HotelChatter

Celebs Get Kickbacks at Hotels
Here's a shocker: celebrities get major, major discounts at ritzy hotels when they go places — usually as long as they mention the place they're staying in interviews and whatnot.

Per the UK Telegraph:

The glitzy May Fair has struck deals with stars such as Paris Hilton, X Factor’s Louis Walsh, the singer Ronan Keating and members of the group Girls Aloud to give them the pick of its 410 rooms for as little as £100 a night. The penthouse suite, with a revolving bed and 100ft balcony, normally costs £2,000-£3,000 a night. The stars can get it for a fraction of that.

Mandarin Oriental also said "celebrities who regularly stay at the hotels enjoy a bartering agreement.” Sigh. We suppose we shouldn't care...as long as the rest of us aren't paying higher rates to subsidize Paris Hilton's long stays at the May Fair.

Winona Maybe Blames the Front Desk for Missing Jewels
Oh, Winona. Miss Ryder, it seems, has been at it again: just as the doe-eyed actress geared up to make her comeback since she was caught shoplifting a few years ago, sista is in trouble again.

When she was in Madrid this weekend for a Marie Claire event, she was loaned a Bulgari bracelet and a ring to wear, together worth $125,000. She left Madrid — and the jewels turned up missing, sending the media into a frenzy claiming Winona took off with the bling and blamed the lost goods on the front deskers. According to TMZ:

There's a report in a French magazine saying Winona claimed she went to the front desk at the hotel and gave the jewelry to the front desk, but the surveillance cam doesn't show her doing that. The intimation -- Winona stole the bling...We're told Winona never said she had taken the jewels to the front desk, and whoever planted the story may be covering up for someone who had access to the room after she left.

The lesson here (as if Miss Ryder didn't learn this one from her little shoplifting snafu): there are always, always security cams watching.

[Photo: ramascreen]