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Prepare for the ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ juggernaut

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The movie based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir, ‘Eat, Pray, Love,’ is coming in August. It’ll be big -- not only was the book featured on ‘Oprah’ and a longtime bestseller, but the film stars Julia Roberts. And when the movie opens, it’ll be everywhere.

Jacket Copy was recently invited to a Columbia pictures screening at a villa in Malibu. When I arrived, my photo was taken and pressed into an ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ passport; I was told I could go get it stamped at various stations. The screening -- a 21-minute edit -- would come later.

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Those stations were from companies who have ‘Eat, Pray, Love’-branded products coming to stores this summer. From what I learned, they don’t seem to be product placement -- none of the vendors I spoke to have things that appear in the movie -- they’re just tie-ins. But there are a lot of tie ins.

By the time the movie opens in August, you will be able to get ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ furnishings from Cost Plus; shop the ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ way with the Home Shopping Network, get ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ jewelry from Dogeared, spray ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ eau de parfum from Fresh, wear organic ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ T-shirts from Signorelli, and drink ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ tea.

I think you’ll be able to find glamorous ‘Eat, Pray, Love’-themed dresses by Sue Wong, but I didn’t get the details -- she was there, surrounded by models in sari-influenced, jewel-colored dresses.

Luxurious dresses and branded body sprays may be a bit far from Gilbert’s memoir of self-discovery, but the adventurous can follow in her footsteps. I picked up a compact tour book from Lonely Planet, with the irrational hope that I might be able to blog for Jacket Copy while traveling through Bali. STA Travel will soon be offering their version of the ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ experience: you can just Eat (in Italy), just Pray (in India), just Love (in Bali) or do all three.

After all that, the 21-minute edit of the film screened. The photography is gorgeous, the locations are striking, Roberts seems to hit all the right notes and who can quibble with a happy ending with Javier Bardem?

‘Eat, Pray, Love’ will be everywhere in August. And it may be irresistible.

- Carolyn Kellogg
twitter.com/paperhaus

[Updated at 12:13 p.m. Wednesday: In an earlier version of this post, STA Travel was misidentified as STA Tours.]

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Full disclosure: in the swagfest of the event, I walked away with a Lonely Planet tour book, a necklace by Dogeared and a gift pack from Fresh that included lotion, body scrub and the 3 ‘Eat Pray Love’ eaus de parfum.


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