Do stars plan their own vacations?

By: Nikki, St. Paul, Minnesota

A.B. Replies: Depends on the rating that the celebrity has gotten from our fine mayor. Didn't know that Los Angeles assigned rankings to things other than our restaurants, did you? You thought those A's and B's were just for frighteningly dingy falafel joints and overpriced Italian wine restaurants co-owned by Justin Timberlake or Ashton Kutcher? You are so wrong.

If hizzoner has assigned the star a shiny A, the celebrity's management usually handles everything. That means all the details, from the plane tickets to the precise flavor of verbal abuse that will be enjoyed by the hotel concierge. If the star has been assigned a B--you know, TV stars or other lowlifes--those actors must do a lot of stuff themselves.

Well, okay. The mayor doesn't assign letters. He's too busy fighting crime and building subway systems and inspiring youth, but the class system still has relevance. According to the travel experts tracked down by this B!tch, the bigger the star, the less personal involvement there is with vacation arrangements.

Example: Medium star Patricia Arquette personally called the publicist for the Las Alamandas resort recently to get some details about the Mexican getaway. (Most stars stay in the hotel's $2,500-per-night presidential suite.) Arquette used her phone, not the powers of the mind, but the hotel people were impressed anyway.

Turns out Arquette couldn't make it because of her shooting schedule, but other stars have managed to get away to Las Alamandas, including Brad Pitt. Back when he was married to--what was her name?--Pitt's manager helped arrange a $50,000 private fireworks display for the couple in 1999 to mark the new millennium.

When movie man Richard Gere tried to make Christmas reservations this year, he went through a go-between. (And oh, FYI, the joint was sold out, and Gere got bounced.) Reality "stars" Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter, meanwhile, booked their Las Alamandas stay themselves.

Celebs who do book vacations themselves have learned a special trick that gets them pretty much whatever they need.

"Celebrity clients tend to bond quickly with our travel agents and appear to make an effort to develop a relationship," Mike Putman of Putman Travel tells this B!tch. "It's like staying at a hotel. If you deal with a concierge, and you are nice to them and very respectful of their time, you can get them to do almost anything."

Celebrities--they're darned smart! And here I thought most stars needed their managers to keep them from eating Play-Doh or sticking safety pins into electrical sockets. How wrong I was. Celebrities, you are conniving, sneaky bastards. I salute you.

As for money, that seems to be the last thing celebrities care about.

"They really don't want to know what a vacations costs," Putman says, "and they don't ask."