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Like a born Italian, Julia Roberts twirls her forkfuls of spaghetti alla carbonara -- without spiraling it into a tablespoon to roll the strands together as many of our American brethren do. For Julia’s Eat Pray Love shoot in Rome, she ate six bowls of pasta in one day, and laughs, “I don’t understand this odd obsession about not eating.”

Julia’s love interlude with the Italian cuisine, mouthwateringly depicted, is worth the price of admission for Columbia’s Eat Pray Love (the studio deleted the commas from Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestseller). As is watching Julia and Tuva Novotny, who plays her Scandinavian friend Sofi, pigging out on pizzas in Naples – you'll wish you were there. In the birthplace of that pizza paradise, laundry still flutters on outdoor washlines. Reminding us of a comment from artist David Hockney’s mom when she visited Los Angeles. “Such lovely weather,” she told David, “Wouldn’t it be nice if families hung their wash outside for that sweet scent of the sun?”

Some of the 40 actors and crew traveling around the world for the shoot packed on weight in Italy with its indulgent culinary beckonings (Julia gained seven pounds). Italy comprises the first of the three I’s that the author explores in her bestseller (over seven million in print!). Another country being India, where Julia searches for peace, realizes it doesn’t come that easy. She soon finds herself. (Julia converted during the shoot as a practicing Hindu.) Insiders report that the Ashram in India desperately needed a thorough cleaning. In Indonesia, she meets her Brazilian lover, Felipe, in exotic Bali.

No question that the camera loves Julia. She glows on screen. Her beatific smile will unfreeze a witch’s heart. In his later years, celebrated director George Cukor reflected about filming Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford, Audrey Hepburn, Candice Bergen, Jacqueline Bisset, and other superstars. “Talent’s a great and wonderful gift, but all the acting lessons in the world won’t create a movie star. The stage is something else. What lights up the screen is how an actor’s skin receives the light. That can be the making of a star.”

Julia’s face “receives the light.” In Eat Pray Love when she meets the sensual Javier Bardem in Bali during the final segment of the film, the big screen shines with their luminous presences. Critics may debate the yeas and nays of Ryan Murphy’s delectable movie. But, in truth, those who aren’t teenagers or action zombies and find themselves exhausted by incomprehensible flicks with stupid repetitive characters mouthing dumbo dialogue, Eat Pray Love is a revelation. Embracing a colorful and welcomed romantic story, enriched with fine actors that include: Viola Davis, Richard Jenkins, James Franco, Billy Crudup, Luca Argentero, Giuseppe Gandini.

New York Times critic A. O. Scott (Tony) agreeably assesses, “What Eat Pray Love has – what the superficial Sex and the City 2 notably lacked – is a sense of authenticity. Whether you decide to like Liz (the author) … it is hard not to be impressed by her honesty … the screenwriters copiously sprinkling the author’s supple, genial prose into dialogue and voice-over maintain a clear sense of her major theme. As the movie meanders through the beautiful locations, gazing on scenery, flowers and food, it keeps circling back to the essential tension between Liz’s longing for independence and her desire to be loved.”

Julia next appears opposite Tom Hanks in Larry Crowne, about an older man heading back to college. The screenplay’s from Nia Vardalos of My Big Fat Greek Wedding fame, a blockbuster film produced by Tom and wife Rita Wilson, budgeted at $5 million and grossing $368, 544, 044 to date.

“Too many cellphones, too much Internet, too many machines,” author Ray Bradbury, who’ll be 90 on August 22nd, tells L. A. Times’ Susan King. But guests during the ritzy launch of the sleek BlackBerry Torch in the lobby and terrace at 5900 Wilshire would disagree. They were in hog heaven, with AT&T doling out its premium smartphones to the fannybumper crowd.

Deftly organized by glamour girl Marissa Sanchez, who we’d like to take home to Mother, the AT&T event also arranged for technicians to monogram every phone. As the account’s PR manager at Harrison & Shriftman, Marissa informs, “This BlackBerry Torch hits the spot with uncomprising consumers. Running BlackBerry 6, it offers a revolutionary web browsing experience, 3G connectivity, a 5 megapixel camera, and enhanced media player helping consumers navigate through life doing what they love.”

Canada’s Drake Jones performed, as guests fiddled with their smartphone keyboards. Here and everywhere were Adrian Grenier, Felicity Huffman, Lea Michele, Christina Ricci, Todd Garner and wife Shawna, Rachel Hunter, Venus Williams, Zelda Williams, Nikki Reed, Rashida Jones, Peta Wilson, Jessica Lowndes, Gina Gershon, Mario Lopez, Michelle Trachtenberg, Kristin Cavallari, Amber Valleta, Amber Lancaster, Matt White, Heather Tom, Kelly Brock, Alessandra Torresani, Omarion, Joel Madden, Stephen Colletti, Briana Evigan, Brenda Song, Shenae Grimes, Danielle Harris, plus other flirty beauties and hot studs.

Levi Johnston, who posed in a nude Playgirl layout and fathered Bristol Palin’s son Tripp, tried crashing the BlackBerry Torch party, but was bounced. Bristol is Sarah Palin’s daughter. At 20, and without any political savvy, Levi announced he’ll run for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. Skeptics shake their heads. Not long ago, Bristol bounced him, and says “Levi’s too hooked on the limelight.”

A two-time Oscar winner for Best Actress for the 1993 Howard’s End, and the best screenplay adaptation in 1995 for Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, Emma Thompson was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame the week before the opening of her Universal Pictures sequel, Nanny McPhee Returns, which she wrote and stars in. “I based the character on those 19th century Nurse Matilda stories I read during my childhood ... about a woman who transforms from ugly and old to young and beautiful.”

She’s writing a new film version of the now-classic My Fair Lady, which starred Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle in 1964. Emma admits that Audrey’s never been her cup of tea. Scheduled for filming next year, the movie will star Carey Mulligan as Eliza and Hugh Grant as Professor Henry Higgins.

About her rewarding performances, Emma shrugs, “I don’t have any technique that I’m aware of … I never learned any.” She also confesses, “Unfortunately, and I really wish I wouldn’t have to say this, but I like human beings who have suffered. They’re kinder.”