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Leaving 'Las Vegas': James Caan, Nikki Cox Fold, Molly Simms Antes Up for the Season Finale


They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but not when the stars of the eponymous series spill the secrets of the season-ending episode to Hollywood.com.


Friday promises an explosive finale for Las Vegas. It will also be fans' last chance to see longtime series regulars James Caan and Nikki Cox, as the two actors have decided to leave the series to pursue other options. Executive producer and series creator Gary Scott Thompson spoke on each performer's behalf to explain the departures.


""It's more on Jimmy's part, he wanted to do features again,"" said Thompson. ""TV is really tough–87 episodes is a long time to be away from a feature career. That's four years. That's an eternity in features. He was itching to do a movie and he couldn't do them while we were shooting. He turned down a lot of features over the last four years. Some of them we tried to make work and with the schedule of TV it was impossible.""


In the case of Cox, reasons were more varied and vague. ""Nikki just got married [to actor/comedian Jay Mohr] and she has other things that she wanted to explore and try out. I can't speak for her personally what her plans are in her personal life. I know some of her plans but it's not my place to speak about that. That's probably a question directed towards her people. But she comes from the sitcom world and I think really wanted to go back and to do some sitcoms and try some other things.”


“They just want changes,” Thompson continued. “In Jimmy's case, it was he's towards the end of his career and wanted to move on and do some stuff that he really wanted to do. I think in Nikki's case, she's at the beginning of hers and there's other options and opportunities out there. As an actor, as a writer, as a creator, all of it, no one wants you unless someone else has you. So your opportunity to jump is usually while the iron's hot. You don't jump after the show goes down because the show's already failed. But to jump off a successful show means you're going to have lots of other options.""


The cast only found out about these changes after wrapping the fourth season, and upon receiving confirmation that the show would continue into a fifth season without Cox and Caan. Cast member Molly Sims could only imagine what the coming year will bring.


""It's always hard when you've been with people for four years,"" she said. ""Nikki's one of my best friends, Jimmy has been such a pleasure and such an amazing teacher in so many ways to be able to work with. I have to say I'm going to miss him. They were amazing people to work with. That's the amazing thing about our show is that we all really like one another. I think on most shows, that's not always true and in our case it is. I'm really going to miss them. It came as a shock and surprise. I knew that Jimmy has turned down a lot of stuff. I just didn't think he was going to go.""


Thompson added that there are no hard feelings towards either actor. ""I think a lot of people were really surprised that Jimmy stayed as long as he did considering he has such a prolific career in films,"" he said. ""We were all grateful. Who gets a chance to have an Academy Award nominee the caliber of Jimmy Caan that did The Godfather come on a show and stay with you for four years? So I think we're all very thankful that he did.""


On a show where recurring stars can be blown off of rooftops at a moment's notice, rotating cast members are not totally new territory. Still, the actors simply wait to see who Season Five brings to join their ranks.


""I think any time someone leaves and they bring new people in, it always ultimately changes the dynamic,"" said Sims. ""Even when they brought Lara Flynn Boyle, it's someone new but someone that you're not used to working with. It's someone that brings new energy. I don't believe in replacing the old with the new but I have to say, yeah, it'll be surprising. I think that's the best way to explain it.""


Whether or not there will be new additions or simply changes in the returning characters' roles has yet to be decided by Gary Scott Thompson. ""There's no way we could ever replace Jimmy Caan or Nikki Cox,"" he asserted. ""These are two very valuable players of what I call our team here on Las Vegas. So I actually don't like the word replacement because we can't replace them. Obviously, characters come and go on Las Vegas all the time. Some stay for longer than others. Some fly off the roof. And that's what we're going to sit down and figure out when I get the writing staff back and up here, which is what's happening as we speak because we come back and start shooting very early in April.""


Much of that will be determined by the outcome of the finale. ""I think NBC has pretty much given it all away in the promos,"" Thompson lamented. ""There's an explosion, Molly's character is pregnant, we've got a shooting. Because also of the departure of a couple cast members was kind of a surprise and the season finale had already been written, it's going to be kind of challenging to get us out of the situation that I put us in.""


