[Miami, December 2. Image via Bauer-Griffin.]

• Daul Kim's boyfriend was the first to find the body of the 20-year-old Korean model, artist, and writer, who died by asphyxiation. Police believe Kim's death was a suicide. Her agency has confirmed that her mother is en route to Paris. [AP]

• Don't want to wait until December 1 to watch the whole Victoria's Secret show? USAToday has video highlights, including Marisa Miller anxiously awaiting post-show cupcakes backstage, and Miranda Kerr doing a little dance on the runway to the Black Eyed Peas. [USAToday]
• Women's Wear Daily says it was "pandemonium" outside. [WWD]
• Eva Mendes has signed on to do more ads for Calvin Klein. When was the last time she was in a movie, anyway? [Elle UK]
• Valentino: The Last Emperor has been short-listed for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. [SB]
• Karl Lagerfeld, on Lily Allen: "I love Lily's humor, her cheekiness, her talent, her little upturned nose, and her perfect décolletage." [Elle]
• Rumor has it that Ungaro's two top executives, Asim Abdullah and Mounir Moufarrige (who once said of bringing Lindsay Lohan aboard, "It might work") are fighting over whether the actress should be fired or not. Her first collection for the brand was poorly received by buyers, the press, and the peanut gallery of the Internet; even Emanuel Ungaro himself called it a "disaster." [Elle UK]
• Claudia, Eva, and Helena share the new cover of i-D, like it's 1992 or something. [FWD]
• Shanna Moakler just launched a cosmetics collection. Called Smoak. [People]
• Moncler and Pharrell Williams are doing a line of clothing. It'll incorporate fabrics from Bionic, the eco-fabric company Williams invested in earlier. [WWD]
• Yves Saint Laurent's pots and pans sold for 15,000 Euros (just over $22,000) at the ongoing auction of the designer's household effects. [AFP]
• Sarah Ferguson will not be doing an apparel line with QVC. Pity. [WWD]
• Hand model Christina Ambers fell in love with Angel Rotger, one of the doormen at her Upper East Side building. Their romance and subsequent marriage cost Rotger his job, and led to them both being treated as pariahs by the other building staff, the two now allege in a $10 million lawsuit. Allegedly, the superintendent's wife got drunk and hit Rotger in the groin hard enough to cause a contusion. [NYDN]
• Here's an odd choice of knight in shining armor: supermarket magnate and modelizer Ron Burkle. Burkle has, through his company, invested millions of dollars in buying some of Barneys New York's debt from Citibank, for a reported 60 cents on the dollar. Barneys took on around $500 million in debt in 2007, when it was sold to current owners Istithmar. [WSJ]
• 100 new stores by March 31 is quite a clip, but Tommy Hilfiger thinks it can do it. [WWD]
• Gap's profits rose 25%, to $307 million, for the quarter ended October 31. It made $246 million during the same period last year. [WSJ]

• Freida Pinto and Evangeline Lilly are new faces of L'Oreal. To mark the occasion, Lilly said she's proud "to represent a brand whose ambition is to...contribute to the fulfilment [sic] and well-being of everyone." [PRNewswire]

• After long construction delays, cash-strapped Roberto Cavalli has opened his $30 million designer night club in Dubai. The floors are black quartz, and Swarovski crystals dangle from the ceilings, for that pre-recession look. [WWD]
• Designer Hussein Chalayan, for his part, sees the future, and it looks like you wearing his ugly sneakers for Puma. [Dazed Digital]
• The pop star Estelle, who recently designed a handbag, now wants a shoe line. [WWD]
• Giles Deacon is expanding his business. A new manufacturing deal with Italy's Castor Srl will allow his label to reach more than 120 stores worldwide, compared with his current 38, and to do pre-season collections. [Elle UK]
• Pharrell Williams, and Takashi Murakami. Making art, together. [WWD]
• Sophie Dahl, who recently published her first cookbook, is rumored to be in talks to present a food show for the BBC. [Metro UK]
• The Elle Decor of cokey hipster creatives, The Selby, shot Julia Restoin-Roitfeld's New York apartment. Look only if you can stomach a designer shoe collection with a total sticker price in the tens of thousands before noon. [The Selby]
• Christian Siriano, who has made Heidi Klum some clothes to wear during her fourth pregnancy, demonstrates the way not to talk about a high-profile client after the fact: "I think she's trying to cover it a little this time. She's getting older and wants to be more sophisticated, not casual. She's trying to keep it a little quiet." Klum's trainer, David Kirsch, shows the proper deference and positivity: "Why should she do anything differently? She had a beautiful body all throughout her pregnancies. She's very disciplined and dialed in to being healthy." [People]
• Sessilee Lopez credits last July's all-black issue of Italian Vogue, which featured her on one of its four covers, with "resurrecting" her career. [The Cut]
• Topshop is on the hunt for more retail locations in Manhattan. [NY Observer]
• Competitor H&M is making its latest designer collaboration, with Brit Matthew Williamson, available in more of its stores than ever before. The Swedish chain has 1,700 stores worldwide, and Williamson's summer collection will be stocked in 1,600 of them when it launches this Thursday — compared with the 200 stores that previous collaborations with designers like Karl Lagerfeld and Stella McCartney had reached. [WSJ]
• The H&M line is also Williamson's first foray into men's wear — something he might continue under his own label, if the mass-market collection goes over well. [WWD]
• Rick Ross wore a pair of Louis Vuitton sunglasses on the May cover of XXL magazine — and promptly received a letter from the company informing him they were counterfeit. "Louis Vuitton did not grant permission to Mr. Ross or to whoever did make the sunglasses to use our trademarks," wrote a miffed company spokesperson. Ross says the glasses are real, but that he had an L.A. jeweler add 14 karat gold accents to them. Which befits a style named "The Millionaire." [WWD]
• Macy's, ever neighborly, expands its inventory whenever a competitor within its ambit fails, in order to lure the bankrupt chain's former customers. [WSJ]
• Nordstrom is being sued by a group of former employees who allege that the company stole their sales commissions. When an item is returned by a Nordstrom customer, the commission originally paid the salesperson is deducted from that worker's salary — but thanks to Nordstrom's lenient return policy, in practice this policy means that items bought, and commission accordingly paid, months earlier can suddenly be rescinded. Nordstrom settled a racial harassment lawsuit with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for $292,500 last month. [Fashionista]
• eBay has won the lawsuit brought against it by L'Oreal, meaning the auction giant has no legal responsibility for counterfeit products sold through its site. [WWD]
• Liz Claiborne reported a loss of $91.4 million in the first quarter of this year. This was much steeper than analysts had expected, and the company's share price fell. [Reuters]
• If you want to fly like Superman, this leotard worn by Christopher Reeve — with reinforced slits for wires — might get you started. [Mirror]

• Rihanna was the big show-stopper at the Met Ball: Celebs cheered when she took the stage to perform. And! At an after-party, guess who RiRi was in deep convo with?

None other than Ms. Anna Wintour. Will someone be gracing the pages of Vogue very soon? [Gatecrasher]

