Celebrities Use the Back Door Only

Roxbury has expanded its empire from one famous strip to another.

The long-running Sunset Strip club has opened an annex next to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Last week’s opening weekend saw 5,000 guests--including David Copperfield and Claudia Schiffer, Tia Carrere, Eric Dickerson, Cameron Bancroft and Taylor Negron--squeeze through the dance floors, lounges and balconies.

Owner Chris Breed said the biggest difference between Las Vegas and Hollywood (aside from clubs being allowed to have up to 15 slot machines) is that locals are much more fixated on the importance of high-roller gamblers than on celebrities. “We had to teach the doormen an entirely different list of people to look out for,” he said.

Bad Question: As the strangest new element in Hollywood we point to the TV reporter, probably an impostor, with dyed hair, a British accent and a BBC flag on his microphone.

His technique is to ask off-the-wall questions of any celebrity who wanders within striking distance. It’s the kind of stuff that would show up on late-night cable access in Manchester, England.

His most notable encounter with the famous was when he asked a major action star at a recent premiere, what he had “shoved up his butt.”

The answer he got involved the actor trying to dent his head.

Warning Signs: Although they’ve appeared too late to save Hugh Grant from his fateful te^te a te^te with Divine Marie Brown, there are now flyers stapled to trees in the vicinity of the notorious arrest site that aim to frighten away consenting adults in search of the illicit.

Done in a stark, simple style, they print the name and phone number of the Hollywood Vice Squad followed by the words, “I’ll call ‘em.”

And they don’t mean Hugh and Divine.