Sims herself was surprised to read of that development. ""I stole the last episode because they wouldn't release it to us actors,"" she said. ""So I stole it, I got my hands on it. I called him like, 'What do you mean? I'm pregnant and you're blowing me up?' So we're always trying to find out. But there again, it's Vegas and anything can happen. That's the great thing about our show is that they're always trying to push the envelope, do different things, make it exciting for the audience. So yeah, I was shocked.""


When it comes to the fireballs though, Sims is all game. ""We have a huge argument going because I want to do my own stunts and they don't want me to because I'm a big klutz. But I do, I definitely like to do as much as I could do until NBC or Gary won't let me. I do. I think that's the fun part. I love doing stunts. I love working with [stunt coordinator] Walter Scott. During the kidnapping episode, Josh and I, when they were like, 'Okay, we have to get dirty,' we could get down in the dirt, do pushups, we loved it. We got into it. I mean, even Vanessa. What happened to Vanessa on the season finale, she had carpet burns.""


This fiery finish is not Thompson's attempt to top his other finales. He's just trying to keep the viewers hooked. ""The need was really to build up to a point where one, we can get an audience onto a Friday night,” he said. ""If we do things like we do, you can promote it. Like when we had Delinda kidnapped and buried alive, we got a huge audience to watch. Granted, part of that episode went into the 10 o'clock hour because it was a two-parter and there's more audience there, but we did really well…The second part of that is in reality, Josh Duhamel's character Danny is a Marine, and in reality there is a war. And so I felt that we had to touch upon that again, and we hadn't really touched upon that in a while.""


So far Delinda is only pregnant for one episode, as the fate of her baby is still in Thompson's hands. ""I did a little research,"" Sims said. ""I talked to my girlfriends, a couple of them are pregnant right now. I don't know. Are we keeping Delinda pregnant? I really don't. We sat down about three weeks ago and just found out last Thursday that we were even picked up. So believe it or not, I can honestly say I don't know anything.""


Should Delinda carry the baby to term, that could provide a natural opportunity for Caan to return. Thompson explained, ""Jimmy did say that, 'Look, I don't want to leave you guys in the lurch or anything so why don't I come back from time to time, let's figure out per our schedules. He was very open, very excited about doing some sort of guest spot or guest spot episodes. Possibly the season opener we talked about, maybe some other ones down the line. Again, this is sort of new. We got the pickup and then got word. I think what was going to be easier for Jimmy is if we didn't get picked up for Season Five. Then he wouldn't have had to say, 'Count me out.' So he may have been thinking that we wouldn't and it would have been a lot easier on everybody. The fact that he said he's going to come back and do some guests for us, we feel like he's not gone. He's still around so his presence, he's so larger than life that his presence is still around too.""


Other guest stars have vied for more regular positions too. ""I've spoken to Cheryl [Ladd]. Of course she wants to come back and just loves being on the show and loves everybody. She actually pitched that she is the new owner of the Montecito. I'll take that into consideration, Cheryl, thank you. But yeah, there's definitely a chance. I'm hoping that Nikki will want to come back and do some guests as well.""


All of the threads dangled in the cliffhanger will determine whether Thompson hires new actors or beefs up the roles of those he already has. ""We've got a lot of things hanging. Who owns the Montecito? Is there going to be a replacement for the James Caan character's position? Is there going to be a replacement for her position? Or are there new people that are going to come in or old people going to take over some of those jobs? We just haven't quite figured that out yet.”


Thompson said that after four years on the air, there was a method to his mondo-cliffhanger madness: “My intention was just to get us to a season five, so I wrote this incredible cliffhanger. My objective was if I close everything up, there's a reason for them to say ‘Series over.’ If I don’t do that, they can't say ‘Series over.’ Fifteen million people would be really pissed off at NBC. So my objective was to do that and these new developments are new developments. Look, George Clooney left ER and that show is thriving. People come and people go on TV. That's what's expected. Marsha Thomason left after the second season and it's going to happen. Hopefully we'll be so lucky that we'll stay on for another five years and more people will come ago.""


Las Vegas airs Fridays at 9 on NBC.