As Gadling writer Catherine Bodry notes, we’ve all been that person. You know, the person who boards at the last minute, puts their seat back before take-off, refuses to lower the shade when the film starts, goes to the bathroom during beverage service and forces the flight attendants to clear the aisle in medias res.

To combat these common airline passenger faux pas, Delta, reports USA Today, is rolling out videos to curb our wayward in-flight manners.

Hey, if someone can convince fellow travelers to think before indiscriminately sticking their collective butts in my face during boarding, I’ll watch as many stupid airline etiquette videos as they can make.

Rapper Pimp C (a.k.a. Chad Butler) of musical duo UGK was found dead today in his room on the sixth floor of the Mondrian LA Hotel in West Hollywood. According to reports from TMZ.com and the Associated Press, the L.A. County Fire Department arrived at the hotel in response to a 911 call and discovered the 33-year-old in bed. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

While many recognize Pimp C and rapper Bun B, the other member of UGK, as pioneers in the Southern hip-hop movement, they are best known in the mainstream for appearing in hit songs from Outkast (International Player’s Anthem) and Jay-Z (Big Pimpin’). The cause of death has not yet been announced.

Yup. You read that right. Spirit Airlines sent out a promotional email touting its new M.I.L.F. sale. Although the airline claims it wasn’t aware of the acronym’s notorious connotations and that - as far as its sale is concerned - M.I.L.F. stands for Many Islands, Low Fares, the rumor is that the marketing arm knew full-well what it was doing by launching a sale with that title. And wouldn’t ya know? It worked. The blogosphere is awhirl with commentary on the subject.

P.S. The $9 fares offered in the promo have all been snapped up.

Yup, reality TV star Kim Kardashian (who made her way onto television thanks to esteemed accomplishments like starring in a sex tape and being born with a near-scandalous badonkadonk) has caused quite a ruckus with her claim that she was robbed of almost $50,000 in personal belongings at the John F. Kennedy International Airport earlier this month. Kardashian has garnered lots of sympathy press (I mean, it’s just always so sad when a girl is separated from her Cartier watch) with her claim that valuables like diamonds, a laptop and a digital camera were stolen from her bags while fans and Delta airline employees surrounded her to get autographs and pictures. Yesterday, the New York Post reported that authorities suspected that the undeniably attention-hungry star had fabricated the incident as part of a publicity stunt. But today, TMZ.com turned up with documents it says prove Kardashian’s innocence.

While you chew on the disturbing news that Kardashian actually has enough fans to mask a robbery in progress, consider her plight a tale of what not to do while traveling through major airports: don’t leave your bags lying around - especially when they have diamonds in them. Sheesh.

Celebrity Travel News 11.16.07

Foot Fetish

The Four Seasons Hotel Beverly Hills figured heavily in the news this week, thanks to Britney Spears. The nutty singer reportedly ran over a photographer’s foot as she was attempting to drive out of the hotel parking lot. You can see it all with your own peepers below.

While some cry foul and accuse the pop star of poor driving (this was apparently the third foot she’s run over this month), anyone who knows anything about the paparazzi knows that those guys are practically plastered to the side of her car wherever she goes. They have a right to snap away in public places, but it’s their own darn fault if they get their feet banged up in the process.

Also at the Four Seasons this week? Another blonde pop star known as Shakira. But the paps didn’t snap any pictures of her, as far as we could tell. Instead, her visit got reported, thanks to a Fox News writer who chanced upon her in the elevator. We hear Shakira spent the ride obsessing about her looks and asking anyone who would listen whether she looked okay.

Queer Eye for the Traveling Guy

Elsewhere in Los Angeles, Los Angeles Times writer Valli Herman visited the W Los Angeles – Westwood and gave the swish new interiors designed by Queer Eye for the Straight Guy alum Thom Filicia the thumbs up. Our take? The new environs look, um, exactly like every living space from the television series. And of course, plenty of throw pillows and candles. Because throw pillows and candles make everything better.

French Connection

Jennie Garth – if she still counts as a celebrity – was spotted lifting her glass in honor of Beaujolais recently at the Paris Las Vegas Resort. We got way too much Garth way back when she was a real celeb during the halcyon days of Beverly Hills 90210 (will there ever be a character as unintentionally funny as Steve Sanders?), so we’re going to show you a photograph of the Paris Las Vegas Resort pool instead:

Dude Looks Like a Lady

Tomorrow night, travelers to the Bay Area can get a load of celebrity judges Sandra Bernhard, author and personality James St. James (a.k.a. club kid who piggy-backed off convicted murdered Michael Alig’s notoriety), Peaches Christ and Anna Conda at the annual Miss Trannyshack Pageant, which, if you don’t know, is a very San Francisco affair featuring some of the best-dressed dames who aren’t really dames this side of Texas. Actually, better make that anywhere.

Dumb Tattoo News

Celebs from Julianne Moore (love her) to Heath Ledger (so-so) descended on the Bowery Hotel in Manhattan this week for a screening of the film I’m Not There, which features a bevy of big name actors playing different aspects of Bob Dylan’s complex personality. The big news from the event? Heath Ledger sported a new tattoo during a screening. It’s of a dragonfly. Fascinating. He might as well have gotten a dolphin inked around his ankle while he was at it. We would have preferred something a little more hardcore. Like skulls or something. Or maybe Jake Gyllenhaal, though that’s really more Reese’s territory these days. Also in attendance? Richard Gere, Bruce Greenwood and a wasted looking Todd Haynes, the film’s director.

