Don't Believe The Hype

Paris wants to shed her party-girl image

Yep.  That's the word on the street.

"There are a lot of bad people in L.A. Before, my life was about having fun, going to parties — it was a fantasy," she tells Newsweek magazine in its Oct. 22 issue, now on newsstands. "But when I had time to reflect, I felt empty inside. I want to leave a mark on the world." (From a yahoo news report).

That's one way to handle it.... blame it on all the bad, bad people in LA.  Play the victim.  It's not like you had anything at ALL to do with cultivating that persona, eh, Paris?  (Ahem, anyone remember the whole "Firecrotch" incident with Brandon Davis and Paris.  And um, how about the fact that she started a celeb trend of not wearing undies and letting her yoo-hoo be photographed?  Blame THAT on those LA meanies too!)

Actually, it's not implausible at all that she might pull it off.  I wouldn't be surprised if she's able to generate enough buzz and become the poster child for being a good role model. And if she does....well, cool.

I just think it's amusing that things can get so turned inside out, and the people we vilify in the media one minute might suddenly be held up as a great example.

Let's watch this one closely, shall we?!

Shakira: A celebrity worthy of the hype

Shakira! Shakira! 

(That was my homage to "Hips Don't Lie"... love that song btw)

Why can't everyone be like Shakira?  She's donating $40 million dollars to areas in Latin America stricken by natural disasters.  She's also going to donate money to help the children of these areas going forward.

Talk about giving back.  The people she's going to be helping are probably the same people who buy her CDs,  go to her concerts, feed and clothe her.  I think it's AMAZING that she is putting her fame and fortune to good use.

Can you imagine if every celeb did?

Hillary Clinton....president?!

I don't usually post on the weekends....

But then again it's not everyday that a woman announces that she's trying to be the first female candidate for President of the United States.

Whoa.
I can dig it.

I'm not saying that I'm defintely voting for her.  Even though I'm from NYC and she's one of my senators, I've still got lots of research and thinking to do about whether she's right for president...

But my oh my do I consider her a pioneer, and am I thrilled that the US might finally have the opportunity to cosider a woman candidate.

Renee Zellweger on body image...

"It's disheartening [when the media focuses too much on all the weight she's gained and lost for her acting parts], because it is a reflection of what it is that we value, and it is a superficiality that does not deserve the focus of energy that it gets. It's boring -- and it sends wrong messages."

From a new Reuters article....

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Holla, Renee!

She's succinct--and she nails it. 

All the hoopla about her weight loss sends the wrong messages about which traits and values are important in a girl/woman.

We all know that today there are limitless opportunities for girls and women... and yet our pop culture continually sends the message that being thin is of the utmost importance by the topics/traits/people etc it continues to hype, right alongside all the positive messages.

Me and Renee, we might have to team up on this issue....

America Ferrera talks real beauty (and so does Audrey! In the Chicago Sun Times)

From her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes:

"Thank you to the foreign press for recognizing this show and this character who is truly bringing a new face to television... and such a beautiful, beautiful message about beauty that lies deeper than what we can see.  It's such an honor to play a role that I hear from young girls on a daily basis how it makes them feel worthy and lovable and that they have more to offer the world than they thought.  It's such an honor to play this role...."

This speech makes me cry.

It makes me think of all the emails and letters I opened as an editor at teen magazines (or that I still get thru my site and blog) from girls who so desperately want to be like what they see in the media.  They want the same affirmation and attention for themselves... and who can blame them given the images, icons and beauty standards that dominate our pop culture.  I truly hope that America and her character Betty continue to make such a positive impact.

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Yep.. that's what I think... and I said so today in an article titled "Breaking the mold: Winning actresses Ferrera, Hudson give beauty a new face" in today's Chicago Sun Times.

