Pussycat Dolls Lounge at Apple scrapped; concept moves to the Viper Room

The much-hyped Pussycat Dolls Lounge at Bryan Ogden's Apple will never see the light of day (or night).  Instead, Robin Antin's new crop of dancers is taking over the revamped Viper Room every weekend beginning Nov. 28 for a yearlong run.

The Pussycat Dolls Lounge was conceived as a place where fans of the chart-topping girl band could see dancers perform the group's MTV-ready choreography in an intimate setting. Prior to the show's public debut, the real Pussycat Dolls will kick things off at a special invite-only, post-American Music Awards show November 23, also at the Viper Room. 

Representatives for the Viper Room say Nicole Scherzinger and company will stop by the Sunset Strip club as special guests when they are in town, but the new Pussycat Dolls Lounge will mainly serve as a place where Dolls' founder, choreographer Robin Antin, shows off her new dancers, chosen from hundreds of hopefuls at a North Hollywood audition earlier this year. 

With the Pussycat Dolls Lounge no longer opening in the building, Apple is using the extra space to expand its current restaurant and lounge. The larger Apple has already been open for a few weeks, and will be open as usual tonight.

All of this is in addition to the Las Vegas Pussycat Dolls Lounge inside Caesar's Palace.  More details on the way about what this means for the Viper Room’s weekend music lineup.

Viper Room, 8852 W. Sunset Blvd., West L.A.; (310) 358-1880.

--Charlie Amter

Photo: Apple's restaurant patio (with what was to be the lounge behind it). Credit: Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times