Celebrity Travel News 11.1.07

Love must be in the air, because the biggest news in celebrity travel this week involves two new rumored Hollywood couples. Of course, they might not be couples anymore by the time you finish reading this, but we won’t worry about that.

Hot and Heavy in Hollywood

First, the semi-palatable coupling: The New York Daily News reports that Jessica Simpson and Owen Wilson were spotted dining at the Huntley Hotel Santa Monica on Sunday evening. Perhaps they were chatting about their common origins – both blondes hail from Texas. After the pair dined at Penthouse, the hotel’s slick restaurant from Executive Chef Michael Reidt, they didn’t stay to check out the hotel’s luxurious suites designed by Thomas Schoos, but instead retired to Wilson’s Malibu home.

Grossed Out at the Gramercy

In EW GROSS news, gajillionaire Ashley Olsen reportedly engaged in a snog-fest of Tour de France proportions with Lance Armstrong Monday night at the Gramercy Park Hotel’s Rose Bar. Hmm, rob the cradle much? Of course, considering Olsen’s pasts with actor Jared Leto and club owner Scott Sartiano, we know she’s had her fair share of experience with older men. But still, who makes out in the middle of a nice hotel bar? Something about this Hollywood coupling made us throw up in our mouths a little bit.

Even More Celebrity Makeout News

Because we can’t get enough sordid stories about celebrities making out with people who not their spouses in upscale hotels, we’d like you to know that, according to celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, singer Pink made out with a female friend at the Viceroy Santa Monica Hotel last week.

Britney’s Topless Spa Day

Perez Hilton also reports that Britney Spears was spotted wandering around the locker room of the Four Seasons Hotel Beverly Hills wearing only her bikini bottoms. But when someone asked her where the hotel’s pool happened to be, she had no idea whether there was even a pool on the premises (there is; it’s on the rooftop terrace).

Saving the Sahara

Good news for Vegas fans. Philippe Starck has reportedly been tapped by SBE Entertainment Group (the folks behind star-studded L.A. nightclubs Hyde and Area, among other hotspots) to turn the Sahara Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas into a hip, happening place instead of a destination for $1 blackjack tables.

Drop-Kicking the Met

If you’re heading to London and want to be star struck, then you’d do well to pass on a room at the Metropolitan London, reports Saska Graville in the Sydney Morning Herald. You might spot stars like Daniel Craig or Elle Mcpherson at the hotel restaurant Nobu – where both were seen recently – but, despite the hotel’s longstanding reputation as a favorite among celebrities, reporter Graville complains that her accommodations fell short of the rock star experience she expected and, instead, looked more like a room display from IKEA.

Instead of the Metropolitan London, Graville suggests the Haymarket Hotel and Ian Schrager’s St. Martin’ Lane Hotel (and its members-only nightclub Bungalow 8) as the best places to both see the starts and get treated like them (as long as you’re on the list, of course).

Elsewhere

Angelina Jolie was snapped at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Tuesday during the International Women’s Media Foundation’s 18th Annual Courage in Journalism Awards.

Kate Moss was taped leaving John F. Kennedy International airport on Monday. You can watch the riveting footage via this Splash News video.

Matt Damon needed a little extra help getting through security at Los Angeles International Airport this week. Hey, we know it can be confusing:

Perez Hilton offered up his travel tips to MSNBC in this interview. Spoiler: they aren’t that good. For example, he recommends signing up for a mileage program. Thanks. Got it.

Paris Hilton reportedly had to stay in – gasp – a Hyatt during a recent visit to Moscow, as there were no Hilton properties in the area. In town for a fashion show, Hilton – we assume since there’s only one Hyatt in the city – laid her bleached blond, newly reformed and compassionate head upon the pillows at the Ararat Park Hyatt Moscow.

Last and pretty much least, we hear that the boys of CW show Gossip Girls hit the Hotel Gansevoort, though apparently they did more yoga than partying.

And there you have it, folks. More crucial information from the wide world of celebrity travel.

Happy Halloween. It’s that fabulous day of the year when you can get dressed up like a freak, wear clothes far sluttier than you’d ever dare in real life and get totally smashed without remorse. Unless, of course, you’re a kid. In that case, it’s really all about the candy.

