Private. Pampered. Perfect.

by Sandy Gilson

by Shin Takei

When most of us think of Ralph Lauren and his Collection, we envision his fine line of clothes. With his conservative yet fashionable men’s attire, his label will always be part of my wardrobe. However, there is another collection of Ralph’s that I truly cherish and envy, The Ralph Lauren Classic Car Collection. If you know anything about desirable classic cars, then you will agree that this collection is one of the top ten in the world. With his good taste and keen sense for design, he has chosen the crème de la crème of automotive masterpieces from the past. His passion for automobiles goes back to his youth and his appreciation for the design, hand crafted metal bodies, powerful engines, leather seats and instruments, all which have shined through his lines. Currently on loan to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, we’re giving you a first glance at some of the gems on display until August 28, 2011.

Now, what makes Ralph Lauren a real car guy and not just another collector with rare automobiles? Ralph likes to drive them and experience what each of these exquisite examples was created for, which is why they were rarely seen exhibited; it was more important for him to enjoy them as part of himself and his life. That makes Ralph Lauren the coolest clothing designer out there…at least in my book.

This dynamic duo now introduces the new Tamsen 41. This 135ft super yacht is loaded with ingenious details. Architectural elegance and superb interior styling combine perfectly with quality materials and contemporary flair. All three decks are built for maximum usability. Architecturally elegant and totally deluxe, the Tamsen 41 maintains a soul soothing atmosphere – an oasis for tranquility.

By G. James Daichendt
Photography by Michael Stonis
Assisted by Rod Foster and Connor Stewart
Grooming by Helen Robertson/Celestine for SAMPAR Paris
Styling by Toni Ferrara | Assisted by Nicole Velasquez

Bloodied and bruised, he climbed the stairs back to the kitchen so he would not fall behind as the orders stacked up. The gritty reality of the fast-paced restaurant industry that saw Curtis Stone falling down a flight of stairs while rushing between shifts directly coincides with Stone’s fierce competiveness. His humble start, quick progression, and eventual stardom are apt for a sports metaphor. Like the ball player who made it to the pros, Curtis has paid his dues and is now playing on a different level.

We catch up with Curtis poolside at an enormous Beverly Hills mansion for our photo shoot—perhaps are presentation of his life these days. While the camera crew sets up for the upcoming water shot, Curtis opens up about his motivations, cooking culture, and the advent of the celebrity chef.

The boom in restaurant sales and the corresponding foodie craze has turned America upside-down in recent years. Gourmet food trucks, an explosion of cookbook publications, and a long list of celebrity chefs instructing, competing, and vying for the attention of viewers have transformed television and the way Americans experience food.

And Chef Curtis Stone is right in the middle of this cultural revolution. A regular on television programs like The Biggest Loser, star of the breakout hit Take Home Chef, and an investor and judge on America’s Next Great Restaurant, he is now hosting season three of Bravo’s Top Chef Masters. With a dizzying schedule that resembles a concert tour, the chef carries some guilt for the image he embodies. Being a chef after all is a difficult job and one that requires years of training and hard work, something the camera and photo shoots tend to gloss over and present in a neatly framed package.

Unfortunately, the cult of celebrity has garnered unrealistic expectations—a situation viewers enjoy as many cooking shows feature Survivor type competitions with someone eliminated each episode. To be a great chef requires a commitment to food. When asked how he learned to cut onions, he references thousands of hours on the cutting board. This is not something one picks up with a simple technique but only through hard work–something Curtis learned at an early age.

Curtis remembers these times well, and the painful and grueling aspects are not tough to drag out of him. In what Curtis describes as a “pivotal decision,” the young Aussie desperately volunteered to work for free in order to cook with the highly regarded Marco Pierre White in London. White is a perfectionist with impeccable standards and Curtis long admired the revered chef. The decision paid off, as he began right away at The Grill Room at Café Royal. With a sly grin, Curtisdescribes the atmosphere as “a place where if you didn’t get fired that day then you did a good job.”

The progression of Curtis’ chef career over eight years under White saw a number of highlights: a rise in responsibilities, a Michelin star, and eventually the position of head chef at Marco’s critically acclaimed flagship restaurant, Quo Vadis. He even played a significant part in building a cookbook for White. The trials of collecting awards and competing for recognition within a world that is full of long hours, weekends, and injury is demanding and stressful. Miles from the television studio, a typical day is much more akin to physical labor as one strives for perfection in the kitchen.

