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Oldies But Goodies
This vintage Dewar's ad features Ola Hudson, the designer best known for creating David Bowie's Man Who Fell To Earth getup. Sure, she's smoking hot, and sounds like a cool lady ("Women need some new ways to look pretty, simple and stylish," she says) but did you know she's also the mother of Slash, Guns 'N Roses fame? (Click to enlarge.) [Vintage Ads]
mouse traps
Why Is Disney's First Black Princess Such A Challenge?
Disney's been working on a "black princess" movie for a while now. In March of last year, the company announced that production had begun on the film, a fairy tale to be called The Frog Princess featuring Maddy, a black chambermaid working for a spoiled white Southern debutante. A voodoo priestess fairy godmother helps Maddy win the heart of a white prince, after he rescues her from the clutches of a voodoo magician. Clichéd? Stereotypical? Yeah, that's what many people thought. So even though the film was slated for a 2009 release, Disney went back to the drawing board. According to a report by Arifa Akbar in today's Independent: More »
questionable apparel
Does This Skirt Make Me Look Fast?
When I swim, I routinely wear the ugliest getup possible. My bathing cap is so old it's hard. I finally got rid of my last bathing suit when I realized you could see my ass through the material. I wear these hideous items because I like my workouts to be an asocial experience, in which I pretend to be invisible. So I was disturbed by a reader's recent email about a new trend: the "running skirt". The running skirt — or "skort," a term I'll avoid from now on because it sounds like "hork" — is apparently big enough to warrant a feature in August's Runner's World magazine. According to author Kristin Armstrong — Lance's ex-wife — the modern running skirt was invented in 2004 by Nicole DeBoom, who wanted "to look pretty while kicking butt." More »
midweek madness
This Week In Tabloids: Lindsay's Gay, Reese & Jake On Vacay, Honor's OK!
Welcome back to Midweek Madness, in which we read mind-numbing celebrity tabloids so you don't have to. Celebrity news is slow this week, which is why Lindsay Lohan's Lezebel Leanings are cover-worthy. Jessica Alba's new baby Honor Marie gets her own cover; Angelina's twins win two covers and the last is for Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal. Intern Margaret assists as we rummage through the leftovers in search of delicious gossip in the iceboxes of OK!, Life & Style, In Touch and Star, after the jump. More »
Start 'Em Young
It is generally agreed that tabloids and gossips have already crushed the self-esteem of every working actress by mocking their bodies, hairstyle, and clothing choices. Next up: Kids! Luckily, OK! magazine (cheaper than Us Weekly in every way) has finally begun judging the fashion choices of celebrity kids with its "Hollywood's Best Dressed Little Girls" feature. What other celebrity weekly is going to tell you that Marcia Cross' barely walking twins, Eden and Savannah, are a couple of fashion plates? Sure, they can barely form coherent sentences, let alone pick out outfits, but hell, let's really drive home the fact that, as celebrity children, they are always being judged. [OK! via Mollygood]
something's fishy
Penn & Teller Call Bullshit On Dolphin-Assisted Birth
I don't really keep up on New Age-y type stuff because it's just not my thing. So the most recent episode of Showtime's Penn & Teller: Bullshit, was a bit of a surprise. The episode featured people engaging in a dolphin-assisted water birthing method, which is said to be very relaxing for the mother and child... even in the middle of the deep ocean. (Aren't babies really slippery when they come out? Especially in water?) As Penn & Teller point out, it's totally unclear as to how the dolphins really help in the birthing process, other than just swimming around. But the dread-locked hippies seen in the clip above firmly believe that the dolphins will come in handy should any complications arise during delivery.
clips
In China, Child Kidnappings Are An Equal Opportunity Affair
Last night saw the broadcast premiere of the documentary China's Stolen Children, in which filmmaker Jezza Neumann focuses on the epidemic of child kidnappings in the Olympic host country (some 70,000 a year) through the story of 5-year-old Chen Jie, who was snatched a few months prior to principal photography. The reasons for the raft of kidnappings, the film explains, can be directly traced to the country's one-child policy and its preference for baby boys... which has also given rise to a market for females that families can then marry off to their sons. Above left, a clip of Chen Jie's parents, followed by an interview with Wang Li, a trafficker who "explains" the trade in young women and girls. (A schedule of upcoming showings is here.) More »
whip it good
Saucy Brits Love A Little Bondage In The Bedroom
In the UK, there's a "lurid" court case going on involving Max Mosely, the head of FIA, the motorsports organization. Mosley took part in an orgy and some "sadomasochistic role play," and the media is abuzz. In the Times of London, Vivienne Parry points out that mixing pleasure with pain has always been part of sex. "Like homosexuality," she writes, "it is certainly seen in animals, and many animal species bite during coitus." But more interesting than Mosley's exploits are the reactions from readers of the Times article and on a BBC post about the case. Writes James Rigby of Wickford, Essex: "There's nothing more British than a right royal spanking followed by a nice cup of tea. It helped build the Empire." More »
Cool As Kim Deal
I May Be Too Old To Rock, But Thankfully, The Breeders Are Not