This is my bit, but I totally recommend checking out the article in full:

...That's the message touted by 35-year-old Audrey Brashich, media awareness activist and author of All Made Up: A Girl's Guide to Seeing Through Celebrity Hype ... and Celebrating Real Beauty (Walker & Company, $9.95). This former teen model is encouraged that Hudson and Ferrera are being celebrated, but "what I'm waiting to see is whether in Jennifer Hudson's real life or the 'Ugly Betty' character there ends up being pressures on them to conform [to mainstream standards] or for the character to buy in a bit more."

When Brashich leads middle and junior high school seminars, she makes girls aware that advertisers, marketers and media have a financial stake in their constant unhappiness with their bodies.

"I try to reinforce the way they are today is real beauty," says Brashich, who lives in New York and Vancouver, B.C. "It's the standards we need to work on changing and altering and fixing."

Pretty cool, hunh?

 

Cover Girls of a "certain age" rock the house!

It might seem like a small thing to put three top, award-winning actresses who all happen to be over the age of 50 on a magazine cover.  It might even seem natural given how talented they are, how their movies are so well-loved.

But it's not.  It's a really big deal.  Mag editors have to worry about all sorts of junk like "will younger readers, even those who like these actresses, be turned off and not buy this issue on the newsstand?"  and "Will advertisers find it less appealing to buy ads in this issue because they think only old ladies--who might spend less on products like new makeup etc--are going to be buying?"

Those are the sorts of things magazine editors and publishers have to weigh... so it's actually a really really cool thing when you suddenly find three amazing women who are known more for their talents than their appearance on the cover of a mag.  Not to mention that for the most part, "talent" normally doesn't like to share the spotlight (remember the whole Desperate Housewives spat that erupted from the Vanity Fair cover that featured all the stars.  "She got a nicer bathing suit to wear!"  "She's standing up instead of sitting so she looks thinner!"  "She got better digital enhancing!"  YAWN.)  Not that each of these amazing actresses doesn't deserve a cover to herself... but it's nice to see them all together. And with clothes on (No, no, no... NOT because I think women should be covered up... this comment is my way of snubbing the Vanity Fair annual Hollywood issue that convinces lots of talented young actresses to get naked, instead of just resting on their talents.)

So I really like this Entertainment Weekly cover so much... I might even go out and buy it.

And special surprise....

I sent an insider spy to the InStyle Golden Globe party last night... and she's working on her celebrity hype report... so stay tuned!  I'll post it as soon as it's in!

Logan magazine...for disabled teens

I just learned about a new magazine out of Washington state.  It's called Logan, and it's been started by Logan Olson, a 21-year-old who's been in a wheelchair for years due to a congenital heart defect.

Apparently, by the age of 16, Logan had undergone six major surgeries, and soon after suffered a heart attack. As she recovered, she wanted to be as normal a teen as possible.  She wanted to look cool, have fun, and do normal girl stuff.  BUT she found that tips for looking pretty while in your wheel chair are few and far between. 

So she created a place where she can focus on them.  Her own magazine.   How effing cool is that?

Part of the funding has come from a state vocational training and rehab department...and the rest has come from the family's own budget.... so what say you head on over to the website and buy a subscription if you know ANY young people that could benefit from it?    Don't know anyone?  You can always buy a subsciption and donate it to a doctors office or a library or something like that....

I'm going to.

Shakira building a school for homeless kids

I don't know much about Shakira... except for the fact that her hips don't lie.  Plus that girl can DANCE.

Today, I also learned that she'll be donating the proceeds from a concert in her hometown to build an arts school for 1,800 children forced to flee their homes by Colombia's civil war. The school will be located in La Playa, a poor suburb of Barranquilla where 45 percent of the residents are minors, only about half of whom attend school.