We recently learned that Temptation Resort & Spa will open on Dec. 21, 2007 in Cancun, Mexico, but when we went to learn more about the tropical getaway spot, we were accosted by the image of a middle-aged couple of sub-par attractiveness about to swap spit right before our very impressionable eyes. Suddenly, in the middle of our otherwise ordinary day, we felt like we were spying against our will on our former high school math teacher about to make out with the super lame, balding coach of the JV basketball squad. Our only relief from this shocking pictorial? Cheesy dudes with budding man-boobs and a woman sporting an obvious lady wedgie. Needless to say, at first glance, temptation was the last thing on our minds.

But being the curious Georges that we are, we delved deeper. And guess what? On the Accommodations Page, we met up with the math teacher and JV coach again, and this time, things seemed to be getting seriously steamy. Then we started to feel ashamed and decided to check out the Nightly Entertainment page, only to learn that “sensual fitness” is just one of the many fun activities in which guests may partake (preferably, it seems, while wearing ill-fitting pleather outfits and g-strings bedecked in fake feathers).

We will say that the Restaurants & Bars page looked okay. Until a photograph of the women from the “sensual fitness” experience popped up, and we once again became uncomfortable.

Is this an adults-only Caribbean oasis where fantasy and reality compete for equal space on the dance floor and people successfully pull off impersonations of Pam Anderson and Kid Rock? Or merely a swingers resort in sheep’s clothing? Ponder as you click through the pages.

Room rates at this all-inclusive resort range from $139 to $206, based on double occupancy. The resort is now taking reservations for stays after Dec. 21, 2007. How tempted are you?

Here’s a new concept in airline marketing: The Sky360 by Delta, a temporary lounge and event space that showcases Delta’s “unique in-flight experience” and amenities. The joke potential here is all too obvious (how much do you wish you were sipping a cocktail in a cramped coach class seat while eating a half-dead sandwich right now?). But the airline aims to wow travelers nonetheless with screenings of in-flight entertainment options like Sex & the City, the Sopranos and recent film Knocked Up (None of which, incidentally, could I really see any airline offering as entertainment in the main cabin. It always seems like in-flight movies these days are the tamest, most kid-friendly features possible, which always kind of bums me out). By day, visitors can sample free coffee and Coca-Cola beverages. At night, the lounge will be serving cocktails designed by Randy Gerber (I’d go at night). You can also dine on Delta’s new in-flight food offerings. I wonder if they give you the little plastic utensil packet, too.

While the opportunity to eat airline food while not actually on a plane sounds oh so enticing, I think the real reasons to stop by the Sky360 are the free wireless Internet access available throughout the 3,500-square-foot space and the charging station, which offers complimentary charging for a bevy of mobile devices. Now those are perks real travelers can appreciate.

The Sky360 will be open today through Nov. 11, 2007, and is located at 101 West 57th St (@6th Ave.).

Delta Brings Award-Winning In-Flight Experience From the Skies to the New ‘SKY360 by Delta’ in New York City

This Saturday, the Flamingo Conference Resort and Spa in Santa Rosa, Calif., hosts the 5th Annual Rock Paper Scissors Championships presented by Sonoma County’s Roshambo Winery. It’s $20 to compete, $10 to watch and the winner takes home the $2,500 purse. If you want to enter, you must do so in advance. Remember, this is a serious competition, after all. Only expect to see lots of costumes, wigs and the like. The spectators are known for dressing up (perhaps to distract the competitors?).

Can’t make it to the event this weekend? Well then maybe you’d like to hightail it to Toronto next weekend for the 2007 World Rock, Paper, Scissors Championships. Held on Oct. 13th, the event offers a first prize of $10,000 to the wilily one who can outsmart all the competitors. Tickets for the World Champs are $40 to compete, $12 to watch. While the event is held at the Steam Whistle Brewing Roundhouse, the official hotel for the championship event is the Comfort Suites City Centre in downtown Toronto.

Excuse me, I’m here with the Smith party of four for seven o’clock. That’s what you may soon be saying at an airport security checkpoint near you, if a plan the Transportation Security Administration is considering becomes a reality. According to TSA Chief Kip Hawley, “It’s like Open Table, only for checkpoints.” Sounds promising. If Dante had lived and written today, I am sure waiting in airport security would have made it into one of his lovely circles, though I’m not sure what sin they’d be punishment for….

But I digress. Interestingly, the article linked below goes on to note that travelers with reservations would likely need to arrive at the airport 20 to 30 minutes earlier than regular travelers. So what, I have to ask, is the point? The only reason I would make a reservation is to knock 20 or 30 minutes off my total travel time, not add that amount to it.

If the TSA can implement a program in which reservations for airport security make as much of a difference as appointments do at the DMV, then I’m sold. But if it’s going to mean more time at the airport instead of less, then I’ll take my chances the old-fashioned way. Even if it does, at times, feel like hell.

TSA Considers Reservations for Airport Security

Lest you think Big Brother is snoozing his way through the new millennium, think again. A group of California (of course) activists alleges that the U.S. government routinely collects data about U.S. citizens traveling overseas through its Automated Targeting System, which ostensibly compiled information gleaned from individual travelers to “help border officials distinguish potential terrorists from innocent people,” according to the story linked below. The activists requested official copies of their own travel records (I am assuming through FOIA) only to find the government had noted things like books found in their luggage. Then again, the activist was carrying a book about drugs and drug rights. So yeah, next time you travel abroad, you might want to leave your marijuana leaf t-shirt, tattered copy of the Communist Manifesto and last year’s Halloween pics where you’re dressed up as Bin Laden safely at home.

U.S Watching Travelers’ Habits, Books