Archive for August, 2007
The Czech Republic born supermodel and tsunami survivor Petra Nemcova has spent each day since the December 2004 tragedy trying to make the world a better place. She even launched the Happy Hearts Fund, which aims at “helping children who’ve suffered loss or hardship as a result of natural, economic or health-related disasters.”
With her charitable efforts not being enough, Nemcova has now become a vegan after learning about the planet’s rapidly depleting fish stocks. The supermodel gave up meat and dairy in February because “she wants to set an example and help save ocean life.”
Recently spotted helping out at an OCRF Benefit, Petra said: “I became quite green – I have a very strong connection to nature. I read that if we fish the way we fish, in 2048 there will be no more fish left, which is pretty soon. So it’s a statement.”
While we aren’t sure where Petra’s facts are coming from, her efforts are given a very sympathetic consideration worldwide.
August 23rd, 2007
It was a madhouse for Dollhouse Thursday when the fashion label teamed with Paris Hilton to unveil a new clothing line collaboration at the famous celebrity one-stop-shop Kitson in West Hollywood last week.
Arriving on Paris time, which means fashionably late (almost an hour, by the way), the one-time jailbird-turned-fashion muse, stepped out of her black SUV in one of her very own Paris Hilton gold paillette dresses and onto the red carpet to hundreds of awaiting fans and paparazzi.
“”I love things that stand out. I love sequins and I love bright colors so I put all my ideas down on paper and I am so excited about it,”" Hilton explained.
Always creating chaos wherever she goes, Paris had another run-in with the local police. Only this time they weren’t pulling her over–they were stopping traffic for her. Police–six black-and-white’s worth, as well as a hovering helicopter–were called in to help control a growing crowd desperate to catch a glimpse of the Simple Life star and a lane of traffic on trendy Robertson Boulevard was closed for all the star-spotting pedestrians.
Several members of the crowd outside had pre-purchased a $100 voucher to gain entry into the boutique–with proceeds going to the Los Angeles Childrens Hospital–and get personal style suggestions on what to buy from the heiress herself, who walked them through the store pointing out the items that she thought suited them best.
And according to Paris, the fans shared the same assessment of her designs. “”Everyone really loves it. It’s really comfortable, it’s really affordable,”" she said. “”It’s a dream come true to have my own clothing line. It’s just Paris style—fun, bright and flashy.”"
The introduction line is all about skinny jeans, t-shirts, flowy tops and glittery dresses. And we all know Paris is known for wearing designer duds, but these aren’t at designer prices. You can buy your very own Paris t-shirt (seriously, with her name and face on the front) or tops emblazoned with her apparent motto “”Luv Thy Self”" for only $34, up to $140 for a dress.
The 20-piece collection is chalk full of stretchy skinny jeans in silver and dark denim ($88), bright and billowy silk charmeuse tops ($88), cotton tees, and gold and silver paillette tops and dresses. It’s all about mixing, matching and layering.
Deke Jamieson, senior vice president of marketing for Paris Hilton for Dollhouse, said in his experience Paris is the most marketable celebrity and her sense of style is truly unique. “”This whole thing is inspired by Paris—her closet. She has been so involved in this entire process—from the design component, to putting scrapbooks together, from putting together materials and fabrics, from going shopping with us, she’s so inspirational… we’d be at her house at midnight, two o’clock in the morning going over the products,”" he said.
From late-night outings with Britney Spears and buying new puppies to behind bars and laying on the beach in Malibu, who knew Paris had so much time on her hands?
But this collection, Jamieson said, is all about work and play. “”This whole idea is to be right in her closet to your closet. So every possible, conceivable place you want to go, you’re going to have the right clothing for it,”" he said.
Kitson owner Frasier Ross is expecting the line to sell out in the store. Even in its first few hours online, Kitson already sold 100 pieces. “”The line is Paris. She’s a fashion walking hanger, she’s a fashionista,”" Ross said.
A huge fan of Kitson herself, even though she now knows where to buy her own clothes, Paris has never needed an excuse to come into the store. According to Frasier, she loves the shop’s accessories, headbands, and another celeb’s line—L.A.M.B. by Gwen Stefani. Even other celebrities are getting in on the Paris clothing line fanfare. Frazier said just the other day Rihanna’s stylist bought the songstress a Paris Hilton plaid button-down for a photo shoot.
“”She’s been such a supporter of Kitson over the years and we want to support Paris like she has supported us. You know, the Paris fans relate Paris to Kitson, so it is the perfect place to launch it. And this is Robertson Boulevard where the paparazzi are, and the fans come when they get off the airplane and they can feel comfortable in this store,”" he said.
