PACEY UNVEILS DEAN MARTIN DUET

Kevin Spacey is going from channeling Bobby Darin to performing a duet with
Dean Martin.

Spacey, currently in Las Vegas to shoot an untitled film based on the book
about a team of card-counting MIT students who beat Vegas,

After a surprise singing performance in which he unveiled his Dean duet at
the "Keep Memory Alive" Alzheimers gala Saturday at the MGM Grand Convention
Center, Spacey met with the media backstage.

Spacey, who filmed "Pay It Forward" here in 2000, revealed details on his
Deano duet, his fascination with the Rat Pack era, his role in the film and what
kind of reception he's getting from the casinos.

Here's the interview: "The Martin estate is releasing a new album on Father's
Day of some of his greatest hits, orchestrated for duets, the same thing
Natalie Cole did with her father. A whole bunch of artists have done it and I
got
a phone call a couple months back and they said would I come and do ÔKick in
the Head.' That's like one of my favorite songs ever. This is like a Disneyland
offer.

"So I went into Capitol Records, in the same studio he recorded it in and
sang into the same mic that he sang in. And apparently sat on Sinatra's stool,
Sinatra's chair. So it was just an absolute gas to do. So that will get
released. I thought it would be kind of fun if they figured it out
technologically if
they could figure out how it would work tonight so we could do it live.

RAT PACK REWIND

Asked about his personal fascination with Bobby Darin and Deano, Spacey said,
"Those were eras of I think a more intimate performance and I think if you
look at particularly Bobby, he didn't like playing the big clubs. He liked
playing the intimate night clubs and there's not that many of them left. When I
went on a concert tour to promote ÔBeyond the Sea,' some of the places I
played...there's a great club in San Francisco called Bimbo's, 700 people, a
most
beautiful club. And it just felt like I had gone back into that time, it was set
in 1958 and there I was in some nightclub.

Part of it is performing live is a really extraordinary experience,
particularly performing this kind of thing live because when you're acting in a
play
you're always playing a character and there's always a fourth wall, so you never
actually engage the audience. And what's so extraordinary about this kind of
experience, you look in people's eyes and you can relate to people in a way
you don't normally get to do when you perform. And there's between you and them
but a microphone and there's something staggeringly, surprisingly liberating
about it.

There is no net at all and that's quite a thrill.

HIS LATEST ROLE

On the new film: "To me when I read Ben Mezrich's book ÔBringing Down the
House,' which is what the film is based on, it just struck me as one of those
great coming of age stories...it sort of follows his path. He doesn't have a lot
of money, he's incredibly smart, perhaps a genius and certainly unbelievable
at mathematics. He eventually discovered that he could count cards, up to six
decks and this team was in with it. And he goes on a kind of Faustian Bargain.
These kids end up going to Vegas when they're not being M.I.T. students and
playing all these roles. They work as teams and play different people so they're
pretending to be the son of a diplomat or the daughter of some southern rich
guy but what they're actually doing is seeing how the deck is doing, they work
in teams and they have all these signals. Of course now we're in a time when
pretty much all this stuff would be spotted. But at the time these kids came
to Vegas and they made millions. There was one night when they made over
$650,000.

And of course it's about what this kid loses in the interim, of himself and
the kind of person he wants to be and ultimately he learns a great number of
lessons.

I met a bunch of the kids on the team and it's kind of an amalgamation of the
whole bunch. The book was not specifically based on the actual people. We did
a lot of research and then created some of the characters. The character I
play is the professor that teaches them how to count the cards and organizes the
team. There was a guy like that but it's an amalgamation of a couple people.

I happen to love 21. That was one of the reasons I was attracted to it
because I happen it's the greatest game ever Ð and it's a beatable game. I've
had
some runs which have been pretty incredible.

Enough to finance a movie? "Enough to finance a small independent movie,
perhaps. A small 12-day shoot."

On Laurence Fishburne's role: "He plays the casino security guy. He's the one
trying to stop us from doing what we're doing."

TAKING ON THE HOUSE

Can you break Vegas? "If you read these books, it's absolutely possible to
break Vegas. I don't know anymore if it's possible. There's so much technology
now. There's face recognition so if they catch you and they know you're doing
it, although it's not quote Ôillegal' because you're just using your mind. The
people that are illegal are the ones who have cameras in their cuff links.

"Probably Vegas will love us ...(Actually) the hotels have been great...I
don't know what the analogy is but it's definitely walking right into the den."

-- NORM CLARKE, Vegas Confidential

Oscar winner Kevin Spacey performed at the "Keep Memory Alive"
gala Saturday at the MGM Grand Convention Center.
Photo by Cara Roberts

From this mornings LVRJ,
Doug


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