Las Vegas Weekly

August 20, 2009 · 3:35 PM

Photo Gallery: David Copperfield begins record run; faces lawsuit

By Robin Leach

David Copperfield.

Photo: Courtesy

On the very day that magician David Copperfield opens a marathon run here at the MGM Grand, he also faces a federal lawsuit by a Seattle model who says he sexually assaulted and threatened her while she was a guest on his private island in the Bahamas two years ago. In a statement, David and his lawyers say the allegations are false and an attempt at extortion.

David has received more awards than any magician in history, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Tonight, he starts an amazing marathon to chalk up another record of performing no less than 75 shows ending on Sept. 23. David’s run begins at the Hollywood Theater in the MGM Grand with two shows nightly and three on weekends!

David, who maintains his secret magic warehouse here in Las Vegas, is notoriously secret about his life offstage, but now for the first time, he’s given an extraordinary inside look at part of it to our local Magic Magazine publisher Stan Allan.

In the new issue, the master of illusion and magic spectacles has lifted the curtain a little on his masterpiece after 20 years of touring live and producing TV specials. And now for the first time, here’s David’s own YouTube video that lets Vegas DeLuxe readers take a tour of the spectacular hideaway that truly is paradise on Earth.

You also can click HERE for more of the amazing photos of David on his island paradise: the Musha Cay private retreat at Copperfield Bay in the Bahamas. Then smaller islands that add up to a 700-acre paradise with its 40 sugary sand beaches surround the 150-acre main island. David’s official Website for Musha Cay is www.mushacay.com.

David told Stan: “I’d visited many private islands in my life, but I wanted something very special, so I did a little test. I took four magical places I’d been to: England’s Stonehenge, the statues of Easter island, the Sun Pyramid in Mexico and the Gaza Pyramids in Egypt. I connected them with two lines on a globe and at the exact center where they crossed was a group of islands -- and the owner was considering selling. There were complicated negotiations, but in June 2006, I became the owner.”

I like to think that when David spent a week on the private Jumby Bay Island in Antigua with German supermodel Claudia Schiffer and visited my home there that he became intrigued with island living. The then romantic couple came for dinner, and David spent the entire time grilling me about island experiences.

Among the celebrities who have stayed at the amazing resort are Oprah Winfrey and John Travolta. It’s been reported that Google co-founder Sergey Brin was married there in May 2007.

There are five guesthouses on Musha Cay, each with its own private beach. The main 10,000-square-foot home is furnished with antiques and exotic treasures that David collected on his world travels. The open-air oceanfront pavilion for outdoor dining is 2,200 square feet by itself! It comes complete with a Dave’s Drive-In movie theater and a Houdini Room that features the escapologist’s billiards table.

David is currently constructing a Secret Village on the island as a 3-acre monkey preserve with an Indiana Jones theme that permits guests to walk through their own magic illusions in secret passageways guarded by monkeys from South America.

David says he’s on the island at least once a month, with the longest trip lasting two weeks between shows. When I last talked exclusively with David about his dreams for Musha Cay, here’s what he told me about the island he says is the home of the fountain of youth:

Robin Leach: Let’s talk about the Bahamas. This fountain of youth absolutely intrigues me. How did you find it, and what has it done for you?

David Copperfield: Well, I am really 82! (Laughing). I discovered Musha Cay and the islands around it in the Exumas, the southern Bahamas. It is probably the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Astronauts were asked from above what was the most beautiful spot, the most beautiful water, and they all agreed this specific spot in the Atlantic Ocean, the southern Bahamas. I found it by connecting lines between magical places on the Earth, and those four lines intersect at a specific spot in the ocean. And it so happens that is where my islands are.

RL: So did you go looking or did someone come to you with the story?

DC: I looked. I search for magical places in my spare time. And the things that are the best places I could possibly be. I have been to Maui and Tahiti and all the places you talked about on TV with your wonderful accent. This is an amazing place.

RL: Talk to me about what makes it a fountain of youth. When you think of it, you think drinking healing waters, bathing in it. What is there?

DC: We are not really sure yet. We found this liquid that in its simple stages can actually do miraculous things -- brown leaves turn green.

RL: That’s not magic? It is real?

DC: Yeah. It is natural. Simple organisms that are near death are rejuvenated. So we don’t know about the effects on humans, but we are doing research and development. That is on one of the islands. On the islands around the area, I am checking them to protect them, and on one of the islands happens to be a resort. It’s available for charter. People can rent the whole island for 24 people at once. It is really spectacular.