• Have people stopped returning Lindsay Lohan's phone calls? Apparently Pharrell Williams had offered to help her revive her music career, she tells Interview: "He's an amazing guy. He's only been really kind to me whenever I've met him. He said, 'I'd love to make a great record with you, but I want to take you out of all the elements that you're used to. Let's go away. Let's go somewhere nice where you can be focused, and let's make an album there.'" Of course, she hasn't heard from him since and says: "Pharrell, please call me back!" [Daily Express]
• It seems that Kiefer Sutherland did indeed intentionally headbutt Proenza Schouler designer Jack McCollough, who allegedly knocked over Brooke Shields; Kiefer was coming to Brooke's rescue or something. Met Ball dramz! [TMZ]
• Brooke Shields' rep is saying "nothing happened to her" and "Jack did nothing inappropriate. It's not clear what caused Kiefer to do what he did." [TMZ]
• A source says Kiefer Sutherland "was really drunk and he got accidentally bumped by McCollough. They started arguing and then he just head-butted him." Hmm. Kiefer's been arrested for DUI twice. [Page Six]
• More on this in Midweek Madness, but Us magazine is confirming that star of Jon & Kate Plus 8 Jon Gosselin, 32, has been having an affair with third grade school teacher Deanna Hummel, 23. [Just Jared]
• Amy Winehouse's dad is kicking "freeloading pals" out of her hotel room in St. Lucia — her two friends Violetta and Thalia were having "all-day boozing sessions" on Amy's dime. A source says: "Amy performs for the first time in ages at the St Lucia Jazz Festival this week. Mitch knows she has to get it right." [The Sun]
• Paula Abdul is saying pain killers are to blame for when she would "get weird." [MSNBC Scoop]
• Madonna is planning a concert in St. Petersburg, Russia, but local authorities are calling it a "natural disaster" and want "guarantees that there will be no blasphemy." Ha! [Page Six]
• Victoria Beckham wears her sunglasses at night. In the rain. [The Sun]
• Excellent news: Mindy Kaling has a new deal with NBC; she'll continue to write for and appear on The Office next season while simultaneously developing a comedy in which she would also star. She says: "This is my first step in a Transformers-style way to take over the whole world." [Variety]
• Holy gray T-shirt! These pictures of Simon Cowell's new £15million mansion which looks over the Hollywood Hills are absolutely stunning. [Daily Mail]
• In a deposition regarding a lawsuit that Paris Hilton didn't do enough to promote 2006 box office bomb Pledge This, Paris says she promoted the flick "any chance I got." Her lawyer says, "She's the single busiest person on the planet." [AP]
• "Robert Pattinson 'baffled' by fans." [Mirror]
• The weight watchers have moved from Jessica and Lindsay to the King of Pop: Michael Jackson has allegedly been warned that he is "too thin" and needs to gain about 20 lbs before his 50 live shows in the UK. [The Sun]
• Details on Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard's wedding! It took place in a cloister of a convent that's a luxury bed and breakfast in Brindisi, Italy; Jake and Reese were there; guests mingled in the garden, which features a pool, wines from the nearby town of Lecce were served. [People]
• Oprah's Twitter stunt of offering everyone in America a free chicken dinner: Newsworthy. [Time]
• Speaking of Ms. Winfrey, you knew this would happen: Susan Boyle will be on Oprah. [Daily Express]
• Yesterday was Chris Brown's birthday; he turned 20 and it was "low-key." [People]
• Mia Farrow is ten days into her hunger strike for Darfur. A few days ago she said: "At this point I don't think about food. I am weaker and I am mostly in bed. I am clear-minded. I sleep less." She also says: "No one voted for President Obama with more excitement and passion than I did, but he's really been lagging and the people of Darfur can't wait." [Guardian]
• Mia Farrow is documenting her fast on YouTube. [Page Six]
• Joel Madden went on a Twitter rant after he and baby Harlow were surrounded by photographers at an airport: "Let me just say shame on any magazine or blog that post pics of us in the miami airport. The photographers were acting like animals. it was the first time i've ever seen my child scared. Not cool for any parent to see. At least in LA they gave us some space. These guys were sticking flashes in her face and bumping in to us and yelling. The most unnecessary force i've ever seen." [Perez]
• Village Voice columnist Michael Musto says Miss California USA once posed with "trannie extraordinaire" Amanda Lepore. He asked Amanda about it, but she says: "I don't remember meeting her. You know how many pictures I take!" Of Carrie Prejean's pageant answer, Ms. Lepore says: "That was stupid. She could never make a career in TV. Gays monopolize everything! She's a dummy! Now she's trying to have churches help her. That doesn't sound promising. But at least she has big tits. She can marry a high roller and have miserable kids that hate her." Musto adds: "All thanks to opposite marriage!" [Village Voice]
• Unfake my heart: A Las Vegas entertainer faces fraud charges for impersonating Toni Braxton. [AP]
• Back in the '90s, Bono wrote a poem about Elvis; it will be broadcast on the UK's Radio 4 on May 13. [The Sun]
• Rachel Weisz will star in an indie political drama, The Whistleblower, which is based on the true story of a female cop from Nebraska who serves as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia and exposes a United Nations cover-up of a sex trafficking scandal. [Variety]
• Will Ferrell is in talks to star in a comedy called Neighborhood Watch, directed by the guy who did Wedding Crashers. [Variety]
• Cameron Diaz plays the mother of a sick child in My Sister's Keeper, and although she appears bald in the film, didn't shave her head: She only needed to be bald for one day of shooting. [LA Times]
• Kate Walsh's divorce continues to be a mess. [TMZ]
• Debbie Matenoppoulos will get $3,595 per month in spousal support from her ex, Jay Faires. She currently lives in the couple's home and is responsible for paying all expenses, including the mortgage. [Radar Online]
• Shimmy shimmy ya: Ol' Dirty Bastard will be memorialized in an upcoming documentary and a series of tribute albums, all produced by his cousin Raison Allah Iceman. [Telegraph]
• Blind item! "Which very taken Oscar winner has been sending lots of flowers to a pretty fashion publicist?" [Gatecrasher]
• "There are many duos we wanted to draw from. Something as eccentric as The Odd Couple to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Withnail and I and Laurel and Hardy. It's the kind of friendship you can only have with someone of the same sex, a person you adore but who infuriates you." — Jude Law on the relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in Guy Ritchie's new flick Sherlock Holmes. [USA Today]
• "There's tons of stuff in my name. I mean, if I told you how many Facebook pages have my name on it, you wouldn't believe it. But I am going to join Facebook. I've been doing the MySpace thing a long time and I realize a lot of people are doing Twitter, I just don't want to know what people are doing every single second of their day. I find it a little invasive, but people are into it. To each their own. I don't have the desire to send out messages all day long. That's not me. I'd rather be doing something else." — Zach Braff [Time]

• Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's former bodyguard Mickey Brett might pen a tell-all or sell a TV show based on his life working for the A-list couple.

The thing is, how juicy can it possibly be? We're not talking Courtney Love-style antics with those two; it's probably like, strollers, diapers, sex, travel, diapers, diapers, sex, movie set, diapers, diapers diapers. (Sex!) [MSNBC]

• Angelina and Brad's "hot shot" attorney, Marty Singer, is calling the bodyguard a "pathological liar." [LA Times]
• As part of the trial, the court has learned that Tyra's stalker slipped into her TV studio asking to see his "very good friend." [NY Daily News]
• Parts of Heidi and Spencer's wedding had to be retaped after a generator went out in the church. Romantic! [Page Six]
• Chris Noth has indeed signed on for Sex And The City 2 Electric Boogaloo or Sex And The City 2 The Streets or whatever but Sarah Jessica Parker says she doesn't know if Carrie and Big will have kids. She also has no "clue" whether Dancing With The Stars phenom Gilles Marini will be in the sequel but my Magic 8 Ball says: Duh. [E!]
• Marc Jacobs is helping Madonna and Jesus Luz stay together! A source spills: "[Marc] wrote a letter of support for Jesus' work permit. Marc campaigned for Jesus, saying he is highly talented and a necessity to the label." Also, this report calls Madge a " well-connected cougar." Let's all get reductive! [MSNBC]
• Sniffle! According to this source, when Jesus Luz walked in a recent fashion show, "None of the other models would talk to Jesus or even look at him. They were gossiping like catty girls about how they couldn't wait for his career to fizzle out." Then they wouldn't let him play any reindeer games. [Gatecrasher]
• Casey Aldridge has been hospitalized since Sunday when he flippped his pickup truck and suffered a head injury; he will be moved from the ICU on Monday. [People]
• Rihanna is in Barbados with a "Chris Brown lookalike," which basically means the guy is black. [Daily Mail]
• "I try to be a friend for Miley," Billy Ray Cyrus says. "I know that's not everyone's parenting style… A friend, partner as an actor, a singer, songwriter and let her be a teenage girl and do her thing." Is that why you guys have matching highlights? [MSNBC]
• Uh, what? Susan Boyle has issued an ultimatum to Simon Cowell: "Let me sing or I'll quit the show." Apparently she is miffed that she has to wait five weeks before her next appearance on Britain's Got Talent. [Daily Express, The Sun]
• There are several horrifying things about this story involving Michael Jackson and his kids shopping at the Ed Hardy store in L.A.: First, the children are wearing school uniforms and feathered masquerade masks; second, MJ is wearing a fedora, headscarf, surgical mask and hideous green blazer; third, Michael Jackson's PANTS are BEYOND FUG. [Daily Mail]
• Robert Pattinson will star in a romantic drama called Remember Me, the story of a young couple whose relationship is complicated by a series of family tragedies. He'll be shooting in New York, so get ready to stalk the sparkly vampire in the gritty city. The leading lady role has not yet been cast: Who do you think it should be? [Mirror]
• In this video, Lost's Evangeline Lily talks about Jack and Sawyer. Uh, Matthew Fox and Josh Holloway. Anyway there's a nanosecond in which Sawyer has his shirt off and he is kissing Kate so click for that. [Breitbart]
• Snoop Dogg was in court yesterday, denying that he hit a dude with a brass-knuckle microphone. The guy in question has testified that he woke up backstage, naked and in a pool of blood; Snoop's position on this is that the man ran up on stage and security intervened, thinking Snoop was being attacked. [AP]
• "Intimate" pictures of Carla Bruni and an ex-lover were stolen during a burglary in Paris and apparently the "thieves appeared to know exactly what they were looking for." [Daily Mail]
• Here's a "cute" story about Justin Timberlake pressuring Jessica Biel to get wasted: "Everyone was doing shots of tequila, but Jess said she didn't want to drink anymore. Justin good-naturedly insisted, so she pulled her hair back and drank up!" [Gatecrasher]
• For $40, superfans can take a Gossip Girl bus tour of New York, and see the locations which serve as the homes and school of the characters. Just remember, only plebes take the bus. [Gothamist]
• Renée Zellweger turned 40 and Dan Abrams, Hugh Grant, Bradley Cooper, Neil Patrick Harris, Madonna, Kelly Ripa and Harry Connick Jr. were among the revelers. [Page Six]
• That dude Marilyn is still telling anyone who will listen that he was in a relationship with Gavin Rossdale in the '80s. [Daily Express]
• Pharrell Williams has been getting laser removal of his tattoos, which looks traumatizing, and now he's wearing a sling he made from a Burberry scarf. Ink removal must be really really really painful. [The Life Files, The Life Files]
• Something something financial crisis something something Aussie bank ANZ something something spent $1 million bringing Paris and Nicky Hilton to Australia for a New Year's Eve party in Sydney. [Sydney Morning Herald]
• Shirley Jones, the mom on The Partridge Family, will be topless on an upcoming episode of A&E's The Cleaner. This report snipes, "We hope with her back to the camera." [Page Six]
• Edie Falco says she would gladly do a Sopranos flick: "I don't actually see it happening, but I've been surprised before." [E!]
• The Daily Fail asked Joan Collins how she would makeover Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and Joan was delighted and thorough: "Camilla should invest in a one-piece bodysuit that hugs her figure and pulls her in at the waist. And shoulder pads are excellent for improving shape. […] A richer, honey-blonde shade, with paler highlights at the front and sides, would bring light to her face. […] Finally, Camilla's mouth is crying out for a strong-coloured lipstick." [Daily Mail]
• Don Johnson will play a "mustachioed porn director" in Born To Be A Star, the porn-themed Adam Sandler comedy. The plot? A small-town nerd learns his quiet and demure parents were famous porn stars in the 70s, and this inspires him to head for Hollywood and fullfill his destiny banging on camera. [Hollywood Reporter]
• Amanda Peet has joined the cast of Gulliver's Travels, which stars Jack Black. [Hollywood Reporter]
• Dynasty star Linda Evans is the winner of the UK's Hell's Kitchen 2009. [Daily Mail]
• A lady is suing Wolfgang Puck due to a terrible incident which occurred in the bathroom of his Beverly Hills restaurant Spago, which I'd prefer not to get into so early in the day. [TMZ]
• Blind item! "Which Oscar winner's girlfriend won't let him get to third base? She's afraid of STDs." [Gatecrasher]
• "They tried to arrest me in Russia, for leather at St. Basil's. But all is calm in the red square, as I leave the east Parisbound." — Lady GaGa. [Perez]
• "I've actually broken up with boyfriends for inspiration. When I hit a period of not being able to write music, I get up and walk away. It's pretty mean but it's true." — Lily Allen. [Daily Express]
• "I've had to end good relationships, and I know how we talked about them, and tried to be nice and everything, but I think ... maybe that bruised a little bit more on the other side than I noticed, or than it did me. Because when you flip it over, I know there were times when I was the dumpee or whatever, and I was like, 'No way am I showing her how much this is hurtin.'" — Matthew McConaughey. [USA Today]
• "Steve-O was scared and nervous, we needed to take him to the mental ward — I instructed the guys that if he doesn't want to go, knock him out, but he went and he's actually doing really good now. He's in so much a better place now and I'm really proud of him." — Johnny Knoxville. [The Star]
• "It's true that I've never had a burning desire to rebel against my parents. But in other respects I think I have rebelled. I mean, I rebelled against my record label when they wanted to shelve me, and I've rebelled against people trying to push me around in the recording studio. To me, that's always been much more exciting than going out and getting drunk. I remember at high school trying to cheer up my girlfriends who were crying in the bathroom after some party when they couldn't remember who they'd made out with the night before. You see, I don't ever want to be that girl in the bathroom crying." — Taylor Swift. [Telegraph]
• "We try to protect ourselves from being fully in love and fully open and fully vulnerable, and really all we're doing is protecting ourselves from love and real love and the opportunity to really learn and grow with another person, so it's actually really detrimental, and you think it's helping." - Pink. [Yahoo News via AP]
• "The Type A thing is a big misunderstanding. It's funny to me that I have been portrayed as a closed-off, uptight person. I'm very open. Type A is my blood type." — Reese Witherspoon. [Elle UK]