Today we check in with some of our favorite travel experts to get into the Halloween, uh, spirit. Instead of blithely regurgitating tales of haunted hotels, ghost towns and places of supposed supernatural import, Concierge.com editor-in-chief Peter Frank (that’s him in the picture) and his team at Conde Nast decided to put their heads together to create a different kind of Halloween story for the web site this year.

Says Frank, “I’ve seen my share of haunted hotels, but we wanted places that will actually creep you out a little bit, places that send chills down your spine.”

And so they have. The World’s Creepiest Places, written by Ralph Martin, follows the axiom that reality is always more frightening than fiction as it roves through 13 (yes, 13) destinations pretty much guaranteed to leave you feeling like you’re on a tour of Rod Serling’s favorite vacation spots.

At the TravelPost.com Insider, we’re constantly fascinated with how travel publications compile their round-ups and select editorial content, so we decided to check in with Frank to get some firsthand information on this seasonal feature from Concierge.com, a.k.a. the home of Conde Nast Traveler.

So why do travelers specifically seek out scary places?

“There are people out there who are just drawn to the slightly macabre…. [Places] where famous events from history happened – there’s just an inherent fascination,” Frank says.

Among the places deemed creepiest by Concierge.com are familiar tourist destinations like the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, Calif., a mysterious mansion built by the wealthy and, by all accounts, disturbed heiress to the Winchester gun fortune and known for features like fake doors and staircases with no destinations.

“Once you’ve heard the story, you go there and get this window into this woman’s mind,” Frank says.

Pause for a brief tangent: The home’s bizarre past becomes all the more intriguing if you imagine our favorite modern-day heiress, Paris Hilton, similarly plagued by voices that instructed her to build and modify the same hotel over and over again until her death. Now that would be cool. And really weird.

And with digital artist Jeremy Blake’s reported devolution into paranoia and subsequent suicide this year, the Winchester House has attained even more creepy cache by association. One of the late artist’s most famous works is entitled Winchester and involves a series of unearthly images based on the mansion’s gothic interiors.

There are other places near and dear to tourists’ hearts, like, say, the stomach-turning displays of anatomical oddities at the Philadelphia Mütter museum and Romania’s Bran Castle, once home to the legendary Vlad the Impaler (upon which the film Bram Stoker’s Dracula was based).

But many of the spots included in the list are remote destinations many travelers will never see. For example, the site of the infamous 1986 Chernobyl power plant explosion that ended the short, sweet life of Pripyat, Ukraine.

“You go there, and it’s a real ghost town. It’s deserted. And things are exactly as they were 20 years ago,” Frank recalls.

And then there is the remote Easter Island (a five+ hour flight from Chile), where heavy-browed moai sculptures are the only remains of the now-extinct Rapa Nui people who once inhabited the island. If that’s not ultra creepy, we don’t know what is. Just looking at the landscape gives us chills:

What you won’t find in this list are sites where crimes against humanity and gross human atrocities have occurred.

“We didn’t do anything that was too sensitive. We wanted to have places that were distant enough in the past,” Frank says of the few locations with devastating histories attached.

One ultra-creepy spot that didn’t make the list for that very reason?

According to Frank, “We almost did the Jonestown massacre, but we decided it was just too gruesome.”

Yup. And on top of that, in the years since the Jonestown Massacre, the nearby town of Port Kaituma, Guyana has not exactly rebounded into the next vacation hotspot. Today, in fact, it’s largely home to transient workers who come to the nearby jungles to hunt for gold.

And with that, we bid you adieu. It’s time to go put our face paint on. Be sure to check out all 13 of the World’s Creepiest Places on Concierge.com.

Celebrity Travel News 10.26.07

No Love for Love

The five-star Claridges Hotel in London has reportedly refused Courtney Love as a guest. It’s not a surprising move on the part of the hotel management. The last time Love bunked in at the luxury hotel in London’s Mayfair neighborhood, she started a fire (allegedly from smoking a cigarette) in her $3,000-a-night suite. Worse, Love has a reputation for ruining hotel rooms. Earlier this year, you may recall reports of Love’s raucous birthday celebration at the Covent Garden Hotel, where she wrecked her $1,000-a-night suite. In slightly less shocking news, Love is still really scary looking.

