BritWeek Celebration With Performance By Seal
Heidi Klum and Seal
For those other than the 1900 guests invited to the Royal Wedding, there were still many ways to celebrate across the county.
A few hours before Prince William and Kate Middleton’s nuptials at Westminster Abbey, I was among the several hundred attendees at LA Live’s Event Deck for the 5th Annual BritWeek Gala. The event honored Tim Leiweke, President and CEO AEG, home of the Staples Center and UK’s O2 Arena.
Seal
Grammy winning performer Seal attended the Gala with his beautiful wife, Super-Model and Project Runway Judge Heidi Klum. He performed 6 songs including Knock on Wood, Kiss from a Rose, along with his finale of Crazy.
It was the third time I had seen Seal perform live. With an intimate crowd, it was a spectacular way to honor the British festivities and a night to remember. Seal dedicated a love song to his wife and the crowd created a dance floor along the stage to sing along. Many of us went home without too much time to rest as the coverage began for the Royal Wedding.
Taste for a Cure with Matthew Morrison and Laura Linney
Julie Spira and Laura Linney
Listed as one of the “Top 10 Events of the Year” in southern California, the 16th annual “Taste for a Cure” honored Showtime’s President David Nevins. It was heartwarming evening filled with hope for those finding themselves at UCLA’s Jonnson Cancer Center with this frightening and often deadly disease.
400 guests attended the event to fight cancer at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel including honorary co-chair Laura Linney, from Showtime’s The Big C, Evan Handler from Sex and the City and Californication, with musical performances from Dancing with the Stars Julianne Hough and Matthew Morrison from Glee.
Select wines and regional dishes from Oregon’s Willamette Valley were sampled
Julie Spira and Matthew Morrison
during the cocktail reception.
Matthew Morrison’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was the perfect song to touch our hearts and give hope to everyone whose lives need to be lifted and filled with joy.
For more information or to make a donation, visit www.cancer.ucla.edu/
Patrick Dempsey Hosted Stuart House Benefit with John Varvatos
Patrick and Jillian Dempsey
The sun was shining brightly outside the John Varvatos boutique on Melrose for the 8th Annual star-studded Stuart House benefit on Sunday.
Along with his wife Jillian, Dempsey was a gracious host for the Bring Your Heart to Our House Event that drew over 1500 guests including Brooke Burke, Zoe Saldana, A.J. Buckley, Billy Idol, and L.L. Cool J.
The childrens tent was jammed with kids decorating Converse sneakers and Build-A-Bear Houses. 25% of the sales at the Varvatos boutique will be donated to Stuart House.
Grammy winner K.D. Lang and the Siss Boom Gang performed a medley of songs at the outdoor event which raised over $500,000 for Stuart House.
Artist Shepherd Fairey attended the event with his wife and two daughters. Fairey was the guest D.J. at the end of the event and played music including David Bowie, Lou Reed, and even Billy Idol’s Dancing With Myself as Idol watched with a smile.
K.D. Lang
Julie Spira and Billy Idol
Designer John Varvatos
Patrick Dempsey and Julie Spira
Guest D.J. Shepherd Fairey
Where’s Julie – Success Through the Arts Foundation
Julie Spira and Jackson Browne
March did roar in like a lion. I’ve been busy day-and-night coaching singles who are getting ready for Spring Fever and working non-stop on my second book, The Rules of Netiquette: How to Mind Your Manners on the Web.
Today, I took a well-deserved break to support the Success Through the Arts Foundation, held at the trendy Ford’s Filling Station restaurant in Culver City. For non-Angeleno’s this is is the locale of Harrison Ford’s son’s restaurant. Although it was rumored that Harrison and Calista Flockhart would be in attendance, they never made it to the event. However, long-time supporter and Board Member Jackson Browne came to show his support for the organization that has helped thousands of children at View Park Prep and Washington Prep High Schools in South-Central LA.
I had the opportunity to chat with Jackson Browne who was saving his voice for an upcoming performance and reminisced about the days I used to play his music on the radio.
Students played live jazz and blues music while attendees sipped wine tastings provided by Harry’s Wine in Brentwood. A portion of the proceeds from the wine purchase will be donated to the organization. For more information visit sttaf.org
Dating and Love on the Couch
Yes, I spent part of my Valentine’s Day with over 100 singles on the World’s longest red sofa.
BoConcepts, creator of the 2.2 ton red leather couch teamed up with Hurry Date to help singles who thought they’d be dateless on Valentine’s Day. The event ended with an ice skating mixer at ICE in Santa Monica, CA and I managed to have a romantic late night dinner at one of my favorite restaurants afterwards.
Just Go With It Film Review – A New Appreciation for Hula Hoops
In the days leading up to Valentine’s Day, I’ve been quite a busy Cyber Dating Expert. Hand holding singles who were dateless at the beginning of the month, convincing singles that romance and chivalry was alive and well, and most importantly, explaining the importance of authenticity in your online dating profile and while on a date. All of that got tossed aside when I went to to a private screening of the Jennifer Aniston – Adam Sandler film, Just Go With It.