People — writers, fans, music executives — don't really know what to do with an aging female musician. I'm not talking about someone like Celine Dion or Cher, whose popularity was never based on some amorphous idea of coolness or relevance. I'm not even talking about our beloved Liz Phair, who still plasters short, tight dresses on her meticulously muscled frame and projects an image of socially desirable sexuality. I'm talking about Patti Smith, who was interviewed by Deborah Solomon in this weekend's New York Times Magazine and asked more than one question about her use of conditioner and reigning status as "the queen of split ends." And even more so, I'm talking about Kim Deal, the lead singer of the Breeders and former Pixies bassist who headlined a big summer concert yesterday in Brooklyn to support the Breeders' April release, Mountain Battles. More »
Rag Trade
Rihanna Goes Glam For Gucci, Charity
- Rihanna has been made the face of Gucci’s new UNICEF campaign. Gucci's creative director, Frida Giannini, chose the pop star and founder of the Believe Foundation after seeing her perform at a UNICEF fundraiser in February. "When we decided to dedicate a full ad campaign, more than just creating products, to really come out and show our commitment to UNICEF, we wanted someone with a strong personality," Giannini explained. "I felt a musician and a beautiful woman was the perfect icon for this campaign." [ElleUK]
- Louis Vuitton has introduced a new bag that comes emblazoned with cornball jokes by mid-century Borscht Belt comedian Henny Youngman. (My wife went to the beauty shop and got a mud pack. For two days she looked beautiful. Then the mud fell off," is one.) It's part of the "Jokes" series by designer Richard Prince "pertaining to sexual frustrations and middle-class American mentality." [The Life Files]
- Naomi Campbell on fashion's inequalities: "Now at Paris Haute Couture there was only one black girl out of all the shows. It cannot be a trend." [Yahoo]
dirt bag
The World Wigs Out Over Angelina, Brad's Latest Additions
- OMG twins! Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline were born to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt one minute apart on Saturday evening. Apparently Brad was in the delivery room as doctors performed a C-section on Angie: Knox weighed in at slightly over 5 pounds, and Vivienne weighed 5 pounds. Now comes the speculation over the how much photographs of the bébés are worth: The couple has maybe sold the rights to a U.S. publication — maybe People — and the proceeds will go to charity. The number being thrown around is $11 million. [AP]
- Darryn Lyons, owner of Big Pictures, a celebrity photo agency, claims that pix of the twins are worth between $15 and $20 million. The only other photos that "would possibly come that close is Britney Spears giving birth to an alien," he says. [AP]
- Quentin Tarantino is flying to France to meet with Brad Pitt — but about a movie, not about the twins. [Page Six]
- Josh Brolin, Jeffrey Wright and other members of the crew from Oliver Stone's movie W were arrested in a bar fight early Saturday morning in Shreveport, LA. Maybe someone made a Karl Rove joke? [AP]
today in catalogs
CB2, Anthropologie & Delia's: More Bedding Porn For SleepyHeads
There's just something about pictures of bedding. Sheets, comforters, shams and pillows, pillows, pillows! Cozy, cuddly, dreamy. They just get you in the mood to... *yawn*. Take a look at some bedding setups from CB2, Anthropologie and Delia's after the jump, complete with a patent-pending sheep rating system: The fewer critters you have to count before you fall asleep, the better! More »
Oldies But Goodies
Attention, everyone: 20th century Barnard students were loose women. Well, not really, but that seems to be the underlying message of this 1920s article about a controversial "purity survey" in a Columbia University humor magazine. Here were some of the survey's findings: 50% of the women indulged in necking, 34% "soul kissed", 49% had kissed ten different dudes, 66% were tipplers, and 32 women had been "tight." We'll leave it to you to figure out that last one. [Susie Bright's Journal]
"You get the opportunity to just pound and pound and pound somebody," says one player. "It's not powder puff. It's not flag. It's real, tackle football and people are surprised by the collisions and the hits," says another. "They're fundamentally much stronger than the guys are," says their coach. Click here to meet The Force, an undefeated, all-female football team in Chicago that is one game away from the Independent Women's Football League Superbowl. And don't forget to watch the video. [CBS News]
magazine mash-ups
The Harper's Bazaar Index: Gwyneth, Winter Warmers & The Real Housewives Of New York City
Do people get confused by Harper's Magazine and Harper's Bazaar? After all, the luxury goods industry is not so different from Halliburton — shameless, ubiquitous, and really talented at charging more for less. Once again, we're taking things to their (ill)logical end with our own "Harper's (Bazaar) Index", inspired by Harper's famous feature, which parses the world of big oil, big money, and Big Pharma and puts it into easily-digested numerical form. This month's issue marked Bazaar's ultimate surrender to the advertising gods, probably something that Harper's would love to rip apart...if it cared about fashion magazines. After the jump, find out just how bitchy The Real Housewives of New York City are, what kind of yellow fever will make you pretty, and how many coats you should purchase in the dead of summer. More »
today in catalogs
Alloy: The Secret Weapon Of The Broke & Plus-Sized
People, I don't really like discussing certain aspects of my life on the interwebs but there's something you should know: I'm not thin. I'm not use-a-crane-to-remove- her-from-her-house obese, but I can't fit into 75% the stuff I want. Zara is off-limits; Club Monaco is a joke, Benetton makes me weep. But! The teen brands rarely ever let me down. Alloy, I am talking to you: Low prices, larger sizes and the ability to try stuff on in the refuge of my own home. Is it hit and miss? Sure! Is it worth it? Yes. The new catalog has lots of goodies, whether you're a 6 or a 16. Shop with me, after the jump. More »
Signs Of The Apocalypse
Behold. Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt. Armed. How do these pictures make you feel? Embarrassed? Frightened? Frustrated? Ill? Many many more here. [ONTD, Just Jared]