Bringing Hang-Ups Back

According to local news sources, radio personalities in Brisbane, Australia discovered the hotel where Justin Timberlake is staying while he’s in town for concerts this weekend. Giddy with their nugget of celebrity information, the radio peeps attempted to prank call Justin Timberlake and sucker him into speaking on-air by calling the Stamford Hotel where the singer is staying under an alias. They identified themselves to hotel staff as high-ranking recording executive Denis Handlin, who, as you might guess, was mighty p.o.’d when he found out lowly radio personalities were using his name to bother JT. The gullible staff put the call through to Timberlake, who hung up as soon as he realized that on-air pranksters, and not the president of Sony BMG Australia, were on the other end of the line. Still, people with too much time on their hands are listening to the recording of the incident. If you are someone with too much time on your hands, you can also listen to the recording here.

But what we’re really wondering is whether Justin is staying in the hotel’s Stamford Suite, located on the top floor of the hotel. The posh digs offer a living room outfitted with a baby grand piano, gold-plated fixtures in the bathroom and a spa area with views of the Brisbane River and Kangaroo Point Cliffs.

Britney Takes Drugs

In Britney news, a few shocking developments. First, X17 scored photographs of prescription medicine Provigil peaking from Britney’s handbag as she headed to the Beverly Hills Hotel to meet up with ex K-Fed for parenting classes the pair were ordered by the court to attend. Gasp! The girl takes medicine she got from a doctor. Really, I’m happy to hear the girl’s taking something. Better to turn to the doctor’s orders than shave your head in public again. Jesus.

But what’s more interesting is that the Britney and Kevin chose to hold their parenting classes at the Beverly Hills Hotel in the first place. For someone who looks so depressed and annoyed every time the paparazzi appear, you’d think she could have opted for a lower-profile location. Like the parenting counselor’s office.

Up in Smoke

Celebs are fleeing the California wildfires and heading to high-end hotels, reports the Associated Press (story: Fires Disrupt Hollywood Lives, Work). Hollywood bigwig David Geffen was in a charitable mood and reportedly offered rescue workers and firefighters free rooms at his stylish Malibu Beach Inn.

Luxe lodging like Shutters on the Beach, the Viceroy Santa Monica, Chateau Marmont, the Four Seasons Beverly Hills and the Peninsula Beverly Hills Hotel told reporters they are completely booked this week with evacuees.

Other Stuff We Only Sort of Care About

Speaking of the Chateau Marmont, we hear that Scarlett Johansson celebrated boyfriend Ryan Reynolds’ birthday there earlier this week by presenting him with a necklace made out of one of her wisdom teeth (that can’t possibly be true… or can it?).

In who really cares anyway news, Lindsay Lohan was photographed leaving the Beverly Hills Hotel on Tuesday. Now, if she had run into Britney and they had both fallen off the wagon together at the hotel and then gone clubbing, we would have cared.

London Calling

Far from the flames ravaging Southern California, actor Josh Hartnett was spotted attending a screening of his new film 30 Days of Night held at London’s Soho Hotel, where swanky private screening rooms can accommodate up to 100 guests and feature red leather and cow print seats by Poltona Frau. We love!

With a history dotted with famous patrons who holed up behind its pink walls in hopes of escaping the pressures of show business, La Valencia Hotel might very well have been the Chateau Marmont of the 1930s. Today, the La Jolla hotel is hardly the shiniest, slickest place around, but the combination of its near-ideal location and long history in the area make it an enduring choice for San Diego lodging.

Lined up alongside tony shops and destinations like George’s at the Cove, you’d never guess La Valencia first opened its doors in 1928 (don’t worry, the rooms were renovated in 2005) or that, for decades, this hotel was a quiet hideaway far from the buzz of urban life. Today of course, the quiet atmosphere still exists in the hotel’s courtyard patio and in the stately rooms, though just outside the entrance, the sidewalks are filled with bodies exploring La Jolla’s shops, art galleries and pristine waterfront landscape.

Atop the hotel, the Sky Room restaurant boasts Executive Chef Vaughan Mabee’s fresh take on California cuisine and over 1,000 wines. The famous Whaling Bar & Grill is a local dining institution. For an authentic experience, order up the house drink, appropriately named the Whaler. On Sundays, the Champagne brunch on the hotel’s Tropical Patio rivals any in the area.

