After Gwen Stefani’s great appearance at the Grammys on Sunday, her cover of Canada’s Fashion Magazine just seems… blah. She’s a pale woman but they really washed her out. Still, I am happy to see Gwen looking much better overall. She really had me worried last year, when it looked like she was tweaking her face too much. I guess she heard the criticism and let the ‘Tox work its way out. Good. As for this magazine interview, Gwen seems to be saying that she’s never really relied on her sexuality in her career. True or false?

On sexuality: “We have this sexual side to us that is alluring and powerful. It’s a gift. When you discover it when you are around 14, it feels amazing. But you learn it’s fleeting. Sexuality is something I’ve never felt comfortable with. I won’t be doing any topless photo shoots anytime soon. It’s not my thing. I don’t judge people for it, but I didn’t even wear high heels until I was 30. It’s important to evolve outside of your sexuality to entertain people. It was never a card that I played or will play – ever.”

On never regretting her fashion wardrobe choices: “Everything seems to have a reason for looking a certain way. If you [hand] me an old photo of myself, I can tell you why I’m wearing what I’m wearing. Somebody just showed me a picture of me at a MTV awards, where I was wearing this blue fur bathing suit top. Right away, I was like, ‘Yup, I know why I wore that.’ I had just gotten off a two-and-a-half year tour with No Doubt and I felt like I needed to break free a bit. How can anyone regret wearing something? I never do. It reflects who you are at that moment.”

[From Fashion Magazine, via E! News]

I remember when No Doubt really became major in the mid to late 1990s and all of the guys thought Gwen was the hottest thing. They liked her – I believe – because she was an interesting balance of tomboy/athlete and just good old fashioned Hot Girl. She was girly with her makeup and her platinum blonde hair but she was also all about showing off her toned abs and sweating her ass off during concerts. Now, do I think Gwen ever put herself out there like she was the sexiest chica in the world? Not really. But it seems too “cute” to say “It was never a card that I played or will play – ever.”

Photos courtesy of Fashion Magazine.

Jamie Dornan was in New York this weekend for a final promotional push before the release of Fifty Shades Of Grey this Friday. The studio has already greenlit the two sequels; they’re likely confident with their numbers predictions. I wonder though if they might want to talk to Dornan about…      

Samuel L. Jackson gives good interview and never takes crap from anyone. Nor should he. Sam’s played so many awesome characters. From his Tarantino movies to Shaft to A Time to Kill, and so many others, Sam Jackson always entertains. He’s promoting his latest film, Kingsman: The Secret Service by doing the rounds in NYC. He stopped by Today and fielded questions about his work ethic. He does several movies every year and just likes to work. He addressed the possibility of being a James Bond villain. Sam said, “I’m sort of backing away from doing supremely physical movies that I used to do. I’m more into cerebral things now.” That’s funny because he’s still deep in the Marvel Comic Universe. We’ll see him in Age of Ultron, and Nick Fury may get his own movie.

I found Sam’s interview at Live with Kelly & Michael interesting. There aren’t any convenient pullquotes, but he got surprisingly personal. Sam grew up in the 1950s when segregation was alive and well. He talked about his childhood in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

His aunt Etna, a schoolteacher: “She forced me to do a lot of things that I didn’t want to do when I was a kid. But of the things she made me do was read. So I was reading by the time I was two. She used to take me to school, which was an interesting kind of thing because it was the country. My grandmother worked, she was a domestic, she was like The Help. And my grandfather worked at a hotel during the day. So she [Aunt Etna] took me to school with her.”

He grew up tough: “So when I was two, I sat back in her room … so when a kid couldn’t answer a question in her class she would go, ‘Sam…’ and I would answer the question, and then I would have to fight all lunch time, because all the fourth graders would go, ‘oh, you think you’re smart. … and I’d have to fight because she made me answer questions, made them look dumb. So I was a good fighter and a smart kid.”

Growing up with segregation: “I learned a lot of lessons that most people don’t have to learn today, or shouldn’t have to learn. But I learned how to conduct myself around the superior race in an interesting sort of way. You don’t look people in the eye, but I did because I didn’t know any better.”

[From Live with Kelly & Michael]

Kelly admitted to feeling goosebumpy when listening to Sam talk about his childhood. I agree. Sam emphasized that he grew up with a very loving family, but he still fought his way through a very rough environment.

