A desperate housewife’s night out
Saturday, April 19th, 2008First, a confession: until I ate at Eva Longoria’s new restaurant in Los Angeles this month, I had only the vaguest notion who she was. I knew, sort of, that she had something to do with Desperate Housewives, a hugely popular show to which I remain innocent of exposure. I knew as well she was a staple of the celebrity press, which was driven to new heights of frenzy by her wedding last year to San Antonio Spurs star Tony Parker.
Because I’m not a reader of Maxim, I did not know the 33-year-old Longoria was named “the hottest woman in the world” by the estimable men’s magazine in 2005 and 2006. (She slumped to ninth after her marriage last year — perhaps Maxim sees sexual availability as a prerequisite for hotness.)
And I somehow missed her appearances in the 2006 movies The Sentinel and Harsh Times, and her latest celluloid epic, Over Her Dead Body, which played briefly in Ottawa in February. Still, when LA Inc., Los Angeles’ visitors and convention bureau, said it could arrange dinner at Beso, as Longoria’s new eatery on Hollywood Boulevard is called, it didn’t take me long to say yes.
A quick consultation with Dr. Google disclosed that the restaurant, which opened last month, is one of L.A.’s current hot spots, drawing such celebrities as Sheryl Crow, Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy, Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Simpson.
All that star power has attracted a swarm of paparazzi to Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, which passes by Beso’s door. As an added inducement, Eva herself has been greeting celebrity friends and other guests some nights, raising the prospect of face time with the former two-time hottest woman in the world.
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