While the hotel’s restaurants are ample, be aware that some of the rooms do not share that distinction. The smallest on the property start at a very European 246-square-feet. Mirrored walls and balconies off some rooms remedy the cozy room size, if only psychologically. Luckily, the views from the ocean-facing rooms do the trick.

You know how some destination restaurants say they have the best view or the best location or the best outdoor dining in the area or the best something or other, and you’re never quite sure whether you completely agree, because maybe part of you is agreeing just to be agreeable and maybe part of you doesn’t know any better because you’re a tourist?

Well, let me tell you about one restaurant that claims “best-i-ness” and actually, no doubt about it, deserves that distinction. George’s at the Cove in La Jolla, Calif., purports to have “the region’s best rooftop dining,” and once you’ve dined there, you will agree that, really, the view and overall ambiance could not be any better, especially on a sunny weekend afternoon in October, one of California’s most beautiful months. The menu is casual, with souped-up SoCal takes on fish tacos, burgers and pasta dishes. The food is good, nothing to fall down and die over, but good. And it doesn’t matter that the daytime menu falls short of life-altering, aria-producing culinary genius. Because what matters here is the experience of dining in what feels like a pristine, white box seat hung out over the Pacific blue just for you, the sort of place that reminds you how sweet life can be when you’re on vacation and you don’t mind spending $11 on a burger decadently enhanced with blue cheese or a glass of full-bodied California red long before the cocktail hour begins.

Go for the view on a sunny day or book a table at night in the lower level George’s California Modern restaurant below, where the sleek modern interiors and ocean views are irresistible on clear nights when the stars are out.

George’s on the Cove
1250 Prospect Street
La Jolla, CA
858-454-4244

Celebrity Travel for the Week of Oct. 19, 2007

Lourdes Luxuriates

Let’s start at the very beginning, a very nice place to start. Waaay back on Sunday, super mom Madonna reportedly celebrated daughter Lourdes’s 11th birthday by treating the budding fashionista to six hours of spa madness at One Spa at Shutters on the Beach Hotel in Santa Monica.

After perusing the One Spa menu, we’re wondering whether little Lourdes had the spa’s signature Nature Baby treatment, the Golden Fingers manicure, the Shutters Tan or all three and then some!

Judging from all the images we’ve seen, Lourdes looks more freaked out than relaxed after her visit.

Oh Yes It’s Ladies’ Night

Monday night, celebs turned up in droves for Elle magazine’s 14th annual Women in Hollywood event at the Four Seasons Hotel Beverly Hills. Among the attendees honored for their contribution to film were Scarlett Johansson, Lauren Bacall, Kate Bosworth and Diane Lane. What? No Jessica Simpson? What an outrage. But we’ll bring you up to date on her exciting activities a little later.

Michigan to See More Seymour

Fabulous Jane Seymour is causing quite a buzz around Michigan this month now that the news is out that she’ll be attending Mackinac Island’s annual “Somewhere in Time” weekend held Oct. 24-30th at the Grand Hotel. For the uninitiated, the weekend commemorates the eponymous film starring Seymour and Christopher Reeves, whose characters are lovers living in different time periods. The movie was filmed at the Grand Hotel and at various other locations around the tiny island, which virtually shuts down each winter but becomes a tourist hotspot known for its Victorian-era charm and excellent fudge during warmer months.

Worried About Wilson

We love Owen Wilson, so we’re are not at all convinced that the onlookers claiming he got crap-canned drunk at Santa Monica’s Viceroy Hotel recently are telling the truth. And even if the troubled star did slam vodka like Orlando Bloom slams cars, we’d rather he be out and drinking with friends than alone at home contemplating another suicide attempt.

In the Bag

And no, we’re not still talking about Owen, but rather the This Old Bag fund raising auction being held tonight at the W Hotel San Francisco. The annual affair will have the Bay Area’s movers and shakers salivating over handbags up for auction from celebs, including Brooke Shields, Christina Aguilera and Rita Wilson. All handbags will be auctioned off during the event. Proceeds benefit the Breast Cancer Emergency Fund. Plenty of local celebrities will be in attendance (think District Attorney Kamala Harris and designer Wilkes Bashford).

Elsewhere….

