Aladdin Casino May Welcome Linda Ronstadt
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Linda Ronstadt (search) may get a chance to finish her concert at the Aladdin after all.
One of the partners buying the hotel-casino said the singer would be welcomed back to the property. The crooner was kicked out over the weekend by current management for praising controversial filmmaker Michael Moore. (search)
Planet Hollywood CEO Robert Earl of Orlando, Fla., said he'd like to take Moore up on the filmmaker's offer to join Ronstadt on Aladdin's stage and sing "America the Beautiful" when Earl's management team takes control of the bankrupt casino, as early as September.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We respect artists' creativity and support their rights to express themselves," Earl said in a statement Wednesday. "We were very sorry to hear about the unfortunate circumstances of this past Saturday night and want to make it clear that Planet Hollywood has never, in our 13 year history, restricted any artists' right to free speech and we will continue with that policy once we take ownership."
Current Aladdin (search) President Bill Timmins, who is British, had Ronstadt escorted off the property after her concert because she called Moore a "great American patriot" during a prelude to her encore.
[Click on the video box at the top of this story to watch a report by FOX News' William LaJeunesse.]
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ronstadt: I'll Continue to Praise Moore
Ronstadt responded to the uproar on Tuesday, saying she'll continue to praise Moore and his film "Fahrenheit 9/11" on stage despite the angry reaction from many audience members.
"This is an election year," she told the Los Angeles Times. "I want people to get their head up out of their mashed potatoes and learn something about the issues and go and vote. ... I'm not telling them how to vote. I'm saying, get information about the issues."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Before singing "Desperado" for an encore Saturday night, the 58-year-old singer called Moore a "great American patriot" and "someone who is spreading the truth." She also encouraged everybody to see the documentary, which is critical of President Bush.
Ronstadt's comments drew loud boos, and some of the 4,500 people in attendance stormed out of the theater. People also tore down concert posters and tossed cocktails into the air.
"It was a very ugly scene," Timmins told The Associated Press. "She praised him and all of a sudden all bedlam broke loose."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The casino's president said he didn't allow the singer back in her luxury suite afterward and she was escorted off the property.
Ronstadt told the Times her remarks were "modest" and "they didn't throw me out." "I didn't even know there was trouble," she said. "Those places operate like little city-states. They are all-powerful. And I had already said I never want to come back."
A New York Times editorial published Tuesday said the disgruntled audience members should have been booted.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Perhaps her praise for Mr. Moore, even at the very end of her show, did ruin the performance for some people," the editorial read.
"They have a right to voice their disapproval — to express their opinion as Ms. Ronstadt expressed hers and to ask for a refund. But if their intemperate behavior began to worry the management, then they were the ones who should have been thrown out and told never to return, not Ms. Ronstadt, who threatened, after all, only to sing."
Moore wrote a letter to Timmins on Monday saying he thinks the casino president owes Ronstadt an apology.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"What country do you live in?" Moore asked. "Last time I checked, Las Vegas is still in the United States. And in the United States, we have something called, 'The First Amendment.'...For you to throw Linda Ronstadt off the premises because she dared to say a few words in support of me and my film, is simply stupid and Un-American."
In Los Angeles, there were about 100 calls for refunds for Ronstadt's performance at the Universal Amphitheatre on Tuesday night.
After Ronstadt spoke out on stage audience members chimed in.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"She should have sang, kept her mouth shut," an unhappy concert attendee told FOX News after the show. "Whether you agree with here or don't agree with her, it ruined it for me and everyone else there. It's like taking your children to a children's concert and having someone show pornography. It was inappropriate."
Another audience member named Frank from Los Angeles said Ronstadt's comments should be commended.
"I was so shocked to hear the guy from the Aladdin doesn't want her ever back again. It's really a sad time in the state where you can't have an opinion."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FOX News' Amy C. Sims and The Associated Press contributed to this report.