Retired asketball superstar Magic Johnson and wife Cookie watching the show at Couples Negril on New Year's Eve. The couple, who heard about the property from a friend who had stayed there, loved the resort so much that they have booked two more stays there for this year. - ContributedBy Janet Silvera,
Freelance Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
JAMAICA WAS the preferred destination for a number of celebrities this past Christmas. Among them were the likes of Hall of Fame inductee Dana 'Queen Latifah' Lewis, basketball genius Magic Johnson and 'sprint queen' Merlene Ottey.
Queen Latifah, the movie star/singer, turned talk show host and her family spent over a week at the Grand Lido Negril and when it was time to leave she extended her stay for two days before leaving for Los Angeles, California.
The sugarcane man in the Negril Square would look forward to the celebrity's visit each evening at 6 o'clock when she came for her supply of the bagged product. Jerked chicken is also one of her favourite island foods and would visit the De Buss restaurant for the spicey meat dish.
At nights Queen Latifah took in the live reggae shows at Alfred's On The Beach in the west end resort and frequented Sweet Spice and Xtabi.
She left Jamaica for for Los Angeles, California.
Just down the road from the Grand Lido Magic Johnson basked in the warmth of the sun and the attentive staff of Couples Negril. The easygoing basketball superstar and his wife Cookie spent their nights at Alfred's where they mingled with the locals.
As lovers of reggae music, the Johnsons and their entourage of 10, were spotted at the 'Reggae By The Sea' show at MXIII, featuring Beenie Man.
And even though the superstar spent most of the evening watching the show from a locked bus and refused to be coerced byt he MC to go on the stage, Magic stayed at the venue until 1:00 a.m. so he could see 'The Doctor' perform.
Over at the Round Hill Hotel, Merlene Ottey and her two sisters had a restful Christmas holiday, after a long flight from London. Opting to rent a car instead of being chauffeur driven around, the three women went shopping in Montego Bay for Christmas gifts at the City Centre duty free stores.
Ottey, who left Wednesday, spent most her vacation at her villa at Round Hill, but slept over at her mother's house in Hanover one night.
