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Needless to say, it is something of a leap from the hills being alive with the sound of music to the restroom stalls being filled with the sound of people hoovering up Bolivian marching powder. ''Yeah, I know!'' Stefani says, laughing. ''I've never even done coke, so it's hilarious. Do you know how many times I've said 'Let's look like a coke whore' in the last two months?''
We're guessing it's a lot. With The Sweet Escape due for release on Dec. 5, Stefani — who, with Rossdale, has houses in London and Los Angeles — is in the midst of a feverish, Atlantic-crisscrossing publicity tour. But album promotion is hardly the only thing that has been occupying chunks of Stefani's diary. She oversees two fashion lines, L.A.M.B. and Harajuku Lovers (which a L.A.M.B. source says are on track this year to post a combined $90 million in retail sales), and is preparing for an upcoming world tour, set to start this April. In addition, there's the much-wanted Kingston to coo over and the much-unwanted 40-odd pounds of baby weight to remove from the Stefani frame. Judging by her appearance today, the latter mission seems to have been accomplished already.
Or not. ''I have a little bit of, you know, skin or whatever,'' says Stefani, lifting up her L.A.M.B. sweatsuit top to reveal a stomach that would be regarded as close-to-flat in any but these most size-0-obsessed times. ''If I wasn't having the record come out there's no way I would have lost the weight. A year would have gone by [before] I'd be, like, 'Well, s---, maybe I should start trying to get the weight off now!'''
Stefani has come a long way from her baby-fat days as a self-described ''lazy'' teen in Anaheim, Calif., who was fanatical about Sting and Madness singer Suggs. ''At high school I would think, All I want to do is eat and sleep. It wasn't until I discovered that I could write songs... Because, when I discover things that I'm good at, then I get really passionate and fiery and you can't slow me down.''