Here’s the video of Sam talking to Kelly and Michael.

Photos courtesy of WENN

Let’s be generous to poor Madonna. If Kanye West hadn’t Kanye’d all over the Grammys, we probably would have given more attention to Madge and her somewhat desperate need to be the most controversial person in the room. We talked about her, for sure, but I think it makes Madonna sick that Kanye was and is still a bigger “controversy”. So Madge did an interview with Ryan Seacrest to talk about how she literally flashed her butt on the red carpet (NSFW photo here) and how we are living in The Golden Age of Butt so of course she had to ride that trend. Some highlights:

She claims she didn’t deliberately flash her butt: “I had an inspired wardrobe malfunction moment. As I was walking away, I wasn’t mooning – I just lifted my dress up. Mooning is like naked butt. Everyone’s seen my naked butt already… not for a while, not since the ’90s”

The Age of Ass: “It’s the age of ass, isn’t it? It was me having fun and being cheeky, no pun intended.”

Being in a harness for her Grammy performance: “The one thing everyone forgot to do, was tell me when I could sit up [in the harness]. So, I’m laying back there, like forever in this super extreme back bend, hanging over the audience. I was like ‘Can I sit up now? Is the camera off of me? No one said, ‘M you can sit up now’ in my ears. It was the one moment everyone overlooked. Eventually, I sat up and was like ‘Screw this, my back is killing me.’”

Whether she’s got a boyfriend: “Not really … not a special, you know… Not a steady dude, no.”

Whether she would have remarry: “I’m not going to say never, no. Maybe.”

[From The Daily Mail]

She’s so full of it if she’s trying to pretend like that flash was a “wardrobe malfunction.” She literally stood in front of a bank of cameras on the music industry’s biggest night and flashed her butt as soon as she got on the red carpet. And that’s who she is at this point – a 56 year old woman who meticulously plans out her stunt-queen moves to impress the kidz.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

Robert Pattinson was at the Berlin Film Festival yesterday promoting Life with Dane DeHaan. Am attaching shots from the premiere too but mostly want to focus on the pictures from the photo call because of Pattinson’s pants.

He’s never worn pants better than he’s wearing them…      

When we last checked in Brian Williams, he had decided to “leave the anchor’s desk” but only for a few days. NBC has decided to do an internal investigation into the swirling claims that Williams has openly lied and “misremembered” several stories involving being hit by RPGs in Iraq, witnessing dead bodies floating down the street in New Orleans and rescuing several puppies. At worst, Williams is a liar and a fantasist who needs to be fired. At best…??? I don’t have an “at best”. At best, he’s got a terrible memory and/or he co-opts other people’s stories to make himself sound cooler.

So, what’s new today? Page Six is Truth Squading yet another Williams’ story, this time about how he was riding in a heliocopter in Israel and Katyusha rockets passed under the chopper.

Another of Brian Williams’ wild reporting tales is being called into question – this time it’s an account of his trip to Israel in 2006. In a 2007 interview, Williams recalled riding on an Israeli military helicopter that was flying just above rockets fired by Hezbollah as they were passing over northern Israel, according to The Washington Post.

“There were Katyusha rockets passing just underneath the helicopter I was riding in,” he told Fairfield University student reporter Emily Fitzmaurice. But he never disclosed that close brush with Hezbollah fire in an NBC News blog post he penned in July 2006. In that account, he was riding along with a “a high-ranking general in the Israeli Defense Forces” at 1,500 feet, and the rocket fire was happening on the ground below.

“They’re having some shelling right now,” the pilot tells me. “They landed about 30 seconds ago.” Williams wrote that he looked out his window and saw “smoke and dust” where the rockets landed.

“Then,” he said, “I noticed something out the window. From a distance of six miles, I witnessed a rocket launch. A rising trail of smoke, then a second rocket launch, an orange flash and more smoke — as a rocket heads off toward Israel.”

Williams never claims the weapons were “just beneath” his aircraft, as he did in the later interview. A month after penning the NBC News blog post on his trip to Israel, Williams told the story again on “The Daily Show,” saying the rockets passed “1,500 feet beneath us.”