RL: Do you use it for your own runaway or do you go to the islands with the secrets?

DC: I do both. All of the islands are amazing. There are four of them. Each has different characteristics in flora and fauna. It is just incredible.

RL: With a NYC apartment and now a Bahamas runaway, where do you really call home?

DC: Vegas is really my first home. I am a Nevada resident and happy to be here.

RL: Why do you think that Vegas is such a home for magic and magicians? Why this city more than any other for magicians?

DC: I think it is true for all entertainment. It is an incredible place that people come to escape and be entertained, whether it is seeing musicians or magicians.

RL: What have you added to your museum here in Vegas?

DC: Lots of stuff. We are constantly changing it. I picked up some things from auction from Chung Ling Sue, who died onstage while trying to catch a bullet, but some of his props were acquired and put into the museum. You are welcome any time. I am trying to perfect these things.

RL: Of all the things that you have in the museum, is there one thing that you just look and marvel at and just say, “I wonder what that was really like to have been there at that point?”

DC: Well, as you know, it is a private, secret museum where scholars can come and do research into magic. It contains 80,000 items. All of Houdini’s stuff from the show is there. If he were to come back from the dead, which he hasn’t done yet, he could come back and do his show. Over all these years, I have collected all the things that he is famous for doing. The milk can escape, the torture cell, the straightjacket escape. His handcuffs, his locks, everything is right there, so that is pretty amazing. I also have things that belonged to Robert Houdan, who was Houdini’s idol. I have things that belonged to Keller, Chung Ling Sue and Blackstone. It is an amazing archive, there is no one thing in particular, but we have Houdini’s baby shoes and first magic wand.

RL: What is the magic of magic? What is it that makes the average person so fascinated by magic?

DC: It is a need. We all possess the need to dream. Einstein talks about it, Mark Twain talks about it. Dreams are illusions, and we can’t let go of them because we would be dead. That is why we go to the movies, we think about fashion. We want to think about another world. Magic is the simplest kind of primal escape form. We take Mother Nature and turn it upside down to be able to dream about something that doesn’t really exist. That is what draws us to it, and that is what makes me want to do more and more of it because it allows me to take people on an amazing journey, and that is what I try to do.

RL: Is there one illusion that you want to do or that you have been working on?

DC: I want to be the first 150-year-old magician.

RL: Well, now you have the fountain of youth!

In fact, David has one extraordinary and incredible illusion involving the Musha Cay island up his sleeves that he’s planning to be unveiled here next year. It will probably involve as many as 12 of our top Las Vegas VIPs. As plans come together, we’ll reveal them here at Vegas Deluxe.

Meantime, here is the statement from David and his lawyers:

“Two years ago, false reports surfaced in the media that a Washington woman claimed she had been assaulted by David Copperfield. Now, this same woman has filed a lawsuit on this false, 2-year-old claim to get money. We had hoped to avoid responding to her allegations in public, but her filing of this lawsuit has forced us to do so, to respond to these false allegations and set the record straight.

This woman who filed the lawsuit has a history of lying. She has lied to law enforcement before and, as a result, had innocent people arrested based on a false accusation. She bragged to one of her closest friends that she could make up allegations against a guy to “take a guy down” if she wanted to. She said this before she even met Mr. Copperfield. Witness after witness who know her personally say she is incapable of telling the truth.

Her pattern of lying continues in this lawsuit. The facts are that there were more than 20 women and men on the island during her visit. The allegation that there was no one on the island to help her -- even if she needed help -- is preposterous. She met and talked with many people on the island and spent hours with them on the beach without Mr. Copperfield even present. Among the people she met was a female live-in island manager who spent time with her on the island and told her that if she needed anything to just call. She never complained to anyone about her treatment, never showed any signs of distress, and no one on the island saw her with scratches, bruises or any other signs of assault. That’s because nothing of the sort ever happened. Instead, she suntanned in her bikini listening to her iPod, jet-skied with island visitors, had playful conversations with guests and swam on island beaches day after day. She even had dinner with a group of island guests.

The notion that this woman was trapped on the island is absurd. There are telephones everywhere throughout the island that allow guests to call anyone in the world, including 911. There is cellular phone coverage and even Internet access on the island. She had access to jet skis and boats that she could have taken to the neighboring inhabited islands that are minutes away and not owned by Mr. Copperfield. She came to the island because she wanted to -- no one lied to her -- and she could have left the island on her own at any time.

This lawsuit is extortion for money, plain and simple. Unfortunately, false claims like this only hurt the women who really have been abused, women who really need our help.”

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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