Paris also discussed other matters in her life. When asked if she’d be designing some maternity wear for her famous pal and Simple Life co-star Nicole Richie, she said she hasn’t thought about that yet. And the pending sale of her Hollywood Hills home: “”It’s really an incredible house. I had a great time there, but I need some privacy.”"
Kitson will display a new Paris collection every month, and in the spring Dollhouse will introduce the first Paris Hilton activewear collection. And for those of you who can’t make it from around the world to Kitson, the Paris Hilton collection will also be sold at Macy’s and Nordstrom.
-Andrea Simpson
Special to Hollywood.com
August 23rd, 2007
PARIS Hilton has settled a multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed by a rival socialite who accused the heiress of planting defamatory stories about her in a gossip column, officials said today.
Hilton, who was at the centre of a worldwide media frenzy in June after she was sent to prison for violating probation, had been sued for $US10 million ($12.4m) by actress Zeta Graff, according to court documents.
Jury selection for a civil trial was due to get underway next Tuesday but officials at Santa Monica County Court said the case had been resolved.
“It’s been settled,” a court clerk said.
No further information about the details of the settlement were revealed. It was not clear how much, if anything, Hilton had paid to settle the case.
The settlement headed off a potentially embarrassing court trial for Hilton, who emerged from prison earlier this year declaring that she was determined to change her party-loving lifestyle.
Graff had filed her suit in 2005, alleging Hilton was the source for a story which appeared in the gossip pages of the New York Post claiming that she had attacked her in a London nightclub.
The story alleged Graff attacked Hilton in a jealous rage while the socialite was dancing with her then fiancee, Paris Latsis. Latsis reportedly dated Graff for two years.
From correspondents in Los Angeles
-Herald sun
August 23rd, 2007
It would be naive to say models are getting younger:Gemma’s first Prada ad came at fifteen; Gisele’s been booking since junior high.
Still, with the renewed talk model health and the restrictions of teenage girls on the runway, it’s amusing to see how many huge girls are still taking algebra.
The most obvious example is Tanya D., who was allowed to walk at fifteen because she had a chaperone backstage (and who, let’s face it, was born for this). Likewise to Chanel Iman, who finally turned seventeen this season.
But in September, there will be some new kids in the hall – sorry, we mean tents.
Anabela Belikova (left) just turned sixteen – and just got promoted from IMG Development to their Women’s Board. Her work has earned it, since she snagged a Balenciaga campaign and a Marc Jacobs crush – not bad for a beautiful girl born on the ’90s.
Also promoted to IMG Women: Irina K, the waify cutie that British Vogue weirdly called out to signal The Return of the Woman. Not quite – especially since Irina is also still prom-aged.
Stay tuned for them on the catwalk next month, and if you see them backstage, maybe offer to help them with their homework?
August 21st, 2007
Amid concern over the frenzy of entertainment internet blogs and tabloids competing for inside information on Gibson’s tirade during a drunk-driving arrest and Hilton’s days in jail, state lawmakers have taken steps to clamp down on some forms of chequebook journalism.A bill currently going through the Legislature will – if passed – make it a crime for law enforcement or court employees to profit by releasing confidential information gathered in criminal investigations or unauthorised photographs of people in custody.
The proposed legislation – which was requested by controversial Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, whose staff dealt with Gibson and Hilton – has outraged the media in the golden state. Tom Newton, general counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association said the measure would whittle away press freedoms for the convenience of celebrities.
“It’s the Paris Hilton and Mel Gibson Protection Act,” he told The Los Angeles Times.
“Fundamentally, it attempts to regulate news gathering and criminalise it.”But proponents said outlawing celebrity leaks and punishing public employees who take cash from the media was a necessary move to restore faith in the state’s justice system following allegations of law enforcement officials providing prohibited information for cash
Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, who introduced the bill at Sheriff Baca’s request, said the digital media age and obsession with celebrity news made the law a necessity. “I felt it was important to help law enforcement to maintain the integrity of the criminal justice system,” she said.
“So-called traditional media (have) obtained information and pictures through official channels and via the Public Records Act.
“The new Internet media and others have recently been attempting to circumvent the system by offering law enforcement officials money for information and pictures of celebrities.”
Ms Brownley said the bill would not quash acts protected by state whistle-blower laws, including the release of information involving allegations of improper activity by government agencies or officials. Sheriff Baca’s office is investigating the leak of Gibson’s police report to LA celebrity news agency blog TMZ after the star’s arrest in July last year – which subsequently made headlines around the world.
