Dallas, U.S.A. — Your choice of travel mate can make or break your ideal vacation experience. One sloppy best friend or chain-smoking cousin could put an immediate damper on the dream trip you’ve been planning forever.

Hotels.com recently conducted a national survey that sought out the top traits Americans look for, and avoid, in a hotel roommate. The poll also investigated additional elements essential to a perfect retreat, including the most popular destinations vacation-goers would choose to spend a free night, which celebrities they most wanted to share a room with, and which ones they would want to give the boot.

“Americans have spoken, and according to our survey findings, travelers are looking for smart, funny, like-minded individuals to enjoy their wanderlust journeys with,” said Taylor L. Cole, director of public relations and social media for Hotels.com in North America. “Hotels.com is perpetually fueled by the idea of ‘what drives you to travel,’ whether it be cuisine, adventure, shopping or art. This survey is an interesting extension of this endeavor because it takes a closer look at the question of ‘who drives you to travel.’”

Make me laugh

The top three characteristics that consumers most look for in someone they are to share a hotel room with are a sense of humor, trustworthiness, and similar lifestyle values. Intelligence, which came in fourth overall, was ranked higher in importance by men than women. Nevertheless, one thing both genders fully agreed on was that hygiene was important enough to round out the top five most sought-out characteristics.

The ultimate deal breaker

When it comes to characteristics travelers least look for in someone that they are to share a hotel room with, being a smoker was the undisputed, least desired trait with a total of 66 percent of respondents ranking it as the most unwelcome trait.

Sharing the presidential suite

Of the over 1,500 hotel-goers who took part in our survey, 18 percent of them voted First Lady Michelle Obama to the top of the list of celebrities, historical, fictional or political figures Americans would most want to room with on their next vacation.

The 18-29 age group was the only faction to set their sights on another potential roomie – Will Ferrell. Ferrell took the number one spot among the youngest group of respondents, followed by Beyonce. Michelle Obama tied for third with Natalie Portman and David Beckham.

The leading lady with the top vote from male respondents was Natalie Portman, who received 19 percent of the vote. Marilyn Monroe was another favorite among the guys, coming in a close second with 18.7 percent of the vote.

Don’t want your poker face

One public figure clearly emerged from the rest as the least preferred travel mate of all. With 24 percent of the overall response count, Lady Gaga was voted an undesirable travel mate by all age groups represented in this survey. Other objectionable figures include Ryan Seacrest and Spiderman.

No place like rome

When asked to identify the perfect place to spend a free hotel stay, the survey participants across genders and age groups almost universally agreed that Rome, Italy was the place to go. Again, the only group that diverged from this conclusion was the 18-29 year-old age sect, who favored the glitz and glam of Las Vegas, before Rome, which they listed as their second favorite.

Rome received 22 percent of the overall vote, while the second most popular choice overall was Paris, receiving 14 percent of the votes. Las Vegas proved to be popular among more than just the twenty-somethings by coming in third overall with 13.5 percent of the total vote count.

To earn free hotel stays, sign up for the Hotels.com loyalty program, Welcome Rewards, which gives members a free hotel night after booking and staying 10 nights. Even better, members have more than 65,000 properties to choose from, with no blackout dates.

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Gaga has recently recorded a guest spot for an episode of The Simpsons, titled “Lisa Goes Gaga” which will air in spring 2012. As many celebrities before her, Gaga will play herself told Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa at The Simpsons.

In her interview with Broadway.com, Smith said that The Simsons writers describe Gaga as “the happiest, most optimistic person in the world.” Smith also commented on her excitement of Gaga’s appearance on such a legendary animated show: “This is extraordinary! I’m stunned that she has time in her schedule that she’s coming to our studio to record,” Smith said.

In the episode, superstar Gaga comes to Springfield after learning that the whole town community suffers from low self-worth. Gaga’s mission is to cheer up Lisa, who is very down. Gaga revealed that she ends up kissing Marge in the episode – an unexpected event. Gaga laughed about the scene and jokingly said, “I play a little bit of a slut. The apple doesn’t fall far from my artistic tree.”

