Wings of Love
Forget about how to become a rock star. Gavin Rossdale, frontman for the British band Bush, has already mastered that. He has even figured out how to marry one, since popping the question to No Doubt's Gwen Stefani, 32, on New Year's Day. ("It took me about 40 minutes to get to the punch line," says Rossdale of the big moment.) Now the only problem is closing the 5,456-mile gap between them. "My main extravagance is flights to Gwen, but I guess that is more like a necessity," says the London-based rocker, 34, whose fiancée lives in L.A. But in true rock-star style, Rossdale, who plans to divide time between L.A. and the U.K. after their wedding in September, will only fly first-class. "Oh yeah, the cost is totally crazy," says Rossdale, currently on a U.S. tour to promote Bush's Golden State CD, "but you never know what's going to happen, and I'd hate to go out in coach."

A Betting Woman
Who says a proper dame can't make a wager once in a while? "I bet on everything," says Dame Judi Dench, 67. "I bet on the side that a train is going to come in on a platform." Given her recent track record the actress may want to avoid high-stakes gambling. Dench made a 1 million pound (about $1.65 million U.S.) wager with her agent that she would not win Best Actress for Iris at the British Academy Film Awards and wound up taking home the trophy. Luckily, she says, "I managed to get out of it because my agent said, 'I wouldn't really have bet on you.' She didn't think I was going to win either." Dench, up for a Best Actress Oscar on March 24 for the role, won't gamble on her own chances but she will lay odds on Best Supporting Actress. Says Dench: "I'd bet that Maggie Smith is going to win."

The Raging 40s
Just because Andie MacDowell is a 43-year-old mother of three doesn't mean she's trading in lingerie for flannel. "I am so much sexier now than I ever was in my 30s," says MacDowell, who has an affair with a man 15 years her junior in the new drama Crush. "I'm hotter and more secure." What's her secret to feeling sexy? "I find a woman who is much older whom I admire and still think is sexy. Then I think, I have 20 years before I get there,' " says MacDowell, who last November married high school classmate Rhett Hartzog, 43, a businessman. "And maybe younger women can look at me and say, 'Forty doesn't look that bad.' "

Survival Instincts
There's nothing like a little roasted rat to put things in perspective. "I've found that I've pared my life down a lot in all areas," says Survivor host Jeff Probst, 40, who won't even trade in his old car despite the urging of his buddy Colby Donaldson from Survivor: The Australian Outback. "I drive a 1995 Honda Passport with 100,000 miles on it, and Colby won't ride with me. He's like 'Probst, you gotta get another ride.' I'm like, 'This car is fine. I got another 100,000 miles.' " Now in his fourth season, Probst fears he has been typecast. "I'm already Survivor Guy," he says. "And it's not like ER is calling to ask me to be resident surgeon."