These beginnings were steeped in learning and mastering the art of fine cuisine, a craft that’s been lost in today’s fast paced culture according to Curtis: “Fifteen years ago food was at its fanciest…nowadays it’s farm to table and you splash it on a plate.” This insight is why we want to watch Curtis cook and provide feedback to aspiring chefs.

At any time of the day, one can watch a cooking demonstration on television. Often these programs opt for the quick and easy solution that can be reproduced at home in a relatively short format. This paradigm is a symptom of the modern family that view the long hours of food preparation as a pragmatic expenditure in exchange for ready-made meals. The realistic expectations can be recreated while the longer gourmet demonstrations are an extension and an invitation to dine out.

These cultural shifts did not happen overnight. Curtis believes there have been some significant changes in the United States that elevated cooking shows into the wildly popular paradigm that they have become. Over the past few generations the make-up of the family has changed. Households are busier and less traditional.As a result of these changes, there are less folks committed to the art of cooking. Households run by a single parent or two working parents who find it difficult to balance the time needed to prepare a traditional meal.

The television programs featuring chefs or the process of cooking fill this void. It is an olive branch for the traditions lost, and the popularity certainly speaks to our cultural condition as hungry Americans. We desire it for entertainment and for the lost experiences of eating together. It’s a connection to the ritual of preparing and enjoying food as a community. Even if it’s just you and the TV.

The process of enjoying food is offered symbolically as the viewer watches everything from the initial conceptualizing, the selection of the proper ingredients, the exciting and mouth-watering cooking, and the eventual enjoyment of the food. In fact, the host actually samples the food and attempts to express and explain how it tastes. The virtual experience is far from perfect,much like a super model choosing to do talk radio. But the visuals do get the taste buds flowing. These aspects are made physical when a cookbook (of which Curtis has several) is bought and the experience is replicated at home. It’s a tempting experience that Curtis recently engaged as he sought to bake hot cross buns. Overwhelmed by the visuals from his research, he became so hungry that he rushed out for tacos down the street.

Over the last decade, restaurant sales have increased over 50 percent and the subscriptions to the Food Network have jumped through the roof. A history that started with Julia Child and her television program The French Chef and continued through to Emeril Lagasse now moves onto a younger generation represented by Curtis Stone. It’s a phenomenon that shows no sign of slowing down.

Yet not all chefs are created equal, and Curtis divides these folks into bakers and cooks. Good bakers “like to follow instructions and follow them very carefully.” They are organized and need structure in order to achieve their desired outcomes. You might hear a baker say something like: “You can’t just throw some raisins into a mix because you love them; it changes the way the dough rises and ultimately ruins the recipe.”

In contrast, good cooks are able to be much more creative in the kitchen, and in the case of Curtis, he prefers to let the seasons influence the way he cooks. Preferring to use ingredients that are fresh and available, he changes the ingredients based upon what is fresh and available. He sees no reason to start with ingredients that are subpar. This is a characteristic that a good baker does not have the luxury of doing. Curtis humorously acknowledges that the disadvantage of a creative cook is “messy bedrooms and bloody disorganized lives.”

Clearly, cooking food is a performance for Curtis, a ritual that begins the moment the decision to cook takes place. From the time one enters a home, the smells overcome the entry way and the chef plays a central part in this experience. There is a kinship and empathy that the viewer feels with Curtis Stone in the kitchen and on the small screen. The connection comes through whether it’s a competitive context or when he is modeling proper eating habits. This is an important and much needed process, an experience that begins when the television is turned on and complete when we finally eat something.

Architecture is perhaps the greatest and most important art ever created. Frank Lloyd Wright referred to it as the mother art, without which we would have no soul for civilization. At its best, architecture is pragmatic and creative, a place where one’s dreams can be realized.

Frank Gehry’s latest architectural endeavor is no different. In fact, the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas represents the hope for a better future in physical form. It’s the story of an architect that created a place where science and care can blossom.

