• And now, the cold, hard, retail reality sets in: Neiman Marcus and Net-A-Porter are dropping Ungaro for Spring. Barneys and Saks also aren't ordering. Lindsay Lohan and Mounir Moufarrige, what have you wrought! [Style.com]

• Ashley Tisdale does not yearn for a clothing line. "I've started a production company; I guess that's kind of my clothing line," says the actress. [WWD]
• The incredible Alexander McQueen shoes — both the bulbous hoof ones, and the ones that look like some piece of anthropomorphic weaponry out of eXistenZ, which Lady Gaga wore in the video for "Bad Romance" — are apparently a hit. The designer says he's been inundated with calls from women wanting to buy the so-called "Alien" shoes, albeit some who are interested in them as art pieces. The process by which the shoes are made is protected by copyright, says a spokesperson for the brand. No word on whether a commercial version will be produced for wide sale; McQueen is mulling a charity auction for the runway samples. [Grazia]
• Carlos Falchi's line of handbags for Target is in stores now through December 27th. The designer says, if he didn't have his current job, "I'd like to be a Brazilian cowboy." [TFI]
• Victoria Beckham's people are denying the rumors she is planning, with Simon Fuller, to open a modeling agency — perhaps a U.S. branch of Storm, in which Fuller holds a controlling stake — in New York. "There is absolutely no truth in the story regarding Victoria Beckham and Simon Fuller opening a modeling agency in New York," says her spokesman. "Victoria is concentrating all her efforts on her fashion line and her family." [Vogue UK]
• Daniel Lalonde, president of Louis Vuitton, basically confirmed Lara Stone will be the face of the spring campaign. [The Cut]
• Betsey Johnson is redesigning her stores. Gone will be the hot-pink walls, replaced with white walls and checkerboard floors, to better display the clothes. [Racked]
• Dooney & Bourke co-founder Frederic Bourke has been sentenced to 366 days in prison and a $1 million fine for his role in a failed scheme to bribe Azeri officials into privatizing Azerbaijan's oil company, which would have essentially deprived the country of profits from its greatest national resource. Bourke is appealing. [WWD]
• Model Karmen Pedaru spent a year as goalie on an Estonian national soccer team. [W]
• Funny, the only item this list of How To Look Like Gisele Bundchen is missing is: being born to look like Gisele Bundchen. (OK, so Nars Orgasm is bog standard by now, but $475 moisturizer? Come on.) [Blackbook]
• The BHV — pretty much the most awesome department store in Paris — is getting Beth Ditto and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac to do its holiday windows. Meanwhile, stately old Printemps has Natalia Vodianova. [WWD]
• The British Fashion Council will give an award to the winner of a public vote on who best "embodies the spirit of London." Nominees include Alexa Chung, Kate Moss, and Vivienne Westwood. [BFC]
• Jeffrey Monteiro might be taking over as head designer at Bill Blass. [WWD]
• Liz Lange is launching a lifestyle shopping site, apparently kind of like Gilt crossed with Daily Candy. [Crains]
• People are trying to save Luella on the Internet. [Fashionista]
• The Gossip Girl timeline is apparently now forever divided by the caesura of the Threesome; say Before The Threesome or After The Threesome, and everyone immediately knows what you mean. The boys on the show have been wearing a lot of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's line, Elizabeth & James, People notes. [People]
• Jason Wu is doing a capsule collection for Tse this spring. [WWD]
• Anthropologie is the most profitable of the three Urban Outfitters brands, quarterly results reveal. [TS]
• Marie Osmond is licensing her name to a fashion and home decor line. Every last piece in the Marie Lifestyle Collection will retail for under $100. Expect to see it in stores later this month. [UPI]
• Donna Karan's West Indies home is currently making us cry bitter tears of envy from our very black souls. [SB]

Often the only thing that saves an awards show from being a total bore (aside from the fashion) is the prospect that a celebrity will deliver a charming and/or emotional acceptance speech that will be added to the annual clip reel of the most memorable moments. From the opening gasps of Winslet's acceptance speech for her second Golden Globe on Sunday night, it was clear it was such a speech (video below). But, while it seems many American critics found Winslet's speech endearingly flustered, the British were mortified.

Winslet apologizied to the other nominees (and dared to forget Angelina Jolie's name), but according to The Independent, it's not her fellow actresses who need an apology. "Never mind sorry to Anne, Meryl, Kristin and oh God, who's the other one," says the review. "It's us, her loyal British fans, to whom she should apologise. We expect less of you, Kate, much less."

