Prakas on DeVito?s South Beach Deal

(Jan.28,2008)
During
the third season of the acclaimed HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm,
the shows creator, Larry David, and real-life actors Ted Danson and
Michael York were portrayed as they struggled to open a trendy,
celebrity-owned eatery in Los Angeles.

Over the course of the season, the wannabe restaurateurs were called
upon to deal with a strange array of challenges, such as a
corpse-sniffing dog, a cook who lies about his baldness and an
executive chef afflicted with Tourettes Syndrome. On the restaurants
opening night, the chef ends up triggering a obscenity-laced, communal
free-for-all that, in real life, would have sent any self-respecting
operator scrambling for good legal representation.

n real life, celebrity-backed restaurants rarely must
endure the kind of bizarre events that plagued the Curb Your
Enthusiasm crowd. Yet this past year certainly was fraught with its
own share of high-profile scandals, meltdowns and controversies
involving those in the spotlight. Celebrities Britney Spears, Lindsay
Lohan and Michael Vick have all made headlines for things that had
nothing to do with their respective professions.

And, curiously enough, several of them also have had interests in the restaurant business.

Spears,
whose media exposure this year has focused, among other things, on her
questionable parenting skills and high-profile divorce, closed her
short-lived Southern eatery Nyla in New York in 2003.

Vick, recently sentenced to 23 months in prison for
operating an illegal dog fighting business, was one of the investors
for the East Point, Ga.-based wine restaurant, The Tasting Room.
Wachovia Corp., claiming Vick and another investor defaulted on the
restaurants $1.3 million loan, currently is suing him.

Rumors
also have circulated that Lohan, whose year included of two stays in a
rehabilitation center, is considering opening a restaurant in Los
Angeles.

But even acknowledging the potential for an
overheated celebrity scandal, most operators are not afraid to work
with some of todays hottest names.

Clearly, a
big-name celebrity can be counted on to help attract business to a
restaurant, particularly when it first opens and the operation is still
hot.

On the other hand, operators say, customers often are not aware that a celebrity has invested in an establishment.

Celebrities
are associated with our restaurant, but only on an investor level,
says Lonnie Moore, co-founder of the Los Angeles-based Dolce Group.
Besides the crowd who reads US Weekly or In Style, our restaurants
are frequented by foodie types and locals who dont even know the
celebrity involvement.

Moore and his lifelong friend, Mike Malin, who gained stardom on the CBS reality show Big Brother, oversee The Dolce Group. In 2003, they opened Dolce Enoteca e Ristorante
with a number of celebrity backers including That 70s Show alums
Ashton Kutcher, Laura Prepon, Danny Masterson and Wilmer Valderrama.
Chris Masterson of Malcolm in the Middle, Dul Hill of The West
Wing, and Scream veteran Jamie Kennedy also are investors.

he restaurant group also is the operator of Geisha House, a futuristic Japanese eatery with locations in Hollywood and Atlanta; Ketchup, an upscale American restaurant in West Hollywood; and Bella Cucina Italiana, located in Los Angeles.

Moore
is so confident in his relationship with his celebrity investors that
contracts are not needed to protect the restaurant if one of the A-list
stars suddenly becomes embroiled in a scandal.