In shocking news, Jessica Simpson flies first class, wears sunglasses indoors and carries her dog in a piece of luggage that’s worth more than my car. Here, we see her snapped at Los Angeles International Airport earlier this week.

Also at Los Angeles International Airport this week (along with about 6 million other people), Victoria’s Secret model Adriana Lima went through airport security, which is one of our personal favorite experiences. We can see she also enjoyed it.

And Lindsay Lohan reportedly visited both the Raffles L’Ermitage Beverly Hills Hotel and the Chateau Marmont in one evening. Oh MY God. Could it be?

How to See PB

San Diego has the Gaslamp clubs, 5-star hotels and mega tourist attractions like the San Diego Zoo and SeaWorld. La Jolla has slick restaurants, high-end boutique hotels, posh shops and fine art galleries galore. But nary a 15-minute drive away, the lesser-known enclave of Pacific Beach (“PB” to locals) promises the right slice of Southern California for travelers seeking a laid-back, sea salt-in-your-mouth adventure filled with mom ‘n pop eateries, quirky beachfront hotels, surf shops and – of course – bars packed with tan 20-somethings clad in uniforms of jeans and flip-flops.

Here are my picks for where to go and what to do in Pacific Beach, Calif.

Where to Eat

Late-night, dig into some seriously sinful Mexican from Ramone’s, an all-night joint that caters to the post-bar crowd with quesadillas, burritos, tacos, tortas – you name it.

I took on the Ramone’s Burrito and was bowled-over by the experience. Of course, this was 2:30am and five drinks into the hole. By I stand by my burrito experience, nonetheless.

Breakfast at Kono’s is a must. And if you happen to miss the breakfast hour, no worries. Kono’s serves breakfast plates and egg-filled burritos the size of newborn babies all day long. Be prepared to wait in line to order at the counter. Once you’ve paid, head outside to one of the two nearby decks and wait for the staff to ferry your food right to the table. The seating area across the sidewalk (behind the wind chime and hammock shop) has the best views of the beach and nearby pier.

Note that we stuck to bargain eats while we were in PB, and we recommend you do the same. They’re just to good to ignore….if you want to drop cash, head to La Jolla (more on that later this week).

Where to Stay



Eat cheap means more funds for a slick suite at Tower 23, the only trace of L.A.-esque glamour in the district. The boxy, stark-white hotel sits across a park-like lawn from the beach, right in the heart of PB and around the corner from Kono’s. Guests sunbathe on the private, second-floor Tower deck with views clear out into the Pacific, while hungry patrons dine on the oceanfront terrace at the onsite restaurant Jordan Surf, an all-day destination (brunch on the weekends) for foodie-friendly California cuisine and seafood.

Rooms outfitted with teak furnishings, private balconies, H2o bath amenities and modernist layouts are hard to score last-minute. Make sure to call early for weekends and during summer months.

Less than 100 yards away, the Crystal Pier Hotel promises a completely different, much more “PB” overnight stay. Located at the end of Garnet Street, this hotel is actually a collection of blue-shuttered, white cottages extending from the entry arch along the length of the wooden pier. Fall asleep each night of your stay (a minimum two-night stay is required) to the rumbling surf below. When the sun comes out, guests head to outdoor patio chairs and white recliners to watch wet-suit clad surfers catching waves just feet from the pilings below. The over-the-ocean location is the main draw here. Cottage interiors are no-frills affairs, despite their often-hefty room rates.

Where to Take Your Inner Frat Boy

Hey, sometimes we all have to let our inner frat boy out to play. It happens to the best of us. And when it does, there’s perhaps no better place to be in PB than the Pacific Beach Bar & Grill, home on the weekends to Club Tremors. This multi-level bar, restaurant and nightclub venue goes big on Friday and Saturday nights, when all the kids in the area come out to play. And by play, we mean guzzle shooters and check out members of the opposite sex (or same sex, as the case may be).

An alternative is the nearby Plum Crazy, a Philadelphia Eagles bar that likes to party. I think the sign says it all.

Where to Stick Your Toes in the Sand

While there are plenty of beaches in the area, one of the quietest and most emblematic of the PB vibe is Tourmaline Surfing Park and Beach, a one-mile swathe of sandy terrain located north of Crystal Pier. On hot summer days, of course, expect plenty of people to turn up on this stretch of sand. But outside of peak season, visitors often find this little gem to be emptier than its compatriots and peppered with sun-bleached regulars who hang out in the parking lot before heading into the surf with their boards.

