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The Competition / Television Travel / Lo Bosworth / The Hills / → All Tags

Would You Trust Lo's Tastebuds?

If every critic is a failed artist, would that make every food critic a failed eater? We've all been out to eat, and we all know what we like, but there must be something that sets someone who writes about food and dining for a living apart from the layperson. That hasn't stopped us -- see our recent series on recession restaurants -- and it apparently hasn't deterred "Laguna Beach" star turned "Hills" sidekick Lo Bosworth from airing her own opinions.

On "The Hills," Lo is often the receiving end of LC's explanation of her own dilemmas over brunch or dinner. But now she writes a column for PocketChangeLA, the bicoastal luxe list headed by the fictional Richard Nouveau, called "The High Life With Lo" reviewing new clubs, popular pizza places and, yes, places for ladies who lunch.

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The Competition / Celeb Travel / Freida Pinto / → All Tags

Freida Pinto Runs From Her Travel-Host Past

Today, she's the star of a pretty well liked Best Picture winner. But "Slumdog Millionaire" star Freida Pinto was in our line of work before she played the beautiful, victimized Latika: As the host of "Full Circle," an India-based travel show, the Mumbai native perfected the English skills that would get her noticed by "Slumdog" director Danny Boyle.

Pinto was just a model doing spots for companies like Wrigley's and DeBeers when, at age 21, she signed on to host "Full Circle" on Zee TV Asia Pacific, which focused on Asian destinations and culture. In the above clip, Pinto is presenting in Malaysia.

The two years she spent on the show comprised her first experience in front of the camera -- but "Slumdog" won't be her last: The Indian actress just signed on to costar in Woody Allen's next movie along with Josh Brolin and Naomi Watts. Now, who's going to make an epic movie about us?

Related Stories:
· "Slumdog Millionaire" Tour: Effective or Exploitative? [Jaunted]
· Flying Getting Way Cheaper. In India. [Jaunted]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: NDTV Movies]

The Competition / Celeb Travel / Learning Holidays / Mischa Barton / → All Tags

Mischa Barton Learns It's No Longer The '60s

Early this year, before "staycation" finally, regrettably, caught on, learning holidays looked to be the emerging travel trend of 2008. And at least one celeb is trying to keep the dream alive: Mischa Barton has been traipsing around India--and blogging about it!

From her official site:

I must admit I used to make fun of people who were all into yoga and chai tea thinking it was another ridiculous health fad. But now I'm that person! First of all Masala Chai tea, the traditional way with milk and sugar is delicious, and this is coming from a brit who only likes my breakfast tea!

I must say my goal coming here was to learn to play the sitar and it's coming along real slow as apparently it's not that easy to procure a great sitar teacher here, I guess it not late 60's with Ravi Shankar and George Harrison roaming around unfortunately!!!!

Even all those exclamation points, it seems, don't make it easy to pick a 20-something-string lute.

Related Stories:
· Hi, It's Mischa Checkin In [Official Site]
· Shirtless Man Moves Into Our Territory [Jaunted]
· Learning Holidays coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo of Mischa in Dubai earlier this year: Mischa Barton]

The Competition / Tourist Traps / Celeb Travel / Matthew McConaughey / Grand Canyon / → All Tags

Shirtless Man Moves Into Our Territory

Guess who just got back from a road trip! Trailer-living, naked-bongo-playing Matthew McConaughey wrote a "Travel Blog" on his MySpace page about driving to Baja California, Mexico with his old friend. After that, he hit some American landmarks. Here's his unedited report on the Grand Canyon:

I spent my 39th birthday on the southern rim of the Grand Canyon...almost got "butted" of the edge by a ram and caught some shooting stars...as for the first sight of the GC, mother nature created something that looks so fake, its real....cool

We think he should stick to stoner surf movies.

Related Stories:
· Travel Blog [Matthew McConaughey's MySpace]
· Grand Canyon Skywalk Update [Jaunted]
· Matthew McConaughey's Surf Epic Disappears Before We Can See It [Jaunted]
· Adventure Bus Travel: A Super-Green Road Trip [Jaunted]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

The Competition / Celeb Travel / Gwyneth Paltrow / GOOP / → All Tags

Gwyneth Paltrow's Shiny, Happy Cities

"As strange, spread out and flatly lit as it can sometimes be, Los Angeles, with its bougainvillea, sea breezes, avocados and eccentric inhabitants, is like no other place and will always be in my soul," Gwyneth Paltrow writes in the latest installment of her newsletter GOOP. We can't account for what made us sign up for this vanity project, which promises to "nourish the inner aspect" with glossy weekly lists of things to buy and do, but her last two travel-related dispatches have us downright confused.

After recommending holistic detoxes and cutting "white" foods in an earlier edition, Paltrow spends the lion's share of her LA report recommending... restaurants, from her best buddy Mario Batali's Mozza on Melrose to "authentic deli food" in Beverly Hills. Some of her choices are solid--the treats from Joan's on Third and Intelligentsia Coffee both got high marks from us--but the whole thing reads like anorexia porn. (Not to mention the weird fixation on mentioning which restaurants are located in mini-malls, but maybe that's a SoCal concern.) And what is there to do in LA? Besides the Griffith Observatory, it's all farmer's markets.

In fairness to Gwynnie, her previous week's report listed two art exhibits to catch there, at the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Honor Fraser Gallery. But that's shoved in with her other adopted hometowns, like New York, London, Madrid and (really?) New Orleans. What we're saying is: Gwyneth, why must you make us hungry?

Related Stories:
· Gwyneth Paltrow Fancies Herself A Hotel Connoisseur [HC]
· "Spain... On The Road Again" Feels A Little Bloated [Jaunted]
· Airport Photo Shoot: A Celebrity Pack In The Wild [Jaunted]

[Photo: Shoeblog]