• Naomi Campbell: "Some people can handle a drink or a line of cocaine, but I've finally come to realize that for me, it's all or nothing — and it has to be nothing." [E! Online]

• Even Campbell's bons mots are more fun to read than this toothless interview of Stella McCartney. "We love your Spring collections in particular. Do you prefer warm-weather dressing?" is a such a softball it must have hit the ground with a pathetic squish. [FabSugar]
• They could have engaged the famously vegan designer on the topic of eco fabrics, for one. Pharrell Williams just launched a new company, Bionic Yarn, which makes textiles out of plastic bottles. "We want to do everything from high-end luggage to high-end denim, to university caps and gowns to Parks Department uniforms," said the star. [NYDN]
• On Thursday, there were already 15 men lined up outside a sneaker boutique in Las Vegas, in anticipation of the store's launch of Kanye West's Air Yeezy sneakers. Those don't go on sale until Saturday. "I'm having the time of my life," said 30-year-old Wesley Ramos, as he braved what UPI's reporter described as "the chilly wind chill factor." (It got down to 35 with wind gusts of 58 mph in Vegas on Thursday night.) Another man, 29, was on his honeymoon. [UPI]
• This man treats Nylon as though it were the artifact of an alien culture obsessed with headbands and ducking nimbly under the advertising/editorial cordon. (Which is pretty much how we read it!) "The art direction is first-rate hipster," notes the reviewer, on the occasion of the mag's 10th birthday, but it "is filled with enough awkward syntax to wear out a grease pencil, not to mention such errors as tense switching and missing punctuation." Twenty-six interns, and nary a copy-editor. [MediaPost]
• Uniqlo, the Japanese fast-fashion chain that's pushes an aesthetic that's like a less sexist American Apparel, is going gangbusters in the recession. Sales have risen 13% at the company in the last six months. (The chain keeps costs down by manufacturing in low-wage countries like Cambodia.) [BBC]
• A company figured out a way to provide special content just for flatscreens in bars. And what did they come up with? Images of Karolina Kurkova, Gisele Bundchen, and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy strutting down the runway in lingerie. [P6]
• Former model Donna Michelle Anderson, who is biracial, writes about what it was like to see "No ragazze di colore" ("no colored girls") signs at castings in Milan. And she thinks it's entirely fair for Michelle Obama to forgo Calvin Klein's and Donna Karan's offerings (the two American designers were among several to complain recently about being ignored by the fashionable first lady) given the two each used virtually entirely white runways casts for their last shows. [HuffPo]
• Billy Joel's wife Katie Lee spends a lot of time with the designer Yigal Azrouel, who is a) straight and b) hot. THEY MUST BE HAVING AN AFFAIR!!! [National Enquirer]

• A dude was arrested for trying to break into the Dancing With The Stars studio.

He's now got a restraining order against him because he was trying to meet Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson — but with two guns and duct tape in his car. Frightening. [Breitbart]

