By CAROLYNE ZINKO, San Francisco Chronicle

SAN FRANCISCO - Before you head to that holiday get-together -- whether cocktail party, black-tie dinner or New Year's Eve nightclub dance -- check your outfit in a full-length mirror for three fashion felonies: bra bulge, muffin top and visible panty lines.

It was early in her acting career, but already Portia de Rossi seemed to have it all. The Australian actress, who'd begun her life in the spotlight as a model at age 12, landed a role in 1998 on the hit ABC series "Ally McBeal" at age 25, and was cast in a leading role in a major motion picture only two years later.

When it comes to entertaining, it used to be enough to ask your guests if they were vegetarians or ate meat.

Not anymore.

Today's savvy host or hostess has another item on the checklist: food allergies, which are not mere food preferences but a medical condition that can lead to hives, throat swelling or even death.

SAN FRANCISCO - When it comes to the bedroom, Viagra, Cialis and Levitra are all household words, thanks to TV, radio and Internet ads broadcasting information about erectile dysfunction around the clock, on all kinds of programming -- even the Super Bowl.
So Rachel Braun Scherl thought it would be a snap to market Zestra Essential Arousal Oils, a "botanical aphrodisiac" developed by the compan

For 32 years, etiquette expert Judith Martin, a/k/a Miss Manners, has watched social mores loosen and public behavior slide. But little has appalled her more than the increasingly selfish conduct of brides- and grooms-to-be.

Oh, the agony of shopping for a bridal gown.

Magazine pictures can't tell you how the dress will move while you're wearing it. And who wants to spend hours going snow-blind, looking at racks of white dresses on hangers, then trying them on only to find you don't like how they look?

Before we go any further, let's get one thing clear: Charla Krupp does not want you to lose weight.

No, the former beauty director at Glamour who also appeared for 10 years on "Today" on NBC wants you to look thinner -- not by working out at a gym, but by working a little bit harder at pulling yourself together before you leave the house.

One of the stranger moments in recent tattoo history occurred when rock star Ozzy Osbourne turned to the TV camera during his short-lived reality show and urged teens to skip the ink.

The problem, said the man with O-Z-Z-Y spelled out on his knuckles, is that tats, once subversive, are now ubiquitous and mainstream.

You know you're going to break them -- but you've got to make them.

Should we hold singer Jack Jones or songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David responsible?

"Hey, little girl/ Comb your hair, fix your makeup/ Soon he will open the door/ Don't think because there's a ring on your finger/ You needn't try anymore/ For wives should always be lovers, too."