Dancer-choreographer Robin Antin really has something to kick up her heels about these days. Only a few years ago, she founded the L.A.-based burlesque style dance troupe the Pussycat Dolls, comprised of many of her leggy, retro-lingerie-clad dancer gal pals, and soon their shows were the hottest ticket among Hollywood Industry insiders, and soon celebrities like Carmen Electra, Christina Applegate, Charlize Theron, Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton were joining them on stage, singing and dancing in the La Perla skimpies.
Then suddenly the Dolls were stars in their own right when they become bona fide recording artist and their debut single “Don’t Cha” rocketed to the top of the international charts. Hollywood.com shimmied up next to the queen kitten Antin recently and found out that if she has her way, the Pussycat Dolls will soon have the whole world at their stiletto-heeled feet.
Hollywood.com: I remember seeing your shows when you first started out, and the Pussycat Dolls were the best-kept little secret among the Hollywood industry/party crowd, then all of the sudden…BAM! You girls blew up big!
Robin Antin: “I know! I’m telling you, I mean, it’s funny because a lot of people that don’t know the Pussycat Dolls think it’s sort of like overnight, you know what I mean? And that’s not the truth, obviously, you know that. It’s just, you know, a lot of hard work paid off, and here we are, with an album that is just doing really well, and we’re performing some of our other songs off the album tonight, so give people a chance to hear some of the new songs.”
HW: And you’ve got the place in Vegas now, the Pussycat Dolls Lounge at Caesars Palace, part their nightclub Pure.
RA: “It is so great, and what’s next is I’m opening up another Pussycat Dolls Lounge, and we’re actually developing the television show surrounding that, opening up the next Pussycat Dolls Lounge, and then finding the next group of girls that will represent that.”
HW: Will it be a reality show, something like the hunt for the next Pussycat Dolls?
RA: “Yeah. I don’t really have a start date, and right now it’s in development, so a lot of stuff that I can’t really talk about, but it’s gonna be really great. It’s gonna be really, really fun. I already have one reality show in the family, which is my brother [hairstylist Jonathan Antin], who does ‘Blow Out,’ so now it’s like ‘Me, too!’” [laughs]
HW: You’re a one-woman empire, where else is there to go? Movies?
RA: “The girls–we call them the original Pussycat Dolls, which is the recording group–they’re gonna be traveling all over the world, and of course I’m back and forth with them, and in Vegas, and doing all these different things. But I’ve always been such a hard worker, and I think growing up and being a dancer and just having that discipline all my life, there’s so much that I see to do. I look at the Pussycat Dolls as a brand, and it’s a lifestyle. I look at it as a movement–it’s not just sort of a one-time thing and then it’s gonna be over. That’s why the Lounges are so important to me, because it’s something that can just live forever, and the legacy lives on, you know?”
HW: Are you still going to draw in celebrities to appear in the dolls performances?
RA: “Oh absolutely, absolutely. On our album, we have Will I. Am [from the Black Eyed Peas], which is so exciting, and Timbaland, and some really hot producers and celebrities. And yeah, we’ll continue to definitely bring in celebrities: in Vegas we had Eva Longoria open the Lounge, and you know, we had some really great people so far. And also, just on any given night–the other night Janet Jackson was there, and Ashlee Simpson just had her party there.”
HW: Do you ever sleep?
RA: “You know, I actually do get rest. I make sure of that, because that’s important to me. But I’m really enjoying everything, and I’m so – I’m so happy and I’m so proud of everything that I built, and you know, I’m really enjoying this time and enjoying everyone that’s helped me get here.”