Las Vegas is a city of spectacle. New construction is constantly

reaching for new heights. Hotels display wild and bizarre themes that combine to create a clumsy mishmash of buildings during the day and a heavenly array of lights by night. Las Vegas seems like an

ideal location for a Frank Gehry designed building with many cultural institutions attempting to place a stake in Sin City, but perhaps this is why he has resisted past invitations.

Instead it was for very personal reasons that Gehry brought his iconic twists and turns to the city. Larry Ruvo, a spirit and wine distributor, initiated the dream for establishing a neurological research facility after watching his father suffer through Alzheimer’s. In addition, Gehry experienced similar struggles with close friends that suffered from Huntington’s disease, a devastating neurological affliction that is now supported by Keep Memory Alive.

The architect also served on the board of Wexler’s Hereditary Disease Foundation for nearly 35 years. This foundation was established to study Huntington’s disease. These emotional histories are perhaps why the building itself is a welcome place to visit and does not hold the cold features that so many scientific and medical institutions display. Even detractors of Gehry’s aesthetic are surprisingly affected by the story and philosophy behind the building. Gehry explains, “The mantra is Keep Memory Alive. I’m trying to make a building that people will want to visit, remember, talk about, enjoy, and ultimately will want to partner with us at the Center to help cure some of the neurodegenerative diseases.”

But how does one compete with the spectacle that is Las Vegas? Chaotic and impractical upon first glance, the imaginative scaffolding has a surprising meaning and function. A combination of creativity and pragmatism, it represents the dual nature of the facility and of Gehry’s artistic process as well.

A symbolic exploration, the structure of the building itself is an allusion to the two hemispheres that make up the brain. The north side of the building represents the more rational left hemisphere. These spaces are dedicated towards research, and the structured and geometric aesthetic references the organization that the medical profession requires.

In contrast, the south side of the building is indicative of the creative, right hemisphere of the brain. The sweeping lines of the stainless steel exterior twist and turn as though a giant sculpted it. Windows face upward and turn away from any traditional notion of what a building should look like. The tenets of architecture are deconstructed and reimagined, a paradigm shifting aesthetic that we now associate with the architect.

The two sides combine to create The Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, an exciting new addition whose mission provides a new soul for Las Vegas.

http://my.clevelandclinic.org/default.aspx
888 West Bonneville Avenue, Las Vegas
(702) 483-6000

by Rick Campos

In 1967, Sean Connery blasted through the streets of Tokyo as James Bond in You Only Live Twice. The car was a convertible Toyota 2000GT. Only 351 examples were manufactured and two coupes had their roofs cut specifically for the movie to accommodate Connery’s height. Designed by Albrecht Goetz, the car made quite an impression. Up until this point, nothing manufactured in Japan came close to being categorized as a supercar.

Fast forward forty years and we now have the Lexus LFA. Although Lexus quickly became a member of the luxo-car market, it was lacking a sporting model, especially one that would position itself at the top of the line. In 1999, Toyota announced it would compete in the top level of motorsports Formula One and based their operations in Cologne, Germany. At the same time, they started development of the supercar. With their motto of “Relentless Pursuit of Perfection,” the engineers at Toyota, with the help of Yamaha (as in the 2000GT) and the F1 development team in Cologne, created the LFA. At $375,000 it is priced competitively with the current crop of supercars, including Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Mercedes Benz and Porsche.

We at BHL had been waiting for an opportunity to test drive the LFA on a race track and we got our wish from sports car champion, Scott Pruett, showing us how to drive the car. The Auto Club Speedway in Fontana became our test ground. As soon as Scott sped up from the pits, my helmeted head snapped back as we accelerated at an astonishing pace. On the NASCAR track, we reached 180 mph mere inches from the wall. As Scott turned left for the infield course, the pull from the G-force planted my head against the passenger window. We went through all the corners at a blinding speed.

Soon it was my turn to drive. The LFA has a sweet sounding exhaust. Most V-10 engines don’t make a good sound like a V-8 or V-12, but collaboration with Yamaha resulted in this F1-like sound both inside and outside. The digital tachometer face turns red to indicate it’s time to upshift (in case you couldn’t hear the engine roaring at you). The paddle shifters have a lighter feel for upshifts and a slightly harder feel for downshifts. But gear changes are smooth and precise with with four driving modes – AUTO, SPORT, NORMAL and WET. Scott belted out commands like slam on the brakes, downshift, hit the apex, accelerate, upshift, stay high, stay in the middle and you can do better than that. Before I knew it, the few laps allowed were over. But the experience certainly convinced me that Toyota had done their homework.

