More stupid people - this time: in-room movie choices ... Fairmont moving up

Come on, folks. Yesterday, I was writing about dummies in the U.S. who try to sneak guns onto airplanes. The U.S. Transportation Safety Administration said there were 1,238 such incidents last year, which is so amazingly stupid as to be nearly incomprehensible.

Now comes something worse. Not in terms of airline safety, but simple common sense and good taste. A company called LodgeNet, which provides in-room pay-per-view movies in hotel chains such as Holiday Inn, Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton, has released their list of top movies ordered in 2011. And it's not pretty.

Top of the list is Bridesmaids (see photo), which seems reasonable. Two? The Hangover II, also a popular series. Then comes Limitless, Fast Five, and, wait for it, Little Fockers.

Little Fockers? That's the stupidest movie I've ever seen a trailer for. Bar none. Anywhere. I cringe just thinking of DeNiro in a movie such as that. I hope he does, too. Even the Hollywood Reporter went to town on the "film," denouncing it as an "unsavory hodgepodge ... in a franchise that has overstayed its welcome."

I think they overstayed their welcome when the opening credits rolled on the first one.

I mean, sophomoric doesn't begin to describe these flicks. The writers make the guys who write for Two And a Half Men look like William Faulkner (or was it William Focker?) Then again, Will Rogers is widely quoted as saying nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence or taste of the (American) public, so there is that.

If you're interested, the bottom five movies in the LodgeNet top 10 list were Just Go With It, The Lincoln Lawyer, No Strings Attached, Hall Pass and Life As We Know It.

Doesn't sound like too many hotel folks are tuning in to Ingrid Bergman movies...

FAIRMONT RATCHETS UP THE CLASS FACTOR

Nice to see more classic hotels getting spruced up around the world. I'd heard previously that Fairmont, the Toronto-based hotel firm, was doing a massive renovation of the Pekin Hotel in Moscow. There's a story on it in the Report on Business today, talking about how they're spending $100 million to fix up the old gal, which has been used as office space by the KGB in the past (and wouldn't that be a cool theme for a hotel room?). Renovations are supposed to start next year.

I hadn't heard about it, but Fairmont also is currently renovating the historic Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston (see photo), spending about $20 million.

Folks who keep up with Star Travel might remember we've highlighted a couple of other major Fairmont renovations in the past year or so. Fairmont did a magnificent job restoring the Peace Hotel in Shanghai to its former glories. Ditto for the famous Savoy in central London.

Fairmont says their renovations are part of a larger pattern, and I think it's great.

“They bring to guests the romance of the old,” said George Lagusis, Fairmont’s senior vice-president of design and construction.  “And while they may not be wonders of the world, we get lots of visitors coming in just to admire them.”

Exactly. In a world of trendy hotels with rainshower baths and trendy bars, it's nice to see a company putting a shine on some old standards and giving us normal folks (yeah, even the ones who order Little Fockers in their hotel rooms) something to gaze upon in wonder.