GEORGE CLOONEY - CLOONEY AND PITT CLOSE DOWN LAS RAMBLAS

LATEST: GEORGE CLOONEY and BRAD PITT's Las Vegas, Nevada dream is over - their ambitious Las Ramblas hotel complex is dead. Ten months after its much-publicised launch and following multiple rumours about its demise, the Las Ramblas sales office has been closed and the 25-acre plot of land the hotels, casinos and play areas were to stand on has been sold to the developers of the neighbouring W Hotel, Casino + Residences for a whopping $202 million (GBP112.2 million). The news has been confirmed by Dan Klores Communications, the New York-based publicity firm representing Las Ramblas. A spokesman says, "We are no longer dealing with that account as I understand the Las Ramblas project is no longer going ahead." Vegas insiders claim rising construction costs are behind the decision to shut down the Las Ramblas venture - a project backed financially by Clooney and CINDY CRAWFORD's restaurateur husband RANDE GERBER, and supported by new dad Pitt. Pitt and Clooney were signed onto a boutique project rumoured to involve Gerber and Station Casinos on the plot of land currently housing the Wild, Wild West Casino. When the project details were unveiled in 2004, they included 4,400 rooms and 11 high-rise towers. Sin City property watchers now believe Clooney and Gerber will collaborate on a smaller Las Vegas hotel and casino property designed, in part, by architecture fan Pitt.