The LFA is easy to drive because it is so stable at high speeds. At 3,265 lbs and a front mid-engine rear wheel drive setup with 48/52% front/rear weight distribution, the car exhibits very manageable steady handling characteristics. No drama turning the corners.

Powered by a 4.8-liter V10 engine, the car generates 552 hp at 8,700 rpm and 354 lb.-ft. of peak torque at 6,800 rpm. Acceleration goes from 0 to 60 in 3.6 seconds and achieves a maximum speed of 202 mph. The car achieves its high speeds due to an independently controlled throttle body for each cylinder, high-volume 12-hole injectors and dual Variable Valve.

Only 500 LFAs will be built worldwide and all have been preordered except for 60. Each LFA is hand built to the customer’s order. Included in the base price are three configurations ranging from Leather or Alcantara®-trimmed seats, Lexus Navigation System, Mark Levinson Premium Surround Sound system and Lexus Enform™ with Safety Connect™. There are 30 exterior colors, six brake caliper colors and 12 interior colors to choose from.

For its chassis and bodywork, Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic construction is utilized to deliver a light, strong and impact-resistant structure. Originally, Toyota started out as a textile mill and their loom works in 1926 were the most advanced in the world, so weaving complex carbon fiber material is a natural. Additionally, lightweight aluminum alloy suspension components; six-piston front and four-piston rear calipers to grip the Carbon Ceramic Material brake rotors; and a specially calibrated Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management system all contribute to a rock steady ride.

Developed extensively at the Nordschleiff and at the Nurburgring 24 hour race, the LFA has positioned itself right in there with all the supercars. Is it worth the $375K? You bet it is, every penny of it and it’s the most passionate sports car produced by a Japanese company.

The name Camila Alves is synonymous with fashion and true style. Recognizable as the host of Bravo’s hit series “Shear Genius,” she’s graced the pages of many magazines all over the world. Maybe you’ve even heard of her boyfriend, Matthew McConaughey, or you’ve seen her playing with her children on the beaches of Malibu, but this Brazilian beauty is much more than a girlfriend, model and mother. She’s a philanthropist and a handbag designer.

At the age of fifteen, when most teens aren’t even sure what their future holds, Camila moved to the United States with strong entrepreneurial dreams. Starting off her career in New York City, her first modeling contract landed her a billboard on Times Square. Her strong work ethic, along with her unparalleled level of professionalism makes her unforgettable. Although she travels the world constantly, she now calls Southern California home.

Camila showed up to the shoot at a private residence in Bel Air wearing a flowy white top and a great pair of jeans. Her beautiful boho style is effortless. She greeted and introduced herself to everyone on set while radiating the true essence of beauty. Rarely do you meet a woman who is both beautiful in spirit as well as physically stunning. Camila possesses both with a natural ease. This real life goddess demonstrates strength and passion for her family and work. It’s no wonder that her keen eye for fashion has led her to creating her own handbag line.

ABOUT MUXO.
The line is pronounced “Moo-show.” It means a goddess of the water in an African language. The word is spelled backwards, because I like a twist. I was modeling at the time. We were looking for an extra way to make a little more money to help our family back home. In Brazilian culture, once you leave, you always look out for the family. My mom has three degrees in design in Brazil and she’s very talented. We decided to get together and create a product.

ON THE VERY FIRST SAMPLE.
The first handbag that we made, I was kinda like, “Umm I’m not sure.” I was traveling all over the world for modeling and I decided to take it with me to see what response I would get. And at every airport I was at, I was getting people stopping me to ask about it and we started getting orders. Then it grew to people asking me, “Can you make it in this color? Can you make it this size or that size?“ That’s how we got started and we’ve been doing this for about five years now.

ON PAULISTA’S LITTLE SISTER.
Paulista’s Little Sister was the first bag that we ever made. We used to work out of an apartment when we first started. I remember we used to go to the parking lot of a school to hammer the tassels because we couldn’t make that much noise in our apartment. The cops would come and we would hide in our car. Since then we have a studio where we design and create our bags.

