The Lone Star on the Floor

As if starring in the Fox Texan firefighting drama 9-1-1: Lone Star for four seasons isn’t enough, Montecito actor Rob Lowe is set to host a new game show, The Floor, in the New Year.

The ultimate trivia conquest quiz show, which Lowe, 59, will helm and produce, is described as “a spectacular battle of the brains in which 81 contestants stand on 81 squares on a massive game show floor, competing for a whopping $250,000 prize.”

The Fox series takes place over 10 weeks and, at the end, the one player who survives and conquers the entire floor walks away the winner.

Nothing flawed about it…

Virgin Mogul and Guests Have Good Time on Necker

After the trials and tribulations of his acrimonious divorce from wife Christine Baumgartner, Carpinteria actor Kevin Costner joined fellow racketeers on Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson’s private island, Necker, in the British Virgin Islands.

The tennis tournament, billed as “the world’s most exclusive pro-am event,” also included other celebrities such as actress Emma Watson, singers Michael Bolton and Jewel, and tennis greats Eugenie Bouchard and Mike Bryan.

Branson, who I’ve known for many years, as well as being a guest on Necker, was described as “the epitome of the ultimate host” and took a team on a catamaran race and wowed guests with his windsurfing prowess at 73.

Other activities included pickleball and attending the famed End of the World party.

An absolutely wondrous Caribbean locale…

Top Marks for UCSB

UCSB is one of the top ranked world-class educational institutions, costing just a fraction of its Ivy League rivals, according to Forbes.

Seven out of the 25 universities ranked as top public schools in the U.S. are located on the Left Coast, with four being ranked in the top five of the list.

The Universities of California Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara are in the top four.

They each have a wide variety of majors and acceptance rates between 14 and 46 percent.

Criteria for the list includes return on investment, student success, student debt, and alumni leadership and influence.

UCSB has more than 200 majors students can choose from and the faculty includes six winners of Nobel Prizes for research in chemistry, physics, and economics.

Used Car for Sale

Prince Harry’s old car is up for grabs.

The Audi RS6, a 2017 model, was driven by the Duke of Sussex for 4,500 miles during his 15 months of ownership.

Thought likely leased by Audi to Harry, the car had a list price of $114,018 when new, including Daytona Grey Pearl paint, Alcantara seats and carbon interior trim.

The Audi is being sold by a private seller in the U.K. on the online automotive marketplace, Pistonheads, for $52,319.

Despite its royal providence, it is priced similar to those without royal connections.

Musical on the Slopes

Gwyneth Paltrow’s iconic ski trial has been turned into a comedy musical launching at the end of the year.

The Oscar winner, 50, appeared in court after retired optometrist Terry Sanderson filed a lawsuit against the Montecito resident, alleging she collided with him on the slopes at the Deer Valley Resort in Utah in February, 2016.

Paltrow was awarded a symbolic $1 at the end of the trial after jurors ruled Sanderson’s claims were false and he was 100 percent at fault for the collision.

Gwyneth Goes Skiing, a comedy musical based on the trial, begins December 13 at the Pleasance Theatre in London and runs until December 23 with Swedish male actor Linus Kart playing the actress.

Staged by Awkward Productions, the show will have original music by singer-songwriter Leland of Ru Paul’s Drag Race.

Hopefully it’s not all downhill from there…

Cleese Kills It

Former Montecito funnyman John Cleese, 84, is to die for, or at least he says!

In a startling admission Cleese says a fan died while laughing during his performances in the 1988 film A Fish Called Wanda with Kevin Kline and Jamie Lee Curtis.

“We killed a man,” he recalled on the GB News series The Dinosaur Hour. “Kevin Kline and I killed a man in Denmark. He was a dentist and he a huge laugh. A famous laugh. Very popular.

“It was in Aarhus, not a big town, but everybody knew him. And he went to see Wanda and started laughing after just two minutes in and never stopped. They carried him out dead. He’d had a heart attack!”

Plane Trolling

Mystery surrounds the pilot of a small plane trailing a banner declaring “Prince Harry’s Mom’s Fate Accidental” when it flew over the Riven Rock estate of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on Saturday.

Despite all the conspiracy theories since Princess Diana’s untimely death in a tragic car accident in Paris in 1997, I have always maintained in the more than 90 TV interviews I did in the six weeks after her untimely demise, that it was indeed an accident with all the factors involved in the matter being last minute decisions made by her beau Dodi Fayed.

Nothing convinces me otherwise…

Rosalyn Carter Remembered

On a personal note, I remember former First Lady Rosalyn Carter, who has moved to more heavenly pastures at the age of 96, just days after entering hospice care.

I met Rosalyn, who was married to husband Jimmy for 77 years, at a dinner party thrown by top Manhattan realtor Alice Mason at her sprawling Park Avenue apartment in the ‘80s.

I had arrived somewhat early for the socially gridlocked event and spoke one on one with the former president for nearly half an hour before he was joined by his wife and then top TV newswoman Barbara Walters, a good friend, who practically engulfed both of them.

Jimmy, 99, and Rosalyn were decidedly charming, almost folksy, given their simple backgrounds in Plains, Georgia.

An abiding memory…

Sightings

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Vancouver, Canada, for an ice hockey match… Actress Cameron Diaz and husband Benji Madden at Pierre Lafond… The Weakest Link host Jane Lynch at the Santa Barbara Symphony.

Pip! Pip!