Lana Turner may or may not, as legend has it, been discovered perched prettily on a stool at the soda fountain of Schwab’s Pharmacy in Hollywood. But, believe us, toss the keys to an Audi TT convertible anywhere in Los Angeles and you’ll hit enough lovely young things to cast any number of remakes of Friends and Melrose Place. The city that some of us call home is not an easy place to hold onto one’s feelings of attractiveness. That’s why time and again we have turned to the Beauty Prescription Quiz in the book named, no surprise, The Beauty Prescription and subtitled The Complete Formula for Looking and Feeling Beautiful (McGraw-Hill, 2008).

Read Article

We thought we knew everything about choosing the right sunscreen: We can recite the recommendations of the American Academy of Dermatology in our sleep. Pick a product with an SPF of 30 or higher that offers broad-spectrum protection against both UVA and UVB rays and don’t be fooled into thinking your tinted moisturizer is an adequate sun shield (the thin layer you apply is too scant for anything more than an incidental walk); apply sunscreen 15 to 30 minutes before venturing outdoors, even on a cloudy day. While that’s all solid advice, it turns out there’s an environmental consideration as well: If you’re going to be spending your summer days on the beach, be sure to choose a sunscreen that won’t harm coral reefs.

Read Article

While the trailer for the new comedy Grown Ups features the immature antics of five childhood friends who reunite for a weekend getaway at a lakeside house, we discovered there’s more to the movie than frat-boy humor. Not only is it about family, marriage and parenthood, but three women we love — Salma Hayek (left), Maria Bello and Maya Rudolph — play essential roles.

Read Article

For years, we worked for a pet-friendly media group, where it wasn’t uncommon to receive an unexpected friendly office visit from a co-worker’s dog — from Yorkie to German Shepherd to mutt. Occasionally, meetings had to be moved to a conference room that didn’t contain a litter of rescued kittens. With all the animal lovers, Take Your Dog to Work Day, celebrated this year on June 25, was a particularly festive event — the office brightened by more wagging tails than usual. Even if your workplace doesn’t participate, you can experience the happiness dogs bring by perusing the pages of Barbara Karant’s Small Dog, Big Dog (Gallery Books, 2010), out June 29.

Read Article

We’ve been fans of Tilda Swinton since her spectacular unraveling in front of George Clooney when she played a ruthless corporate executive caught in a web of lies in the 2007 thriller Michael Clayton. Now Swinton comes undone in the new Italian film I Am Love (lo sono l’amore) playing Emma, the repressed Russian-born wife of a rich Italian businessman who falls helplessly in love with her grown son’s best friend.

Read Article

We’ve been a fan of Sarah McLachlan since hearing the talented Canadian singer-songwriter’s hit, “Possession,” from 1994’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (Nettwerk). And we’ve long admired her commitment to issues close to her heart — from the 1997 launch of Lilith Fair, a female-driven festival as a reaction to the reluctance of promoters to book multiple female acts on the same bill, to her heart-wrenching ads for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. So we’re pleased to see her return with her first studio album in seven years, Laws of Illusion (Arista, 2010), and the first Lilith Fair since 1999, kicking off June 27.

Read Article

We skipped a recent screening of Sex and the City 2 to attend a poolside dinner party at the Beverly Wilshire Beverly Hills hotel to celebrate the movie’s release instead. (We know — how very L.A. of us!) So, in lieu of a movie review, we’re sharing some of the great tips we picked up at the event.

Read Article

As we try to keep wrinkles at bay with the latest night creams, we can relate to Daisy Fuentes’ sentiment that “aging sucks” when it comes to holding onto our girlish looks. But we also agree with her when she says the valuable life lessons learned in her 43 years more than make up for it. “Your appearance changes and you have to deal with that and that’s tough,” says the model-turned-TV host. “But it gets easier once you get your head around the fact that you can’t hang onto that youthfulness. Women who try to do that come off silly, not sexy. Once you identify with who you are, life gets easier.”

Read Article

We recently read that despite conservation efforts, a significant number of plants and animals are at risk from extinction, according to a Convention on Biological Diversity report. Frogs and other amphibians top the list of animals most at risk to become extinct due to climate change, deforestation, pollution, poaching and overfishing, and about one-fourth of plant species are in danger. In fact, 2010 has been declared the International Year of Biodiversity by the United Nations, and May 22 is International Day for Biological Diversity. So we can’t think of a better time for global nonprofit conservation agency Rare to launch RarePlanet.org, an online network for conservationists on World Turtle Day, May 23.

Read Article

In a time when we’ve heard so many downsizing horror stories, we wondered if a more compassionate business approach was completely lost. So we found it heartening to hear about the Paula Marshall People-Centered Organization Award, which will recognize a company that values its workers. The winner will be announced in August on the blog and website of Paula Marshall (left), CEO of The Bama Companies, Inc. The individual who nominates the winning company will receive an Apple iPad.

Read Article