How to Not Ruin Your Life by Sleeping with a Movie Star

K. Mazur

Granted, things were already not so great for flight attendant Lisa Robertson before her seven minutes of heaven with Ralph Fiennes last winter. The 39-year-old Australian had a failed career as an undercover cop, a successful one as a prostitute, and a history of depression. But after she and Fiennes joined the mile-high club on a flight from Darwin, Australia, to Mumbai, India, she took a nosedive and wound up friendless, hounded by the press, and suicidal. What's the takeaway?

DON'T SPEND your coffee break locked in the business-class bathroom with a huge movie star and assume no one will notice.

DON'T IMAGINE you're in love after that one encounter (plus a few bonus rounds in a Mumbai hotel).

DON'T MANAGE the spin by telling your story to a British tabloid, even if they pay big and put you up for two weeks in a secluded paradise.

DON'T CONFESS your appalling naïveté to said tabloid. (E.g., "He walked me to the door and kissed me and said, 'Good-bye, darling.' The casual way he said it was like he would see me next week . . . I hoped he would call me again.")

DON'T EXPECT your family to defend you when, in the fallout, your former gig as a call girl is exposed.

DO GET OUT of the limelight for a while. Maybe take a trip. But stick to the bus.