Posts Tagged ‘Travel’

Caroline Rhea ‘So Into Momminess’

July 6th, 2009 / Author: Valerie Nome

Caroline Rhea reaches into her purple purse to whip out a few 8×10 photos of her eight-month-old daughter Ava during a swank party held at NYC’s Le Parker Meridien.  In one, she’s wearing brown teddy bear ears.

She introduces me to boyfriend and father Costaki Economopoulos.

Clearly, motherhood agrees with the Sabrina, The Teenage Witch star.

“I love it,” the actress, 45, tells me. “It’s my favorite thing I’ve ever done. She’s the sweetest, loveliest … yeah. I guess I feel like somebody flipped a switch, and the whole world is in Technicolor now. It’s very exciting. I’m very sappy about it, but I adore her. I’m so into momminess.”

What precious moment can they share?

“She’s bound to laugh at everything we say,” Caroline says. “She’s an excellent audience.”

Costaki adds, “I feel so bad, because people go ‘oh my God, she smiled at me.’ I go, ‘she smiles at everybody.’”

This summer, Caroline and Costaki look forward to taking Ava to the beach. “She’s going to discover sand.”

What makes him such a great dad?

“He loves it, and he loves her so much,” Caroline says. “I have the tiniest bit of resentment. His material is doing better with her than mine is. Yeah. He goes for the laugh, and then he repeats it over-and-over and over again. Like the tickling. I can’t stop squeezing her thighs. I can’t.”

They’re also perfect for each other.

“We’re both comics,” Costaki says. “Tell her our rule. We have a rule: it’s OK to be mean to each other as long as it’s funny.”

Caroline adds, “It’s a very tricky rule. As long as it’s funny. It’s a very fine line.”

As for wedding plans?  Costaki yuks, “Yes! I need health insurance.” Caroline slyly echoes, “He needs health insurance.”

Stars Share July Fourth Plans

July 2nd, 2009 / Author: OK! Staff

Dancing With The Stars champ Shawn Johnson is gearing up for her annual holiday tradition.

“I have a Fourth of July play that we always go to, and I hang out with my family,” Shawn, 17, tells me. “It’s good.”

The gymnast looks forward to noshing on carmel ice cream, sitting by the pool and swimming this weekend. She says “I love massages. They’re relaxing.” She keeps her skin routine  “normal and natural” for summer, and “likes comfy clothes from the Victoria’s Secret Pink Collection. The sweats and stuff.”

On the other side of the coin is Margaret Cho, whose Lifetime show Drop Dead Diva premieres July 12.  “Oh I don’t really have a tradition,” the actress, 40, tells me. “I never go in the sun because I have a lot of tattoos, so that means Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day – I am not included.”

She calls her favorite tattoo “a little gun.”

“It’s a little pearl-handled pistol stuffed into a garter belt or a little garter around my left thigh, so that I’m always armed,” she says. “I don’t believe in guns, but I just think it’s a cool little gun.”

Jason Aldean will be performing in Canada, but he says his family typically heads to the beach. “I like down in the Destin, Florida, area,” the country singer, 32, whose kids are Keeley, 6, and Kendyl, 22 months, with wife Jessica, tells me. “The Panhandle. I grew up not far from there, and that’s where we always went when I was in school. Now that I’ve got my family, it’s a good family spot down there, and it’s probably the closest beach, too, which narrows it down. That’s where we always go. We go there every year, and have for years.”

Jessica Harp enjoys the annual Fourth of July blowout.

“I love, love, love fireworks, but unfortunately in places in Tennessee, they’re illegal,” the country singer, 27, tells me. “I’m from Missouri originally and my parents have six acres. It was a tradition every year where all of our family and friends, we would go buy the big, big professional fireworks, and we would sit there for hours and shoot off fireworks. That’s one of my favorites.”

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

SEE MORE PHOTOS IN THE VALERIE GALLERY:

How Whoopi Overcame Her Fear of Flying

June 23rd, 2009 / Author: OK! Staff

Whoopi Goldberg flew for the first time in thirteen years thanks to Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Without Fear program.

In April, the View co-host, 53, ditched the bus she had been riding since 1996 and hopped on a transatlantic flight.

