Posts with tag media

New studies show that just looking at Chuck Bass and Blair Waldorf sex it up on screen, can get you sperminated. Just kidding -- well, kind of.

This is a model from the Cia Maritima runway show at Sao Paulo Fashion Week. Next to this nearly anorexic figure, we suppose anyone would look fat.

Because while the fashion industry claims to have realized the error of its ways -- denouncing ultra-skinny models, and learning to love the "real women" of the world -- it turns out those revelations must have been a passing fancy. Karolina Kurkova, a Victoria's Secret model, appeared in the same show, and response has been scathing -- just because of a little cellulite.

Stephanie Prommer is a writer, editor and stylist in the fashion and entertainment industry. She's on the scene at all the hot parties, bringing you the inside scoop on A-list style and gossip.

Stylist Robert Verdi invited an intimate group of around twenty folks (yep, including yours truly) to a viewing party for his show She's Got the Look, and while I was there he gave me a little scoop on the series. Held at Verdi's swanky Luxe Laboratory, we lounged around and sipped wine while gabbing about the field of over-35 women who are competing Top Model-style for a Wilhelmina contract.

Robert's adorable new Havanese puppy Lucinda scuttled about, and during commercial breaks we offered our opinions as to who we thought should win (Bahia was the clear favorite). As for whom his pick is, Verdi would only offer up that he loves the aforementioned Bahia and another contestant named Karin, saying: "Karin is sort of edgy, very unexpected, a little harder and a little angular. Bahia is just really sexy, without any attempt to be that. She's got a really rich, deep voice, she's got an accent, she speaks French, and she's just really hot."

And while I was there I just couldn't help asking Robert about his ever-present sunglasses-on-the-head fashion statement, and he explained it like this: "It gives me a hairline, because without it I'm just all flesh, and I feel like I look like Dr. Evil. So it camouflages my insecurity of being bald -- although people have figured it out." Aww, even Eva Longoria's stylist is insecure!

Angelina Jolie has been making headlines all week. Of course, she is a walking headline every week, and whenever she and Mr. Brad Pitt show themselves the crowds go wild. We feel their pain.

When not comparing baby bumps with costar Jack Black (key player in Twin-Gate), who is also expecting (well, his wife is), she is making the rounds at Cannes to promote their new animated film Kung Fu Panda. Oh, and she is having some fun with the media. Why not?

Ah, Carrie Bradshaw -- arguably the most recognizable women's fashion icon of the past decade. The sassy single antics of Bradshaw and her Sex and the City crew created a huge following for the star -- so much so that, even though her personal foray into fashion design has been a little lackluster, the actress' new movie is a perennial hot topic on fashion blogs.

Big news today, as the first preview for the new movie has hit the Internet. Nothing gets revealed that you didn't know already -- but it's enough to get fans even more pumped about the movie's release date: currently set for May, 2008.

Check it out!

I always secretly wonder if models and celebrities actually use the stuff they endorse -- and I'm also curious: what happens when they hate those products?

That, unfortunately, is the problem that Dora, a German supermodel, is having with Deutsche Telekom -- the phone company that features her as the face of their current advertising campaign. The model had planned to use the company's phone service, but recently threatened to go with another carrier after it took over three months to get her land line installed.

Dora became so fed up with the company's horrible customer service that she went to the press. She told Bild, a local gossip paper that "I'll give them another week but that's it. After that, I'm going to switch to another provider."

So you can take solace in the fact that it's not just you -- phone and cable companies make life miserable for everyone.

Britney Spears' bad behavior is hardly newsworthy. We know she's one hot mess, and I think I speak for many of you when I say that it takes a lot for the pop princess to shock me.

Last night when I was watching the TV Guide channel (Let's get one thing straight: I wasn't really watching it, but someone stole my newspaper that day, so I had to figure out what channel John Waters' Hairspray was playing on -- thus TV Guide Channel), the peppy blond reporter and her queeny side-kick were discussing Britney's recent blunders at a fashion shoot for an OK! Magazine editorial.

I sort of zoned out at first -- the whole "OK! Magazine editorial" seemed like a such a dazzling contradiction in terms. When the kicky blond mentioned that during said photo shoot, Britney let her Yorkshire terrier poop on a $6,700 Zac Posen gown, I felt genuinely and might I add personally offended by Britney.

Who knows what happened to me. This was probably the strongest reaction the TV Guide Channel has ever evoked in the history of cable, but at the moment, I just had to know: why? what for? and moreover HOW could Britney rationalize this kind of insane behavior?

I know I'm supposed to be concerned with Britney's child rearing instead of her dog's excretory system, but I can't help myself. She and her mutt crossed a line that I never thought she'd cross.

[read about it]

In further proof that magazines are dying a slow death, Teen Vogue, the younger, more gossipy version of its widely-read big sister mag, might be on the way out.

Ever since Condé Nast pulled the plug on Jane, rumors have been circulating that Teen Vogue was next. Now, according to a Page Six source: "Their ad pages are down and people are freaking out. A bunch of editorial staffers have recently jumped ship, including [editor-in-chief] Amy Astley's assistant, and many more are looking for new jobs."