Based completely on a set of lies, the romantic comedy takes us on a chaperoned charade with Danny (Adam Sandler), a the proud commitment phoebe who had been a jilted groom ten years earlier and his office assistant Kathryn (Jennifer Aniston) who he enlists as his soon-to-be ex-wife.
When Danny suddenly falls for the hot girl Palmer (Brooklyn Decker) who finds his fake wedding ring, he has to jump through hoops to get the girl. Meanwhile, Katherine is the only woman Danny’s never lied to. Before you know it, the newly disguised family and the hot new girlfriend are all together in Hawaii on one big fake family vacation.
The problem with lies are once you start, you end up making up new lies to cover the old ones, so we’re told to “Just Go With It” and we easily do.
The performance by Nicole Kidman as Devlin, Katherine’s self-absorbed ex-college pal, was worth watching the entire film for. When Devlin coincidentally appears at the same hotel in Hawaii, the lies got bigger and bigger until the face-off between Aniston and Kidman at the Hula Bar. This brings a whole new meaning to the term Hula hoops and was one of the funniest scenes in the movie.
Jennifer Aniston did a terrific job playing the official wing woman and laughed her way to the bank on Rodeo Drive for her Pretty Woman-esque makeover. There’s also a Bo Derek “10” moment in the film worth an honorable mention.
Although predictable in many ways, the lesson learned here is to be your authentic self. Living in a pretend world always has a shelf life that will expire. The soundtrack of the film was terrific and I went home humming “Hawaii” by the Beach Boys and secretly wished I was booking my next vacation to the Garden Isle.
Would you enlist the help of a friend as a professional wingman or wingwoman to help you with your dating challenges? Does wearing a wedding ring attract more women? Comments are welcome.
Spreading Netiquette and Love in New York
In this week’s Where’s Julie column, I’m happy to say that I’m home curled up by the fire busy confirming Valentine’s appearances for the next two weeks. However, in between snowstorms, I had the opportunity to spend a few days in New York City, where I appeared on NBC News to talk about my new book, The Rules of Netiquette: How to Mind Your Manners on the Web. The segment was called Netiquette: Minding Your Virtual Manners. I hope you can take a moment to view the video. Comments are always welcome. Even Pope Benedict embraced netiquette for social networking last week.
The Rules of Netiquette was originally the title of a chapter in my first book, The Perils of Cyber-Dating: Confessions of a Hopeful Romantic Looking for Love Online, inspired in part when an ex-fiance ended the engagement via email. Yes, that was a netiquette no-no.
Jamie Beckman and Julie Spira
While in New York, I had the chance to sip cappuccino with She Knows columnist and author, Jamie Beckman, whose book is featured this month in the Cyber-Dating Expert Reading Room. I also met with the GenConnect group to go over the final details of my Valentine’s live chat scheduled for February 3, 2011 at 3:30pm/Pacific time. The subject will be “For Lovers and Lovers in Waiting.” I’ll be posting details on how you can participate in the live chat on Monday, so get your relationship questions ready.
On Friday, our friends at eHarmony posted my article 5 Reasons She Won’t Call You Back on their site and sent it out to 5 million people on their eHarmony Advice newsletter. The last I looked, there were 76 comments so feel free to chime in. Needless to say, I’ve been busy working on irresistible profiles throughout the weekend for those looking for love online or at least a date before Valentine’s.
Valentine’s is around the corner, and I’ve gone on record as saying, “Valentine’s to a woman is like the Super Bowl to men.” With that in mind, we’ll be posting several articles to help you leading up to Valentine’s Day, regardless of your love stage. For now, take a look at my recent post, Valentine’s Etiquette: Dos and Don’ts for Your Valentine.
Stay tuned for my Valentine’s special offer for Irresistible Profiles for a limited time on February 1st – 6th. I’ll also be posting some special free offers from some of the online dating sites next week which are worth signing up for which will appear in the Weekly Flirt.
Getting Social at the Internet Dating Conference
Matchmaker of the Year Julie Ferman and Julie Spira
It was a pleasure attending the 8th Annual Internet Dating Conference in Miami again, where I had the honor to speak on Web Dating 2.0: Using Social Media to Create Brand Loyalty on January 20, 2011.
Several hundred people attended the session on day 2 of the 3-day conference.
Going Mobile
In my presentation, I shared the exciting news that both Zoosk Mobile and SpeedDate Mobile apps have each had more than 2 million downloads. OkCupid’s mobile app has over 1 million mobile users. eHarmony says their mobile apps account for approximately 20% of global site visits. Consumers now look at eHarmony profiles more than 16,000 times per hour while using mobile devices. Their mobile app was launched in August, 2009 in conjunction with their 10th anniversary. Match says mobile users are twice as engaged as those who log onto the site on their desktop, so we are definitely going mobile.
