Like everything else in life, Darlings, being fabulous takes work.
Knowledge is power, a rolling stone gathers no moss, pretty is as pretty does, and, um, those are all the little sayings we can think of at the moment, but you get the point.  It’s not enough just to look good—if you don’t know what’s going on in town, the world, and especially Hollywood, no one’s going to want to invite you over, no matter how cute your shoes are. 
So, children it’s important that you keep up with your reading each and every day, not only so you don’t sound like an idiot for not knowing about things, but also so you can show off by knowing interesting things that other people might not know.
For instance, tonight we happen to be attending a charity event, and we know that we may find ourselves making small talk with complete strangers. So this morning, we did our usual quick run-through of the news to see what we could find that might help us engage in lively and sparkling social discourse later this evening.
A quick glance at the Trib’s front page told us that Kim Jong Il ”aporrogized" for his nuclear test, an Oldsmar power plant was blown up on purpose (so apparently no apology was needed) and some people are playing some sort of baseball game tonight. (We may not know Kenny Rogers from Fred Rogers, but at least when people refer to “the game” we’ll know what in the world they’re talking about.). 
Then we went online for a more interactive overview. When we opened TBO.com’s home page, we were immediately drawn to the Finger In Sandwich story, (although we passed on watching accompanying video.) This, we think, will be a perfect topic to keep in our conversational arsenal for tonight’s event— it’s just the type of cheerful little anecdote we like to bring up when someone is taking too long at the meat carving station or hogging the hors d’oeuvres tray. 
Next, we check the Drudge report, where the headlines usually contain as much information as we need to see without having to actually link to the story—things like, “Oil Reaches ’06 Low”, “George Michael Smokes Joint Live on TV”, “Terror Out Of Tampa”….Wait, what???  Okay, we did have to link to that one, about a possible near collision of a British Airways plane 15 minutes after taking off from TIA, which, curiously, hadn’t made our local news yet.  Interesting.  Possible cover-up?  What really happened?  Since it’s always good to have a few conspiracy theories to trot out when one is trying to end a boring conversation—trust us, it will really clear the room-- we’ll keep this story in mind.  (It turns out that TBO did post the story later in the morning, but we’re sure we can still find a conspiracy in there somewhere)
Then it’s on to TBO Money, for the business news, which is only important if you ever talk to people who work for (or own), businesses, own stocks, have mortgages, or buy consumer products.  It’s always a good idea to know about layoffs and earnings reports, the price of oil, and what, specifically the stock market is doing.  Just saying “How about that Dow?” doesn’t take you too far if you’re not sure whether it’s up or down.  So we always check the big stories, especially the ones on local businesses. 
And, of course, our social intel wouldn’t be complete without stopping at least one gossip site, because, as everyone knows, that’s where the real news is.  Sometimes we go right to Page Six or People.com for the pure, uncut product, other times we visit Defamer, The Superficial, or Perez Hilton for the wickedly funny commentary.  Unfortunately, gossip today is a bit slow, (we suppose the publicists are all hungover on the weekends) but for small talk tonight there’s still some mileage left on stories that broke earlier in the week, like the Grey’s Anatomy thing.  Our suggestion for using this one as a conversational ice-breaker would be to open the topic with, “So I guess that Grey’s Anatomy guy just announced he’s gay”.  If you’re talking to any straight women who haven’t heard this news, you can enjoy the look of sheer panic on their faces as they try to determine whether you mean McDreamy or McSteamy, or even, (please, God, no!)-- Chris O’Donnell.  Once you’re forced to reveal that it’s only George, the fun’s pretty much over, because everyone will just say “Aaww--good for him!” and nod their heads a lot, trying to think of something else to say.
Which is when you may have to revert to the familiar. 
“Darling! What cute shoes!  Where did you get them?”