Tag: Celebrity Travel Watch
David Lynch: ‘Interview Project’
by Kevin Fay | 10.06.09 | 4:10 PM ET
David Lynch’s excellent travel web series, Interview Project, follows a team of filmmakers (led by Austin Lynch, David’s son, and Jason S.) as they take a 20,000-mile road trip across the States and back, talking with local folks. The resulting webisodes each feature one subject and function like intimate four-minute character studies.
We think a lot about how liberating a journey can be for the traveler, but often that liberation is contagious, and people we meet on the road open up to us in ways they normally wouldn’t. This project is a lovely example of the unique exchange between the traveler and the local. As Lynch puts it in his intro “it’s something that’s human, and you can’t stay away from it.”
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Yahoo! Buzz‘Eat, Pray, Love’ Update: Eating in Rome With Julia Roberts
by Eva Holland | 08.31.09 | 2:33 PM ET
The actress has been spotted at restaurants and markets around the city as filming for the first phase of Eat, Pray, Love gets under way. Meanwhile, since our last update, Billy Crudup, Viola Davis and (rumor has it) James Franco have all signed on to the project—fine additions to an already outstanding supporting cast.
Beirut: It’s Hot Again!
by Eva Holland | 08.25.09 | 4:16 PM ET
What do Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton and the members of Keane have in common? According to Global Post, they’re among the celebrities who’ve popped up in Beirut this summer, part of the city’s resurgence as “the party and cultural headquarters of the Middle East” after three years of violence and turmoil. And, happily for the Lebanese economy, the tourists are following in Snoop Dogg’s footsteps—in record numbers.
Shakira Says There’s no Such Thing as a Worst Trip
by Michael Yessis | 08.20.09 | 3:53 PM ET
So she tells Dorinda Elliott at Conde Nast Traveler. Right on, Shakira.
Dr. Phil Hops Aboard the Acela
by Eva Holland | 08.19.09 | 3:29 PM ET
The talk show host and self-help kingpin will film a special episode on Amtrak’s Acela Express on September 9, Gawker reports. According to the press release, Dr. Phil will be “speaking with Amtrak customers about everyday problems.” Somebody see if he can do something about those rubbery, microwaved turkey sandwiches, OK?
A Trip to Comic-Con in Celebrity Tweets
by Eva Holland | 07.27.09 | 4:06 PM ET
I’ll admit, I’ve never paid much attention to Comic-Con, San Diego’s annual geekfest spectacular. In fact, I’d never even heard of it until the teenage characters on “The O.C.” used it as a pretext for an illicit Tijuana road trip. But for thousands of people from across the U.S., and even around the world, it’s the travel event of the year—and this time around I too found myself following along, through the tweets of my favorite Hollywood celebrities.
Herewith, a brief, vicarious trip through the wacky world of the Con, from departure to exhausted arrival home:
Sam Neill: ‘You Can’t Beat a Flat Bed’
by Eva Holland | 07.23.09 | 12:34 PM ET
Publicity still from "Jurassic Park" via Hollywood.com The Kiwi actor, best known for his roles in “The Piano” and “Jurassic Park,” recently shared some funny and thoughtful travel reflections with the Independent. Among the highlights? Neill looks for “a sense of enquiry and wonder” in his travel companions, he finds grand old hotels “uncomfortable, patronising and with hideous furniture,” and he firmly believes that a first-class reclining seat is worth it on the red-eye: “You can’t beat a flat bed. It’s hardly a profound thought, but if you can sleep on a plane, you can function at the other end ... I know I should be waxing lyrical about other cultures, but the bed takes precedence, I’m afraid.”
Canadians in the U.S.: What Do They Miss About Canada?
by Michael Yessis | 07.01.09 | 12:38 PM ET
Here’s a Canada Day treat from the New York Times: Eleven Canadians living in the United States talk about missing, among other things, hockey highlights, universal health coverage, the Canadian Mosaic and the “u” in color.
Australia’s Prime Minister: ‘Hotter Than Obama’
by Eva Holland | 06.29.09 | 7:05 PM ET
Publicity still via IGN That was the verdict from Bruno, comedian Sasha Baron Cohen’s gay Austrian alter ego, during a visit to Sydney for his movie‘s Australian premiere. Said the ostensible fashion TV reporter after meeting Prime Minister Kevin Rudd: “That guy is like, uber-cute. I thought Obama was like the hottest guy in the world until I met Kevin.”