In her interview for the Entertainment Weekly, Gaga said that she felt a bit scared and overwhelmed when it came to record her parts in The Simpson’s studio. “I make music, but I don’t do voice-overs every day of the week, and their characters are so awesomely convincing and sincere and wild and funny, I had to remind myself constantly of the sincerity of the humor,” Gaga said. ”That’s what I was trying to focus on, not putting on a character too much and really being as sincere as I could with the lines.”

As an artist and musician Lady Gaga is well-known for her daring sense of style and provocative music videos. Her achievements in the music industry are tidy, including five Grammy awards, two Guinness world records, 15 million albums, and 51 million singles sold worldwide.

Forbes placed Gaga at number seven on annual list of the world’s “100 Most Powerful Women” and Time’s Magazine put her on the list of “The World’s Most Powerful Celebrities.” She has also been named by Billboard magazine as the “2010 Artist of the Year” and the “Top Selling Artist of 2010.”

Gaga is recognizable for her made of meat dresses, Kermit the Frog costume, and now she is going to add another score to her pop culture history – a role in The Simpsons Show.

While Gaga is very excited about guest starring on the show, her father may be even more thrilled about his daughter’s appearance in the animated show. “I would say this is one of the coolest things I’ve ever done,” she says. “My dad’s probably going to do 80 back flips when the episode comes out.”

The Simpons has been on-aire since Gaga was just two years old.

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Next November, Lady Gaga will release a photo book that includes her newest photo shoots and snaps of the singer. The popular artist states that this new photo book is absolutely “intimate”.

It is the first time the public will see a book with these special features. The editorial Grand Central Books is going to publish a new brand with the most special moments in Lady Gaga’s career. The photo book will provide the most random and behind-the-scenes moments of her life. It will include the latest images of her last album “Born this way”.

One of the most renowned photographers in the fashion industry, Terry Richardson, will release more than 350 pictures of the artist.

Lady Gaga had been looking forward to work with him again since the photographer joined her “Monster Ball” tour. She told Vogue magazine that he was driving her crazy following her the whole time; he used to follow her when she was changing, inside the bus and even when she used to pee.

Sources on the internet said that the book will also include eccentric photos, such as Lady Gaga “peeing in a cup.” Terry Richardson is famous for doing a lot of gross things in his career. Gaga said in an interview that she is ready to follow any Richardson instruction because she loves her fans:

“He loves her fans as much as I do,”Gaga said.  “My favourite thing, honestly, is that he loved the fans. He shot the fans the same way he shot me; with no pretence.”The book has taken a lot of work and perseverance. Richardson was given free access to Gaga’s life for almost ten months.

Lady Gaga has always been famous for her public appearances and concerts. She recently had shot her last video clip “You and I”, which was extremely different from her other music videos. Gaga, discussing the video said, “It does take place in Nebraska, and I’m walking all the way from New York City to find this guy, and as I’m walking my feet start to bleed and I begin to get very tired, and all these strange things start to happen in a cornfield in the middle of nowhere.”

This same month Gaga said to US shock jock Howard Stern that she had a cocaine habit in the past:

“I think that I was lonely and there was something about the drug that made me feel like I had a friend,”Gaga said.

With the original title: “Lady Gaga” the publishing company will send her book to every store starting on November 22.Grand Central Books said “Lady Gaga will be one of the most stunning, provocative and coveted books of the 2011 holiday season.” Fans all over the world should be ready to see the most extravagant sites of their favourite singer.
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There is no doubt in denying that Lady Gaga knows what hooks her fans in, so when it came time for her to promote her newest album, she pulled out all the stops.

As a reward for her shameless self-promotion, her newest album, Born This Way, had the highest ranking first week album sales in the past six years: 1.11 million copies of her new album were sold in its first week of distribution.

“Whenever an album sells so much in one week, people ask if it’s an indication of something broader,” said Keith Caulfield, Billboard‘s associate director of charts/retail. “She is a true pop superstar, ostensibly the biggest in the past three years. Every single is a hit. Every video is a water-cooler moment. All eyes are on Gaga.”

Lady Gaga is the first person to reach the million mark since Taylor Swift, who sold a million copies of her newest album Speak Now in its first week of distribution in November 2010. She is the only person to have actually sold over a million copies since 2005, when 50 Cent’s The Massacre sold 1.14 million.