“When we arrested Mel Gibson we lost control of the information and it ended up on a blog,” Baca said.
“The question is whether that was done for profit or gratuitously.”
The investigation has not found evidence that police documents and information in Gibson case was released to TMZ for financial gain.
TMZ published parts of a deputy’s account of the actor-director spouting anti-Semitic remarks as he was being arrested for drink driving in Malibu.
The bill would make it a misdemeanor for those entrusted with such material to receive financial gain in exchange for confidential information obtained in a criminal investigation or to solicit or offer financial compensation for such information.
The ban would include “any unauthorised photograph or video taken inside any secure area of a law enforcement or court facility”.
Sheriff Lee Baca said the law was a necessity in an age when a photo of a jailed Paris Hilton could have reportedly fetched up to $US500,000 ($A620,00).
“It was like putting a bounty on her,” Baca said.
No photographs have been published of Hilton in her cell during her 23-day sentence at LA’s Century Regional Detention Facility Hilton for violating the terms of her probation on alcohol-related charges of reckless driving.
Sheriff Baca said he was concerned about confidential information being sold even if it was not about celebrities.
“We in law enforcement have a tremendous amount of information (and providing it to anyone) for profit is wrong,” he said.
Recently allegations of California law enforcement officials releasing confidential information have made headlines in the US.
Hollywood private investigator Anthony Pellicano, who was recently charged for illegal wiretapping, alleged that he paid members of law enforcement agencies for confidential information while doing background checks in cases involving celebrities, including comedians Garry Shandling and Kevin Nealon.
In another incident, an Los Angeles Police Department investigation determined last month that one of the agency’s officers used a mobile phone to shoot video of the rapper known as The Game as he was held in a jail cell after being arrested.
The video, provided to TMZ, showed the entertainer bragging and waving a wad of money.
TMZ posted the video May 12, the day after police arrested the rapper at his Glendale home on suspicion of making criminal threats.
Investigators said the unidentified officer insisted that he provided the video to TMZ for fun and they had not found any evidence that the officer was compensated.
By Peta Hellard in Los Angeles
August 21st, 2007
Hotel heiress Paris Hilton launched a post-jail media make-over, vowing to shed her party-girl image and prove she is a changed person after serving three weeks behind bars for violating probation in a drunken-driving case.
“I’m a good person. I’m a compassionate person. I have a big heart. I’m sincere, and they’ll see,” Hilton told People magazine in excerpts published on Wednesday from her first interview since getting out of jail Tuesday in Los Angeles.
Appearing later on CNN’s Larry King Live show, the 26-year-old multimillionaire said she felt bad that many of her former fellow inmates would end up back on the streets, and back in trouble, because they lack family or support systems.
“I want to help set up a place where these women can get themselves back on their feet … kind of a transitional home,” she said. “I know I can make a difference.”
Hilton acknowledged she has long enjoyed the Hollywood party scene but added, “it’s not going to be the mainstay of my life anymore.”
“I’ve definitely matured and grown a lot from this experience,” she told King. “I could be a more responsible role model.”
She spoke in both interviews about why she was briefly released to home detention after just three days in jail — a move swiftly overruled by a judge after a public outcry over whether she was given special treatment.
“I was basically in the fetal position, basically in hysterics … and having severe anxiety and panic attacks,” Hilton said in the People interview.
She told King she has suffered from claustrophobia since childhood, and in jail was forced to just “deal with it.”
“I read letters, I wrote in my journal, and I would just close my eyes and pretend I was somewhere else.”
Michelle Nichols , Reuters
August 21st, 2007
Supermodel KATE MOSS threw a diva-like strop when she saw GIRLS ALOUD star SARAH HARDING on her table in the VIP section of the V Festival.
Indulging in the kind of hissy fit only a supermodel can throw, Kate then reportedly moaned: “Who are these people?
“There’s too many of them. I’m not going in there, no chance. Get them out.”
The Daily Mirror then claims Kate’s staff removed
Sarah and her friends so Kate could sit where she wanted.
A source told the paper: “Sarah looked really upset and scurried off to lock herself in the toilet.”
However, Kate was not done throwing a wobbly and stormed off herself after spotting an official photographer around the table. Swearing “like a trooper”, the model then disappeared with her entourage.
Once staff managed to coax Sarah out of the loo and back to the seat she managed to calm down, according to insiders. Kate returned later but the two were kept apart on separate tables.
The source added: “Organisers made sure there was always a table between them and Sarah was kept away from Kate who was giving her evil looks all night.”
