Cele|bitchy

Jennifer Aniston covers Red Mag, jokes about having George Clooney’s babies
Fergie’s alleged “plastic surgery makeover” cost $30,000: was it worth it?
Does anyone care that Kate Middleton isn’t a virgin?
Spike Jonze is trying to win back Michelle Williams’ heart
Reese Witherspoon covers the May issue of Vogue (a preview)

Jennifer Aniston covers Red Mag, jokes about having George Clooney’s babies

Posted: 10 Apr 2011 08:20 AM PDT

Jennifer Aniston is the latest cover girl for the UK magazine Red - and how. You know, I never thought I'd say this, but Jennifer is much, much prettier in candids than this posed and presumably Photoshopped cover shot. Her nose looks huge, her mouth looks puffy, and the whole thing is just… unfortunate. I also feel like this shot - and the accompanying interview - is dated and budget. Aniston chopped off her hair nearly two months ago, and yet the shot has her with long hair? And dear God if the interview isn't one of the most cloying and sycophantic things I've ever read. The writer refers to her as "The Most Beautiful Everywoman In The World." Ugh. You can read the full thing here (I wouldn't recommend it if you just ate), and here are some of the highlights:

Jennifer Aniston is in bed. It's 11am and she's chatting to Red from underneath her duvet in her Beverly Hills home. You can't blame her. Newly flown home from a punishing promotional tour of Europe for her latest twinkling rom-com Just Go With It (where she unveiled a new shorter, brighter haircut), the star is understandably jet-lagged and exhausted. 'I'm like a dead man walking,' she says.

Only one thing for it, take to the comfiest room in the house. 'There's a lot of down pillows,' she confesses. 'I'm a pillow girl, so I can create the closest thing to a cloud that I can.'

On her perfume, Jennifer Aniston: The Perfume: 'I tried to collect all of the smells that I love in a bottle,' she enthuses. 'I kind of layer things on, whether it's lotions or serums and oils – all the things you lather up when you get out of the bathtub and pamper yourself, all the things that make you feel really clean, sexy, sensual and refreshed. It took a while, but I think I got there and I'm very proud of the result. It's a wonderful experience to work in a perfumery and create something unique.' She ponders her very favourite smell of all time and alights on a surprisingly less foamy aroma. 'I love the smell of a fire going,' she decides. 'Walking up to a house and you can smell the fire coming out of the chimney. That's extraordinary. That, and the smell of cherry blossoms. Or jasmine when you're coming home at night in the summer time.' When, you wonder, does she think a man smells at his best? 'At the beach,' she smiles. 'Just anywhere on the beach.'

Aniston on her inspiration: 'that I get to do what I love to do, which is entertain. It's essential to me.' It's a talent that has made her one of the most influential women in Hollywood, with a personal fortune estimated by Forbes in 2007 at $110million. 'The real core of everything is the work, and I will protect it – and myself – like a momma lion protects a cub,' she says. 'When I get down to business, I'm extremely focused.'

On making so many rom-coms: 'You know what? I think people just want to laugh,' she decides. 'There's so much going on in the world right now weighing heavy on everybody's minds and hearts, that you want to just get out there and disappear and be silly and have a laugh. At other people just being silly.' She's more than happy with her role as the bringer of that lightness. 'I'll sign up for that!' she laughs. 'I'll bring you your order of light, coming up. Well, I'll do my best. I always just do my best.'

The interviewer tells Aniston that she handles her fame with so much grace: 'Oh,' she says, startled. 'Thank you, that means a lot to me. I try. Fame is an odd beast. Because it's not real. There's nothing real about it. Sometimes, you wake up and think, "I don't know if I'm as big as this beast. Will today be the day when it gets me?" Because you're only one person like everybody else, with veins and a heart, and yet you're projected as almost superhuman. There's certain things that come with that – cameras in your face, lies, rumours, the part of you that wants to give and the part you have to keep desperately to yourself. Because there's so much that's picked at or taken or wanted.'

Dating: At 42, Aniston is 'extremely relaxed' about her single status. Attempting to meet a partner in paparazzi-peppered Hollywood is, she says, 'ridiculous', but she negotiates the landscape as normally as she can. 'You have to normalise it!' she hoots. 'You would die otherwise. But no, I'm not a big fan of dating. I have dinner with male friends and it's instantly, "that's the new man". The phone is ringing off the hook from your publicist saying, "Did you have dinner with so and so?" and it's "yes, I did and no, I'm not". So you sort of just meet people.'