I've gone off on this tirade before... but I ask you: How HARD would it be for more celebrities to do something like this?  I mean, why isn't Britney all over creating some new program in post-Katrina New Orleans? It would take her like, what, a 2 day appearance to do it--and she'd get so much good publicity she wouldn't know what to do.  Instead, she hires Matt Lauer to come over, and snaps the gum all night as she boo hoos how hard it is when the press give Kevin a hard time.  Thinking out loud here, Brit:  Get KEVIN to head up your efforts back home, then he'll have something to do beside get cleaned  up from time to time to pose for men's magazine shoots that no one reads anyway.  AND he'd stop making pretty rotten music, improve his image and earn hisself some good karma since he left his pregnant GF for you back in the day.  (LORDY he's got a lot to make up for!)

... I just think more celebs should do more to give back. It would be SO EASY for them, would earn them great public image points, and sadly.. make a difference in a way that people who aren't in their positions can't.   Instead... they just pull in those $15 million dollar checks and do, um... diddly squat most of the time it seems. (ahem.  Sorry!  They're "reading scripts" and always being admitted to local hospitals for "exhuastion".  Right!  Single moms with two jobs deserve to be admitted to the local hospital so THEY can recover from exhuastion... not entertainers who party all night and then have to do some scenes on a closed set with their trailers and the craft services truck nearby.  Sheesh.)

So to wrap up: YAY to Shakira for her efforts.  I hope they're a success and that others follow her example.

Skinny Models No More

First thing this morning, faithful reader and all around smar-tay Eva sent me a link to a the Daily Mail's article about Jean Paul Gauthier's response to the skinny model scandal. 

He's radical, that JP... so he put a woman who is large and in charge on his runway.

Now, there's probably going to be a lot of flack about the fact that obesity isn't healthy...and I agree.  It isn't.  But I like his statement and this image a lot.

I like that this woman doesn't look mortified that she isn't thin. 

I like that she looks like she owns the damn show...

I like knowing (or dreaming about the fact) that she doesn't hate herself so much she has trouble getting out of bed.....

Could she stand to lose some weight?  Prolly. But the only time you EVER see an image like this in the fashionista world is when there's a black bar across her face and "Don't" under what she's wearing...

So let's give her some support for being willing to strut it in a world that calls her ugly, lazy and gross.

Is Ugly Betty a good role model for young women?

Lots of talk today about how the new show Ugly Betty, starring America Ferrera, sky rocketed to the top of its class on Thursday night..beating out Survivor and holding its own against Grey's Anatomy....

And actually I was just doing an interview with Amy Jussel of the new blog called Shaping Youth, which is a forum about media and marketing's influence on youth....and we chatted about whether or not this show is going to provide a positive role model for young women.

Now, I missed the premiere, so I'm going on what I've read so far... and I'm of two minds: On the one hand, I think it's GREAT that there's a show that has a strong, young female lead as a character.  Not enough of those since things like My So Called Life disappeared...and junk like that Pepper Dennis show is really just an excuse to have people ogle supermodels like Rebecca Romijn.

But from what it sounds like, Ugly Betty could be a venue for some interesting portrayals/representations of femininity etc.

But what I'm a little uneasy about is the whole "ugly" thing.  Because first of all it plays into the idea that what this character looks doesn't match up with the accepted, common definition of "pretty"...and that there are two kinds of women in the world: pretty ones and ugly ones.

I also feel a leeetle queasy about what's going to be in store for Betty. LIke, are they going to let her stay "ugly" yet somehow validate her for that?  Or will she have to follow the Devil-Wears-Prada-Mean-Girls-She's-All-That evolution set out in so many movies etc, where she morphs into the epitome of pretty..but still keeps enough of herself to still be HER. 

I'll stay tuned for that... and would love to hear from you if you happened to watch the show.  Post your opinion about the tone it's setting etc!

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And let me just add that if you haven't seen America Ferrera in Real Women Have Curves... you are truly missing something.  I happened to go to that movie alone...and I swear to God, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.  EVERY woman and girl in there was applauding at the end.  A GREAT movie for young women, even teens, to watch....as it's about a teen girl coming to terms with dualing ethnic expectations about women's cultural roles and bodies....and defining herself.