TABLE OF CONTENTS OF FANCY LIVING MAGAZINE. NOVEMBER 2005

2-3.THE WORLD'S MOST UNBELIEVABLE HOTELS  By Maximillien de Lafayette and Arlette Lagrange.

4.HOSPITALITY TIPS AND USEFUL INFORMATION HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM IN EUROPE. What’s the difference between a hotel and an aparthotel? When’s the best time to come to Paris? Where can I find no-smoking rooms? How do I know if a place is accessible to people with disabilities? What are the latest special offers?   By Maximillien de Lafayette.

 

5.TRAVELING TO FRANCE:  TIPS AND USEFUL INFORMATION. What time do we eat in France? How to pay? Inside or out? To tip or not to tip? Beer or whisky? Happy hour! Our four-legged friends. Do you speak English? From the Desk of Veronique LeBlanc

6.CHIC AND FANCY CUISINE . Food, Poetry, showmanship and expertise By Louise Marchand

7-12.THE BEST HOTELS OF NEW YORK By Maximillien de Lafayette.

 

 

 

13-15. DOES LIVE ENTERTAINMENT HURT OR HELP RESTAURANTS? By Maximillien de Lafayette. For years, I have been struggling with this dilemma. And there is no honest and simple answer to that question. I can, certainly talk about this delicate and very uncertain matter, for I owned and managed several restaurants and cabarets that offered nightly shows, live entertainment, unique cabaret acts blended with a Cordon Bleu 5 star menus, here in Europe and in the United States. I made a fortune, thanks to formidable singers and musicians who worked for me and packed my restaurants for 10 years. And, equally factual, I lost a few restaurants BECAUSE of the exorbitant expenses of live entertainment...

 

16. AMERICAN MEDIA AND CELEBRITIES. By Maximillien de Lafayette. American media is a contemplative product. A blend of autocratic ideology and individualistic comprehension of events. American journalists including an avalanche of TV commentators and talk show hosts seem to know everything. Yes sir, they talk about every imaginable topic. Mr. Bill O'Reilly, (honest and sharp!) for instance, at ease and with permissive critical approach nightly argues about an astonishing variety of delicate subjects...

 

17-19. TV personalities don't need to be intelligently analytical, well-informed, highly educated with a broad vision of world affairs... THE BUZZ: PEOPLE YOU CAN'T FORGET ...By Maximillien de Lafayette.

 

20-44.THE WORLD OF ARTS, CULTURE AND LIFESTYLES IN PICTURES By Maximillien de Lafayette. Lao Tzu was the first to say "One image is worth one thousand words." And so Did Marco Polo and Vasco de Gamma after having discovered unknown parts of the world. And to depict the unpleasant character of Popes, Michelangelo and Raphael froze their portraits in illustrations and pictures so future centuries and generation will remember those Papal characters. We see and understand our universe through photographs. Sure, we feel the cosmos and its parallel world with our hearts and imagination but, only photographs capture the moment, the message, the hidden, the revealed, the damned, the sacred, the holly and the forbidden.

 45.ART SCANDAL OF THE YEAR:  Shame…Shame…Shame!!  Sotheby's fined £13m for price fixing. By Shoshannah Rosenstein and Shoshanna Rosenberg, Fancy Living Magazine Staff Writers. Sotheby's auction house has been fined more than 20 million euros (£13m) by the European Union for operating a price-fixing cartel during the 1990s. But rival Christie's escaped a fine, despite being implicated, because it "was the first to provide crucial evidence", said the European Commission. The pair handle 90% of the auction market and have been under investigation by the commission for breaking fair trade rules. They were accused of inflating commission fees and defrauding art sellers out of £290m. It was a "highly damaging cartel", a commission spokeswoman said.

46.ART GOSSIPS. Britons confuse Monet with Rolf: The Mona Lisa was not painted by Leonardo Di Caprio.  Many in the UK struggle to name some of the world's most famous masterpieces, even confusing Monet with Rolf Harris. Nearly half of those surveyed could not identify Leonardo Da Vinci as the painter of the Mona Lisa. And 7% thought Australian TV presenter and artist Harris had painted Monet's Water Lillies. The survey, conducted by Encyclopaedia Britannica among 500 people, found 85% could not name Edvard Munch as the creator of The Scream. British art also caused problems for many, with more than half could not being able to identify the Hay Wain as by John Constable, while one in 10 thought Botticelli had painted David Hockney's A Bigger Splash.

