Supernatural Botanicals

David and Victoria Beckham had a baby girl  last week and named her Harper.  This week, sales for Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird have gone up 123%.  Affirmation that celebrity endorsement works.

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Rounding third and heading for home, the Smart Talk Connected Conversations finished it’s fourth in a five part series for 2011 with Alison Levine in Cincinnati last evening.  Alison was the Team Captain of the 1st American Women’s Everest Expedition and Groundbreaking Polar Adventurer; Alison Levine is no stranger to risk-taking.  She’s survived sub-zero temperatures, hurricane-force winds, sudden avalanches, and a career on Wall Street.  Levine was born with a life-threatening heart condition that precluded most demanding physical activities.  After her initial diagnosis she had surgery that changed her life – and climbing stairs soon gave way to climbing mountains.  To learn more about Alison, check out her website, www.AlisonLevine.com. 

As always, Smart Talk hosts another amazing women with yet another amazing journey.  Don’t miss the last speaker in the series, Ms. Della Reese.  She will be at the Aronoff in Cincinnati on May 17th.  For ticket information, see here.  

It used to be that we’d look at ads in magazines and then experience tremendous heartache soon after.  We’d wonder how celebrities could actually have such smooth skin and such tiny mid sections.  We wondered how they never had pores on their skin.  We wondered how their arms and legs could be so skinny.  Luckily, we are starting to see some truth. 

In a world of celeb gossip, we are now privy to the uncensored, un-photo-shopped pictures of celeb photo shoots.  And as one of those aforementioned women who would experience hatred toward my abs after seeing post photo-shopped celebs, I must say that it’s completely gratifying to know that Britney Spears looks human. 

Admittedly, Britney looks great in her before pictures (let’s give credit where credit is due.)  But she certainly doesn’t look like her post photo-shopped pictures, and we secretly love that!  Britney’s “before” picture physique, after all, is quite attainable. 

Cellulite or not, it’s great to see Miss Britney back to normalcy (after a bad couple of years of the crazies!)  She looks fantastic, photo-shopped or not.

Bethenny Frankel has been looking fabulous…even pregnant.  I can promise you, that’s not easy to achieve.  The 39-year-old, who is having her first child late in life, says she has always been obsessed with her body image.

“Since I was 8, I was obsessed with every single diet ever because I came from a very toxic, dysfunctional household with a complete emphasis and obsession with food and being fat,” says Frankel.

“It was absurd and moronic to be an adult and to be worried about dieting.”

Bethenny says she wrote her best-selling diet book “Naturally Thin” last year and finished her second book, The Skinnygirl Dish, filmed and made her her first exercise DVD this year.

Frankel says she works out up to three times a week doing Pilates, yoga and/or running.  But the compulsive exerciser says she has learned to embrace moderation in exercise, with better results.

“I’m 10 years older [now] but 10 to 15 lbs. lighter [than I was in my 20s],” she says. “I used to work out obsessively five to six times a week. Now, I work out maybe two or three times.”

In order to achieve a killer physique like Bethenny, you definitely have to incorporate healthy eating into your regimen.  Check out her book, Naturally Thin, to take a peek at what she eats to keep looking fab (again, even pregnant!)

Smart Talk does it again!  They always manage to bring the biggest and brightest personalities to their Connected Conversations series.  Next week Cincinnati welcomes Patricia Heaton to the Aronoff on March 15, 2010.  Patricia will be speaking on Motherhood and Hollywood …and I’m sure she’ll share a little background dirt on her wildly successful run as the wife/mother on Everybody Loves Raymond.

The Smart Talk Connected Conversations series is an incredible experience.  The energy is alive.  The conversation is brilliant.  The company is phenomenal!  Tickets are still available …click here for more information.

If 52 looks this good, I can’t wait to get there.  The eternally gorgeous Sharon Stone turns 52 today…and looks amazing, still!

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What Gossip Girl’s Kelly Rutherford is buzzing about now:  Brantley Active Enzymes Plus ($30 from BrantleyCure.com).  “I take these every day to nix bloating.”

Daryl Hanna: www.DHLoveLife.com

Alicia Silverstone: www.TheKindLife.com

Adrian Grenier: www.Shft.com

Gwyneth Paltrow: www.Goop.com

Leonardo DiCaprio: http://www.leonardodicaprio.org/

Carson Kressley gives us the skinny on what every man’s wardrobe should consist of.  Ladies, you may need to help your man out in this department, but after they learn the basics, they’ll do fine on their own.