ON HER INSPIRATION.
Each collection we get inspired by our surroundings. One collection we have is inspired by Brazil, New York and Los Angeles – just places that I am from. I used to live in New York and now I live in LA. Our current collection is inspired by a road trip that I took all over the United States. It was influenced by the colors, cultures and landscapes. Our business is so great in the United States that we wanted a way to give back somehow. Before, all of our materials came from Brazil and a part of production was there as well. Because this collection is so American inspired, we are doing everything here. Our buyers for materials and production are here. Everything we are sourcing is from here. And even the labor is here in the United States. Me and my mother touch every single handbag. As crazy as that sounds, there are certain finishing techniques, like artwork that we do on each handbag and it’s funny because we won’t teach or tell anyone else how to do it.

FANS OF MUXO.
We have a lot of fans of our handbags. We have girls who save up to purchase a bag and others who collect them. Our fans take photos of themselves with the bags and send them to us. Recently, we had a young boy write to us because his mother was battling cancer and her dying wish was to own a MUXO bag. So I decided to sign the bag and take a photo with it. I sent it with the bag to her. Within a week, I received a letter saying thank you and a photo of her with the handbag in the same pose that I was in. It’s the things that our fans do that makes me realize what an impact we have.

Photography: Kati Ellis and Jessica Lane / Photography Assistant: Ailen Johnson / Hair: Richard Collins / Make-up: Jamie Greenberg / Stylist: Toni Ferrara / Styling Assistants: Carla Pallares and Brynn Heberer / Location: Umansky Residence in Bel Air

After freshman series “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” broke ratings for the Bravo network, Lisa Vanderpump has become a household name. While she is clearly aware of the success of the show and the notoriety that has accompanied her involvement, the modesty of Vanderpump is refreshing in an area well known for boastful egos and self-promotion. As viewers of the show can attest, getting her to talk is not a problem, but getting her to talk about herself proved more challenging.

Catching her breath as she takes time out from her morning cardio routine, Lisa sits down and speaks candidly about the path her life has taken since the show finished filming. “There hasn’t really been any downtime,” she admits. Referring to Bravo as a “machine,” she notes countless interviews, publicity engagements, and recurring segments on “Watch What Happens Live” with host Andy Cohen (whom she referred to as a “genius”) that have been keeping her busy. Never complaining, Lisa confesses that her involvement with the show continues to be incredibly demanding but unbelievably positive.

“There are definitely downsides of being a celebrity, but I’m not harping on about them because I’ve seen much more positivity,” says Lisa. “It’s quite invasive and it’s intrusive,” she continues. Yet, she seems to have embraced the fact that she has lost her anonymity. Curious fans are always excited to ask her questions, take her photo, or pet her pint-sized Pomeranian, Giggy. She lets them. “I’m certainly not going to discourage it,” she says, pointing out the fact that, “I made my business their business the day I signed up to do a reality show and entered into their living rooms.” Realizing the power behind her new fame, Lisa has began to use her platform as a way to reach a wider audience and to share with the world her personal interests and passions.

As a successful entrepreneur who has owned over 20 lucrative eateries and clubs, Lisa refers to her restaurant Villa Blanca in Beverly Hills as her “baby.” “It takes up a significant amount of my time. It’s open from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. and it’s in its first few years, it’s still teething,” says Lisa. However, regardless of the success of the restaurant, she seems to be unaffected. She humbly continues: “We’ve managed to survive the economic recession and for that I’m truly grateful. We took a risk at a time when most people were consolidating and since then it’s been thriving. However, Villa Blanca is not just a restaurant, it’s going to be a flagship. Our wines are now being sold nationally.”

Turning her wine distribution success into an opportunity to give, Lisa explains that, “I had a dear friend of mine, whose husband was diagnosed with a degenerative brain disease and I was shocked each week really, at the downward spiral and the aggression of this disease.” After learning the statistics of the disease, she was not impressed with the numbers. Lisa has decided to donate a portion of wine sales to Keep Memory Alive in order to raise awareness and resources to support research and treatment for neurocognitive disorders.