47-48.MEET THE WORLD'S MOST ACCOMPLISHED COUPLE DANCERS: CORKY AND SHIRLEY BALLAS, THE WORLD CHAMPIONS!! By Maximillien de Lafayette. Corky and Shirley Ballas are phenomenal. Simply astonishing. This couple symbolizes the ultimate beauty and creativity in free and figurative modern dance, and most particularly ballroom dancing. Unquestionably, they are among the world's finest and most accomplished master-dancers. And they inherited their talent from the great George Ballas, Sr., a living legend. Corky and Shirley have been dancing since they were both toddlers.

 

49-51BARBARA SINGER: THE PROPHET OF THE CAMERA! By Maximillien de Lafayette. Barbara Singer is de facto one of  America's greatest portraits photographers. A magnificent humanistic photographer with inner visions and pragmatic esthetics. A poetess, a writer, a thinker, a visionary and a torch of human virtues. Perhaps, just perhaps, she is New York's best portraits artist-photographer. And Barbara the philosopher photographer has a mission  in her photography and she explained it to us 

 

52-53.PAINTING: ARTIST OF THE MONTH. Coming Soon.

 

 

 

54-76.CELEBRITIES & STARS HOTTEST GOSSIPS OF THE YEAR. From the Desk of: Raymond Sew, Timothy Rozen, Duane Pinault, Marjorie Labelle, Marla Karam, Roy Manfred. Revisiting what celebrities, stars and powerful people predicted, complained and gossiped about in 2005. Their complaints, predictions, accusations and gossips. Where they right on? Wrong? Pretentious? Off base. Judge for yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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77-82.Max Waldman:  The World's Greatest Photographer. By Lucille Tortora. Max Waldman focused his medium, photography, on the nude, the actor and the dancer, with a palette of texture, form and light. He photographed a vision that remains in our mind after his images are no longer before our eyes. Many influences contributed to his visionary world. Images at once dramatic, melancholic , despairing and tormented, are rooted in his favorite artists; Bosch, Goya, Daumier and Rembrandt. Yet these images take life form the Renaissance, Shakespeare and the classical music he loved.

 

83-87. ELEGANCE AND STYLE. AMERICA'S MOST ELEGANT STARS AND QUEENS OF THE OSCARS. THE GLAMOUR LADIES. THE INDIE DARLINGS. THE ECCENTRIC GIRLS. SEXIEST AND DASHIEST DRESSES AND GOWNS.

88-90. BEST DRESSED STARS OF THE YEAR. From the Desk of Valerie Constand. The Hollywood set turned its back on somber shades and conservative cuts, and gushed about glamour once again. Flesh was certainly on parade -- though not necessarily in that censor-activating kind of way. Naomi Watts, Charlize Theron, and Julia Roberts all went with nude tones for the big event. Those who embraced color didn't hold back either, choosing bold blues (Jamie Lee Curtis and Marcia Gay Harden) and ramped-up reds (Catherine Zeta-Jones and Shohreh Aghdashloo).

 

91.THE WORST DRESSED STARS IN AMERICA.

92-95. THE BLOODIEST, UGLIEST AND AWFUL DRESSES AND GOWNS BELONG TO?

 

 

 

 

96-99.GRANDE DAME PAULETTE ATTIE: La Crème de La Crème

WORLD ART CELEBRITIES JOURNAL called her "The Immortal". LA FEMME MAGAZINE's Louise de Chambertin wrote: "She is Glorious!". ART AND STYLE MAGAZINE saw in  Attie "One of the greatest American singers-entertainers of our time". Paulette made both the Jewish and International lists of the 100 most unusual and outstanding women of the year.  In just one single month, 7 magazines and newspapers in the United States and Europe wrote glowing articles about this legendary artist. And three times, her photo crowned their front page and covers!

 

 

100-113. WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM  THIS YEAR AND WHAT THEY GOSSIPED ABOUT. From the Desk of Jean-Luc Marchand, Bonie Caprese, Priscilla M. Oden and Sheila Sears

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

114. SOPHIA DALLE: A new great Jewish talent...A refreshing breeze of unusual artistic genre. By Valerie Constand. Most recently, the London Monthly Herald published a striking piece on Sophia Dalle. A relatively newcomer to the cabaret scene in New York City. But this American singer brings with her wealth of talents, originality and mystifying artistic personality. She is not your common cabaret singer. She is unusual in her stage appearance, her dialogue, her lyrics, most certainly her looks and the message she conveys on and off stage. On one hand, she could remind you of Gloria Swanson, the divas of the black and white movies. And on the other hand, she projects you onto a futuristic world of music and the sphere of a passionate and sensual cabaret of tomorrow.