The interviewer suggests Aniston run off with George Clooney and they have babies: I suggest to Aniston that there are two people who endure this pressure for marriage/kids more than anyone else in showbiz: herself and George Clooney. So perhaps she and George should run off together, get married, have three kids in rapid succession and then the world would finally shut up. Aniston laughs uproariously. 'That would definitely shut up the world!' she guffaws. 'I could call up George, say, "Hon, let's just get hitched and have kids…" I should take George to lunch and we can figure out how to put an end to all this… Ha! Well… No.'

On friends: 'Where would you be without friends?' she concludes, without a hint of comic intention. 'Where would you be without people to pick you up when you need lifting? As we know, myself and a lot of my friends, we've come from homes that were far from perfect, so you end up almost parent and sibling to your friends, and vice versa. Your own chosen family. There's nothing like a really loyal, dependable, good friend. Nothing.'

Best book: 'The Brain That Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge. A brain science book that I loved.'

Best film: 'Terms Of Endearment.'

Best stress-release: 'Laughter.'

Best TV show: 'Friends. I'm teasing! Seinfeld.'

Best designer: 'That's impossible! I love so many.'

Best way to spend a weekend: 'With your nearest and dearest. You know me, I always love a little beach getaway. I'm a creature of habit and I just love the sound of the ocean. A place where you can go and throw it all away.'

Best friend: 'So many. I couldn't do that! I'll say "me".'

Best thing in life: 'Like I said, your friends. Your real friends. And boy, it hurts us so much when we find out otherwise.'

[From Red]

Yeah… I know some of read this interview and thought "Oh, she sounds fine" or "Poor Jen, I love her!" But honestly, if I was forced to be friends with her or interact with her for any length of time, I would be homicidal/suicidal.

Re: the Clooney stuff… she should have just laughed it off and made a real joke, like "Ha, I'm not kinky enough for old George" or "Yeah, I'm not tranny enough for his tastes." Instead it feels like… Aniston thinks Clooney is all over it and SHE is the one shutting it down. Who thinks that's the real dynamic?

Cover courtesy of Red, additional pics by WENN.

Fergie’s alleged “plastic surgery makeover” cost $30,000: was it worth it?

Posted: 10 Apr 2011 07:50 AM PDT

A few weeks ago, there were some new photos of Fergie, celebrating her birthday in Las Vegas. It seemed like Fergie had purchased herself a new face for her birthday, although her husband Josh Duhamel claimed that her drastically new look was the result of "new lipstick." Ha! Anyway, these are some photos of Fergie and Josh at a benefit for the Red Cross. Fergie's face is still looking… different. But she looks good, I'm not saying that. I'd even dare to say that Fergie got a appropriate work done - she doesn't look scary and frozen-faced, she just looks "refreshed" and "younger".

As for what Fergie may or may not have gotten done, Star Magazine got some plastic surgeons to talk about what they think might have happened. According to one, Fergie has had an estimated $30,000 plastic surgery makeover. NYC plastic surgeon Dr. Mark Schwartz (who doesn't treat Fergie) claims that she's had a brow lift, eyelid lift and filler in her cheeks: "Fergie's forehead looks tighter, her jaw line is sharper, she looks fresh-faced and years younger because her skin is so taut and smooth, and it creates a well-rested look." Another plastic surgeon suggests that Fergie has gotten Botox injections in her eyebrows, and thinks she also got a chemical peel.

By the way, I don't know who designed Fergie's dress, but it's cute. Paris Hilton was also at this event (I don't care enough to put photos up of her), and she was wearing a ball gown. I think Fergie looks totally appropriate for the event.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Does anyone care that Kate Middleton isn’t a virgin?

Posted: 10 Apr 2011 07:14 AM PDT

I'm old enough to remember how out-of-touch the royal family was in the 1980s. Yeah, I was just a kid (a toddler for the early 1980s), but I still have vivid memories of the early days of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's marriage. One specific memory: everybody making a big deal about Diana being a virgin when she married Charles. In this age of promise rings and mainstream evangelicalism, it seems like we've been talking about virginity for a while, but I think for many people in the 1980s, coming out of the free-love free-for-all of the 1960s and 1970s, talking about Diana's virginity was a crusty throwback, impossibly dated. But still, it was discussed, and many "traditional" royalists believed that a royal bride must be a virgin on her wedding day. No mention of the royal grooms, by the way.