While speaking with Lisa, I myself was curious how such a busy individual manages to find a healthy balance to her life. “Who says I do?” she fires back when I press the issue. Honestly admitting that there isn’t the right balance in her life currently, Lisa says, “I’ve always had a lot of energy though. For years, my absolute focus was my husband and my children. Yet, now that they are older and they’ve left home, I feel I have an extraordinary amount of time that I hadn’t had.”

However, since then she’s filled that void with a restaurant, a reality television show, countless philanthropic events and it doesn’t look as if she’s planning to slow down anytime soon.

Impressed by her zealous approach to life, I continue to discuss with Lisa the various aspects of her personal character. A multidimensional, well-rounded woman indeed, Lisa shares some of her most celebrated personal achievements. She notes the birth of her daughter, Pandora, as the moment of her life in which everything came together at once and her life suddenly changed. “It was one of the most powerful, life changing things because I was totally unprepared and when I looked at my daughter, I thought ‘What am I going to do with her?’ because I had never even held a baby before. I had her very young but within a half an hour, I was thinking ‘Well, what would I do without her?’” says, Lisa.

Immersing herself in motherhood, Lisa’s two children became the focus of her life and she admits her life was changed dramatically. “I became 100% less selfish,” she declares, and from then on, “My life was shaped by them.” Lisa feels it’s not productive to be confrontational in life. She continues: “I think my children rarely ever heard, if ever heard an argument in my household. I know some people may find that very hard to believe but that’s just how I chose to live my life. I didn’t want my children to be brought up in a war zone. You won’t see me flipping over any tables or spouting off curse words.”

Her positive attitude towards life has been documented on the show and she claims, “It was a very accurate portrayal. It’s so important not to constantly dwell on the negative. You could walk into a party of 100 people and 99 will tell you how beautiful you look and there will be one person that says you look tired. It’s that one comment that we as humans focus on. I’ve tried diligently to not let things like that affect me,” she says. “It’s important to not take yourself so seriously. Nothing takes the wind out of your sails more than when you feel beautiful standing there in your dress from Paris, and a six-foot tall supermodel opens the door and walks in as you waddle behind her. You must be able to laugh at yourself,” jokes Lisa, who also points out the importance of humor in one’s day-to-day life. She continues: “I’m not competitive with women. There is always going to be someone better, richer, more beautiful or thinner. Just be happy with yourself. Be happy with being the best you can be.”

As our conversation draws to an end, Lisa expresses her goals for 2011. “This show has obviously given me a platform and that’s one of the reasons I did it. I have a voice now that allows me to draw attention to important issues,” she says. Her philanthropic drive hasn’t gone unnoticed. Lisa does not simply arrive at events to show her support but instead takes an invested interest in the plans that take place beforehand. She closes our conversation with this reflective statement, “Always realize that when you meet someone less fortunate, that by the grace of God that could be any one of us. That will keep you humble. That’s life, too. Have sympathy and show compassion towards people, especially when people aren’t doing so well. That’s the time when you should reach down and extend your hand to others that need it.”

photography by Machado Cicala Morassut

Stylist: Toni Ferrara / Assistant Stylists: Carla Pallares

Makeup: Pavy for Nars Cosmetics/ Hair: SienRee Du

Ashlan Gorse hosts “E! News Now” with Ryan Seacrest. A fixture on the red carpet, she has become our go-to girl for celebrity interviews and Hollywood events. Adorable, relatable, in great shape and with a classic fashion sense, this statuesque Southern Belle discusses beauty, fame and the perils of dealing with teenage divas.

CAREER START: I grew up in North Carolina. My dad worked for a cell phone company, my mom is a real estate agent. I studied journalism in college. I didn’t want to cover “hard” news. That sounded like hell to me. I wanted to be an entertainment reporter. So I began to work my way up from the bottom. I was an intern at NBC, then went on to CNN and Fox News.

HER DREAMS: I am living out my dream. I wanted to work at E! since middle school. I was watching “Wild On” with Brooke Burke, and I remember telling my parents, “That’s what I want to do, mom and dad!” And they were like, “Um, okay, sure.” (Laughter). I’m just so lucky to be able to do it.

LOVE LIFE: It’s good. Well… I am so busy at work, especially now that our show is an hour long, I’m always running around like a crazy person. So I can’t say that my love life is taking a front seat. I recently adopted a Siberian Husky named Aurora. I love her so much, more than I could love any boy at this point.

