In the throes of her post-divorce depression, the memoirist immersed herself in Italy’s culture, as well as its flame-torched pizza and icy gelato. She traveled to the land of exotic curries and spicy chutneys to find spirituality, and discovered love in the tropical forests of Indonesia, where the flavors of lemon grass and galangal mingle on the palate.We decided to jump on the “eat” portion of the equation, asking three chefs to awaken our appetite with an “Eat Pray Love” menu of their own.We turned to the new Mediterranean-inspired Locanda de Eva in Berkeley, Calif., the eclectic Indian Junnoon in Palo Alto, Calif., and the Indonesian-focused Straits restaurants group.

Huw Thornton, executive chef at Berkeley’s Locanda de Eva, is quick to point out that. “Eat Pray Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia” is not on his reading list. After all it’s, well, chick lit.“Does that really seem like my demographic?” he asks, laughing.

Still, he skimmed the sections about Italy to come up with his recommendations.“The Rome section is,” he says, “well, not sex-obsessed, but that plays a part. So I thought of voluptuous, luscious, sexy food.”

This includes a salad with fried sunchokes and ripe juicy peaches.“Spaghetti Carbonara is a gooey, lustful pasta,” he says. “And goat stew — or lamb stew, for the home cook — is gutsy and hearty, earthy and rustic.”

To end the meal, Thornton would serve a creamy panna cotta, flavored with honey, orange and fresh mint, the perfect dessert for a home cook. If these flavors and textures don’t reawaken your love of life, he says, a year of globe-trotting won’t do it either

“I’m single but that’s not a choice. I want to find a girl. But I’m not going to date someone who’s just going to like me for my fame,” News of the World quoted Bilberry as saying.

“It’s going to be hard to find a girl who likes me for me,” he said.

The Baby hit maker admitted that it was easier for him to find girlfriends before he shot to approvel.

Recalling his first kiss, the 16-year-old singer said, “It was at a school dance. I made a bet with my friends – first person to get a kiss gets ten dollars. So I slow danced with this girl and then just went in. Back then I was just a regular hockey-playing kid, so I was lucky she kissed me back,” he said.

On being asked if Bilberry would date a fan, he said, “It just depends, Girls that I’ve dated have liked my music. But you see a lot of celebrities dating other celebrities. They get what you’re going through.”

“But I would definitely date someone who wasn’t famous. You’ve just got to find the right one. And when I find one I’m going to date her of course. But it is hard because I’m traveling.

“It’s kinda like puppy love. It’s not the real thing,”

Halfway through watching Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood today, my mind wandered a little. It’s that kind of movie.
But here I was, feeling cut off from Britain and the remarkable political events of the past few days. I hadn’t needed any reminder: the French security guard who frisked me on the way into the Palais des Festivals had looked at my ID badge and said: “You ‘ave a new Prime Ministeur today, I think, Monsieur.”
Indeed we do. I was mulling this over during the film; when all of a sudden Russell Crowe embarked on one of those inspirational speeches you usually only hear in Hollywood films — or on Barack Obama’s campaign.
Crowe, as Robin Hood, was lecturing the feckless King John about how to keep his subjects loyal. He told the king among other things that you don’t tax your subjects unreasonably without giving them something back. And he proposed what he called a Charter of Liberties that would protect the rights of all English citizens, from serfs to barons.
At one point, screenwriter Brian Helgeland put these words in Crowe’s mouth: “You build a country like you build a cathedral, from the ground up.”
This was all rather stirring, and it got me thinking that if Mr. Helgeland had only slipped David Cameron a few choice phrases from this speech in time for his first televised debate, he could have saved the country an agonizing post-election delay, and who knows, even a hung parliament.
Then the parallels began multiplying. Helgeland’s words about freedom from tyranny sounded a lot more direct and convincing than Mr. Cameron’s slightly nebulous notion about a Big Society. Still, the message was clear: more individual responsibility, less state control.
Oh, and did I mention keeping Europe at bay? Robin Hood will win no awards for historical authenticity, but in this sequence of events, the French are planning to invade a divided England via ‘Hampton Bay’ on the south coast.
The French king sees his troops landing on the beach, but then has to watch as the English (with Crowe/Robin in the vanguard) fight them off. He then utters the immortal line: “This does not look a country at war with itself.”
And I suppose from today we’re not. Topical or what? As I like to tell friends flippantly, the answer to all life’s questions can be found in the movies.

