jews retired there, it was called "God's waiting room."
Delicate wording aside, Page Six in today's NY Post does raise a pretty good question: where did the kosher kitchen go? Apparently, the property closed for the massive renovations and reopened minus the separate, entirely kosher kitchen. Oh noes!
From the Post:
Not that there won't be Orthodox bar (or bat) mitzvahs or Jewish weddings anymore - the hotel will use kosher caterers for those events. A spokeswoman informed us, "Fontainebleau will provide kosher meals for holidays upon special request and for private events."
See, super rich kids? You can still have your over-the-top bat mitzvah at the Fontainebleau; no need to throw a fit.
Tags: Miami Hotel Mambo / Fontainebleau Hotels / Hotel Construction / → All Tags
Fontainebleau Miami Not Finished?
While party-goers were gaping at the Victoria's Secret Models, Mariah Carey, Usher and Heidi Klum during the Fontainebleau Miami Beach celeb-studded grand-opening party, real guests who stayed at the hotel were apparently not so happy with the behind-the-scenes "construction chic" look the hotel was sporting. According to the NY Post:
Sources said the Fontainebleau, reopened after a $1 billion renovation, had no running water, dust-covered windows, three-hour waits for lunch in the lobby cafe and faulty elevators. "The resort was supposed to be up and running, but it wasn't," said one source. The snafus didn't stop celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow (photo opposite page) from catching Adriana Lima, Karolina Kurkova and Marisa Miller strut the catwalk in lingerie.
And despite a false fire alarm that cut off the music at 2:30 a.m. in the hotel nightclub, Busta Rhymes and John Stamos danced into the night. Fontainebleau president John Rolfs said, "Like all new hotels, we are working through some issues. Our goal was for everyone to have a great time and enjoy the party and the show, and we did that."
It seems the Fontainebleau has been working through these "issues" for a few months now as the hotel began its piece-by-piece opening back in June when Barack Obama cruised through. We aren't trying to be mean to the Fontainebleau, but it's just that if you are asking for $350 a night, shouldn't the place be finished? Just sayin'....
[Photo: Time.com]
Related Stories:
· The Fontainebleau Coverage [HotelChatter]
Tags: Hotel Openings / Victorias Secret Model Hotels / Miami Hotel Mambo / Celebrity Scoop / Hotel News / Hotel Parties / → All Tags
Heidi Cuts the Ribbon and Models Cut Up the Runway at Fontainebleau
Oh, how we so wish we could give you a personal Party Dispatch from this weekend's Fontainebleau Miami grand re-opening festivities on this fine Monday morning. We do wish we could tell you all about how we stuffed our faces with hors d'ouvres and gawked at celebs on Friday night, and then we'd casually chat with you about how we spent Saturday evening joking around with the models from the Victoria's Secret fashion show before it was taped at the hotel's new poolscape that night. But, alas, we were not there.
But! We know enough about the guest list and the parties that, uh, we can tell you about it so we can all feel like we were there!
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