August 21st, 2007
Naomi Campbell, who rose to fame in the international fashion world after appearing on the cover of Vogue at the age of 17, has accused magazines of “sidelining black beauty”.
Campbell, 37, said she was so dismayed by the dearth of black models on the front of glossy magazines that, two decades after her Vogue debut, she was planning to set up an agency in Kenya to redress the imbalance.
The model, from south London, became one of the fashion industry’s most famous faces in the Nineties and appeared on the front of British Vogue seven times following her debut shoot in 1987.
But since she appeared on its front cover in August 2002, no other black model has been similarly promoted. Speaking during a trip to Nairobi, Campbell said: “Black models are being sidelined by the major modelling agencies. It is a pity that people don’t appreciate black beauty.
“Even myself, I get a raw deal from my own country in England. For example, I hardly come on the front pages of the London Vogue magazine. Only white models, some of whom are not as prominent as I am, are put on splash pages. I don’t want to quit modelling until I find that black models get equal prominence and recognition by the world media,” she said.
Adenike Adenitire, editor of the women’s supplement for New Nation, a newspaper for Britain’s black community, said she felt models with light skin were more likely to advance their careers. In 2005, the singer Beyoncé Knowles was caught up in a controversy after appearing on the front cover of Vanity Fair, when some accused the magazine of airbrushing the image to make her skin appear lighter, an allegation Vanity Fair vehemently denied. Adenitire said: “I would say a lot of black girls do not get certain breaks, not because they are not great models but because they are black. You don’t really see black models on the front covers of mainstream magazines in Britain, especially darker-skinned models. The black models you do see tend to have features that are less ethnic, more Anglicised. It is far more common to see black faces on front covers in America and women who have very ethnic features.”
Anya James, 20, a black model from London and a former contestant on channel Five’s reality show, Make me a Supermodel, said Campbell’s words rang true. “From my experience as a black model, I have to work 10 times as hard. For example, at castings, I make sure I look 110 per cent and that I’m on my best form. You hardly ever see a black model in the public eye, but no-one seems to be speaking up about this imbalance,” she said.
Select Model Management, owned by Tandy Anderson, who is among the top 50 most influential black businesswomen in a list published by New Nation next week, said: “We have some very successful black models on our books such as Nadine Willis, who was the first black girl to get a Gucci contract. Nell Robinson, another of our top black models, has appeared in campaigns for Victoria’s Secret and Rimmel and is shooting for H&M.”
Top black models
* IMAN
Born in Mogadishu, Somalia and married to David Bowie, she is the daughter of the Somali ambassador to Saudi Arabia and was recruited by the American photographer Peter Beard.
* TYRA BANKS
The Californian talkshow host came to prominence at 17 when she was put on the books of Elite modelling agency. But she was rejected many times before making her breakthrough in commercial modelling. Now known as a judge of the reality television show America’s Next Top Model.
* ALEK WEK
From the Dinka tribe of southern Sudan, she came to England with her family seeking political asylum. She studied fashion technology in London and was discovered by the Models One scout Fiona Ellis while attending a party.
By Arifa Akbar
August 21st, 2007
Our correspondent wonders at what point ‘boundary-pushing’ fashion shoots cross into questionable taste
First, the story of one particularly unhappy day in the life of a British fashion magazine editor who was sacked not that long ago over some supposedly controversial images. The images in question featured a nudist camp in America, the setting for an “accessories story” in which a handful of tanned yet nevertheless buck-naked nudists posed with Louis Vuitton handbags and Gucci watches.
On the day of publication, Karl Lagerfeld called the editor and congratulated her on her vision and daring. The magazine’s readers fired off enthusiastic letters – why weren’t more fashion magazines using real people in their publications? But for the publishers, the nudist camp shoot was a step too far into forbidden and dangerous territory. It was outrageous, they said, to publish pictures of naked men and women in a fashion magazine.
The editor was sacked and half the staff left with her, indignantly mindful of what was and continues to be published in every other fashion magazine without comment: photographs of perfectly formed naked women. What had really offended the publishers, perhaps even only on a subconscious level, had not so much to do with nudity. Rather, it was the flabby torsos and lumpy bottoms of the impromptu Californian models.
These are the kinds of tugs of war that go on behind the glossy veneer of Planet Fashion. On one side there are photographers and art designers who harangue their editors to “push back the boundaries” of conventionality. On the other are nervous publishers, the literal-minded main-stream press and, increasingly, politicians who in the UK have decided that the fashion industry is responsible for the psychological development and self-esteem of impressionable young women.