“And we’ve got the gunner doors on this thing, and I’m saying to the general, some four-star: ‘It wouldn’t take much for them to adjust the aim and try to do a ring toss right through our open doors, would it?’” he tells Jon Stewart. At the end of the interview, Williams boasts, “Anytime you want to cross over to the other side, baby, travel with me.”

[From Page Six]

Well… I don’t know. Out of all the Truth Squading on Williams’ various stories, I think this one is one of the weaker “he’s lying!!” stories. Then again, there seems to be a pattern emerging, right? Williams tells endless stories about his bravery and heroics in facing down danger at every turn, just to do his job. There’s a narcissism there and it disturbs me.

So, obviously, NBC is finally putting together a list of people who could possibly take over the NBC anchor desk if (and when) they need to fire Williams. According to Page Six (not the most reliable, granted), the shortlist involves Willie Geist, Carl Quintanilla and Lester Holt. NBC is also considering Matt Lauer, which… I mean, that would be the end of NBC Nightly News, if people had to see Lauer’s smug mug in the evening. For the love of God, just give it to Lester Holt!!! Holt is amazing. Holt should be running NBC News anyway. He’s a quality journalist, he has gravitas, he has a great voice and he has on-screen presence. I like Willie Geist, but he’s not anchor material. I feel like Quintanilla is too young too.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

The Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny Frankel hit the beach with her 4-year-old daughter Bryn in Miami on Sunday (February 8).

Sporting a navy blue two piece paired with a white straw hat and shades, the Skinnygirl Cocktails founder, 44, enjoyed some fun in the Florida sun with her playful preschooler.

The returning Housewife, who split from ex-husband Jason Hoppy last year, addressed her critics on The Meredith Vieira Show on Jan. 13.

“I feel like, who cares, they are always going to say something,” said Frankel of those who call her too skinny.

She added: “I do have a brand called Skinnygirl, so I am going to get beaten up for it. It would be bad if I were overweight and had a brand called Skinnygirl, could you imagine?”

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Here are some new photos of Uma Thurman at the NYC premiere of The Slap last night. The Daily Mail pointed out that there’s something different going on with Uma’s face, and I have to agree. Uma is 44 years old and she’s always been a beautiful woman, but I have suspected for a while now that she’s been experimenting with Botox and perhaps some fillers here and there. I’ve seen photos of her at various events in the past few years where she seems a little bit frozen or tweaked, but I honestly didn’t think it was anything major. But this is new.

While I’m no kind of expert on this stuff, I tend to think Uma went overboard with the fillers, and perhaps got some ‘Tox on her forehead. It’s a weird combination of unmoving cheeks and an inability to move one’s eyebrows.

To be fair to The Daily Mail, they’re not the only site pointing out that Uma looks way different. And now several sites are making a reference to Renee Zellweger’s dramatically different look, which she revealed over the course of several months last year, and comparing Renee and Uma. I don’t think Uma went and got a radically different face like Renee. It wouldn’t actually surprise me at all if Uma’s different look was all non-surgical, which is what we’re supposed to call fillers and Botox. Fillers and Botox are non-surgical “injectibles.” What I’m saying is that all of this will probably wear off in a few months, hopefully. Note: Uma doesn’t seem to be wearing much makeup here and that might be messing with how we’re looking at her too.

And just to show you how new this is, here’s a photo of Uma looking pretty normal just a few weeks ago:

More photos from last night:

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Shannon! HAPPY (belated) 40th Birthday from Kyla, Sooz, Sherri, Jen, and Corrina. I am SO sorry this was late. By request, here’s Chris Pratt…dancing. And braiding.      

The Imitation Game actor Benedict Cumberbatch and fiancée Sophie Hunter bumped up the red carpet at the EE BAFTA British Academy Film Awards in London, England on Sunday (February 8).

The parents-to-be opted for a matching black look, with The Hobbit star, 38, in an Alexander McQueen tuxedo and the singer-actress, 36, donning a floor length black halterneck dress with bow back by Maison Margiela. The mom-to-be competed her look with stand out diamond earrings.

The couple’s pregnancy news was announced in early January.

“I am delighted to confirm that Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter are expecting their first child,” his rep said in a statement. “They are both over the moon.”

The happy news came just two months after the Sherlock Holmes star announced the couple’s engagement.

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