• The man stalking Shawn Johnson, Robert O'Ryan, says the gymnast was "speaking to him personally through the television and via ESP, and he will be with her not matter what." [NY Daily News]
• "Desperate" Britney Spears has been sending texts to ex Adnan Ghalib, according to a source. "She keeps sneaking messages to Adnan begging him to help her win back her freedom. She says she is lonely and misses being able to date the men she chooses. She feels trapped." [The Sun]
• One of the nurses fired by mother of octuplets Nadya Suleman says: This woman does not care for these kids, she's in this for the media, for the paparazzi." [Breitbart]
• "This woman does not care for these kids, that's my honest opinion," says nurse Linda West Conforti, founder of Angels In Waiting. [ABC News]
• Yes, Nadya Suleman was once a stripper. Or topless dancer. Move along. [MSNBC]
• Scarlett Johansson is the "muse" of Champagne brand Moet & Chandon, and you are not. [WWD]
• Also, people are talking about how thin ScarJo is now. [Defamer]
• Are Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz on the rocks? A source says: "He is going out all the time and she's stuck at home. It's just not working." Her rep says this is not true. [Page Six]
• Mariah Carey wants a baby, so she has dropped $200K on a pink crib, a high chair and some other stuff. Her rep says it's not true. [Gatecrasher]
• "Jessica Simpson was spotted ordering a cooked gourmet meal in a restaurant for her dog." [The Star]
• Neil Patrick Harris will host the TVLand Awards, which sounds like fun: There will be tributes to Magnum PI, Knots Landing, M*A*S*H and, uh, Two And A Half Men. [Socialite Life]
• CSI star Marg Helgenberger has filed for divorce from her hussband, actor (and SAG prez) Alan Rosenberg. They married in 1989 and have a son. [Breitbart, AP]
• Bish Plz Face Of The Day goes to Harlow Madden, resplendent in purple. [People]
• The Oscars, which have taken place in February the last couple of years, are moving back to March. [NY Mag]
• What is wrong with this sentence: The Pussycat Dolls will perform on the Kids Choice Awards, singing "Jai Ho." [Three Stooges movie. Directed by the Farrelly brothers. Starring Jim Carrey, Benicio Del Toro, and Sean Motherfucking Penn. [World Of Wonder, E!]
• Nicole Kidman's been cast in that Woody Allen film which Freida Pinto, Naomi Watts, Josh Broling and Anthony Hopkins are already attached to. [Yahoo News via Reuters]
• Canadian model Noot Seear has been cast in sparkly vampire flick New Moon. This story suggests, "Let the Robert Pattinson and Noot romance rumors begin!" [Yahoo News via E!]
• Lost's Ian Somerhalder has joined the cast of a new CW show, Vampire Diaries. [Variety]
• By the by, the Twilight soundtrack is burning up the charts; Robert Pattinson sings on it, you know. [Yahoo News via E!]
• A review of ABC's new show, In The Motherhood, which is based on webisodes, reads: "What may be funny for five minutes isn't necessarily funny for 30." [USA Today]
• Ugly Betty fans: Do you think Betty should end up with her boss? Eric Mabius, who plays bossman Daniel Meade, says no: "That would be the equivalent of us jumping the shark." [USA Today, EW]
• Courteney Cox has been shooting her new show, Cougar Town, and it seems her wardrobe consists of bathrobes. [Daily Mail]
• Here's a preview of what to expect of the new 9 To 5 musical — starring Alison Janney! Dolly Parton oversaw the casting and wrote the music. [NY Post]
• Whee! Bob Barker is coming out of retirement — for one day — to be on The Price Is Right. He'll be promoting his autobiography, Priceless Memories. I want to spin the wheel. [ET]
• Jeremy Piven's sushi case will go into arbitration on June 8. [EW]
• Click the link to see Padma Lakshmi eat a burger like she's having sex with it in an ad for Carl's Jr. [E!]
• Watchmen actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan just found out he's the father of a four-year-old son by an old girlfriend. Surprise! [Daily Express]
• Gossip Girl's Kelly Rutherford is on the cover of Baby Couture, you know, the magazine that puts the coo in couture? [Just Jared]
• Who the hell cares if Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller were rooting against Denise Richards on Dancing With The Stars? [MSNBC]
• Here is a video of Pharrell Williams singing and dancing in a McDonald's in Paris because they wouldn't serve him; they weren't exactly open or something. [NY Daily News]
• Jenny McCarthy is on the cover of Shape magazine, and says "[Weight Watchers] taught me portion control and to be conscious of what I put into my mouth." That's what she said? Anyway, she's not gluten and dairy free, not that you wanted to know. [People]
• Merengue star Elvis Crespo is accused of masturbating on a flight from Houston to Miami. A woman says she saw him cover himself with a blanket, jerk off and then expose himself. Questioned at the airport, Crespo said: "I don't recall doing that." [AP]
• Brit headline of the day: "Simon Cowell Gets His Comeuppance As Prince Philip Calls Him A Sponger." [Daily Mail]
• Put this on your wish list: A box set of Hollywood movies shot before the 1934 Production Code. "Graphic stories of scandal, adultery, prostitution, drug use, murder and homosexuality." Woohoo! [USA Today]
• Blind item! "Which mouthy actor had a waitress dump a scalding cup of coffee in his lap - right after he smacked her bottom?" [Gatecrasher]
• "Interesting characters are pretty rare if you really want to be the lead. That's the usual complaint of actresses my age, and they're not wrong. They depend on you being beautiful. Since I'm not cast for my physicality, I'm not that interested in those parts. I find that playing so many characters in so many films is a way to stay in the moment." — from a profile on fantastic, awesome actress Catherine Keener, who turns 50 this week. [Guardian]
• "Complex later replaced the pic with the Photoshopped version, causing all of this drama. But you know what, who cares! I'm proud of my body and my curves and this picture coming out is probably helpful for everyone to see that just because I am on the cover of a magazine doesn't mean I'm perfect." — Kim Kardashian on her Photoshop of Horrors. [Socialite Life]
• "I always say the younger girls have the abundance of work, but I get to play real women, not girls, who have a whole life behind them." — Virginia Madsen, who's in The Haunting In Connecticut. [LA Times]
• "Right now, I like the idea that things can just kind of pop up and if they feel right I can do them. Committing to my own sort of project, that's like, 'Okay, let me block out two years of my life and do it.' I was heavily fulfilled with the last one and I always have this thing with myself that if I can't sleep because I need to do it, then I'm gonna do it. But if I'm not losing sleep over it then…" — Justin Timberlake, who is not working on a new album. [The Star]
• "It's not black-and-white justice. It's heart-and-soul justice. That's the difference between her and a lot of the crime shows out there. These crimes are not huge. But they are offensive. And they're disrespectful. Some of them, she has to go to the law. But some of them are small, like 'Somebody took my dog!' Or 'I think my husband is with another woman.' And she pours out justice the way she sees fit." — Jill Scott on her role in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, which debuts Sunday on HBO. [USA Today]

• Detroit milliner Luke Song has received more than 5,000 orders for the spring (pink! cream!) versions of the Aretha Franklin Presidential Inauguration Hat. The original's going to the Smithsonian. [IHT]

• "Which aging supermodel is planning a fake lesbian romance to get the tabloids interested again in her flagging career?" If it's not Janice Dickinson, we don't care. [BlindGossip]
• Shepherd Fairey, designer of the iconic Obama "hope" poster, is making a limited edition tote for Saks Fifth Avenue. The best part? It's only $20. [LA Times]
• American Apparel has signed a financing agreement with London-based private equity firm Lion Capital. [WWD]
• The jersey-mongers were in danger of defaulting on $16 million of debt. [NY Times]
• Perhaps in response, the company's latest ad bears the weirdly earnest, "American Apparel is ... Jobs." As AdRants describes it, "this crucial message is illustrated by a muscly bald dude who appears to be in the stock room" rather than some barely-legal porn spread. [AdRants]
• Spotted: Katie Holmes in stirrup leggings on the red carpet. Let us speak no more of this. [E]
• Sotheby's London has recreated Versace's incredibly garish Lake Como house for a sale of his equally garish furnishings. [WWD]
• "Versace's sister Donatella writes in Sotheby's publications describing the sale that her brother meticulously picked each item to create a sensual and glamorous environment: a fantasy 19th-century villa built on the water's edge by the eccentric English lover of all things Italian, Lord Charles Currie." [WSJ]
• Said the late designer himself, "The house in Moltrasio is a Proust house, whereas the ones in Milano and Miami are more Batman...It is the house that really belongs to me, reflecting a mirror image of all that I am, for better or worse." [Telegraph]
• Phoebe Philo is rolling out her Celine collection earlier than expected, to the undoubted delight of fashionistas everywhere. [VogueUK]
• The biggest challenges of being a designer, according to Andre Benjamin? "First, he said, being an African-American was a challenge, as there's a perception out there that "hip-hop stars will just throw their names on anything." Then he added, "I'm not a gay man." Says Canadian columnist Shinan Govani: "Basically the OutKast star says his challenges included a) being black, and b) not being gay." [New York Post]
• Andre will either be gratified or pleased, then, that Pharrell Williams is collaborating with Bionic Yarn to produce fabrics made from recycled plastic bottles. [IHT]
• And that the also-vehemently-not-gay Kanye West's Louis Vuitton sneakers are going to sell for like a grand a pop. [Nicekicks.com]
• This European couple is heading the creative aspect of J.Tim's William Rast. "He's sporting the sort of vintage motorcycle jacket that would be a once-in-a-decade find at the Rose Bowl Flea Market, styled with paint-splattered jeans, an Ann Demeulemeester necklace and a bushy beard easily mistaken for the latest in hipster affect, except that he's worn his for two years. She has the look that starlets often attempt, with varying degrees of success: a black peak-lapel blazer, loose T-shirt, leggings and leather ankle boots covered with black fringe. The kicks are from William Rast, though the brand has yet to release its footwear collection." [LA Times]
• "Which model made Karl Lagerfeld so angry at the end of last season that he told her she couldn't walk Chanel ever again, even though she used to walk all of his shows?" [Fashionista]
• We're guessing not Kate Moss, to whom he's apparently joined at the hip. [Fashionologie]
• Eva Longoria's in a Nike ad, for some reason. "It features Eva Longoria, in best Desperate Housewives mode, throwing real life husband Tony Parker's trainers off the balcony of their high rise flat and then his triumph in revenge." Great. [Mirror]

• Candie's decided to take a chance on Britney Spears, and her cohort of current fans. The singer is the latest face of the tween-friendly brand. [WWD]