Over the weekend, I checked into the concierge level of San Diego’s Marriott Mission Valley (anonymously, of course) to uncover the inner workings of this SoCal lodging option.

What Not to Miss

The most striking part of the hotel had to be the outdoor pool area when lit up at night. Set into a sunken deck area below the hotel’s lobby level and just off the fitness center, the pool is centrally located, but affords guests some degree of privacy. The hot tub, for example, is tucked into a nook at one end of the pool in such a way that you’d have to actually be on the pool level to see into it, and large hammocks set into concrete alcoves along one side of the pool deck await guests seeking shelter from the sun. Cushioned chairs and tables peppering the public courtyard that separates the lobby and the pool area below create an outdoor lounge of sorts that’s not only functional, but quite nice to look at as you’re cruising through the ground level.

Inside, the lobby impresses with its warm hues and colorful seating areas, while the restaurant and bar beyond are casual destinations frequented for business breakfasts and quitting-time cocktails.

An airport check-in computer is a perk for guests without checked luggage who want to hit the airport and avoid the lines.

Although I was disappointed to find the concierge level lounge closed on the weekends, that’s a fairly standard practice considering that the bulk of guests using the lounge are weeknight visitors. In lieu of the lounge amenities, the hotel offered me a choice of various beverages and snacks when I checked in. Soda, bottled water and fruit were among the offerings, but I opted for a half-bottle of wine and a cheese and cracker plate – both of which turned out to be nice perks during my stay.

In the Room

I’m always kind of working in one capacity or another, so even though much of my visit was more leisure than business, my inner workaholic was pleased to find ample in-room power outlets (notice the outlet by the bed, pictured here) and plenty of desk space for my laptop and tangled mass of cords and accessories (camera, phone, aforementioned laptop, wireless mouse, iPod, Apple Airport Express).

Bottled water and chocolates were welcome treats that appeared in my room each night, and I’m always happy to have a balcony (even if it looks out on the highway).

As for the bed, it was honestly more comfortable than my own (note: this may be due to the fact that I bought my mattress off craigslist in a frenzy of sleep-deprived panic after my dog ate a whole the size of her own body in its predecessor).

But what really impressed me about the sleep situation had to be the pillows. Most hotels load up their beds with pillows-on-roids, you know, pillows so puffed-up and bulbous you feel like your neck is positioned at a right angle to the bed when you lie down. And then you toss all night and wake up in the morning totally jacked. But this bed, thank the hotel gods, had at least two normal, malleable pillows that allowed me to sleep with just the right amount of angle.

The Lack Factor

So what was lacking at this hotel? Room service ends at midnight. Clearly, not a huge problem for mid-week travelers, but when you drag your wine-addled self back to the hotel after a night out in the Gaslamp (more on that later this week), you’re going to be S.O.L.

My room had one cramped sink and almost no surface space for toiletries. It was a makeup-meets-hot coffeemaker disaster waiting to happen, not to mention the site of at least two bathroom battles involving my husband and I jockeying to spit our toothpaste out in the sink. He won.

And if you want to get really picky, the television in my room was boxy and old. But it worked. Call me smitten with the flat-screen phenom, and you would be correct.

The Bottom Line

With a location near myriad office parks and big-box retailers (the Westfield Mission Valley Center is less than two miles away) instead of the tourist attractions that draw leisure travelers to the San Diego area, the hotel is an obvious choice for business travelers seeking solid accommodations during the week.

Strolling down Market Street in San Diego’s Gaslamp District on Saturday night around 8pm, I suddenly noticed a huge line of jumpy-looking teenagers clogging up both sides of the street. What were all these teenagers doing amid the myriad bars, restaurants and posh hotels of San Diego’s downtown? With a minor amount of investigation, I discovered the attraction that had drawn the kids out in droves: The Haunted Hotel.

Located next to Hooters (yup, we said it again), on Market at 4th Street, the Haunted Hotel is an annual fright-fest based on classic and contemporary horror flicks. Pay the $13.99 admission and tip toe down the hotel’s creepy hallways and into different rooms along the predetermined path. Each room is devoted to a different horror film.

