Pals Kate Hudson and Stella McCartney pose at Mary McCartney's photo exhibit at the Natural History Museum in London on Sept. 16.

You know how you only get one chance to make a first impression? If you're trying to woo Kate Hudson, you'd better make it good and make it fast. "One date, I just left before we even ordered food, because the guy was just so deeply boring that it was like, 'I'm going to just save us from all of this and just leave,'" recalls the actress (via People). Seems that unlike more professionally exciting exes such as Owen Wilson, Lance Armstrong and Chris Robinson, her insipid suitor "was in banking. I'm not kidding," says Kate, who is out promoting her unpromisingly Dane Cook-crammed romcom, "My Best Friend's Girl." For a successful night out, she suggests surprising her with "something fun or something different, like racing cars ... or miniature golf or something. If you're going to go on a date, do it right, you know?" Meanwhile, Hudson pronounced herself "totally single" during a sit-down this week with Ellen DeGeneres, although she says she still spends "a lot of time" with ex-husband Robinson, the father of her 4-year-old son, Ryder. "We love our baby," she says of their continued closeness. "It's such a shame when people let their egos get in the way of what's the most important thing. I feel like a lot of time someone's pride is affected when a relationship ends."

A comfortably shod Paul McCartney stays a few steps ahead of Nancy Shevell as they exit the Natural History Museum in London on Sept. 16.

That's a situation Paul McCartney is probably all too familiar with, given his epically nasty split from Heather Mills. Perhaps Hudson shared some words of wisdom with him on the subject Tuesday night, when they both turned out at the Natural History Museum in London for an exhibition and auction of his daughter Mary's photographs, reports People. The night was special not only because Mary's photos raised $76,000 for cancer research (the family lost matriarch Linda to the disease in 1998), but it also marked a public show of togetherness for the affable former Beatle and Nancy Shevell, his wealthy American businesswoman girlfriend of nearly a year. The magazine says the couple, who recently road-tripped across the United States on what's left of Route 66 (and were hit with engagement chatter in the process), declined to pose on the red carpet but were affectionate inside, sharing a kiss before they checked out the photos. The music legend's designer daughter Stella, who reportedly disliked Mills from the very beginning, was also on hand for the event, arriving and leaving with Hudson. All of which has led the London Telegraph to conclude that Shevell's presence at the fete is a sure "sign that she has been accepted into the McCartney family."

Leo and Bar watch the NBA playoffs in Boston last April.

For the last eight years or so, Leonardo DiCaprio has rarely been without a leggy looker on his arm, rebounding from his 2005 split from Brazilian bombshell Gisele Bundchen with Israeli stunner Bar Refaeli. But will the under-the-radar A-lister soon be on the hunt for a newer model? Both the New York Daily News and In Touch suspect there's trouble in modelizer paradise due to the pair's recent solo partying. The paper says "an exquisite brunette glommed" onto DiCaprio, 33, at a New York City hot spot a few nights back, while In Touch reports that Refaeli, 23, was checking out the scene in Las Vegas last weekend. "She kept saying she needed to meet a hot guy," a snitch alleges to the mag. "She was on the prowl." The News, however, counters that Bar has seemed "bereft ... like she's looking for a good time but not finding it." But could this just be another pothole on the duo's bumpy road to love? The News says DiCaprio and Refaeli were spied this week at a couple of New York clubs. "With these two, you never know," a pal shrugs to the paper, "and they probably don't either."

Is Mischa Barton trying to date her way up the Hollywood food chain? Just days after the career-overhaul-needing starlet called it quits with her not-so-famous rocker squeeze Taylor Locke, she somehow ended up getting photographed in the general vicinity of Josh Hartnett, who released his legal pit bulls last week over a report that claimed he was caught on tape at a London hotel getting it on with a mystery women. The London Daily Mail maintains that when the two crossed paths Monday night at a local hot spot, Barton made a major effort to draw Hartnett's attention away from the conversation he was having with a pal. "Josh looked pretty bored and was totally ignoring Mischa," a spy tells the paper. "She persisted though, and kept getting closer and closer to their table while dancing provocatively." Barton appears to have made contact, because the actor's buddy supposedly told him "that he thought she talks too much," according to the snitch. Josh, soon to make his West End stage debut in "Rain Man," and the sometime actress, who's desperately in need of a project that won't go straight to DVD, are said to have left the club at the same time with their respective group of friends but kept their distance as cameras clicked. They reportedly headed to Hartnett's hotel, although the paper says Barton made her exit about an hour later.

Here's an item that should come with its own dose of penicillin. The New York Post says it caught modesty-challenged Danity Kane blonde Aubrey O'Day puckering up with odious "Girls Gone Wild" jailbird Joe Francis at a Los Angeles shindig last week. Say it with us: Ew.