• Hello, viral marketing! There's already a "behind-the-scenes" vid of Ms. Spears shooting looks for the Candie's campaign, but, slightly more interestingly, it includes rehearsal footage featuring Spears in what are presumably those DSquared costumes we just heard about. There's a cool big-shouldered red jacket with swinging black fringe on the epaulettes. [PopSugar]
• Here's some news to make it worth getting up in the morning: Tom Ford, who has said in the past that he wants to do women's wear with his eponymous label, might be re-hiring Alessandra Facchinetti as head designer for the ladies' stuff. Facchinetti was Ford's women's wear point person when he was at Gucci, and she succeeded him when he left the company. But Facchinetti was fired from her position after just two seasons, and she was unceremoniously dumped from her next position, as creative director at Valentino, after just a few months in charge as well. Facchinetti is a talented designer, but maybe it takes Ford to get the best work from her? Let's hope this rumor proves true. [The Cut]
• Uniqlo had its fourth straight month of improving same-store sales, even in the midst of this recession. Same-store sales were up 4.2% in February, mainly on the back of increased patronage, since per-customer sales didn't rise significantly. [WWD]
• Also demonstrating that retail isn't entirely a scorched-earth zone these days, albeit more tentatively, is Claire's. Although their fourth-quarter results are still bad, their same-store sales rose in January and crossed into positive numbers last month. [WWD]
• This month, Forever 21 is launching a new plus-size range, called Faith 21. (The company is run by weird fundamentalist Christians, which pretty much explains the name.) [LA Times]
• Chanel, on the other hand, is closing two of its Japanese stores, and Chopard is having layoffs. [WWD]
• Jennifer Connelly wears Balenciaga in her Revlon ads, shot at Milk studios in New York. In this video, she talks about beauty. [Style.com]
• Freida Pinto might be a pick for an Estée Lauder contract. [WWD]
• Pharrell Williams, whose fashion interests already include Ice Cream and the Billionaire Boys Club, bought an interest in an ecologically sensitive yarn company in December. Which W decided to write about, now. For some reason. [W]
• Marc Jacobs donated a signed iPod to charity and we might as well pretend for the fun of it that his song list offers unexpected insights into his personality. What kind of man mixes Leonard Cohen and Lady Gaga? And then polishes the lot off with "No Scrubs" by TLC? It's fun to imagine Jacobs mouthing, "No, I don't want your number/No, I don't wanna give you mine/I don't wanna meet you nowhere/I don't want none of your time!" while sketching blouses for his collections or something. Oh, and for one last piece of Britney news: her iPod only fetched $801 at auction. [Unbeige]
• The difference between Anna Wintour, who has the dusty feel of a fashion institution these days, and Carine Roitfeld, who gives the impression she just might have a dust rag on or about her person, couldn't be more aptly underscored by the difference in the camera crews they attract. Wintour, editor of American Vogue, is to be the subject of a 60 minutes piece by Morley Safer, who first came to acclaim for his Vietnam coverage. Roitfeld, editor of French Vogue, gets something on CNN Revealed, which will almost certainly be cooler, hipper, and better, since it's cable and Carine and all. [The Cut]
• Katie Grand's Love magazine is either sold out of its 67,000 print run, and therefore fastest-selling debut magazine for Condé Nast UK ever, or it's just a lot of creative hype and there are in fact copies all over the place in Britain, depending on whether you believe Love magazine, or a bunch of anonymous Fashionista commenters. [Fashionista]
• Ever flip through a J. Crew catalog and think, 'Wow! These people clearly are a bunch of insurgent creatives, introducing mad art and design to chinos and pastels.' The impression will only be confirmed by Alex Katz's turn as a model for their spring catalog and in-store displays. Katz, 81 years young, is a Big Deal in American painting. [Unbeige]

• Britney's comeback tour isn't selling so well, and Brit Brit might be singing to empty seats. She's all: "My loneliness… is killing me…" [MSNBC]

• Fans are "stunned" that Rihanna and Chris Brown have reconciled, and are hanging out together at the Miami home of Sean "Diddy" Combs. [Reuters]
• Chris Brown was seen Saturday and Sunday, jet skiing around Miami's Star island, like he doesn't have a care in the world. [Yahoo News via E!, People]
• Chris Brown was not, however, partying with Reggie Bush and Khloe Kardashian: Apparently Reggie's best friend looks "just like" Chris Brown. [People]
• This story begins, "Sorry, Chris Brown haters. The R&B star maybe isn't quite as awful as some media reports are making him out to be." Since he wasn't out partying Saturday night. But what about, you know, how he punched a woman in the face? [NY Daily News]
• Chris Brown has also been recording tracks for his new album while in Miami. Let the terrible feeling that there will be an apology track wash over you. [E!]
• Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson ate dog biscuits on German TV to promote Marley & Me. This is not a joke. Jen said: "They're a little dry." [Gatecrasher]
• Lindsay Lohan has been eschewing pants. She's not even wearing leggings anymore. Just tights. T-shirts with tights. [NY Daily News]
• Lindsay Lohan went to Samantha Ronson's half-brother's bar mitzvah on Saturday. A photographer asked Lindsay — who was raised Catholic — if she was switching religions, to which she replied: "I'm trying." She'll be a nice Jewish wife for Sam. [Daily Mail]
• Lindsay's Facebook status says "I'm converting." [Mirror]
• Speaking of religious experiences: Madonna, Jesus Luz and her three kids attended a Kabbalah service together. [Daily Mail]
• Here's a picture of Jesus putting a "loving arm" around her Madgesty. [Daily Mail]
• Amy Poehler is in the new "comedy" issue of Vanity Fair, but there are only dudes on the cover, boo. [NY Post]
• The father of ten-year-old Azharuddin Ismail from Slumdog Millionaire wants more cash. He says the kid will get less than £20,000 for the hit flick, which has grossed £123million. (There is a trust set up for the child to get money when he turns 18.) He says: "My son has taken on the world and won. I am so proud of him but I want more money. They promised me a new house but it hasn't happened. I'm still in the slum. I want the money now, it is of no use later. Mr. Boyle should take care of my son." [Daily Mail]
• Meanwhile, ten-year-old Azharuddin Ismail has been sick with a fever and vomiting. And Rubina Ali, who played the young Latika, has refused to take off the dress she wore to the Oscars and wants "a proper bed... I have seen what it is like in America. Here, there is garbage everywhere, people get angry, swear and shout. I have realized how bad life is here. I just want to get out." [The Daily Beast via Telegraph]
• Did Katie Holmes miss the Oscars because a "punishing detox diet" left her tired and lethargic? [Daily Mail]
• Unsolicited uterus update: Katie Holmes is not pregnant. [USA Today]
• Nadya Suleman, mother of 14, has been offered a year of free clothing by Custom Kingdom. They make a onesie which reads, "I'm out on parole." Classy! [Us]
• Spotted "shouting incoherently" and "running up and down the aisles" in the Club World section of a British Airlines overnight flight from the Carribbean to London: Amy Winehouse. [Daily Mail]
• "Amy Winehouse's husband out of jail… and in the arms of love rival Sophie." [Mirror]
• Jake Gyllenhaal was seen shopping for women's underwear, but when someone recognized him, he fled without making the purchase. Poor Reese! [The Sun]
• Snoop Dogg was at the Nation of Islam's annual Saviours Day convention on Sunday. Apparently he's a member of the Nation? [AP]
• Real Housewives star Kim Zolciak has been sued by her publicist. At the same time, she is trying to get a restraining order on the guy. [E!]
• Adam Pascal, "Roger" from the orignal cast of Rent thinks Jeremy Piven's "mercury poisoning" is "bullshit." Why TMZ felt the need to ask him remains a mystery. [TMZ]
• Heath Ledger's final film, Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus, is "struggling" to get a distribution deal. [Telegraph]
• Michael Jackson has "secretly" recorded over 100 songs to be released only after his death. They will be left to his three kids, Prince, Paris and Blanket, who would probably would prefer a mansion or some cash. [Daily Express]
• Keira Knightley will star in a sci-fi thriller called Never Let Me Go, which invloves a boarding school and clones. [Variety]
• Julia Stiles is extremely interested in school reform; she feels that New York's public schools failed her. She is now email buddies with the school chancellor, Joel Klein. [NY Magazine]
• Prince Harry's instructors are calling him an "instinctive pilot." That's good. [Telegraph]
• Carla Bruni did not get any nominations for the French version of the Grammys. A source says: "Buying a Carla CD became very uncool after she married Mr. Sarkozy, especially when she started dedicating her love songs to him." [Daily Mail]
• Paris Hilton's 28th birthday bash (is this her third one?) involved Paris pole dancing for her guests at the club inside of her mansion. She allegedly told people "you have to wear pink to get in," yet no one is wearing pink in these pix. [Daily Mail]
• The executive producers of The Sarah Silverman Program have threatened to quit after having their budget slashed. Sarah Silverman herself is one of those three producers. They used to get $1.1 million an episode; Comedy Central wanted to bring it down to $850,000 an episode. Tough times? [Reuters]
• Bruce Willis is being sued for breach of contract; he allegedly quit a project he was directing without notice. [AP]
• Tennis champ Boris Becker got engaged on a German game show. [Reuters]
• Siegfried and Roy performed their final illusion Saturday night, appearing on stage with Montecore, the white tiger who mauled Roy Horn. If you missed it, catch it Friday in a one hour TV special on ABC's 20/20. [IHT]
• A crocodile park in South India is being sued by Steve Irwin's widow for using Steve's name and likeness in the park. [Hindustan Times]
• Blind item: "Which mega-star's reputation is being trashed by a tranny in Miami? The endowed lass is telling anyone who'll listen all about his embarrassing sexual positions." [Gatecrasher]
• "I love paint. I like watercolours. I like acrylic paint… a little bit. I like house paint. I like oil-based paint, and I love oil paint. I love the smell of turpentine and I like that world of oil paint very, very, very much." — David Lynch, who makes art instead of films now. [Guardian]
• "[As a child I loved] Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. And I was mad about Errol Flynn. I wasn't really interested in actresses. But strong women I always found interesting-Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn. And I saw quite a lot of British movies: Celia Johnson and that wonderful Noël Coward movie Brief Encounter." — Angela Lansbury. [NY Magazine]
• "I can't control certain things about myself. I will spend my whole life worrying about my weight. Every day I live I am on a diet. It's like being an alcoholic. For ages you say you don't need help, and then eventually you get some, and then it becomes a way of life." Sarah Ferguson, who says she overate because she was always compared to Princess Diana. [Daily Mail]
• "They haven't called, they haven't written. I keep hearing they're developing one but I don't know whether I'm going to be in it... but they keep doing (fan) polls, and I keep winning them." — Tom Selleck, on the film version of Magnum P.I. [Daily Express]
• "I was never starstruck (by him). I have not seen Star Wars, isn't that amazing... I'm sure it is (good). It's weird that I haven't seen it. We lived in a small town and the movie theatre was an hour away. And I was 12 - the perfect age to see it." — Calista Flockhart on beau Harrison Ford. [Daily Express]
• "In the past my brain would never stop. Now I'm a father the world no longer revolves around me. When I'm with Bronx, he's got my complete attention. He's the only thing that occupies my thoughts. It fascinates me to speculate on what he's thinking and feeling at any given moment. I also love to speculate about what kind of man he's going to become. He could be another Neil Armstrong or Christopher Columbus. Who is he going to fall in love with? What's his hair going to be like when he's 15? Then, while I'm fantasising about all this stuff, he'll go to put his hand in his mouth and end up smacking himself in the eye. He's the single greatest achievement of my life." — Pete Wentz. [Daily Mail]
• "I remember being twelve and thinking, I can't wait until I'm sixteen, because by then I'm going to have a car, a driver's license, a really cool boyfriend, and boobs. And now I'm eighteen, and I have none of those things. None! That was my twelve-year-old self's checklist, and nothing has been checked off." — Emma Roberts. [Teen Vogue]
• "Norah's hopeless, like a bull in a china shop. She has great potential, but she's stuck, despite yearning for more than her situation. She wants to know what happened in the past, and no one wants to talk about it. She's funny and heartbreaking, and I love her curiosity. I'm always drawn to people who are a little off the wall." — Emily Blunt on her character in new film Sunshine Cleaning. [NY Times]
• "If I had a fire in my house and could only save one item of clothing I'd never come outside. I'd burn. I don't have a favorite item as I appreciate each piece I own as a part of my wider collection." — Pharrell Williams. [Daily Mail]
• "No matter what I say, things will always be taken out of context and misinterpreted, will always be turned around to make it seem as though I won't let something go, or that I just keep talking about it over and over. I don't owe anybody anything. I don't owe anybody my side of the story. There are no sides! There is no bad guy and there is no good guy. There are no villains and there is no heroine in this story. It's just not the case." — Jennifer Aniston on breaking up with Brad. [Elle UK]
• "I know that if I eat nothing but burgers and chips, I'm not going to be hired for the parts I normally would. That might be fine one day, but not right now." — Jennifer Aniston. [Elle UK]
• "As a kid I sometimes went to work with my dad. He didn't want me to act but knew if he told me not to I'd be even more determined. He said that the rejection would rip my heart out, but I didn't believe it. I wanted to find out for myself. Starting out, my agent told me I wasn't being cast because I needed to lose weight. So I dropped 30lbs and landed Friends, only to find myself publicly chastised for being too skinny. I didn't know I was 'overweight' until someone told me. Even worse, I offended the entire Greek nation because I was quoted as saying I was not genetically thin, just Greek with big boobs and ass. I feel lucky to have them. All shapes and sizes are beautiful." — Jennifer Aniston. [Showbiz Spy]

