The Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa from “America’s Sweethearts”

Between our trip to New York and dealing with some matters out of state, the Grim Cheaper and I have been away from home for the better part of five weeks.  While most of our traveling has not been for pleasure, I did just recently get to check an item off of my Stalking Bucket List.  While in Nevada last week, we took a bit of a detour and headed out to Henderson to see The Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa, aka the former Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas Resort, Spa and Casino which had a prominent role in America’s Sweethearts, one of my favorite movies.  I had been dying to stalk the gorgeous hotel ever since first seeing the romcom back when it originally premiered in 2001 – and it did not disappoint.

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The area known as Lake Las Vegas was the brainchild of actor J. Carlton Adair, who acquired 2,245 acres of land in Henderson in the 1960s with the intention of turning it into a lakeside community named “Lake Adair.”  While water rights were secured, development of the site never came to fruition and J. Carlton wound up filing for bankruptcy in 1972, dashing his dreams of a man-made desert oasis in the process.  The project suffered another failed attempt before being rescued in 1990 by Ron Boeddeker of the Transcontinental Corporation, who finally got the ball rolling on creating a 320-acre man-made lake fed from nearby Lake Mead.  Construction of the surrounding village of large-scale homes, lush golf courses, fancy boutiques, world class restaurants, and premiere hotels was started shortly thereafter.

One of those hotels was the Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas Resort, Spa and Casino, which opened its doors in December 1999.

The grand 493-room, 21.6-acre property has changed hands and names several times over the ensuing years, first in December 2006, when it became Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort.  Sadly, the entire LLV area was hit hard during the recession and in 2009, the owners of the hotel defaulted on their $117-million mortgage, causing it to be taken over by a court-appointed receiver.  Five weeks prior to going into foreclosure in 2012, it became The Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa.  The site was finally sold in late 2015 to the investment firm Pacifica Companies, but has remained operating as a Westin.  Miraculously, despite all the changes, very little of the property’s Moroccan-themed design has been altered since it originally opened almost 17 years ago.

Today, the resort boasts a spa, two pools (one with a waterslide), four restaurants including the AAA Four-Diamond award-winning Marssa, a cocktail lounge, a coffee bar/bakery, a private beach that offers water activities such as kayaking and paddleboarding, access to two golf clubs, a fitness studio, and 25 meeting rooms comprising 90,000 square feet of event space.

Oh, and it also boasts some pretty amazing views.

Travel + Leisure named The Westin Lake Las Vegas one of the “World’s Best Hotels” and it is not very hard to see why.  The place is absolutely magical – and feels much more like a tropical resort than a Sin City lodging.

Walking the grounds, I felt like I had been transported to a Hawaiian island (which might explain why President Obama likes the place so much).

The Westin is relaxed, low key and tranquil – in short, though located only a scant 17 miles from The Strip, it is very far removed from any Sin City melee.  A stay there would most likely entail sipping tropical drinks, working on a tan, and leisurely walks by the lake.  The hotel is the perfect spot for a family vacation or a romantic getaway.  I already told the GC that I want to go back for a week and do nothing but lounge by the pool and stroll down to The Village at night for dinner.

Ah, yes, The Village.  Just down the road from The Westin is a quaint waterside shopping center known as The Village at Lake Las Vegas.

The site boasts several shops, boutiques and restaurants . . .

. . . flanked by a beautiful Hilton . . .

. . . and surrounding the gorgeous lake.

The Village truly feels like being on another continent and while there I could think of nothing better than booking a nearby room for an extended stay and strolling down to the quaint center every night to grab dinner.  You can check out all Lake Las Vegas hotels here.