“They have a program over in the U.K., which helps people get over the fear of flying,” she tells me during Virgin Atlantic’s Red Hot 25th Birthday Party held at NYC’s Tribeca Rooftop on Monday. “I thought it was B.S., and then they came, and I did it for four or five hours with them, and went to London to see the first rehearsals for Sister Act.”

How did she get over her flying fears?

“They have a pilot, a psychologist and somebody who’s been through the program, and they spend the time with you, and it’s really extraordinary, so for the first time in thirteen years, I flew.”

Whew! The Oscar-and-Emmy winner once admitted to Jay Leno that it takes 42 hours of nonstop bus travel to get from NYC-L.A.

Fergie: Summer Is Happiness

June 22nd, 2009 / Author: OK! Staff

It’s hot fun in the summertime for the Black Eyed Peas.

“I love that everyone’s in a good mood,” friendly Fergie, 34, tells me of the season that started yesterday. “People seem to be in a happier mood in the summertime, they don’t have to worry about rain as much and people’s birthday parties aren’t canceled. People get off from school and get a break, and with my parents, they were teachers, so they always loved their summer break, and they were always in a better mood, so it was better in my house.”

The singer, who wed Josh Duhamel, 36, in January, has one fashion must-have this summer.

“I’m loving the harem pants. Back in my day, we called them hammer pants. They’re great to dance in.”

What does will.i.am, 34, love most about summer?

“Well, for us, we experience two summers every year. We tour the Northern Hemisphere, and we tour the Southern hemisphere. When it’s winter here, we have the blessing of going to Brazil. Summer … it’s great weather and people are out, the weather’s cool, the girls are wearing little bikinis. I’ve got my little speedo. I’m really representin’ – showing my physique. I’ve really been working on my muscles [pronounces like musc-les]. Muscles, yeah, that’s right.”

The supergroup is bubbling with excitement about working with Michael Jackson.

“I loved the song Beat It,” Fergie says. “I had the Thriller album. He didn’t have Beat It yet. I said ‘you’ve gotta let me do it.’ Michael Jackson actually, I talked to him on the phone, and he said [imitates] ‘I love the way you did it. Your voice sounds really gritty.’ That was a huge compliment for me coming from being a huge fan and buying his albums growing up.”

Would Fergie perform with the King of Pop during his UK dates in July?

“If he asks me to!” she exclaims.

On the personal front, Taboo, 34, is making way for a new addition. “My son will be born in the summer, so I’m very proud of that,” he tells me.

Fergie got her start on Kids, Incorporated at the tender age of nine. Any tips for kids managing a busy schedule?

“I’d go to school, and after school my mom would pick me up, I’d do my homework in the car, I’d go to auditions, then I’d go straight from there, pick up fast food – I grew up on fast food – go to dance classes or gymnastics classes, then go home and go to bed, so I really was working at a young age.”

What’s the best thing Barack Obama told the Peas?

“He told me he really likes my style and he likes the way I dance,” will.i.am says.

Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley Talk Fatherhood

June 19th, 2009 / Author: OK! Staff

Brad Paisley’s son William “Huck” Huckleberry, 2, is adjusting to life as a big brother now that Jasper, two months, has arrived.  

“Most of the time, I think he loves his brother,” the Then singer, who has been married to wife Kimberly since 2003, says backstage during the CMA Music Festival held in Nashville. “It depends on the day. There are certain days when he is not so certain about us – that he’s got the right parents. No, he likes his brother a lot. It’s good. You know how it is. It’s a little bit of a shock for a little boy to share things, and one that I’m glad he has to experience and I never had to.”

Josh Turner and wife Jennifer, who have been married since 2003, are getting ready to welcome a new addition “very soon.” Their son Hampton, 3, loves to go fishing with dear old dad, and they recently “caught quite a few fish.”

“We’ve been trying to prepare Hampton for the new sibling,” he says backstage. “I don’t think he totally understands, but he’s ready. He’s ready for a partner in crime. We’re trying to prepare. We’re excited; we’re ready.”

Dierks Bentley is celebrating his first Father’s Day now that daughter Evalyn, eight months, is in his life. Mom is wife Cassidy, whom he wed in 2005.

“I’m definitely going to get an extra bus and take everyone out,” the Sideways singer says. “It takes on a whole new meaning. I was the type to make a phone call and kind of forget-to-send-a-card-on-time son, and I feel bad. Now that I’m a dad, it’s like I expect some things here. Cards? I mean, it’s my life’s mission. Really, in our house, it’s Mother’s Day that deserves all the major praise with what she went through this year.”