• First Lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy is suing the bag company Pardon for using her nude image (circa '93) on a tote. The text translates to, “My guy should have bought Pardon!" [Telegraph]

• Pharrell Williams hot pink bowtie hoodie. Nuff said. [The Life Files]
• Mischa Barton: “For me, I think my favorite fashion icons have always been women of the 70’s — real rock & roll chicks like Anita Pallenberg and Maryann Faithful…I like quirkiness in people. I think Zooey Deschanel has awesome style.” [MischaBarton.com]
• Speaking of celeb style crushes, here's gymnast Nastia Liukin: "I love Blake Lively. She’s probably my favorite. You know, Gossip Girl is my favorite show. But their style is pretty different on the show than it is in real life." [ElleGirl]
• This new Love mag is sounding better by the day: now word is Beth friggin' Ditto may be their first cover girl! [Fashionista]
• This fraud suit against Kate Hudson's WildAid haircare line claims they stole trade secrets from a Cali manufacturer. [WWD]
• Diesel's latest gross and completely unappealing ad: "Pete the Meat Puppet." [Coilhouse]
• Project Runway finalist Rami Kashou is guest-DJing for KCRW. Expect a lot of draping. [KCRW]
• Zara continues its world domination with an ambitious expansion plan. [FT]
• If that spare $24 grand is burning a hole in your pocket, why not spring for the grotesque, quilted Dior phone this Xmas? Looks good with rags! [FashionWeekDaily]
• Jeremy Scott's winged, gold sneakers for Adidas walk — fly? — the line between ridiculous and awesome. [FashionWeekDaily]
• Representin': Michigan Rep. Candice Miller showed up in Congress sporting a jacket made out of recycled aluminum from an old car chassis. Thrifty and supportive! [Politico]
• Speaking of bailouts, True Religion might start making cheaper jeans! Has the denim bubble burst? [Reuters]
• Valentino's new "shopping couture bag" — which they describe equally vaguely as a “Designer Decalogue" — is in the shape of a shopping tote, but really expensive and impractical! [Style.com]
• Prada responds to the financial crisis: "We are working hard, focusing on savings, even as a mental concept...The crisis makes you work better, it makes you go to the core without too many frills." [Reuters]
• Dolce and Gabbana's makeup line launches next month. It's "rumored" that a "Hollywood starlet" will be its face. [WWD]
• Wait, we thought Tommy Hilfiger's engagement had ended (serves us right for not caring more!) It seems they just postponed the wedding and opted for a secret ceremony instead. So yeah, now they're getting married. [New York Post]
• Looks like Holly Dunlap's uber-cute shoe line Hollywould truly is biting the dust. [WWD]
• Contempo brand Mike & Chris, however is planning to "weather the recession." Us too! [WWD]
• Meanwhile, Brit teen retailer Miss Selfridge launches a "limited edition" cocktail dress line: the new trend in fast fash? [VogueUK]

• LiLo's "Marilyn Monroe-inspired leggings" (?) are "blowing off the shelves." [NY Daily News]
• Speaking of qualified designers: is Victoria Beckham's collection just a Roland Mouret ripoff? "Rumors are circulating in the fashion industry that the man behind the famous Galaxy dress — the hourglass dress that made women look like Forties Hollywood stars — is largely behind her collection. Last night, Victoria’s PR team admitted she is using the same seamstresses, pattern cutters and fabric makers as 45-year-old Mouret." [Daily Mail]
• Just go with it: Pharrell Williams is manufacturing yarn. [WWD]
• Poor Marc Jacobs: lonely, still using MySpace. “I need some photographs for my MySpace page...I don’t know how to post the pictures, so my assistant does it. MySpace makes people happy, which is cool. Also I get very lonely, and MySpace makes me feel better.” [Times of London]

• Lagerfeld's latest campaign is based on Colette's novel Cheri, the story of a young man enamored of a much older courtesan. Jerry Hall's taking the lead! [WWD]
• And other designers have discovered there are women over 40; make Michelle Obama their "muse." [WSJ]
• Speaking of Michelle, Tommy Hilfiger, not surprisingly, thinks she should choose an American designer for the inaugural ball. "And it should be of her choice. I don't think a stylist or somebody else should pick it out for her. She has great taste and I think she should go for it herself." [ET]
• Speaking of Tommy, he just signed a bunch of perfume bottles in Berlin. [WWD]
• Speaking of cologne, Coty is going to be distributing Antonia Banderas' latest scent. [WWD]
• Does the Beijing Dior exhibit sound ever-so-slightly...dissonant? "In a former factory space in the city’s booming 798 arts district, 50 works specially commissioned for the exhibition commingle with the original couture gowns by Dior and John Galliano (creative director since 1997) that inspired them." [New York Times]
• As if we didn't know we were in a recession: "Spring is awash in romantic Seventies motifs and styles: lush florals, hippie fringe, earthy tunics and eclectic accessories." [WWD]
• Speaking of recessions, more designers jump on the cut-rate Fashion Week bandwagon. [Times of London]
• Throw Cacharel on the pile, too. [WWD]
• And this Diet Coke fashion webcast — featuring Rihanna, Robin Thicke, and Cynthia Rowley — is really no substitute. [Fashionista]
• Still speaking of the recession! Fashionistas discover tailoring! [Daily Mail]
• They also discover "conscious consumption!" Or anyway, that's what Faith Popcorn's trying to coin. [WWD]
• In response, the luxury market needs to end "fast luxury," get serious! [WWD]
• And speaking of the Depression (literally), this Manhattan Boutique "1929" is giving out free soup while people browse their pricey clothes. Tasteful. [Fashionista]

[Image via Daily News]