Reviews of the Golden Globes from the British press attacked Winslet for everything from playing up British stereotypes to possibly being inebriated. The review in The Independent said the speech would "make a corpse wince with embarrassment" and that it was unexpected of an actress, "whose irreproachably middle-class upbringing in Reading has always seemed to imbue her with a rather sensible outlook on life." According to The Guardian, the speech "raises the occasional wave of nausea, swiftly followed by a rush of hands to eyes in order to block out the spectacle." The reviewer said of Winslet's urging herself out loud to "gather," "It would be interesting to know if anyone has ever said this outside the Mitford family, since 1932." And The Times critique asked if her second emotional trip to the podium could have been the result of her "down[ing] some bubbly between her two awards."

With The Telegraph reporting that bookmakers say Winslet is an "absolute certainty" to win at least one Oscar following her Golden Globes success, should Winslet start penning her Academy Awards speech now, lest she make a career-ruining speech and further anger the Brits? Angelina Jolie may have come back from announcing during her 2000 Best Supporting Actress Awards speech, "I'm so in love with my brother right now!" However, while he was leaping around the stage after his 1996 win for Jerry Maguire, Cuba Gooding Jr. probably didn't imagine he'd end up in Snow Dogs.

Winslet's first win for Best Supporting Actress for The Reader:

Winslet's second win for Best Actress for Revolutionary Road

Brian Viner: Get A Grip, Kate. You're Embarrassing Us [The Independent]
Winslet Joins The Cast Of Hollywood Howlers [The Times]
Gather! How To Accept An Award The Kate Winslet Way [The Guardian]
Kate Winslet Favourite To Follow Golden Globes With Oscar Win [The Telegraph]

• In Florida, a man is seeking $15,000 in damages from a strip club after he was allegedly injured when a stripper's shoe flew off her foot and broke a mirrored ceiling above his head. • Find out how to make cocaine. Hint: The secret ingredient is gasoline! • A new rock opera titled Lovelace: A Rock Opera focuses on the late Deep Throat star Linda Lovelace's life with help from the Go-Go's Charlotte Caffey. • A recent study of prairie voles suggests that a brain chemical related to depression is found in the brain of grieving voles or voles that are separated from their female partners. • Today, a British couple were sentenced to 3 months in jail for having sex on a beach in Dubai. The couple maintain that they did not have sex and plan on appealing the case. • Matchmaking agencies that offer Singapore businessmen foreign brides are seeing business dwindle as the financial meltdown forces male clients to scale back on lavish spending. • The American Cancer Society reports that it is seeing a decline in women over 40 getting yearly mammograms, possibly due to the pain during the process. • Pregnant Japanese women visit Shinto shrines on the Day of the Dog because the Japanese believe that dogs have easy births. • A poll-dancing fitness instructor reached a settlement on Wednesday with the Adams Township in Pennsylvania, allowing her to open up a pole-dancing studio for women. • Mattel denied claims today that the Little Mommy Cuddle N' Coo doll says "Islam is the light" as part of its pre-recorded cooing sounds. • Parents are pulling their children out of a music class at Foxboro Elementary School in Vacaville, California because of the teacher's recent gender reassignment surgery. • A Japanese study claims that high levels of soy consumption can reduce the risk of estrogen receptor-positive tumors and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative tumors, two types of breast cancer. • A 76-year-old woman who is charged in the death of one of her five dead husbands posted bond and was released from jail today in North Carolina. • Doctors say that the Bee Gees song "Stayin' Alive" is the ideal beat (103 beats per minute) to follow while performing chest compressions as part of CPR on a heart attack victim. • A new study links decreased dopamine activity, a neurotransmitter typically released in response to a pleasure experience, with obese women when they eat "pleasurable" foods like chocolate milkshakes. •

For some reason, Mr. Clean doesn't seem as troubling as Gwen Stefani's bukkake-esque L.A.M.B ad, in which she whispers, "I Want You All Over Me"? But maybe her ad isn't sexist. Just sexy.

Tracy-Clark Flory wonders, if advertisers are banned from showing gender stereotypes, would they use "anti-stereotypes"? "An apron-clad man putting dinner on the table or a woman in grease-covered overalls rolling out from under her pickup, wrench in hand?" She writes: "I would love to see those images and advertisers should be pressured to upend gender stereotypes. But we all know that stereotypes are true some of the time: Some women bake, some men fix cars."

The truth is, ads are often gross generalizations to reach wide audiences. But the bottom line is: They want you to buy their product. Eva-Britt Svensson, a Swedish member of Parliament and author of the report on advertising images, says consumers can — and should— get in on the action. "If they have more information and awareness about the impact of gender stereotypes," she tells IHT, "they can start boycotting products." Seeing as how some probably find Mr.Clean harmless and Dolce & Gabbana offensive — and vice versa — it would be impossible to find common ground. But boycotting leaves the decision in the hands of the consumer. Wouldn't that be smarter — and more effective — than a ban? (And isn't banning just censorship?)

EU takes shot at gender stereotypes [International Herald Tribune]
Britain To Ban Sexist Ads? [Salon]
Earlier: Advertising Taking Cues From Porn: What Is The World Cumming To?
Bukkake Alert