A Condé Nast spokesperson denied the rumors (of course), claiming that the magazine is making money. And granted, fashion magazine staff are a little flighty, so I wouldn't be surprised if some of them based their decision to jump ship solely on the rumor that their jobs might be in jeopardy.

That said, a rumor that makes staff quit didn't come out of nowhere, so if you're a Teen Vogue fan, enjoy it while you can.

If the purpose of personal fashion is to set yourself apart from the crowd, Paris Hilton has succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams. According to media experts, the famous-for-nothing fashion icon is the defining image of American culture around the world, and -- especially given the international fervor surrounding her recent stint in prison -- she may just be the most recognizable person on the planet.

She's obnoxious, she's completely self-centered, and, above all else, she's really, really dumb -- so how does this person get the world's undivided attention? The short theory is, that stories about Hilton are dominate American media, and -- even in countries where the majority of news from the US is banned -- coverage of Paris Hilton still airs, making her the one consistently-seen person anywhere.

Because, like it or not, people love to watch and read about Paris Hilton -- more than anything else.

I'm sure this says all sorts of horrible things about our celebrity-obsessed culture, the declining moral standards in our society, blah blah blah. But to be honest, I don't mind the Paris Hilton fixation. I'm certainly not a fan, but you can't deny that she's incredibly entertaining -- even if we're laughing at her, not with her.

If you think the American tabloids are the most exploitative papers in the world, think again. After offering a reported £100,000 for an exclusive news story about the 15 British seamen who were recently held captive in Iran, British tabloid The Sun decided to milk situation for all it was worth by organizing a contest to give away one of the Iranian-state issued grey suits the seaman wore upon their return to British forces.

Contestants were asked to send a text message to the newspaper with the name of Iranian capital in the body. If correct (it's Tehran), you'd be automatically entered in the Armadine-suit give-away.

Pretty unbelievable, isn't it? I mean, I realize that the Sun needs to sell newspapers, but trying to cash in on a volatile international hostage situation is crossing basically every line of journalistic standards. Then again, that's what the tabloids do best.

[via bbc.co.uk]

It's not every day that major media company comes out against another major media company. Newspapers and Magazines may bicker over the details, but for the most part, the publishing industry is a unified force.

Once in a while, a rogue writer will speak out against the club. New York Times fashion reporter Cathy Horyn recently wrote a post on her blog in which she disparages the world's most revered fashion magazine, Vogue. Horn's well-reasoned beef with the Wintour-world is simple: Vogue has grown increasingly out of touch and irrelevant. She writes:

"There's way too much focus in the fashion world on money and celebrity lifestyle, and a media functioning as the new service class is partly to blame. American Vogue has made this its bread and butter, influencing what the industry thinks. Vogue is very successful and, at the same time, it's old and out-of-touch. The magazine has always done a credible job covering the arts and politics (thanks to Julia Reed), but even allowing for the fact that wealth is historically part of its turf, the magazine doesn't give you a new experience consonant with the changes in American life. It gives you old business: daughters with lucky DNA in New York or L.A. If I was an entrepreneur or a creative person in Silicon Valley, or Austin, or Seattle, why would I care?"

To me, Horyn's critique is spot on. Vogue magazine feels like some archaic social club that in no way resonates with the experience of most women. I mean, really, who cares what the Hearst girls are wearing these days? As much as Vogue would like us to believe in the essential tackiness of places outside of New York and people who earned their money in the last 15 years, I just don't buy it.

What do you think? Is Vogue out of touch?

Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour isn't exactly known for her empathetic spirit. She is, nonetheless, doing her part to seem like a responsible force in the fashion world by hosting a symposium to discuss the options for tackling the problem of underweight models.

Wintour, who has voiced her opposition to government regulation of the industry, seems keen on working toward a self-regulating set of standards for normalizing the modeling world.

I have to be honest though, the "symposium" smacks of an insincere public relations stunt. If you look at the models this old hag has chosen for Vogue's editorial spreads, you can tell that she is just as committed to the rapidly diminishing waistline as she is to fawning over Proenza Schouler's spring collection.

Call me a cynic, but I seriously doubt that Anna Wintour has had anything resembling a change of heart. (Does she even have a heart?) My guess is that all of this is out of simple self-preservation, not a genuine concern for public health.

Last month, a Swedish man named Jonathan Lundqvist returned from Iran with a collection of western magazines and newspapers, which he purchased from a stand near the University of Tehran. His copies of the Economist, National Geographic and Wallpaper were riddled with evidence of state censorship. And oddly enough, the magazines were censored by hand, meaning that groups of government workers were likely responsible for blackening in, one by one, objectionable articles and risque fashion advertisements. At first glance, this Dior advertisement seems funny -- like what in the world is Kate Moss wearing? Why is the handbag still visible? But then after that moment passes, it dawns on you that black markers, government censorship and state control is a very real part of what is like to live in Iran. And I have to say, even though I feel like Kate Moss is seriously overexposed right now with more than 14 advertising contracts, I'm still awfully glad that she can be exposed in the first place.

[via Gawker]