MTV and Tijuana Entertainment are currently seeking women and men, ages 18-25 during a casting call on Saturday, Jan. 31 at the Taj Mahal’s Casbah Nightclub (you have to be 21 to enter the Casbah). MTV will be casting couples for an all-new television series and looking for participants from the New York City (and tri-state area) for a brand new untitled MTV reality series.
The bottom line is that the casting director and crew are looking for hotties of both sexes.
The auditions take place this Saturday, Jan. 31, beginning at 10:30pm at the Casbah. To be considered, stop by the Casbah where you can meet with producers of the MTV show, and be interviewed for consideration. You may also send a recent photo(s) of you and your girlfriend(s) or boyfriend(s), best contact info, & a short biography highlighting your personality to: HotChicksWithBadBoys@gmail.com.
Celebrity DJ Girl Six will be in the house (pictured above), along with house DJs Jordan Williams and Paulie Day. Admission for the ladies is free, and gentlemen pay $20.

The Oscar nominees have been announced and the big awards ceremony tales place on Sunday, Feb. 22. One of the best events during the Oscar season begins Sunday, Feb. 1 and I am not talking about the Super Bowl. Turner Classic Movies launches its fabulous, annual 31 Days of Oscar Festival, featuring some of the best Academy Award-winning flicks and performances of all time. This year’s theme is TCM University, offering up a series of “graduate” classes in film appreciation. This school of movies begins Sunday with classes in the Communications Department. Under “television production” there is My Favorite Year (6am), the nifty ’50s piece of nostalgia starring Peter O’Toole (eight times Oscar nominated but never a winner). Under “Contemporary Issues in Mass Media” is the superb flick about bad journalistic ethics, Ace in The Hole (8pm; football fans TiVo it), directed by Billy Wilder and starring Kirk Douglas as a reporter who will do anything to get a big story.
TCM continues this clever concept throughout the month with classes in music (Night and Day), English (David Copperfield), sociology (Divorce American Style) zoology/ornithology (The Birds), criminology (In Cold Blood), education (The Blackboard Jungle) and so on. For a complete list of “classes,” check out the TCM Web site. You can download the entire schedule by typing in “31 Days of Oscar” on the TCM search engine.

America’s obsession with food and TV chefs has continued to expand with the popularity of the Food Network and other cooking shows around the dial, including Top Chef and Hell’s Kitchen. Speaking of culinary ‘Hell,’ the most explosive chef of them all, Gordon Ramsey, returns tonight on Fox with Hell’s Kitchen at 9pm. Local viewers should have a rooting interest in the winner of the cooking competition since the grand prize is a position as a head chef at Borgata. Go here for an interview with Ramsey and here for the HK Web site.
This is not the only TV connection the Borgata has. Chef Geoffrey Zakarian, the Culinary Lifestyle consultant at The Borgata’s Water Club, will have a reoccurring role as a guest judge in the Food Network’s new show Chopped.

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As the Associated Press reported today, Revel Entertainment, which is constructing a new $2 billion casino project off the Boardwalk near the Showboat, laid off 400 workers on Thursday and said it would halt interior construction.

According to the report, exterior construction would continue. The project is due to be completed in 2010.

Ladies, if your husband or boyfriend plans to have his derriere parked on the sofa or welded to a barstool with his football buddies Sunday, Feb. 1, why not treat yourself to a day of complete relaxation?
Grab your girlfriends and spend some time in the peaceful “football free” zone of Qua Baths & Spa at Caesars Atlantic City. A special “Girl’s Getaway Spa Package” will be offered on select Sundays throughout the month of February that allows guests receive over two hours of luxurious treatments that will leave you relaxed long after the big game’s final whistle. Included in the package are a 50-minute classic massage, and 50-minute classic facial, and a 25-minute reflexology treatment with our incredible artisans. Additionally, guests can enjoy complimentary access throughout the entire day to Qua’s signature Roman baths, sauna, steam room and gym.
The Girlfriends Getaway Spa Package is available for $299 per person on Sundays throughout February (excluding Feb. 15). Qua Baths & Spa at Caesars Atlantic is modeled after the original Qua at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The A.C. spa contains 16,000 square feet, 14 treatment studios including an extravagant couple’s studio and two wet rooms with Vichy hydrotherapy showers.
For information or reservations, call Qua Baths & Spa at Caesars Atlantic City at 343-2400 and mention Super Spa Sunday or visit them online.