America’s Sweethearts made extensive use of The Westin.  For those who have not seen it, the flick is a true romp – a hilarious take on celebrities and filmdom that pokes endless fun at Hollywood.  I’ve watched it countless times over the years and yet it still manages to make me laugh out loud throughout.  The film centers around divorcing movie stars Gwen Harrison (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Eddie Thomas (John Cusack).  The former couple starred in dozens of hits together and were considered “America’s Sweethearts,” until Gwen cheated on and then subsequently left Eddie for a Castilian heartthrob named Hector Gorgonzolas (played to perfection by Hank Azaria) whom she met during the filming of Time Over Time.  (The storyline was inspired in part by Elizabeth Taylor’s infamous love affair with Tim Burton during the filming of Cleopatra.)  The break-up lands Eddie in a live-in healing institution, while Gwen and her career take a massive beating in the press.  Audiences don’t like America’s Sweethearts apart.  As Time Over Time is about to released, studio publicist Lee Phillips (Billy Crystal) decides to host the press junket far out of town in order to distract the media from Eddie and Gwen’s battling – and to divert attention away from the fact that the movie’s eccentric director Hal Weidmann (Christopher Walken) has yet to release a cut of the film for the press to screen.  As Lee says, “We need to get these people out in the middle of nowhere.  Once they find out there’s no movie, they can’t escape.  We need to find a hotel like the one in The Shining – you know, isolated.”  He settles on the newly-built Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas.  Virtually all of the film takes place at the hotel.

In fact, The Westin is featured so prominently, it almost serves as a character.  Areas of the property that appeared onscreen include the front entrance (though the scene shot there contained a lot of movement, so I was not able to make a great screen capture);

the beach;

the lobby stairs/The Arabesque Lounge;

the back terrace;

the neighboring Reflection Bay Golf Club;

and Rick’s Café (love the name!), where one of my favorite scenes took place.

When the movie was filmed, Rick’s Café was known as Café Tajine.  You can see pictures of it from that time period here.  Though certain elements, like the tile work, flooring, and curtains, have since been changed, the space still currently looks very much the same as it did when America’s Sweethearts was shot.

You can watch the scene shot at Rick’s below.  I first saw America’s Sweethearts in the theatre with my best friend, Robin, who was visiting from his native Switzerland.  When Lee uttered the line, “Word of advice, when you hit Formica – stop!” I started cracking up.  Robin turned to me and whispered, “What is Formica?”  When I explained, he began cracking up.  To this day, I can’t watch the scene – or hear the word Formica, for that matter – without thinking of him.

One of the hotel’s private Casbah Villas also made an appearance as the spot where Gwen stayed with her sister, Kiki (Julia Roberts), during the press junket – and where Eddie was caught “giving himself a big favor.”  Unfortunately, we did not venture out to the villas while there, but you can see a guest photograph of the exterior of one here.

The Westin boasts several Casbah Villas.  The exact one used in America’s Sweethearts is the northeastern-most villa.  It is denoted with a yellow arrow below.

Only the exterior of the Casbah suite appeared onscreen.  Interiors were filmed on a set at Sony Studios, where portions of the movie were shot.  You can see what the actual interior of a villa looks like here.

The interior of Lee’s and Eddie’s rooms were also set re-creations.

One spot I was unable to pinpoint while stalking The Westin was the restaurant where Kiki and Eddie – and then Gwen and Eddie – attempted to have dinner . . .

. . . and where Lee orchestrated a fight between Eddie and Hector.

What was shown in the scene does not match the décor or layout of the hotel’s main restaurant, Marssa (pictured below).

At the time that America’s Sweethearts was shot, Marssa was known as Japengo.  You can check out some images of what Japengo looked like here.  As you can see, despite the name change, little of the space has been altered and what is shown in the photos does not match the restaurant featured in the movie at all.

What is odd is that some portions of it, including the wall shelving (pictured below) and tile work, do resemble that of Café Tajine/Rick’s Café, which leads me to believe that the space was a set built at Sony that echoed the décor of the hotel.  That scenario seems a bit unlikely, though, being that the restaurant was large and elaborately decorated.  If it was a set, it was an extensive one, which seems like a lot of trouble to go to for a relatively short scene.  But who knows?

I am also unsure of where the screening of Time Over Time took place.

While the space that was shown in the movie does bear a strong resemblance to The Westin’s Casablanca Ballroom, some things do not gibe.  For instance, though the look of the real life doors seems to be a dead-on match to what appeared onscreen, the number of doors does not.  I am guessing that the screening scene was shot on a set built to resemble the Casablanca Ballroom.  But again, that is a lot of trouble to go to for what amounted to a relatively short segment.  You can check out a wider view of the ballroom here.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: The Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa, from America’s Sweethearts, is located at 101 Montelago Boulevard in Henderson, Nevada.  You can visit the property’s official website here.