• As per her custody settlement, Britney Spears will get to see her sons 3 times a week, with two overnight visits and potential for more: It's basically like 40% of the time; not bad. [Yahoo News]
• Britney's new songs are, um, angry. The lyrics to one track: "You know they treat me like an ATM, but y'all know that I’m too good for ‘em." [Mirror]
• Britney made a rare public appearance on Saturday night: she attended Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey's fundraiser for Generation Rescue, an organization dedicated to researching autism. [People]
• Angelina Jolie left the hospital in Nice, France on Saturday, a week after giving birth to twins Knox and Vivienne. "Angelina left at 4 a.m. in a blacked-out ambulance," a source tells E! News. "And she's now back at Château Miraval with Brad, the kids, her brother, James Haven, and Bill and Jane Pitt, Brad's mom and dad." So many people. Full house! [Yahoo News, E!]
• Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones went to rehab after being on a "booze marathon," but instead of deciding to back to his wife, he's been pining for the 19-year-old model and cocktail waitress he'd been hooking up with. Maybe he hasn't fully sobered up yet? [Mirror]

• Khloe Kardashian's stint in jail sucked! On her way to the hoosegow, a woman on KK's bus had a seizure. The bus was rerouted to a different facility, but a bomb scare at the jail triggered a lockdown — KK had to go into solitary confinement. Then Khloe was cold, so she asked for a blanket — and was denied. She had to watch videos on how to be a good prisoner and was not allowed to change out of her street clothes. Khloe served 173 minutes. [TMZ]
• Not sure why we need to know this but here it is: Jerry O'Connell and Rebecca Romijn are trying to get pregnant. [People]
• Courtney Love wrote a long and rambling MySpace blog post to "Gawker people." [Gawker]
• Frances Bean Cobain is the summer aide at Rolling Stone, but a source says: "she doesn't get coffee for anyone… calls in sick all the time and wears funny outfits." [Page Six]
• Remember how Lindsay Lohan used to live with "close" friend and openly gay Courtenay Semel? Yeah. [Perez Hilton]
• You know how all of the tabloids are reporting on Lindsay and Sam just like any other celebrity couple? Michael Musto says, "I've read things in gossip columns that would never go there in the past and realized, 'Wow, they're going there now.' They don't consider gay a dirty thing anymore. And it's very cool." This is an interesting article about why LL and Sam's relationship is different than other same-sex celebrity relationships that get ignored by the tabloids. [LA Timmes]
• Dina Lohan got Lindsay's age wrong when she was on the CBS Early Show. [Full Disclosure]
• Lance Bass has a new man, a Brazilian personal trainer named Sebastian Leal. Except Sebastian is married. To a lesbian. For green card purposes. And she wants to get divorced so she can marry her girlfriend. Messy. [Perez Hilton]
• Heather Mills is on a £250,000 vacation with her new lover, 36-year-old Jamie Walker. [Mirror]
• Carey Hart on Pink: "We talk all the time and try to stay connected as much as possible. It's a tough situation to be in but I love her to death. I miss everything about her." Sigh. Sad face. [People]
• Jessica Simpson performed her first country show on Saturday night! She was booed. [Perez Hilton]
• Blake Incarcerated is to be sentenced today! Will he be let go? Will he and Amy be reunited? [Telegraph]
• Pharrell Williams is going to be a daddy. The lady in question is a "model type" who travels with him. Naturally. [Page Six]
• Here's a twisty take on the A-Rod story you haven't heard: Alex Rodriguez is "emotionally abused" by wife Cynthia. "Alex has always been into psychotherapy, making himself mentally stronger," a source spills. "He's had several therapists. Cynthia has a master's degree in psychology. Once she found out how vulnerable he was, she got into his head. Several of us begged him not to marry this woman, but he did it anyway." [Rush & Molloy]
• Blind item! "Which newly married diva recently went bananas after reading flirty text messages from her new hubby's ex on his BlackBerry? She locked him out of their (her) house for two nights. Memo to ladies everywhere: If you don't want to know, don't start snooping." [Full Disclosure]
• You've gotta love this picture of Hugh Jackman being "held up" at "gunpoint." [TMZ]
• Pete Doherty has a new ladyfriend, a model named Robin Whitehead. How does he do it? [Mirror]
• Shannen Doherty: Looking forward to appearing on the new 90210. [UPI]
• Shannen will play the director of the West Beverly High's musical. Once more with feeling! [E!]
• DMX has been arrested. Again. That's the second time this month and the third time in three months, if you're keeping track. [UPI]
• You won't see any more of the Verne Troyer sex tape: The law suit's been settled. Small miracles! [AP]
• Darryl McDaniels of Run-DMC had two major blood clots removed from his left arm on Friday. Be well! [AP]
• Is Sean Connery refusing to give his son money to teach the young man to earn a living on his own? [UPI]
• There are "rumored lovers" on the new season of Project Runway and you can click here if you want to know who they are. [ONTD]
• Bravo has picked up Sarah Jessica Parker's art competition reality show. On American Artist, contestants produce a painting, sculpture or other artwork which is judged by a panel of experts. [Reuters]
• Joss Stone is dating Nelly? For real? [Mirror]
• Jimmy Fallon's Late Night will start on the web first. Interesting. [NY Times]
• Is Kelly Osbourne engaged? She's been wearing a ring on THAT finger. Boyfriend Luke Worrell is 18; Kelly is 23. [This Is London]
• Salman Rushdie dates beautiful young women; Brit paper asks, "Just how DOES he do it?" [Daily Mail]
• Three words: L Word spinoff. [UPI]
• Two dudes who are not her father debate whether Miley Cyrus is growing up too fast. [Newsweek]
• Kate Beckinsale's lips "fluctuate in size." [Awful Plastic Surgery]
• The new Gossip Girl ads revel in the show's scandalous reputation. Words like "very bad," "inappropriate," "nasty" and "nightmare" are plastered over the too-hot-for-their-own-good stars. [TVGasm]
• "Ohmygod. You're not going to do this to me, are you? Tell me you're not going to do this. Oh come on! It's been such a long time. Hire somebody that knows enough that we don't have to explain this again." — Gillian Anderson, after being asked why The X-Files is such a big deal. [Newsweek]
• "Lulu is very outgoing, so not like me at all. Max is nasty, mean. He came from two abused homes, so he has baggage. He has short legs and is chubby and hairy, like me before electrolysis. I've learnt a lot from Lulu. When her leg was amputated, she just got right on with her life. No self-pity. She just accepted that she was the Heather Mills of Boston terriers." — Joan Rivers on her dogs. [Daily Mail]

• You, too, can look just like Kim Kardashian! The professional rich person, TV personality and cattle-driver is auctioning off a personal styling session to benefit Russell Simmons' Art for Life philanthropic event. Which is very laudable and all — but does nothing to explain why Kim's fashion savvy has already fetched a bid of $1,000! [LA Times]
• Justin Timberlake, reluctant muse, didn't want to be the face of William Rast. Unless, you know, he was in character. Says a Rast creative director: "We came up with this idea for him to play a role as this guy named William Rast. So it isn't meant to be Justin, it's Justin playing a role, as an actor. When we explained the idea, he instantly loved it and got really into building the profile of this character." [WWD]
• Correction! Kitson says that rumors that Victoria Beckham's men's denim line has been pushed back are 100% false and that the collection will appear at holiday time as originally scheduled. [New York Magazine]

• Naomi Campbell: "I'm not a bad person...I'm blessed to be able to do charitable work and good things but no one focuses on that because I don't throw it in people's faces." [E!]
• Naomi's also doing another bizarre SoBe Life Water ad. This time dancing to "Black Magic Woman." [Fashion Week Daily]
• Is Bravo deliberately sabotaging Project Runway? Folks have been noting that the normally ubiquitous posters have been MIA in the run-up to the show's final season before departing for the dowdier waters of Lifetime. Bravo execs say it's to preserve contestants' "anonymity" but such scruples have certainly never troubled them before...[Fabsugar]
• We have to wait a endless day for Project Runway to start. But the Australian version has already begun! As one of the commenters puts it, "the one guy with the hair reminded me of a smaller, nicer, less irritating Bobby Trendy." True, true. [Oh No They Didn't]
• eBay bests Tiffany in landmark ruling over counterfeit-policing responsibilities. [WWD]
• As Scott said, the rich are different from you and me. "Like the husbands who pay the bills — anything from £50,000 to £150,000 for an elaborately jewelled creation — these women don’t give tuppence for the avant-garde. They want a waist where God intended; they don’t want flashes in embarrassing places and are bemused by garments with three sleeves. They want everything just as it always has been — at least, since the 1950s. And Paris couture survives by meeting their needs." [The Times]
• More about Dubai's new "Fashion Island", aka "Hell." [MyrtusWe recessionistas like consignment shopping! Despite its "stigma." [Star Tribune]
• In case you were wondering: Jessica Stam, the 22-year-old model known for dating both Flea and DJ AM, has now hooked up with Huey Lewis' son, Austin Cregg. [Oh No They Didn't]
• Stock upgrade dramatically boosts Macy's shares. [WWD]
• Converse debuts the video for its much-hyped Julian Casablancas-Pharrell Williams-Santogold single, "My Drive Thru." The Times of London calls the song "a three-headed Frankenstein's monster of coolness." I'm keeping mum. [Brand Week]
• Wanna predict the market? Watch the runway shows. "Although designers always dismiss the correlation between skirt lengths and financial markets as a fashion historian's fantasy, the parallels are striking. Up went hemlines to dizzying heights in the financial and social whirl of the roaring 1920s - revealing women's legs for the first time in recorded history. Then came the bear market and bare was out - except for low backs on the floor-length gowns that dropped hemlines just before the 1929 Wall Street crash." Is it a coincidence that designers are quite literally tightening belts for fall? [IHT]
• Liberty prints take the high street. [ElleUK]
• It happened on this date: 1997, Gianni Versace murdered. [US News]
• Claudia Schiffer for Ferragamo. [Models.com]
• And for Dolce and Gabbana! [fashionista]
• Lauren Conrad on snubbing Marc Jacobs: "I met Marc Jacobs when we were filming and I got so nervous when I saw him that I didn’t really know what to do. I was trying to act cool, but I didn’t even stand up to shake his hand. I actually came off a little bit too cold, like I didn’t really care and I felt kind of bad. I get really starstruck over really random people and designers." [New York Magazine]
• British biker label Belstaff to outfit Batman. [ElleUK]

