JOSSIP FEATURE — Cosmetics companies gets a lot of shit, and rightly so, for teaching girls and women to hate their bodies by pushing unrealistic beauty ideals: skinny models with perfect skin and eyelashes that you can only obtain with their product. Cosmetics companies also get a lot of shit, also for good reason, by amplifying the image of "white beauty," making black, Hispanic, and Asian women all feel inadequate next to their Caucasian sisters. You only need to look at the latest controversy, just five weeks old, that L'oreal started when they so obviously lightened Beyonce Knowles' skin in a recent ad campaign — and then denied doing so, despite the most clear visual evidence.
But the cosmetics industry, we must admit, does do some good. They give women who might not otherwise have the self-confidence to go on a blind date or sit for a job interview the ability to do so. (Though we'll certainly accept the argument that the makeup counter also drives this lack of self-confidence, reminding women of their problem skin and that beauty mark they hate but can't afford to laser away.) A little eye shadow and some lipstick can make a woman feel beautiful, even when there's no man around she's trying to impress. And making a woman feel good about her femininity is not something we can completely shit on.
And neither, then, is a cosmetics company that takes the commonly accepted scarlet letters of the beauty industry — and doesn't just ignore them, but flaunts them positively.
We're talking about Cover Girl, the enormous division of Procter & Gamble, which doesn't care if its models are black or white, thin or skinny, or gay or straight. And unlike other cosmetic giants, when Cover Girl enlists these women to sell the brand, they're not interested in Photoshopping away their identities. Which leads us to believe: Might Cover Girl be the most progressive cosmetics company around? CONTINUED »
Taking a cue from both PETA's "objectify your body for a good cause" initiative, as well as the rise in popularity for Eli Roth films, MILFs Jessica Alba and Christina Aguilera teamed up with celebrity photographers Mark Liddell and David LaChapelle to create a BDSM fetishist's wet dream for the Declare Yourself voting campaign. This website will either inspire you to go out and vote, or go buy an extra lock for your door:
Now that they've tied the knot, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi have finally made it - to the cover of People. The tabloid will release some exclusive shots from the lady's wedding this Friday.
It's as if Lou Dobbs is writing the website's "news" headlines. [CD]
"I thought it was awesome. I was really excited when I heard about it, and the fact that they are openly out there… they look so happy together. It's great that people are able to marry each other whether you are gay or straight." —Tila Tequila, reality show star and the reason gays are allowed to marry in California, seen here with girlfriend and Yahoo heiress Courtney Semel [Us]
Though, on her television show, Ellen DeGeneres blabbed on and on about how she and partner Portia de Rossi were going to wed now that California approved the rights of gay men and women to experience the fruits of divorce, the talk show host refused to say when they were getting married exactly, hoping to keep the stalkerazzi off their tale. This did not work — reports surfaced late last week that they'd tie the knot over the weekend. And they did just that, at their Beverly Hills manse in front of fewer than 20 people. The Daily Mail says "former comic" Ellen "wore a loose-fitting white chiffon shirt, white waistcoat and trousers" while de Rossie, clearly the womyn in the relationship, "wore a cream and pale pink halterneck dress by designer Zac Posen." This was easy to determine since, although Ellen said they wouldn't sell their wedding photos, at least one photographer managed to sneak close enough to the nuptials to spoil their day. Ah, privacy! (Pity People, who only has a statement from their rep.)
The time has come! Ellen DeGeneres and lady love Portia de Rossi will reportedly tie the knot this weekend:
JOSSIP REPORTS
Ellen DeGeneres does some things conventionally (launch a mega-hit daytime talk show) and some things unconventionally (announce she's gay on her own sitcom). Thanks to California's OK-ing of gay marriage, she's about to do something else quite conventional: get married, to partner Portia de Rossi.
But here's the unconventional part: She won't be selling the pics, Jossip hears.
While plenty of magazines would love to get their hands on the exclusive pics of her big day – since it'll really be the first celebrity wedding of its kind, with that whole gay thing – most of them will find themselves in another situation: with pics, but without exclusivity. That's because the talk show host plans to distribute multiple sets of pics a single photo to scores of media outlets, we're told, while avoiding certain places she's at odds with (among them, American Media's titles) (a well-placed insider says the photo will be available to everyone who asks).