We learned some more about Danielle last night. Teresa got a look at the old court documents and claims that Danielle’s crimes included holding a kid for ransom, while stashing 10 kilos of cocaine and some loaded guns. (Poor Jacqueline tried her best to give a wishy-washy defense. “No question she screwed up!” she told a bug-eyed Caroline and Teresa. I do like Jacqueline very much but I picture her always dotting her i’s with little hearts.) More importantly, Danielle has a scary Crabtree & Evelyn bathroom, with stained glass windows over her tub and lots of glass perfume bottles and a bidet. And she will not accept that there is a lovelier bathroom in all of Housewives history. When a very sensible realtor casually opened the woman’s bathroom closet door Danielle slammed it shut. Danielle can’t afford to keep her house and now she’s being forced to sell it for a loss. Said house is coming apart at the seams but Danielle doesn’t have the time to fix the crumbling rafters or nail-riddled walls. Somehow she managed to brag even as she was crying over hard times. That’s 21 rooms… that she can’t clean! It’s the most beautiful kitchen in the world… that she has to give up! (Cut to Dina, who offered a sincere shout-out to Danielle’s kids and a plea that Danielle gets the help that she needs. Bravo spun it as if Dina was wishing her luck on the sale of the house but I think she was talking more in pharmacological terms.)

The big news of the episode was that Christine is going to be a star. The serious girl, who really is quite lovely and does indeed have, that bored, strangely penetrating pout of a model, didn’t change expressions when Danielle revealed the news. “Yeah,” she said, slouched low on a chaise lounge. “I’ll be there for every shoot!” promised/threatened Danielle. Yeah. “When you make it big you got to remember me!” Yeah. “Promise!” Yeah. Yeah, there’s not a lot of joy jumping out of this girl’s pretty face. Especially when compared with hip-jacking, splits-practicing little Gia who burst into an ear-shattering squeal when Teresa told her she had made the cut to walk at Fashion Week. Not that Danielle is impressed with the eight-year-old’s prospects for fame. “She’s not a super model,” Danielle said with a sneer. “She’s four foot tall, I’m sorry.” Stupid short eight-year-olds.

At her first photo shoot Christine never changed expressions from the makeup chair to her last frame. “I like everyone staring at me and telling me I was pretty,” she allowed. I do think something like fury flickered once or twice in her stoic eyes when her mother hammed it up in the background or had the nerve to shimmy up to her for a quick mother/daughter shot. Christine ended up landing the cover with that photo shoot and Dina was kind to send Danielle a congratulatory “You should be a proud Mommy” text. But Danielle can’t let it rest. She will take her daughter’s moment and she will claim it as her own. She threw a big luncheon to celebrate the unveiling of her daughter’s first cover, which she pulled out of her bag like she pulled the infamous book at last season’s finale dinner. Christine either wasn’t invited to say luncheon or the girl wisely realized there was no need for her to attend. Instead there was that scary, two-faced Kim from the boutique and another Kim who was forced to address claims of allegiance to Caroline. Danielle dramatically left two seats empty at the table, claiming a certain betrayal by Jacqueline and Dina. Oh come off it, you crazy nut. But as Carolina insists, apropos of nothing really: “She will never win. She will never win against us. Never.”

In other news, Ashley wants her Mommy to do her laundry still but she will not tolerate questions about designated drivers. Dina suggests opening a can of whupass on her. When Caroline orders the arugula and pear salad, we all order the arugula and pear salad. Albie throws up a little in his mouth when he sees his buddy holding his sister’s hand. Teresa is nine months pregnant and I must say she looks great. And Joe reminded me that I really needed to buy a garlic chopper because I spend far too much time mincing.

What did you all think? Are you already bored with the Danielle show? More Dina, less faux drama? Does Christine make you a little sad? Yeah.

Dialogue: Loads of four letter words, freakin’, f’of and the rest: Badmaash Company is peppered with aaj ki bhasha
Music: Music by Pritam. Really? Quite un-Pritam like. No chartbusters.
Styling: Urbane and chic, the foursome pass from chokra style to brando-maniacs, minus hiccups.

Sania Mirza has hit the court straightaway and was seen practicing at Hyderabad’s Lal Bahadur Stadium with her hubby Shoaib and dad Imran watching her from the sidelines. But Shoaib Malik’s appearance at Hyderabad’s Gymkhana grounds for a practice session provoked some angry remarks. “How can they allow a player who was banned to come here and play with the boys? After all we don’t allow our own banned players either”, said some of the locals.

The Hyderabad Cricket Association was not available for comment but the criticism would certainly not be music to the ears of the newly wed couple