A New Outlook (and Name) All Added Up

Talk about New Year’s resolutions. Our New Age-y public relations friend Linda Ford, who represents Deepak Chopra among others, leased out her L. A. condo and moved to a mountaintop house in La Jolla with a 360-degree view. Then she let half of her clients go and doubled her rates.

She also changed her first name to Arielle. She chose the moniker for several reasons, starting with inspiration from Ariel of “The Little Mermaid” because, “I love to swim with dolphins,” she explained. Her numerologist liked her spelling change because the numbers are great if she wants to get married, which she does. But business is so good, she hasn’t had a chance to date. “Hopefully, this month I’ll fit that in,” Ford told us. “I’m looking for a nice, successful Jewish tantra master.”

For All Seasons: Does anyone besides us want to make some sense of the trend for so-called “seasonal” coffees? It used to be we just drank some nice, ordinary brew every day of the year. But Starbucks reports its eggnog lattes--espresso, steamed milk and eggnog--were a huge success from Thanksgiving through Dec. 31. “You’d think in calorie-conscious L.A. it wouldn’t go over, but people really splurged this year,” a spokesperson told us, adding: “I did hear in a lot of stores people requested them with nonfat milk.”

Now the chain is pushing “Cafe Verona” in honor of Valentine’s Day, because the Indonesian, Central American and Italian beans that compose it come from “very passionate countries.”

We wonder if a President’s Day blend could be far behind.

Favorite Favors: At a very chic baby shower we attended recently, we were surprised to find out the hostess, an attorney, had made the white chocolate favors in the image of a little pink baby with “It’s a girl” written across them.

“You’d be surprised who makes favors,” said Frank Sheftel, owner of The Candy Factory in North Hollywood where he sells some 15,000 do-it-yourself molds and melting chocolate by the pound in colors including green, purple, orange, pink and brown.

“Markie Post is a regular,” Sheftel said. “She comes in every year for molds for her daughter’s birthday. “When she was on ‘Night Court’ she bought a mold of a gavel and made chocolate gavels for the cast.”

There’s also the dentist who makes chocolate toothbrushes for his patients.

The most famous chocolate favors of late were the custom bars reading “Lisa Marie and Michael”--adorned with hearts and musical notes--which were the couple’s wedding favors--and, no, they didn’t make their own.

--COMPILED BY THE SOCIAL CLIMES STAFF