Record Highs
We learned from Online Personals Watch Publisher Mark Brooks that online dating hit a record high in December 2010 with 116 million members worldwide visiting online dating sites. Over 20 million visits were from U.S. members. The folks from Google shared that 35 hours of video content is uploaded on YouTube every minute of the day. Online dating is a 1.3 billion dollar industry now according to Jupiter Research.
iDate Awards
One of the highlights of the conference was the 2nd annual iDate Awards. This year OkCupid won 4 iDate Awards including Best Dating Site, Best Dating Site Design, Most Innovative Company, and Best Up and Coming Dating Site. Congratulations to OkCupid for winning in every category that they were nominated in and matching the number of Golden Globe Awards received as The Social Network film. My friend Julie Ferman won the Best Matchmaker Award for the second year in a row and it was certainly well deserved.
Getting Social
It was terrific spending time with Sherri Langburt from Single Edition, Ravit Abelman from Omnidate, Julie Ferman from Cupid’s Coach, and eLove’s Paul Falzone while catching up with Sam Yagan from OkCupid and Kate Billenki from Plenty of Fish. All have been featured guests on Ask the Cyber-Dating Expert Radio Show. Dating blogger Simone Grant came to iDate for her first time and we brainstormed about dating, blogging, and social media.
The Final Debate
The conference ended with the Final Panel Debate curated by Marc Lesnick, Conference Organizer and included Mark McMaster from Google, Mark Brooks from Online Personals Watch, Michael McQuown from Thunder Road, Jonathan Crutchley from Manhunt, Mark Harrison from Dating Factory, Joel Simkhal from Grindr, Markus Frind from Plenty of Fish, Sam Yagan from OkCupid, Ty from Elite Global Dating and Dan Winchester from FreeDating.co.uk. At the end of the annual end of conference panel, the majority of the panelists felt that online dating would continue to grow in 2011.
Free Versus Paid
The hot topic this year was Free versus Paid online dating sites. Free sites have been rising in popularity and have made a small dent in the paid online dating services. Compared to the cost of high-end matchmakers, paid online dating sites are still a bargain.
To view my presentation, visit SocialMediaMore.com/idate
Dating 2.0 at the Internet Dating Conference
Next week will be an exciting time for online dating industry professionals. Many of us will gather in South Beach in Miami on January 19th – 21st for the 8th annual Internet Dating Conference, known to many simply as iDate.
Once again I have been selected to speak about Dating 2.0: How to Create Brand Loyalty on the Web on January 20th at 3:30pm at the Miami Convention Center. I’ll be talking about the marriage of love and technology and how to develop your brand through the use of social media marketing. It’s an honor to be among the leading Internet industry executives and matchmakers including Mark Brooks, Publisher of Online Personals Watch; Julie Ferman, Founder of Cupid’s Coach; Paul Falzone from eLove; Markus Frind, founder of Plenty of Fish; and Joel Simkhai from Grindr.
One of the hot topics led by Conference Organizer Marc Lesnick will be the session on free online dating sites and what they mean to the industry. Marc’s presentation will be held on January 21st at 2:00pm.
The Internet Dating Conference will be held concurrently with the Social Networking Conference where Mark Brooks will be presenting the 2010 Year in Review at both conferences. The topics of mobile dating and location based services will be of great interest to many of the attendees.
I’ll be on site with video updates and live tweeting from both conferences. For more information, visit internetdatingconference.com.
We’d love to hear your comments and feedback. Are you currently a member of an online dating site? Do you use mobile dating applications? Do you think Facebook dating will become more popular?
Julie Spira is an online dating expert and author of the bestseller, The Perils of Cyber-Dating: Confessions of a Hopeful Romantic Looking for Love Online. Visit her at CyberDatingExpert.com. Follow Julie on Twitter @Julie Spira and like her at facebook.com/cyberdatingexpert
Where’s Julie – P. S. Arts – We Love You
Julie Spira and Lisa Kudrow - P.S. Arts
I truly felt like a kid in a candy store at the P.S. Arts Express Yourself annual arts festival. Having my photo taken with the iconic Target puppy dog, complete with a red-painted bullet eye, nibbling on cupcakes and caramel apples, and seeing some of the most creative arts projects for children to enjoy was a treat for those in attendance.
For 14 years, parents, kids, and big kids at heart throughout California wait for the Express Yourself celebration. The annual creative arts fair and family day was held at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, which was recreated like a circus event with art projects galore.
Laurie David, one of the founders of the P.S. Arts gala shared her passion for bringing arts back into the school systems. “I can’t imagine what like would be like without the arts,” was repeated by most of those in attendance. Sure, I remember going to art class as a child growing up while attending public school. It was one of my favorites.
Unfortunately, statewide budgets have eliminated the arts from most of the school systems. With 50 schools benefitting from this organization, kids can have the creativity they need to grow and flourish.
California celebrities in attendance with their kids included Debbie Mazur, Marcia Cross, Camryn Manheim, Lisa Kudrow, and Lisa Rinna.
Thank you to the entertainment community of Los Angeles, who joined together to make sure that the children in selected schools throughout Los Angeles won’t live an art-free life.
For more information, visit PSArts.org
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