Whether it was arriving to an awards show in an egg, dancing around in a latex outfit, having a threesome with Justin Timberlake and Andy Samburg in a Saturday Night Live short or going on morning and late-night talk shows, she was able to gain an astounding amount of publicity. Google Chrome even featured an ad that was all about the Mother Monster.

It probably didn’t hurt that she sold the whole album on Amazon for 99 cents, either. Amazon frequently offers deals on new and hit albums by selling them for $2.99. An average album costs between eight and 12 dollars on the website. There was such a response to the sale that the Amazon servers slowed.

“We saw extraordinary response — far above what we expected,” says Amazon spokeswoman Cat Griffin. “We’ve never seen this much interest in one album in such a short period.”

Ean Mering of Pomegranate, a digital media network agency, said a low-price strategy could have future benefits.

“This pricing approach will prove to be a great case study,” said Mering. “This is good move that could open up Gaga to audiences who would not previously have purchased a $7.99 record.”

“Amazon’s promotion was a great way to catch people who might have turned to other means (like cloud systems or illegal downloads) to listen to the new album,” said Alicia Dennis, music editor for interactive pop-culture magazine Zimbio.com.

Dennis, however, thinks this is just “an anomaly” and could not be easily reproduced by other artists in the music industry.

“This kind of promotion could definitely boost sales for other artists, but they’d have to have Lady Gaga’s hype working for them as well, and no one does hype like Lady Gaga.”

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When we first met Lady Gaga as her first single “Poker Face” was dropping, we were introduced to a cute blonde who was comparing flirting and encounters with men to poker. We saw as she danced her butt of through elaborately choreographed routines, and from right off the bat, we could tell that she had her own way of doing things. Since 2008, she has become a fashion icon (in her own right) as well as an inspiration to many people. She has an enviable amount of self-confidence, and she used this for her inspiration for her latest album “Born This Way.”

The Mother Monster stayed true to herself for her third studio album. The album has electric dance beats with a little added rock that would fit in at any dance club and, once again, with songs like “Judas,” has people flipping out over her shock value (see the video if you’re sure who Judas is, but definitely hold onto your hat.)

Something new this album provides is a more direct line between Gaga and her fans. With songs like “Born This Way,” “Hair” and “Edge of Glory,” we can hear her screaming out to the world that everyone is great and we need to love ourselves. This is a beautiful thing.

To me, it feels like we rarely hear artists singing about their experiences with wanting to fit into the crowd in song-form. A lot of stuff that is coming from the music industry is just about drinking and partying. In a single song, she calls out at least six different races, the LGBTQ community and even the disabled, telling them not to be ashamed or feel bad. They were born this way, and, according to Gaga, “God makes no mistakes.”

Another topic featured on the album is the hot topic debate over homosexual marriage. In the song “Americano,” Gaga describes falling in love with a girl but not being able to marry her except for on the west coast on a Wednesday. Lady Gaga has been extremely outspoken regarding her support of the Gay Community, and it shows her dedication to the cause and that she isn’t some celebrity who’s trying to join a cause because it’s fashionable. We also get to see another side of Gaga as well, because this song is infused with Spanish influence, and Gaga herself sings in Spanish (she also sings in German in the song “Scheiße” if you’d prefer that.)

The only thing I didn’t like about this album was that it sounds essentially like something you would expect from an early Madonna. When the song “Born This Way” first came out, a lot of people criticized it saying it was a rip off version of Madonna’s “Express Yourself” (even though people seem to forget that song was a knock off of The Staples Sisters’ song “Respect Yourself.”) In a way, this factor takes away from the album. The first time I listened to it, I just sat and compared it the whole time. I think this could be a potential turn off for a lot of people.

All in all, “Born This Way” is an empowering album. It has classic love songs (such as “Fashion of His Love”) on it, while it digs down into deeper topics such as religion, politics and self image. Gaga has done a good job of trying to make her albums sound different from one another, and this album is successful at doing that. If you can’t get over the Madonna thing, Madonna has already given her approval to Lady Gaga on the album. The Queen of Pop has spoken.

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