Hello Austin Celebrity Confidential fans!
Please excuse my absence….I was on vacation in Italy and Malta. It was dreamy….and NOT to worry- I got my share of celebrity scoop while I was there.
I went to a prayer service at the Vatican led by….you guessed it…..Pope Benedict XVI.
I’d say he’s pretty famous. Here he is driving through St. Peter’s Square before it started. I love a papal drive-by! It was a great experience.

And in Malta, I stayed at the same hotel that Madonna stayed in while she was filming Swept Away. The staff told me they couldn’t believe how tiny she is in real life! Steven Spielberg also stayed there while filming scenes for Munich. His entrances/exits to and from the hotel were pretty elaborately planned out due to the throngs of press and fans who were staking out the place while he stayed there.
I even managed to visit a movie set while I was there….well sort of….we sailed by the set of the 1980 movie Popeye starring Robin Williams. It was built for the movie and then converted into a theme park called Popeye Village.
And just to squeeze in a little more celebrity news out of the tiny Mediterranean island, I had dinner at a restaurant called Assaggi- the owners and chef trained with Gordon Ramsay of “Hell’s Kitchen” fame.
So there you have it- I wasn’t TOTALLY slacking on my vacation. Managed to get at least a little local scoop.

But now back to Austin- there’s no place like home!
And there was no place like Austin Studios Friday night for the Make Watch Love Film event! It was a great night honoring Moody Anderson (proprietor of Texas Traders- supplier of props for many movies filmed in Texas) and also celebrating the release of the new book called Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids- Thirty Years of Filmmaking in Austin. The author, Alison Macor, was sweet enough to sign my copy and I can’t wait to read it!
Honorary hosts were Robert Rodriguez, Richard Linklater, and Elizabeth Avellan……Elizabeth is co-owner and VP of Troublemaker Studios (the artist formerly known as Los Hooligans which she founded with the artist formerly known as her hubby- Robert Rodriguez). What a sweet and gracious lady!
It was a great night celebrating 30 years of film-making in Austin. Can’t wait to see what the next 30 bring!
Hint……there’s a premiere coming up at the Paramount in a few weeks so more to come on that soon
Ciao y’all!