Not so in France and Italy. This summer Italian Vogueventured into controversial territory. A 50-page shoot by the American photographer Stephen Meisel takes “Rehab” as its theme and depicts some models writhing mock-tortuously in baths and shaving their heads in front of mirrors. It is what Italian Vogue’seditor, Franka Sozzani, calls “a fun take on rehab chic”.
In Britain it is questionable whether “supermodels go to rehab”, which dramatises the rocky drug-and alcohol-prone lives of celebrities, would ever have seen the light of day. Ten of the world’s best-known models
do a passable imitation of what Vogue imagines might go on inside a drug rehabilitation unit. They feign cold turkey on asylum beds; they are dragged down hospital corridors by pretend, fabulously good-looking hospital staff; they suck on a soothing cigarette in what one assumes are cold baths and they do yoga naked.
It is slightly silly amateur dramatics but one doubts that British opinion-makers would be able to fathom the funny side – inevitably this would be interpreted as yet another case of the fashion industry glamorising drug addiction.
The outcry over another Italian Vogue shoot, inspired by the “war on terror”, upset the English press – though not the Italian – so much that academics such as Joanna Bourke, professor of history at Birkbeck College, London, were wheeled out to write angry analytical reproaches. “The terrorist threat [in the photographs] is an unreal woman,” Bourke wrote. “In contrast to the security personnel depicted, she is placed beyond the realm of the human. Her skin is as plastic as a mannequin’s, her body is too perfect, even when grimacing in pain.” All true, most of us would agree. But to paraphrase the private thoughts of any regular magazine reader, what did Bourke expect? It is what magazines do.
Franka Sozzani was perplexed at the reaction and argues that the current rehab shoot is not offensive. “It’s more of an opinion,” she says, and one is forced to think back 30 years ago when magazines such as Oz and Nova published images that were far more provocative than anything in Vogue today.
Has fear of causing offence squashed creativity and debate? “Nobody in Italy complained to me about any of the shoots we’ve done. We did have a woman writing to us from France after we ran a similar fashion shoot based on cosmetic surgery but I don’t see how these photographs would be encouraging people to go into rehab. I always think it’s astonishing that you can be rich and famous and have everything and then need to destroy your life. We are not advocating anything here.”
Anyway, Sozzani detects a note of inconsistency in the British attitude. “I’ve seen English magazines and they are much more vulgar than what we publish in Italy.” Of the men’s market in the UK, she says: “There are pictures of naked people in sexual poses that we just wouldn’t run in Italy. People are really unshockable these days. These images are really demeaning and nobody says anything.” Robin Derrick, creative director of British Vogue, defends British magazines and tells the story of one sexually explicit photographic shoot, commissioned and starring a very famous model. “It was her idea but we pulled it because there was a taste issue. It’s complicated.
“We are an aspirational magazine and quite powerful, and with that power comes responsibility. On the other hand, we’re not policed by the tabloids and it’s a debate that I’m slightly tired of. We have people saying to us ‘why don’t you photograph any normal people in normal clothes that everybody can afford?’ And I say, would anybody read it? The answer is no.” There are, of course, instances in which fashion editors or photographers are led astray by lack of talent or boundary-smashing agendas. Plenty of revolting images are published every month – David Beckham smeared in baby oil for GQ, for instance – and some truly inappropriate ones.
In 2004, a Tel Aviv fashion house, Comme il Faut, shot its summer catalogue based on the theme of “women cross boundaries”. A fortnight after two Palestinians were killed in violent demonstrations, the firm’s editor was defending her decision to contrast beauty, femininity and fashion with a “concrete wall of insult, ugliness and humiliation” on the grounds that the resulting photographs would “create a dialogue around the borders”.
When a reporter subsequently questioned this statement, she replied: “You’re a man, you wouldn’t understand.”
credits- Stefanie Marsh(The Times)
August 16th, 2007
Paris Hilton and Nicky Hilton are reportedly offering their hosting services for New Year’s Eve celebrations in Las Vegas – but with a $500,000 price tag.Paris is said to have asked for just $100,000 for the night’s appearance last year but with her sister, and after her jail-time, her price has gone up.
A Las Vegas source told the New York Post: “Paris and Nicky are shopping their partying ways to Vegas at the price of around $500,000 – only they have the guts to ask for that amount – for a multiple-day New Year’s Eve bash.”
“Paris will ‘party’ at a few spots and Nicky will bless the lucky host with a fashion show of her wares and model herself.”
But the source added that it’s unlikely that anyone will take them up on the deal because the tide is turning against the heiresses: “[the Hiltons] are so desperate now, they should be paying the clubs for good PR, not the other way around.”
August 16th, 2007
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