Twilight and Nurse Jackie star Peter Facinelli, who is dad to Luca, 12, Lola, 6, and Fiona, 2, with Jennie Garth, whom he married in 2001, doesn’t expect all the attention come Sunday.  

“I make sure I send my dad a card,” he tells me.

Rodney Atkins will be on the road but hopes to carve out time with son Elijah, 7, whose mom is wife Tammy. “We’re gong to be in Minnesota by the lake. Hopefully we’re gonna go fishing.”

Trace Adkins has five daughters – twenty-somethings Tarah and Sarah, from his first marriage – and his younger children Mackenzie, Brianna and Trinity, by wife Rhonda, whom he wed in 1997.

“I am a hero to them now because I did the Opry a few weeks ago with Taylor [Swift], and my kids got to go in her dressing room and hang out with her, and it was a thrill for them. When Miley [Cyrus] played here last year, they got to go in her dressing room and meet her. They really think a lot of me for that.”

Darius Rucker agrees. While his youngest son Jack likes karate and superheroes, his oldest daughter Carol and middle daughter Danielle are all about Miley and the Jonas Brothers.

“The first thing that happened to me with fatherhood is I realized the whole world didn’t revolve around me,” he tells me with laugh. “That was a big thing.”

SEE MORE PHOTOS IN THE VALERIE GALLERY:

Amy Smart Couples Up

June 11th, 2009

Amy Smart loves to hike with fiance Branden Williams.

“I really feel like I live in the present moment with him,” the actress, 33, tells me of the man she’s dated since high school. “When we’re together, we have fun, we laugh and we just enjoy life together.”

 

What does their future hold?

 

"I’d like to be a mom at some point," she tells me.  "And at the same time, as much as I can plan for what I want, I also find that life is much more interesting when you allow it to unfold. It’s better than you can imagine. I don’t put too many expectations in the future because I have many wants and I allow it to sort of unfold the way the universe will give it to me." 

How to Live Like Cameron Diaz!

June 2nd, 2009

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Sarah Chalke Is No Maneater

May 29th, 2009 / Author: OK! Staff

Although Sarah Chalke plays a conniving character in Lifetime’s four-part miniseries Maneater, the actress, 32, has settled down with her lawyer fiancé Jamie Afifi in real life.

“We are both planning a wedding,” Sarah tells me. “That’s the similarity. But I met my fiancé through friends on a ski trip and she stalked hers after reading he was rich in the paper and planned the wedding before actually having met him.”

Ooh, how was wedding dress shopping?

“I’ve been once, and I fell in love with the dress. I haven’t ordered it yet, but I think it’s the one that I’ll get. It’s totally the opposite of what I thought I would want. I thought I would probably want something a little more simple, but then when you try on those fabulous, big dresses, I fell in love with one.”

This summer, they plan to visit their native Canada.

“There’s so much hiking and biking and kayaking you can do up in Whistler,” she says.

Regardless of whether they’re enjoying an exotic adventure or lazy Sunday at home, they are happiest being together.

“We’re opposite in a lot of ways,” Sarah admits. “That makes a good balance, and we just have so much fun together. We met so many years ago, and we still have a great time together. And I feel like he’s just so there for me. It’s fun to know that no matter what happens, you always have somebody who’s got your back.”

Pick up the OK! on newsstands now to find out how Sarah Chalke chills out. “Brunette  Bombshell: Ashley Tisdale” is the cover line. And, tune into Lifestime’s four-part miniseries Maneater beginning Saturday.

Christina Milian: I Need Girlfriends

May 27th, 2009 / Author: OK! Staff

Christina Milian is a huge fan of girls’ nights out.

The singer-actress, 27, likes to dine out in L.A. with her gal pals when her man isn’t around.

“It’s fun,” she tells me. “You should do it and you need that for yourself. Especially when you come into a relationship, as women, sometimes we get so caught up in our relationship, that we forget the people that are there for you – your friends – or you don’t get time for yourself. For me, I need that. Whenever my girlfriends need me, I want to be there for them, and then just going out … just the energy of it helps me keep my mind off my boyfriend all day. I’m like ‘I miss him, I miss him, I miss him.’ But on top of that, it’s just a great outlet to have your girlfriends.”

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