• Jessica Alba popped! It's a girl. New daddy Cash Warren says, "She's beautiful." [Us]
• Brokeback Mountain: The opera. Coming soon! Or actually, spring 2013. But that's only 5 years away! [Reuters]
• There are rumors flying around that Miley Cyrus has a 22-year-old boyfriend, but take 'em with a grain of salt. [A Socialite's Life]
• Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson were seen at a tattoo studio in Hollywood over the weekend. Don't you kind of wish they would each get half a heart that is only complete when they are together? Or is that just me? [ET]
• Does Paul Newman have lung cancer??? [Daily Express]
• L.A. baby boutique Petit Trésor is always drumming up publicity for itself and claiming to outfit celebrity nurseries; today the store says the Jolie-Pitts have purchased organza bassinets ($800), Versailles-style cribs ($3,200) with matching changing tables ($2,800), armoires ($4,500) and silk gliders. They even installed two pink crystal chandeliers for the girls at a cost of $899 each. This is the same store Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes sent a cease and desist letter to, saying "Petit Trésor is trying to get publicity for themselves by telling the press that celebrities are shopping in their store when they're not." So keep that in mind. [Rush & Molloy]

• Chris Rock was pranked by being fake-arrested in South Africa for a reality show… Was Ashton Kutcher involved? [ET]
• Pharrell! In space! He totally bought a ticket for Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic! [Mirror]
• Katie Price, aka Brit "glamour model" Jordan, says she is selling her breast implants on eBay for £1 million, but I couldn't find them. [Mirror]
• Speaking of implants, cough cough, Christina Aguilera will breastfeed until her kid turns two because she loves her E-cup boobs. [PopCrunch]
• John Mayer has been driving Jennifer Aniston's cars. It's true love! [UPI]
• Heidi Montag plans to win an Oscar. Hahahahahaha. Wow. [JustJared]
• Sienna Miller's ex, Rhys Ifans, has been texting Sienna, begging her to change her mind about dumping him. [The Sun]
• As previously reported, Paris Hilton is not pregnant. We know for sure because she was seen drinking. [UPI]
• Matthew McConaughey does not have any plans to marry his baby mama Camila Alves. We'll see. [UPI]
• Patrick Swayze's TV project has been greenlighted by A&E and will start filming this summer. He continues to respond well to his treatment for pancreatic cancer, yay. [People]
• Snoop Dogg to Beyoncé and Jay-Z: "Go home and make babies. They should, that's the next step as far as marriage, having kids ... add on to the family, so hopefully that's what they'll do." [People]
• Anne Heche reached a divorce settlement: She must pay ex-husband Coley Laffoon a $275,000 lump sum and $3,700 per month in child support for their 6-year-old son. That's a lot of money, but less than the $15,000 a month support Anne was supposed to pay. [People]
• Soon-to-be-new-dad-of-Nicole-Kidman's-baby Keith Urban doesn't know what a onesie is. [People]
• Lynda "Wonder Woman" Carter found a body floating in the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. last week and told fisherman to call the cops. [E!]
• Rihanna's boobs are real, FYI. [Daily Star]
• Leonardo DiCaprio will star in Atari, about the "father" of the videogame system. [ET]
• Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic rant two years ago has not made him a pariah in Hollywood, so there's that. [Page Six]
• The dude that used to do public relations for Plato's Retreat sex club says new series Swingtown is very similar to a sitcom he pitched. Are any of you guys watching that show? [Page Six]
• Mischa Barton's new boyfriend, Rooney guitarist Taylor Locke, apparently "mopes," aww. [Page Six]
• Kate Moss pitched a fit at an Agent Provocateur party when she was not allowed to enter the bathroom with three friends. "But I'm hosting the event," she argued. Rules are rules, so Kate and her gang left. [Page Six]
• Blind item #1! "Which star of a new TV hit has Hollywood scrambling to the pharmacy? He's spreading herpes around town like wildfire." Blind item #2! "Which gorgeous socialite has a secret side to her sex life? While she's often on the arm of a guy at social functions, we hear she prefers to go home with a lady." Blind item #3! "Which hit TV show's cast members are as bad in real life as the characters in the plotline? At a recent party, two of the hot actors held up the bathroom line while cutting their own lines in the stalls." [Page Six]
• Jay Leno is trying to figure out how he can help Tonight Show veteran Ed McMahon, who faces foreclosure on his house. Here's an idea: Cash. [Rush & Molloy]
• Padma Lakshmi recently had gynecological surgery for endometriosis, but she is recovering well — she went to a benefit for indigenous people on Thursday. [Rush & Molloy]
• Warren G — known for working with Nate Dogg, Snoop Dogg and step-brother Dr. Dre — was pulled over in Hollywood and found to be in possession of marijuana, shocker. [TMZ]
• Larry Birkhead has purchased a new 10,000-square-foot, six-bedroom house in Louisville, KY. Perhaps we can stop hearing from him or thinking about him very soon. [UPI]
• Lauren Conrad and Audrina Patridge swear things will work out between them eventually. But for now there's tension. And if they make up it will be in front of cameras, of course! [People]
• "[British soldiers] are always whining about the dangers of being killed. Oh my God, they are such whimps now! The whole point of being the Army is wanting to get killed, wanting to test yourself to the limits. Now you have to fly 15,000 ft. above the war zone to avoid getting hit. I don't think there is any point in having wars if that's how you're going to behave. It's pathetic. All this whining!" — Rupert Everett. [TMZ]

[Image via Getty.]

Lenny Kraviz: Let Love rule.

[Image via AP.]

James McAvoy, oh, boy.

[Image via AP.]

Eva Mmmmmmmmmendes.

[Image via AP.]

Joaquin: Feel the flames from the fire of the Phoenix.

[Image via AP.]

Mary J. Blige: Real Love.

[Image via AP.]

Toro! Toro!

[Image via AP.]

[Paris, January 17. (At the Louis Vuitton show, where else.) Image via AP]

• Rachel Zoe is getting her own reality show on Bravo, set to air in either June or September of this year. The show promises to bring a much-needed behind-the-scenes glimpse of the secretive world of helping celebrities shop by following one of its most obscure-yet-fascinating practitioners as she goes about the...Ugh, please just end this writer's strike already. [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• But God is not altogether merciless! Stock in Crocs is in the shitter. [Rocky Mountain News]
  
• Frances Bean Cobain: the new face of Chanel? Hopefully Lagerfeld et al can make her look a little better than she does in the photo dug up here. [PopCrunch]
  
• In case you were wondering, Project Runway season 2 finalist Daniel Vosovic thinks that the contestants on the early seasons of the Bravo reality show were much more talented than those this season. We agree, albeit less arrogantly. [NY Mag]
  
• Jay-Z just bought a small London fashion house Artful Dodger, which may explain why he's been stocking up on European currency. [Mirror UK]

• Cosmetics company Jan Marini is being forced to take its Age Intervention Eyelash Conditioner off the market because it apparently contains the same (patented) ingredients as certain glaucoma medications. [WSJ]
• Writing it does not make it so: We refuse to believe shiny leggings are flattering. [NY Mag]
• Pharrell Williams to "design" a line of Louis Vuitton jewelry. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Vans is suing Sketchers, saying that only the skater slip-on shoemakers can use their iconic checkerboard print. We're sure suburban pseudo-punks everywhere agree. [NYT]
• Marc Jacobs, Stella McCartney, Jil Sander, Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Narciso Rodriguez and Versace are just some of the designers participating in a "sustainable" fashion show on January 31st in New York. Why not just make their own fall shows sustainable, you ask? [WWD, sub req'd]
• In either really good or really bad news for the gays (and the people who love them): Everyone's favorite no-longer-in-love designers of almost-campy "sexy" fashion, Dominco Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, are releasing the first ever D & G calendar, replete with naked men. The designers say that women are super into it. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Good news! No one look like they're being raped in the spring Dolce & Gabbana ads. [FabSugar]
• John Galliano's Christmas cards show Christian Dior putting hot rollers in Johnny G's hair! [WWD, 1st item]
• Luella Bartley: Ain't gonna come back to New York for the Fall 2008 shows in February. Staying home in Mother England and showing there instead. [WWD, 3rd item]
• Yohji Yamamoto: Now doing casualwear. [Fashion Week Daily]
• Christian Louboutin: Appearing on Oprah January 18th. [Fashion Week Daily]
• The first Laura Ashley store to open in Ashley's home country of Wales is closing. Wherever shall the Welsh procure their Little House on the Prairie garb now? [Telegraph]