DeGeneres is said to be one of very few celebs who refuses to accept payouts from the media in exchange for access. And especially with the wedding, she wants to get as much exposure for it as possible, which would help normalize the idea of gay marriage, which she's spoken endlessly about on her show. The more press with the photos, the more blanket the coverage. (Though without giving any magazine exclusive shots, she may lose out on major play on the covers.)
But one fear remains: CONTINUED »
Noted Hollywood star and heterosexual Will Smith appeared on Ellen DeGeneres' television show on Monday to discuss – as Ellen is wont to do following some little California court ruling – marriage. Ellen, as you might have heard, plans to marry girlfriend Portia de Rossi, and so that is all she can think about, even if her writers might have put other talking points on her cue cards. So how has Smith, who is married to heavy metal singer Jada Pinkett, kept his marriage going strong for 10 years?
"What I found is divorce just can't be an option. It's really that simple. And I think that's the problem with L.A. – there are so many options. So a huge part of the success for [Jada] and I is that we just removed the other options. [...] We're like listen, we're going to be together one way or the other so we might as well try to be happy." [People]
Uh huh. So the secret to staying married is convincing yourselves staying married is the only option, whether you're happy or not? Because then, oh we don't know, somebody else might suspect you were two raging homosexuals? Sounds like a L. Ron Hubbard mantra if we ever heard one.
Here's Ellen DeGeneres quizzing Sen. John McCain about gay marriage, now that California will let people like, uh, Ellen, get married. Insists Ellen: "We are all the same people, all of us. You're no different than I am. Our love is the same." McCain looked genuinely scared.
But ya know what we're genuinely scared about? The type of fodder this is going to promote on this evening's cable news programs, given their history with this issue. Please, Mr. Bill O'Reilly, call Ellen a soundbite-baiting gay agenda pusher!
In the mood for some anti-gay marriage rhetoric on Fox News and CNN?
Here's Wendy Wright, of Concerned Women For America, on CNN. [Watch Video]
And here's FNC's The O’Reilly Factor, with guest host E.D. Hill. [Watch Video]
If you're sitting near a TV today, you're rainy Friday is gonna get a whole lot gayer, courtesy Ellen DeGeneres: "A spy in the audience of this afternoon's taping of the Ellen DeGeneres Show tells us that after Ellen mentioned today's California Supreme Court ruling striking down the state's ban on gay marriage, she surprised everyone and announced that she was going to tie the knot with longtime girlfriend, actress Portia de Rossi. Portia was in the crowd and after she made the announcement, the studio audience went wild, giving the two a huge standing O." [TMZ] Also, Justin Timberlake is on today's show, so there's that.
Telepictures Productions, the folks behind Ellen DeGeneres' talk show, weren't about to let Rachael Ray cannibalize their girl's ratings by using Telepictures' own footage.
With Ray planning a Rosie O'Donnell tribute show, her producers planned to use clips from The Rosie O’Donnell Show — a show Telepictures owns. They do not, however, back Ray's show, which means they didn't want her stealing ratings points from Ellen in markets they go head-to-head.
So yesterday – as in the day before today, when the show Rosie episode aired – Telepictures rang The Rachael Ray Show and demanded they not use footage from Rosie's old show, hoping the time constraint would force them to pull the taped show.
But Ray's camp refused, and the program aired as intended today. Which means if Telepictures doesn't file some sort of copyright infringement legal action, the only remaining part of this story is how O'Donnell will turn this into a Rosie.com haiku.
Ryan Phillippe popped over to Ellen this morning for a good old chat. The handsome and somewhat hapless actor, whose movie Stop Loss coincidentally opens this weekend, gabbed about his high school fashion sense, getting into the business and, yes, playing gay on One Life To Live, which cast him as the first openly homo teen in sudster history.
Just watch the first 30 seconds of this clip of Chris Matthews' appearance on Ellen and you'll understand why it was Tucker Carlson who was on Dancing With The Stars.
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