So why is nobody making a big deal about Kate Middleton's presumably long-gone virginity? That is the focus on some larger discussions in Britain and America. Kate and William lived together at university, and they've been sharing homes, apartments and beds for nine years, on and off. More than that, it's widely believed that neither Kate nor William were virgins when they got together. In this day and age, does it matter?

The once hidebound royal family seems to have caught up with Britain’s tolerant public in the three decades that separated Prince Charles’ marriage to Diana Spencer from the wedding of their first born.

Few people – royal or otherwise – seem bothered by the fact that Prince William and his fiancee, Kate Middleton, have been living together off and on during the course of their eight-year romance, which began in university days.

That’s a marked turnaround from the days preceding Charles and Diana’s 1981 marriage. At that time, there was a general expectation that Diana would not have dated before her engagement to the heir to the throne, and her own uncle came out publicly to declare her a “bona fide” virgin.

The more modern approach gives many royal watchers hope that William, 28, and Middleton, 29, will fare better in their marriage than Charles and Diana, whose very public marital breakdown tarnished the image of the royal family.

William, said royal expert Dickie Arbiter, is “his own man.”

“He’s made his own space and he decides what he wants to do and when he wants to do it,” Arbiter said. “The fact that William and (Kate) have had a relationship for eight years speaks for itself.”

William’s decision to live with his fiancee has been met, in general, with a shrug. The British public seems comfortable with the royal family having updated its unwritten behavior codes to bring them more in line with widely held social values.

“We live in a modern age and people do all sorts of things before they settle down,” said Keith Morley, 34, an engineer from Birmingham. “It’s probably best that they lived together before making a commitment.”

Some historians say it’s about time the royals shed their prudishness about the past of new entries into their family. When Charles and Diana wed, his history of dating was not an issue. Charles may well have wanted to marry girlfriend Camilla Shand, but she was not seen as an appropriate choice because she had had several previous boyfriends. She became Charles’ second wife decades later.

Deborah Cohen, a historian at Northwestern University in Chicago who specializes in modern Britain, says the failure of Charles and Diana’s marriage apparently convinced the royal family that its rigid standards were backfiring.

“After two decades of scandal, I think it’s the royal family recognizing that to be normal is to their advantage,” she said. “It’s a canny refashioning of the image. There is no longer an investment in being anachronistic, or a public expectation that they ought to be harkening back to a different era of sexual politics.”

Royal attitudes toward sexuality have never been based on fixed rules but rather unwritten conventions. The code of behavior has evolved – slowly – over the centuries as social values change. It is the monarch who sets the tone, so the views of Queen Elizabeth II have prevailed for nearly six decades.

Practical concerns, more than squeamishness about sex, were behind the royal family’s historic concerns over the sexual status of a bride joining the royal family, Cohen said, because there were fears that a princess carrying another man’s child could bring an illegitimate heir to the throne. This was particularly important before paternity testing.

By Diana’s time, Cohen said, the issue had come to represent a yearning for lost innocence as Britain – with Europe’s highest divorce rate – was gripped by a perceived social breakdown.

A spokesman for Prince William, who refused to be identified because of royal policy, said palace officials would not comment on whether attitudes have changed, preferring to leave that role to others.

[From Huffington Post]

Personally, I think it makes for a stronger relationship and marriage when you know you are sexually compatible, and I don't have a problem with William and Kate's sexual relationship, nor do I have a problem with Kate *gasp* having previous lovers before William. That being said, I think this HuffPo piece doesn't bring up one of the main reasons why the royal family seems so "stuffy" about these things - they are technically the "defenders of the faith" of the Church of England. While they are not members of the clergy, a member of the royal family "living in sin" and having a premarital sexual relationship is still verboten, technically speaking. Religious slut-shaming! But whatever. My biggest problem is that people tended to expect virginity from the brides, but the male royals were expected to "sow their royal oats."

Oh, and here's an interesting tidbit: Kate Middleton invited two of her ex-lovers to the wedding! William invited four of his exes. Sluts.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Spike Jonze is trying to win back Michelle Williams’ heart

Posted: 10 Apr 2011 06:46 AM PDT

Back in the day, Michelle Williams and director Spike Jonze were an item. This would have been… circa 2008-09. I think they got together in the summer or 2008, and they had split by the fall of 2009. By some accounts, the relationship was pretty serious, and Michelle allowed Spike to spend time with Matilda, and Michelle and Spike even discussed marriage (he was already divorced from Sofia Coppola). What I always found kind of strange about their relationship is that Michelle never made any kind of reference to this year-long affair publicly. I mean, if she wants to keep her dating life private, God bless, but in interview after interview, she continued to put herself out there like The Widow Ledger, which seemed… odd, considering she was in a serious relationship with another man.