Ooh. Them’s fighting words, Bruno. President Obama, care to respond?
When the President Goes to Vegas: Hail Obama?
by Alexander Basek | 06.02.09 | 10:20 AM ET
Photo by Alexander Basek It’s easy to ignore the language surrounding hotel stays. Spas have therapists and there’s a concierge or a butler for your pillow and your bath. In fact, it gets to be difficult when you need something but don’t know whom you’re supposed to talk to about it. Does an order for ice fall under the purview of the cooling concierge or the cocktail consultant? We may never know the answer.
Hunter S. Thompson’s Puerto Rico
by Eva Holland | 05.12.09 | 4:31 PM ET
Johnny Depp’s been on the Puerto Rico set of “The Rum Diary” for about a month now, and interest is building in the film, an adaptation of an early Hunter S. Thompson novel. The story follows journalist Paul Kemp (played by Depp) as he flees New York City for a small newspaper on the island, where hard drinking and treacherous expat intrigues ensue.
Noel Gallagher on ‘This Swine Flu Malarky’
by Eva Holland | 05.01.09 | 2:51 PM ET
Some days, I honestly don’t know how we ever got along without celebrity bloggers weighing in on the news of the day. The latest celeb-turned-citizen-journalist? Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher, who reports from the Caracas airport about swine flu paranoia.
Hello? Is it Greece You’re Looking For?
by Eva Holland | 03.16.09 | 11:05 AM ET
With a new album on the way, Lionel Richie is making the media rounds—and he’s landed in the pages of the Telegraph travel section, dishing on his best and worst travel memories.
Turns out, the R&B/easy listening legend is itching to get to Greece, he dreads being spotted mid-meal at a restaurant (“all I need is if the pianist starts playing ‘Three Times a Lady’”) and his favorite hotel is Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace. (“Now I know why I couldn’t get the marble for my house—they have it all. I couldn’t find the bougainvillea I wanted—they have it. Everything I needed for my house in California, they have it.”) The average traveler may not be able to relate to his experiences or advice—remember: “don’t let your entourage pack for you”—but they still make for an entertaining read.
Hollywood Heads to Bollywood
by Eva Holland | 03.10.09 | 3:12 PM ET
Turns out, it really is a small world after all. Kylie Minogue has wrapped up filming for an upcoming Bollywood flick, “Blue,” making her one of the first big-name Western stars to land on a Mumbai sound stage. “I don’t feel that I’m necessarily at the forefront of a Hollywood-Bollywood crossover because I don’t consider myself Hollywood,” Minogue told the Telegraph. “But I do think this could be the start of something. The fact that I’m here shows it could be the start of something.”
Early signs suggest she’s right—Sylvester Stallone is set to do the Bollywood thing later this year. And—rumor has it!—Arnold Schwarzenegger will be joining him. Could the Bolly/Hollywood fusion become another wonder of our shrinking planet?
I’m all for it.
Richard Gere: World-Changing Innkeeper
by Eva Holland | 02.24.09 | 11:05 AM ET
The Hollywood superstar recently bought and restored a derelict 18th-century Westchester inn, and—as he and his wife recently told New York magazine—they’re hoping to make it into much more than a spot for a good meal or a night’s rest. “I want this to be a place where the minds of people who could change the world would meet,” said Gere. (Via NewYorkology)
And the Eco-Vacation Oscar Goes to ...
by Joanna Kakissis | 02.20.09 | 11:33 AM ET
Host Hugh Jackman and the losers! As part of a sweet “Everybody Wins at the Oscars!” deal, tour operator Lindblad Expeditions will host Jackman, all the non-winning acting nominees and best director nominees on a 10-day trip to the Galapagos, National Geographic Adventure reports.
I’m dying of jealousy, and not because I want to hang with Brangelina and the rest of the glitterati—but with the ancient tortoises and Galapagos penguins! Hope, too, that this announcement doesn’t mean a crush of paparazzi and crazed fans trampling on these fragile enchanted islands.