Slot technicians at The Tropicana Casino and Resort have voted to okay a possible strike at the Tropicana, as if that casino didn’t have enough problems with a “For Sale” sign on the door. The casino has been operating since December 2007 under a state conservator because its former owners were stripped of their casino license. Baltimore-based Cordish Company, owners locally of the mid-town shopping area The Walk, is the leading candidate to buy the casino at auction.
If the strike happens, it would be the first strike in nearly thirty years by Atlantic City gambling equipment workers. The workers are represented by the United Auto Workers and voted Tuesday night. The workers are unhappy about the lack of a contract after more than a year of negotiations. The Tropicana is also considering layoffs and big increase in the cost of employee health care coverage. No date has been set for a walkout. Union negotiator Scott Montani said, “The casino isn’t negotiating; they’re dragging their feet, and a lot of the workers are angry and frustrated.”

Now in its fourth year, the Borgata Winter Open Championship drew a record 1,016 players when the No-Limits Hold ’Em main event began Sunday, Jan. 25, generating a record $3,048,000 in prize money and shattering the guaranteed $2 million prize pool.
The Winter Open started Jan. 13 and included a series of smaller events leading up to the Championship, which concludes Thursday, Jan. 29, and will be narrowed down to 100 cash prizewinners, including a first-place purse of $657,758. The tournament features a mix of cash game players, satellite winners and notable professionals, and the field was reduced to 284 survivors leading into Wednesday’s action.
Notable players in the tournament include Alan “Bodog Ari” Engle, Jason Young, Matt Glantz, Maria Ho, Young Phan, Beth Shak, Jacobo Fernandez, Bill “The Stunning One” Edle, Ted Forrest, Victor Ramdin, Kathy Liebert, Roy Winston, Cliff “Johnny Bax” Josephy, Bill Gazes, Matt “All-in-at-420” Stout, Hevad Khan, Shawn Deeb, Mark Seif, Eugene Tood, James Sowers, Lacey Jones, Tiffany Michele and Anna Wroblewski.
“This tournament is a testament to the creativity of the higher-ups at Borgata,” says three-time Poker Open winner Bill “Big Daddy” Blanda, who got eliminated on Tuesday. “Borgata hit the nail on the head when it comes to tournament poker. They had the insight to know what the players want. Aside from the World Series of Poker, where else can you spend $3,000 to win over $650,000?”

American Idol champ David Cook, who was in town last August for the Idol tour, will be returning as a solo artist Friday and Saturday, March 20-21, at the Borgata Music Box. Tickets go on sale this Saturday at the Borgata Web site or by calling 1-866-900-4TIX (4849). Also coming to the Borgata and on sale this Saturday are Hall & Oates (March 14) and Rick Springfield (March 28).
David Cook is just as genuine and nice in person and he seemed to be on Idol. I had a chance to interview him last August. To read that interview, type in David Cook in our search engine (above, left) then hit the “Cook’s Tour” link (the third one from the top).

As a Mainland resident, I was delighted when Formica Bakery recently opened the Formica Cafe in Northfield. Now I didn’t have to drive into Atlantic City to pick up a fresh loaf of my favorite bread, classic Atlantic City Italian bread. I’ve stopped several times for my bread fix in Northfield; the last time, I asked the kid behind the counter if the bread was made on the premises. The myth was that Atlantic City Italian bread had to be made in Atlantic City because of the city water, which comes from an artesian well. Well, technically that means it could be made anywhere on Absecon Island since Ventnor, Margate and Longport also are serviced by the artesian well. Turns out the myth remains. He told me that while the other pastries and baked goods at Formica’s Cafe are made in Northfield, the AC Italian bread is “imported” from Formica’s in AC.
Pictured is my weekend feast of chicken Parmesan with spinach cheese ravioli, enhance nicely with a hunk of AC Italian bread.

Gilda’s Club South Jersey is excited to be making the move into a new permanent Clubhouse at 700 New Road, Linwood. The move takes place today, Monday, Jan. 26, at 2-4pm. The mission of Gilda’s Club is to provide a place where people with cancer and their families and friends join with others to build social and emotional support as a supplement to medical care. Free of charge and non-profit, Gilda’s Clubs offer support and networking groups, lectures, workshops and social events in a nonresidential, home-like setting. Gilda’s Club South Jersey is a United Way agency.
Due to the generous support of, the community, businesses, especially Wawa, and friends, Gilda’s Club is able to leave its temporary Somers Point location and unpack at its new location. The Gilda’s Club South Jersey Clubhouse welcomes approximately 8,000 visitors per year to participate in more than 700 free yearly activities that are offered including lectures, workshops, social events, networking groups, Noogieland, Teen Club, etc.
For more info on Gilda’s Club South Jersey, check out the Web site here.