Entertainment

John Travolta is one of the few movie stars who can cause Beatlemania-like squeals from fans – except at the Four Seasons Resort at Las Colinas, where he's such a regular, he hardly causes a ripple.

Naturally, the Four Seasons folks never will confirm nor deny whether he is in residence. But take my word for it, he spent almost a full week there this month. Why? Well, it wasn't to promote his role in Hairspray.

The avid pilot is a repeat customer at CAE Simuflite's 426,000-square-foot pilot training center at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Pilots come from all over the world to get checked out in the facility's 36 flight simulators.

As fans know, Mr. Travolta pilots his own Boeing 707-138B. Named for his son, Jett, and his daughter, Ella Blue, the Jett Clipper Ella was manufactured in 1964 and was formerly owned by Qantas Airlines. A few years ago, he had the plane repainted in its original Qantas trim and received his wings from the airline as a special ambassador-at-large. Around the same time, he did simulator training in Seattle and Sydney, Australia, to qualify as a first officer on a 747. He also pilots his own Gulfstream.

While most of his time in Texas is spent working in the bowels of Simuflite, he did get out to Uncle Julio's Tex-Mex joint in Grapevine last week, where he dined with five friends and made a special point to ask the staff to keep his presence on the sly.

While the Four Seasons folks won't confirm Mr. Travolta's visit, they will confirm a somewhat unusual prize they're giving away as part of a fall contest.

The winning entrant will receive a weekend in the resort's luxury Byron Nelson Suite, dinner, spa treatments, full use of the golf and tennis facilities and chauffeured Mercedes transportation.

The twist is that the winner will also receive a new king-size bed, the same kind Stearns & Foster custom-makes for Four Seasons. The hotel staff will deliver it to your house, as long as it's in the D/FW area, and the hotel housekeepers will set it up with new Egyptian cotton linens, pillows – the works.

The contest is not exactly a brainteaser. Entrants 21 and older need to send an e-mail between Sept. 1 and Oct. 31 with their contact information and answers to two questions: 1) Name five activities available at the resort 2) Name the only Triple A, five-diamond resort in Texas (uh ... hmmm? Let me guess). Entries can be sent to weekend.dallas@fourseasons .com.

A couple of years ago, billionaire Kenny Troutt shook off his edifice rex complex and decided he didn't want the hassle of building a mega-estate on land he'd assembled near Inwood and Royal. He and his wife, Lisa, sold the 22-acre site to Ross Perot Jr.'s Hillwood Residential.

Thursday, Ross hosted the groundbreaking of the Luxe Showcase Home at the Creeks of Preston Hollow. The house, part of a 17-home gated community Hillwood is building on the former Troutt site, will be open to the public for the 2008 holidays.

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