While teens will love the gross-out props and portrayals of silver screen boogeymen and the hype and energy that comes with an outing to the Gaslamp, parents can breathe easy knowing their kids are heading into an enclosed house of horrors - not an outdoor venue where people can get lost in the dark (either accidentally or on purpose, if you know what I mean).

The Haunted Hotel is open Friday and Saturday from 6pm to 1am, Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday from 7pm to 11pm and special hours the week of Halloween.

Et Voila! Celeb News For 10.11.07

Branson Swan Dives

On Wednesday evening, Sir Richard Branson celebrated Virgin America’s inaugural flights to Las Vegas by free-falling 40 stories – harnessed to a safety wire of course. But during the fall, a gust of wind slapped the daredevil billionaire into the side of the Palms Casino Resort. Branson emerged alive, but not without some scrapes and bruises.

Gee, I can’t imagine any better way to promote your new airline than crashing into solid objects at breakneck speeds.

On the upside, Branson did apparently scatter free Virgin America tickets as he fell, though none have been claimed. So be on the lookout in you’re in Vegas this weekend.

As part of the ongoing Virgin America festivities this week, Branson threw quite a shindig at the Wynn Las Vegas nightclub TRYST, where celebs like newlyweds (ew!) Pamela Anderson and Rick Salomon (double ew!), Carmen Elektra and The Hills star Lauren Conrad showed up to take part.

Lion Sighting

Earlier this week, news broke that hot-ay environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio (could he be contributing to global warming with his hotness? I think the answer is yes) is planning a eco-friendly Caribbean hotel in conjunction with Four Seasons Resorts.

In Deep Scheetz

All we know is, the news surrounding the death of a 24-year-old Colorado resident in the Las Vegas condo of none other than former Morgans Hotel Group CEO Ed Scheetz is ultra, ultra shady and sad. Autopsy reports showed that Michelle Hatchel died on Aug. 30th from an overdose of cocaine and oxycontin, and the death was initially pegged as a suicide. Last month, Scheetz resigned from his post as CEO “for personal reasons.” Strangely, no police report was ever filed after the death, nor any official police investigation launched into the matter. And now Hatchel’s family is crying foul over the incident and demanding answers about the last hours of Hatchel’s life. Family members claim the young woman called a friend in the middle of the night preceding her death and told them she was afraid and that Scheetz was “being mean.”

And now that Hatchel’s missing cell phone has been “recovered,” text messages she sent the night before she died are adding fuel to the fire. As the New York Post reports, Hatchel wrote, “I can’t believe how much coke he does, all the time, all day long. He keeps leaving me to talk to a girl he dated.”

First reported by ABC News (Suicide? Murder? Murky Death in Vegas) Scheetz’s call to the Las Vegas police has also been circulating around the Internet. You can find a link to it in the ABC article. Trust us, it doesn’t make the guy sound like someone you’d want your daughter dating.

Charlotte’s Web

Nicole Richie and fetus daddy Joel Madden were snapped arriving at Los Angeles International Airport and then on Thursday near the Sydney Intercontinental, where they are reportedly staying during Good Charlotte’s concerts there this weekend. While other bloggers were buzzing about Richie’s tan line, we’re more interested in the hotel.

Daddy Dearest?

Angelina Jolie and estranged, scary-looking father also known as actor Jon Voight were placed at the same hotel earlier this week, which we recently discovered is the Waldorf Astoria, according to bloggers. But while the paps are dying for the father and daughter to make amends, the incident appears to be mere coincidence and not evidence of an impending reconciliation between the two.

Minor Leagues

At this point, we delve into the tedium of celebrity sightings free of freak accidents, cocaine overdoses, family feuds, fashion faux pas and major business transactions.

We read that a pregnant Christina Aguilera exited the Raffles L’Ermitage Beverly Hills with Jordan Bratman this week. Later, she reportedly went shopping for a stroller.

A bunch of people - including Bill Pullman and Ed Koch - were at Manhattan’s Bowery Hotel earlier this week for a Cinema Society premiere party. And apparently, they all think Eva Mendes is hot.

And Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn were spotted having a drink together at the Beverly Hills Hotel Bar Nineteen 12. They talked to David Beckham. They looked happy. Fascinating.

And with that, we bid you adieu….