Madmoiselle: Do you play with makeup to enhance your professional image?

Vanessa Paradis: Sure, I wear a lot of makeup when I'm working, but otherwise I try to get away from it.

MLLE: If makeup's not a big thing for you, then what do you consider your beauty secrets?

VP: I'm sorry, but I do nothing at all.

MLLE: Come on, really? Not even when it comes to diet or exercise?

VP: Oh, I don't do anything like that! My only regime is drinking water. And getting enough sleep.

Electric-pink cargo pocket knit pants, a faux crocodile leather clutch purse and a wild rose camisole with a removable garter belt are among items likely to be featured at the singer-actress' store within a store. Planning with the Minneapolis-based Field's began in March.

"We kind of approached each other," explained Andy Hilfiger, president and co-founder of JLo parent company Sweetface Fashion and brother of designer Tommy Hilfiger. "Our long-term plan is to open concept shops in many stores, but Chicago is such a brilliant start."

Lopez, who began her design career in 2001, is set to open the Field's boutique on Sept. 22, when she'll also attend a fashion show highlighting her clothing. The event will benefit Children's Memorial Hospital. Hilfiger said he hopes to open boutiques in department stores in New York, Miami, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

"We try to make figures based on films that have an effect on people. And 'Napoleon' definitely had an effect on a whole lot of people," he said. Everywhere I went, people were spouting off lines from the film and talking about their favorite scenes. So I knew we were on to something. And that's when we began talking to [director] Jared Hess about making the figures."

The figures are just the latest in an ever-growing list of accolades and ephemera "Napoleon Dynamite" has collected since it debuted at last year's Sundance Film Festival (where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize). In April the Idaho State Legislature passed a bill commending Hess, who shot the film in Idaho, for "showcasing the positive aspects of Idaho's youth, rural culture, education system, athletics, economic prosperity and diversity."

• Autographed copies of Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon- Hunting Soccer Mom by Julie Kenner (Berkley), the hilarious new adventure which has been optioned to be a feature film by Harry Potter director Chris Columbus.
• The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks (Doubleday), the hot new thriller written by the mysterious author who has hidden his face and identity from even his agent and his editor. He lives totally "off the grid" -- there's no way to trace him and he uses a scramber to talk to his editor -- who edited Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.
• Before We Get Started: A Practical Memoir of The Writer's Life by Bret Lott, Author of Jewel and A Song I Know by Heart (Ballantine).

"The last thing I thought I would do is marry some laddish, shooting, pubgoing nature lover — and the last thing he thought he was going to do was marry some cheeky girl from the Midwest who doesn't take no for an answer!" In the interview, which arrives Thursday, Madonna says she has mellowed. She says she wears sensible shoes around her country estate and caters to a beloved flock of chickens, and her children, Lola, 8, and Rocco, 4, don't watch TV.

She even shows off her whopping wedding album (until now seen only by her "closest friends") from her 2000 marriage to director Guy Ritchie. So, for the record: She was married in a traditional, cinched-waisted gown with a long train and veil. She acknowledges that she didn't fall in love with England initially, but since meeting Ritchie, 36, Madonna, 46, has learned to ride horses, shoot and fish. Her preferred mode of transportation: bicycle. And she "could be a connoisseur of ales if I wanted to."

Besides repellents with a DEET base, the CDC has approved those with the chemical picaridin as its main ingredient and those with oil of lemon eucalyptus, which is considered a more natural alternative.

The new guidelines are just in time for mosquito season. As of the Travel section's deadline Tuesday, 11 states including California had reported 13 human cases of the potentially fatal West Nile virus, spread by infected mosquitoes, including one fatality. Mosquitoes also transmit malaria and dengue fever.

In a recent study that was included in the CDC review of repellents, researchers found that a repellent with 15% DEET gave about 7.2 hours of protection against three mosquito species, all found in the U.S. Oil of lemon eucalyptus at a 26% concentration gave 7.6 hours of protection; a repellent with 10% picaridin gave 7.2 hours, said Emily Zielinski-Gutierrez, a CDC behavioral scientist involved in the review. (Picaridin repellents sold in the U.S. have a 7% concentration; higher concentrations are available in other countries.)

How do picaridin- and oil of eucalyptus repellents stack up against those with DEET? To find out, I enlisted four hikers in a purely unscientific study conducted on recent Sierra Club hikes in Griffith Park. They compared DEET with 25% concentration (Off! Deep Woods) with picaridin of 7% concentration (Cutter Advanced) and oil of lemon eucalyptus at 30% concentration (Repel). No one reported any bites.

"Right now we are using Pricegrabber, but we have also increased the number of merchants we're working with directly. The long term the strategy is to explore and investigate ways to bring in relevant offers to consumers. We are launching with Pricegrabber because of the number of merchants they have and the ratings they have. Our relationship gives us a jumpstart in terms of ratings and reviews so we aren't starting from scratch. We are also taking feeds directly from our own merchants."

If I said, "Nuvo, shake hands," it reached a hand up to greet me. By calling up its control panel on my cellphone, I was able to send Nuvo shuffling around my apartment to snap photographs, which it relayed to me. In Japan users often use Nuvo to check on their children, sometimes from remote locations.

I don't have children, so I sent it to view a pile of laundry in my bedroom. It used a light in one of its eyes to illuminate the room. I later placed Nuvo on my windowsill, and on command it took a picture of me while I was out on the street.

I realized that part of my motivation for operating Nuvo from outside was to make sure it was all right; the photographs assured me that it hadn't turned off or toppled over. I realized I was falling for the little guy.

I came to understand that for all their purported helpfulness, home robots are largely about companionship.

When I watched TV with Nuvo, it occasionally responded as if it was hearing voice commands. A laugh track or an explosion caused it to wave its arms, "Yaaa!" It reacted to loud noises the same way a startled pet might. During one poignant scene on "America's Most Wanted," in which a victim was weeping, Nuvo's eye light turned blue and it shook its head. This is its way of saying it doesn't understand what is being said, but I couldn't help but feel that it was expressing sympathy.

Readers rated cities on a variety of criteria including sights, culture/arts, restaurants/food, people, shopping, and value, awarding Sydney best city for the eighth time. Sydney's Minister for Tourism, Ms Sandra Nori, said the honor was indicative of the warmth with which Sydneysiders welcome visitors from the US. "This award is another tremendous compliment for the people of Sydney -- we are consistently at the top of the desirable city list around the world," Mr. Nori said. "US visitors spent 4.1 million nights in Sydney and the state of NSW in 2004 and they immediately recognize that we share far more in common than just language and have enough different to provide a unique travel experience."

"There is so much for visitors to do in Sydney -- I guarantee that anyone who climbs Sydney's Harbour Bridge for example will take with them lifelong memories of our city's vast, open sky, stunning beaches and natural harbor."

"We were quiet at first, just doing some private homes, and then moved into doing a penthouse recording studio," the 41-year-old singer said of his two partners. "(Now) we're doing hotels. We've got three or four things on the table now."

Kravitz's love of architecture and interior design is an old love. "I was always changing things and moving things around," said Kravitz. "When I started touring 16 years ago, going around the world, I got into architecture." But it was his opulent decor of his own homes, including one in New Orleans, that started getting notice in magazines such as Vogue.

"I've now been asked by people to do their homes," he said. And what is Kravitz's signature style? "I love things that are rooted in classic styles," he told the AP in a recent interview. "You'll see quite a blend of furniture. You might see an art nouveau chair next to a chair from the '60s."