Anyway, Michelle and Spike split a year and a half ago and Michelle still never really made a reference to it. I figured it was a amicable split, and hoped they were still friends. The Mail reports this morning that they broke up in 2009 because Spike dumped her, and now he's trying to win her back:

Oscar-nominated actress Michelle Williams is poised to rekindle her romance with film director Spike Jonze – 18 months after she was left heartbroken when they split.

Spike invited Michelle to see electro band LCD Soundsystem in New York earlier this month in a bid to woo her back.

But actress Michelle, who has a five-year-old daughter Matilda by late Brokeback Mountain star Heath Ledger, wants to take things slowly.

'Spike realises he made a huge mistake leaving Michelle and he desperately wants her back,' says a source.

'They are making a tentative go of their relationship again but Michelle is nervous. Spike broke her heart the first time around.

'He's promised that he's a changed man who is ready for commitment, but Michelle has told him to prove himself before she can trust him again.'

[From The Daily Mail]

I really hope this is true, because despite some stories that I’ve heard about Spike, I think he seems like a nice guy, and I think he was probably really good for Michelle. She’s a strange one, though. I doubt that in real life, she’s anything like the persona she’s created in public. Still… I remember when Spike wandered around looking like a dirty hipster. Nowadays he’s looking rather clean and pretty. Let’s hope this story is true!

Archive photos of Spike & Michelle courtesy of Bauer-Griffin & Pacific Coast News. Additional photos courtesy of WENN.

Reese Witherspoon covers the May issue of Vogue (a preview)

Posted: 10 Apr 2011 06:13 AM PDT

Here is a little preview of Reese Witherspoon's May cover of Vogue. I don't really care for it - I liked her Elle Magazine UK photo shoot much better (although many of you thought she looked like a neckless wonder on Elle UK). Instead of Reese reading as "sultry" - which I think she was aiming for - she looks rather devious and sneaky. But I'll hold off final judgment until I see the full shoot.

In other Reese news, she and her new husband finally went on their honeymoon! They're apparently in Belize right now… and they brought Ava and Deacon, making it less of a honeymoon and more a family vacation. I mean… Ryan couldn't watch the kids so that his ex and her new husband could have some alone time?

Happy honeymooners! Less than two weeks after tying the knot, newlyweds Reese Witherspoon and Jim Toth touched down in Belize for a romantic six-day honeymoon stay.

“They didn’t ask for any VIP treatment, walked off the plane like regular tourists, waited in the immigration line and waited to get their bags from the baggage carousel,” an eyewitness tells UsMagazine.com of the pair, who brought Witherspoon’s two kids, Ava, 11, and Deacon, 7, along for the tropical getaway.

Witherspoon, 35, clad in a white T-shirt, jeans and a brown hat, went nearly unrecognized when the couple touched down in the Central American country April 4.

Adds the witness of the foursome, who browsed gift shops and visited other tourist attractions: “They definitely looked like a happy family. The kids seemed like they had no problem with him around.”

Sources close to the newlyweds — who swapped vows March 26 at Witherspoon’s 6-acre Ojai, Calif. ranch — tell Us they’re the perfect match. Says one pal of Toth, 40: “He’s a very confident guy who takes care of her.”

“[Reese] really wants to be married and have that security with someone,” another insider says. “They feel like they’ve hit the jackpot in this relationship!”

[From Us Weekly]

I really like Reese and I think this marriage will be great for her, and I genuinely think she's going to get pregnant again very soon. BUT - I worry about her. I worry about her career, and I worry that Reese is perhaps shilling a bit too hard for her latest film, Water for Elephants. The People cover, the Hello! cover, the covers of two major fashion magazines, putting off the honeymoon just so she could do some extra promotion… we get it, Reese. You need a hit, and you're selling, selling, selling. What happens if Water for Elephants bombs, though? What's the worst that could happen? Reese's asking price goes down? So she no longer makes $15-20 million, she makes $10 million? Is that so bad, honestly?

Vogue preview shot courtesy of The Fashion Spot. Additional pics by WENN.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

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