E! NEWS NOW: It’s such a fun show. Compared to the other entertainment shows out there, we’re definitely the youngest and coolest. Viewers from 13-40 can relate to the material.

CO-HOSTING WITH RYAN SEACREST: I love Ryan. Any day that I feel tired, or have to get up early for a shoot and complain in front of him, he looks at me and says, “Oh really? What time did you get up today?” The man is at work at 4:30 a.m. every morning. He full-on has three jobs. Ryan is an extremely impressive person.

FAVORITE PART OF HER JOB: I get to meet all different kinds of personalities every day. On a set visit you’ll meet four or five actors, each one so unique.

HER INTERVIEW STYLE: I never want my guest to feel threatened. Sometimes, there’s a serious issue, something so big that it wouldn’t be true journalism if you didn’t ask the tough question. But there’s a nice way to ask it and a jerk way to ask it.

FAVORITE INTERVIEW: I just interviewed Cher. And I didn’t know what to expect from her. But she’s (bleeping) amazing. She’s in her mid-60’s, and she’s wearing this low-cut mini dress, with her
boobs pushed up. She wasn’t a diva at all, she was totally chill, cursing during the interview, high fiving me. She was such a normal person— but she’s Cher!

MOST NERVE WRACKING INTERVIEW: I never really get nervous. But… One of my first interviews ever was with Meryl Streep. I went in, and did my thing, and at the end of the interview she patted me on my hand and said, “That was a really good interview,” and I said, “Thanks.” When I walked out the door,
this wave of nausea came over me and I was like, “Oh my God, I just interviewed Meryl Streep.” That’s when the magnitude of Meryl Streep kicked in.

WORST INTERVIEW: (Very long pause.) Okay, I’ll say it, because I don’t care. Demi Lovato made me wait four hours for her, on a set visit up in Canada in the middle of the night. As soon as the sun sets in Canada, it gets freakin’ cold. And we weren’t dressed to be outside. A quick visit turned into a freezing all-nighter.

PROUDEST CAREER MOMENT: I recently interviewed Taylor Swift. She walks through the door, runs up to me, gives me the biggest hug, and says, “I just watched you ten minutes ago, because I TiVo your show and watch you every day and I love you!” She told me I was her favorite and that was the cutest thing ever.

24 HOURS IN L.A. WHAT IS THE MUST-DO THING? Paradise Cove in Malibu. Love that place. I’m such a lazy person, I just want to lay out on the beach all day.

THE CALIFORNIA LIFESTYLE: I drive a convertible car and have the top down all the time. It’s so nice. The weather is always beautiful. You feel like a slob if you’re not outdoors on a pretty day.

FAVORITE TRAVEL SPOT: Last year E! sent me to Bora Bora. Amazing.

ON FASHION: I was born in the wrong decade. I think I was supposed to be a pin-up girl. My style is classy, with a little bit of sex appeal. Some people go too sexy and then you just end up looking trampy. Not good.

ON FITNESS: You have to go to the gym, but I hate it. For me, I live in West Hollywood where you can walk to a bunch of different places; walk to your errands, walk to the grocery store, walk to the dry cleaners. That’s kind of my thing. Just get outside. The fresh air is healthy.

ON BEAUTY: What people need to remember is that we’re all not supposed to look the same. I see these women, and they all have the same lips, the same nose, and the same Botox and they all start looking exactly the same. God gave you what ya got, so work with that and make it the best that it can be.

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE WORLD OF CELEBRITY: Twitter is the bomb. It’s so fast and easy and simple and in-your-face. When people read tweets from Brittney Spears or Demi Moore or President Obama, they feel like they have an immediate connection with them.

LAST WORDS OF ADVICE: If something is truly your dream – and you’re not going to be able to live if you don’t achieve it – then never give up.

Photographer: E Leon Myers / Art Director: Jamie Breuer / Stylist: Catherine Wright / Makeup: Mathias Alan /using skincare by CellCeuticals and cosmetics by KohGenDo / Hair: SienRee Du / Manicurist: Beth Fricke using O.P.I. /Artists by Timothy Priano / Photo Assistant: Marek Berry / Post Production: Yukie Fujimoto /Location: OneTake Studio, Los Angeles; www.onetakestudio.com