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CNN Sees the Style Light

January 21, 2010 By 1 Comment

Yesterday I was contacted by the good people of CNN. I was lucky enough to discuss the touchy topic of celebrity body image. The subject became reheated after the New York Times posted two stories that caused a backlash.

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Christina Hendricks was under fire for an ill fitting gown. The media outlet’s fashion critic, Cathy Horyn, dubbed her a “big girl” and it became a storm of disagreement. It should also be mentioned that the article was accompanied by an obviously digitally altered photo that appeared to stretch her width. Since then, the image was replaced and the error chalked up to a “routine processing” error. Regardless, he issue was no longer the dress, but a question of Christina’s body image.

Breeanna Hare of CNN tackled the controversy by talking to people on both sides of the issue. Click HERE to read ‘Mad Men’ actress ‘big’? Them’s fightin’ words on the Web featuring comments from yours truly!

Images Via: NY Times

Filed Under: Celebrity Gossip, Fashion News, Television Tagged With: , , ,

Michael Buble Defends Britney Spears

November 17, 2009 By 1 Comment

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Michael Buble has come to Britney Spears defense as the controversy surrounding her lip-synced shows in Australia, blasting Australian journalists for their harsh criticism of Spears and suggesting that they need to lay off the singer.

He says, “You’d think she killed someone. As an artist, and a human being, some of what has been written about her is so nasty. OK, she lip-syncs her show, people know that, they make the decision if they want to go and see her do that.”

Earlier this month, Spears was forced to respond and squash rumors of a mass walk-out during one of her concerts when the press reported that fans left angry and disgusted over the realization that she was not singing live. Buble says that he doesn’t feel as though Spears should be ‘bashed by the media’ because he, too, lip-synchs his concerts, referring to himself as the ‘Milli Vanilli of jazz.’ Has anyone ever really heard Britney sing live? Without the help of the magical-music-making-machines behind her, its not a pretty sound. Trust me, lip-synching for her is the way to go!

Filed Under: "Britney Spears", Celebrity Gossip, Music Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Brooke Shields Nude Photos Brings the Cops

October 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

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A very controversial nude picture of Brooke Shields taken when she was just a young 10 years old has been removed from an exhibitions at London’s Tate Modern after police visited the museum. Raising concerns after some deemed it pornographic, it was removed after a police investigation. The police are currently trying to figure out if the picture breaks child porn laws over there.

Per People:

“The officers have specialist experience in this field and are keen to work with gallery management to ensure that they do not inadvertently break the law or cause any offense to their visitors,” a Scotland Yard spokesman said, confirming the Wednesday visit by the Obscene Publications Unit.

Artist Richard Prince’s image is of a photo taken in 1975 by Garry Gross with the permission of her mother, Teri Shields, who immediately signed her rights to the picture away. The image shows Shields from the knees up wearing heavy makeup, covered in oil, and standing naked in a bathtub. Children’s rights advocates were extremely upset when they learned the photo might be part of the London art show, “Pop Life: Art in a Material World”. They state that the image could act as a “magnet for pedophiles.” Gross he never considered the photo pornographic but acknowledges that “she was supposed to look like a sexy woman.”

Per OMG:

“The photo has been infamous from the day I took it and I intended it to be,” Gross told the paper, adding he was “disappointed but not surprised” with the authorities decision.

Jack Bankowsky, co-curator of the exhibit, previously said that he had hoped controversy over the photo’s subject matter would not overshadow the artistic interest of the work. Scheduled to open today in London, the room containing the portrait has been reportedly closed off. It is unknown at this time if the photograph will go on display.

Shields attempted to buy back the negatives of the 1975 photograph in 1981 but a judge ruled that she was a “hapless victim of a contract… to which two grasping adults bound her.” Shields career was managed by her mother at that time, who also allowed her to play a child who lived in a brothel in the 1978 film “Pretty Baby,” which included several nude scenes for the actress who was only 11 years old at the time. As a mother I can’t ever imagine putting my daughter in some strange situation like that. Art – Really? And what supposedly was supposed to be the “intent” behind that picture? A mother is supposed to protect their children, not pimp them out.

Images Via: wenn.com

Filed Under: Celebrity Gossip, WTF?!? Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

American Idol Controversy

May 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

It seems like every year on American Idol, the losing finalists fans try to find a way to start up some sort of controversy about why their favorite lost. This year apparently is no different.

The New York Times is reporting that AT&T may have “swayed” the voting during the finals of American Idol by hosting two hometown parties for fans of winner Kris Allen, during which they were showed how to send ten times the allowed number of text votes at a time. Since there appears to be no similar efforts to provide free texting services to supporters of Adam Lambert, his fans are calling foul on the whole situation and claiming irregularities in the competition’s voting.

Per NY Times:

“In Arkansas, we were invited to attend the local watch parties organized by the community. A few local employees brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested.” – Official statement from AT&T.

Per USA Today:

“FOX and the producers of American Idol are absolutely certain that the results of this competition are fair, accurate and verified. Kris Allen is, without a doubt, the American Idol. We have an independent third-party monitoring procedure in place to ensure the integrity of the voting process. In no way did any individuals unfairly influence the outcome of the competition.” – Official statement from FremantleMedia North America, 19 Entertainment and FOX Broadcasting Company

Also according to the NY Times, the show broadcasts an on-screen statement at the end of each episode warning that blocks of votes cast using “technical enhancements” that unfairly influence the outcome of voting can be thrown out. With almost 100 million votes cast in total, it seems doubtful to me that what AT&T did with a few little parties and a couple dozen phones could have had that much of an effect on the result. Glam-bert fans need to just sit down and knock off the whining and crying. This still probably didn’t have any impact on a vote that was reportedly not even close anyway. Your boy lost, suck it up and move on.

Being runner up might not be such a bad thing for Lambert anyways. He is reportedly considering a stint as the new frontman for Queen but he also wants to work on his own album. His dream scenario would be to do both!

Per AP News:

“How do you say no to being in Queen?” said Lambert. “I mean, that’s unbelievable. But at the same time, I do have my own thing to do right now, and that’s my goal. So if I could, I would try to do both. That’s the honest question. I would try to do both. I would love to perform with them anytime they wanted me to but I also have my record to do. So, we’ll see… My record will be kind of a rock-pop-electronic-dance thing. I don’t know how to describe it. I think it’s gonna take on a life of its own, as far as genre goes. There’s a way to take the glam rock of the ’70s and the classic rock of the ’70s and kind of modernize it. … I want it to be produced in a very very current, almost futuristic, way.”

Among the people he’d like to work with include Madonna, Lady GaGa, and Katy Perry. Something tells me 27-year-old California native Adam Lambert is here to stay for quite some time.

Image Via: MTV, AT&T

Filed Under: Celebrity Gossip, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Music Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,