How about if Lindblad just sends me and my little footprints instead?
Christopher Lee: ‘I Can’t Recall Visiting any Countries I Hated’
by Eva Holland | 02.17.09 | 9:49 AM ET
So where does one of the most omnipresent movie villains of the past half-century (who also popped up in our list of the best travel horror movies) like to go on vacation? The veteran actor recently dished to the Independent about his ideal travel experiences—and it turns out, solitude is high on his priority list.
Lee’s favorite country is Finland, “because once you get to a certain point, you can drive for hours without seeing a single person.” His worst-ever journey was a rough ride from Washington, D.C., to Charlotte, N.C.: “It was only a 45-minute flight,” he told Sophie Lam, “but I have never known anything like it—including during the war when I was shot at in planes.” And as for New Zealand, where he spent a few months during the filming of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy? It’s “the most beautiful country I have ever been to in my life.”
This is Not a Miami Vice Pun
by Alexander Basek | 02.12.09 | 3:15 PM ET
The Viceroy Miami, down in the Icon Brickell project, is set to open tomorrow. Predictably, hotelistas are excited. It’s very Miami-ish, and not in an old guys sipping from tiny coffee cups and playing dominoes way: 162 rooms with interiors designed by Kelly Wearstler, Sferra linens and a ginormo 28,00-square-foot spa. A spot-check on rates reveals that you could stay there next weekend for about $200 a night, less than half of what they intended to charge until very recently. It makes for a much more intriguing proposition than at the previous price point, which was justified with a “they’ll come because they’ve always come” attitude.
Much like the Standard in New York, look for this project to be the canary in the coal mine for new Miami hotel openings. All the recently opened properties in less-than-prime locations will start getting antsy should things not pan out here. Much depends on enticing visitors to stay in a part of Miami that doesn’t have quite the same name recognition as South Beach—the EPIC, just on the other side of the Miami river, is in the same boat. Still, if they are out in front with these rates, it’s a sign of flexibility that up to this point many Miami hotels lacked. I’ll be sure to head down to check it out just as soon as I get a base tan that upgrades my skin color from “Casper” to “eggshell.”
Malcolm Gladwell on Aviation Safety and Security
by Rob Verger | 01.30.09 | 2:00 PM ET
Perhaps the most fascinating section of Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, Outliers: The Story of Success, is the chapter called “The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes.” Gladwell explores two plane crashes—one Colombian (Avianca Flight 52) and another, South Korean (Korean Air Flight 801)—and how the culture of the pilots perhaps contributed to each disaster. He focuses on how well the pilots communicated with each other and with air traffic control. Poor communication in these examples, he argues, has to do with something called a culture’s Power Distance Index (P.D.I.)—the term and concept come from psychologist Geert Hofstede—which is a measurement of “how much a particular culture values and respects authority,” as Gladwell defines it. Countries with a high P.D.I. generally value being more deferential towards authority, and thus not contradicting a superior (the U.S. and New Zealand both have a low P.D.I.). Gladwell argues that since both Colombia and South Korea rank towards the top of the P.D.I. list, the subordinate members of their cockpit crews were unable or unwilling to speak up as assertively as they should have about safety concerns.
I interviewed Gladwell in early November for an article for The Boston Globe and asked him if he would suggest changing anything in general regarding airline security. “Not really,” he answered, but added that he was more concerned “about the mistakes that pilots make and air traffic controllers make in the course of doing their jobs than I am about the threat posed by terrorists. It’s the classic thing where we demonize and terrify ourselves about the threat from outside and forget about the threat that we pose to ourselves.”
But it’s the connections that Gladwell draws in “Outliers” between culture and plane crashes that have become, not surprisingly, controversial.
Margaret Atwood: Author, Birder, Cruiser
by Eva Holland | 01.29.09 | 12:17 PM ET
Turns out that Margaret Atwood—the acclaimed author of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Alias Grace” and “The Blind Assassin,” among others—is also a serious nature-lover. Atwood will be cruising the Scottish isles this spring as a guest lecturer on board the M/V Andrea; this press release notes that she is a “keen birder” and the current co-president of the Rare Bird Club. Who knew?
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