 

115-140. FROM THE MOST BORING TO THE MOST TALENTED AND LUCKIEST CELEBRITIES. IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER. By Maximillien de Lafayette. THEY ARE FAMOUS, BUT, THEY ARE NOT BETTER THAN YOU! There are 4 kinds of stars-entertainers in the world: 1-The talented; 2-The talented and the lucky; 3- The lucky; 4- The lucky and the boring. All, except the "unlucky" make money. Big time money. Millions and millions. Sometimes, the most boring ones are the luckiest and among the wealthiest. And this tragic reality has nothing to do with talent or lack of it. Many extremely talented artists will never see their names in light. They don't lack creativity or talent. They lack luck, a good agent, an effective publicist, a shrewd manager, good contacts, business and promotion strategy, and above all, they desperately need an "OPPORTUNITY", or a break...

P. 115-130  1-ANGELINA JOLIE  2-ANNA KOURNIKOVA  3-ALYSSA MILANO  4-BROOKE BURKE  5-BROOKE SHIELDS.  P. 131-134 6-CAMERON DIAZ  7-CATHERINE ZETA JONES  8-DANIELA PESTOVA  9-DANNII MINOGUE  P. 145-151 10-DENISE RICHARDS  11-DEMI MOORE  P. 152-160  12-ELIZABETH HURLEY   13-ESTELLA WARREN   14-FIONA APPLE   15-FAMKE JANSSEN  P. 161-173  16-HALLE BERRY  17-HEIDI KLUM   18-JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT  19-JENNY McCARTHY  20-JULIA ROBERTS  P. 174-185  21-KATE WINSLET  22-KATE MOSS  23-KATIE HOLMES  24-KYLIE MINOGUE  25-LAETITIA CASTA  26-MARIAH CAREY  P.186-198  27-MELISSA JOAN HART  28-MEG RYAN  29-MILLA JOJOVICH  30-NATALIE PORTMAN  31-NEVE CAMPBELL  32-NICOLE KIDMAN  33-PATRICIA VELASQUEZ  P. 199-212 34-PENELOPE CRUZ  35-RACHAEL LEIGH COOK  36-REESE WITHERSPOON 37-SALMA HAYEK 38-SANDRA BULLOCK  39-SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR  40-SOPHIE MARCEAU  P. 213-225  41-ISABEL ROSE  42-JESSICA BURSTEIN  43-RHE DE VILLE  44-MARY FOSTER CONKLIN   45-LAUREN FIELD  46-TORI AMOS  P. 226-235  47-TORI SPELLING  48-TYRA BANKS  49-VANESSA AGEL  50-VICTORIA SILVSTEDT   51-VALERIA MAZZA  52-YAMILA DIAZ  P. 237-239  53-BARB JUNGR P. 240-243  54-YASMINE BLEETH  55-KARRIN ALLYSON  P. 244-254  56-ALLISON ENGLAND  57-CLAIRE MARTIN  58-SHERYL BAILEY   59-JOANNA JORDAN  60-PAULETTE ATTIE  P. 255-258   61-ERIKA LUCKETT  62-ANNE KERRY FORD  63-ANNA BERGMAN

259-261 FUNNY POLITICAL FACES. HOW WE SAW THEM THIS YEAR. BY  ERICA SODERHOLM, World Jewish News Agency Staff Writer. I am 83 year old, but I can still kick asses and see clear, or at least sense and visualize how people portray and describe personalities likable to some and ridiculous to many others. Valerie is much younger. However, she is more observant, for she can afford to wear a more expensive pair of eyeglasses. Usually, celebrities, super rich people and politicians are more frequently criticized and or ridiculed by us than obscure figures. In America, stand up comics, comedians and TV talk shows hosts and varieties guests make a living out of mocking politicians and making fun of them. Jay Leno, Joan Rivers and David Letterman are notorious for that. Funny enough, nobody dares to make fun of Letterman and Leno because they are powerful and can fight back by using their TV shows.