Chanel Unhappy With Blake Lively ?

Apparently the advertising bod's are unhappy with their latest ad's starring Gossip Girl's Blake Lively.

While the ad is well shot their problem lies with the fact that Blake is too 'all American' and does not represent the Chanel girl well enough.

Surely they should have contemplated this before they hired her to do the campaign ?

More here at Jezabel

Britney Spears Returns- GMA Performance

Britney kicked off the promotion for her new record Femme Fatale today on Good Morning America with a mini concert.

As usual Britney mimes to a backing track however she looks a lot more together than we have seen previously. She still hasn't got the IT factor back yet but with a great record behind her she could be on her way.

Anna Wintour- Cover Girl !- Wall Street Journal

Anna Wintour makes her debut as a cover girl, no not in Vogue, but a supplement for the Wall Street Journal, where she is also profiled.

The photo is shot by Mario Testino and is very iconic.

Is Anna Wintour craving the limelight in her later years ?

Pic Of The Day- Faye Dunaway- Network

Faye Dunaway won an Oscar for her role as a shrewd network executive in Network, a biting satire on the television industry.

Her role is also noteworthy for the amazing fashion, influencing designers/women decades later with her blouse/trouser combinations.

Never has Dunaway looked so beautiful (well except maybe in Polanski's Chinatown).

Do We Have A Choice When It Comes To What We Watch ?

Gawker just posted an interesting article on the pressures we now face when it comes to our viewing habits.

An overexposure to advertising, awards ceremonies, snobby critics and the blogsphere seems to have contributed to our lack of individual choice.

Check it out !

Mildred Pierce HBO- Kate Winslet

I watched the first two episodes of Todd Haynes's adaption of Mildred Pierce last night starring Kate Winslet ,Guy Pierce and recent Oscar winner Melissa Leo (with Rachel Evan Wood to follow next week as bitchy daughter Veda).

Having seen the 1950's version starring Joan Crawford I was already familiar with the basic outline of the story. The two versions do differ, Todd Haynes's series includes more daring adult content (well it is HBO after all, sex scenes are mandatory :).

Kate stars as Mildred, your typical all American mother who seems to have it all. Two beautiful children, a nice house and an adoring husband. However, it quickly becomes apparent all is not well in suburbia. Mildred's husband is having an affair, so she kicks him out of the house and decides to go it alone. Money is in short supply however as her husband's housing company 'Pierce Homes' has gone under. Therefore Mildred is forced to 'take a job', something unheard of in that period for a married woman.

While the premise may sound like a cookie cutter story it is actually very involved and detailed in a sophisticated way. The series premiere has been criticized for moving at an overly glacial pace, critic's describing it as 'two hours of nothingness'. The beauty of telling a story like this on HBO is that the creative talent involved actually gets the chance to flesh things out and take their time with developing characters (it is much less of a trial than The Wire, which was frustratingly slow at times).

While I enjoyed the original film very much, here the characters are much more detailed, specifically the character of Mildred herself. Winslet is brilliant in the role (when is she not any good ?), her face tells a million different stories of pain and anguish. You really feel for her character, a woman who could come across to modern women today as a spoilt, entitled housewife but instead comes across as a sympathetic character.

With the recent financial crisis many viewers will find her situation particularly timely and relateable.

Melissa Leo plays Mildred's supportive neighbor in a very subdued role, she is not chewing the scenery as she was in her Oscar winning role in The Fighter and it's much appreciated.

The series is very well directed by Todd Haynes, reminiscent of his film Far From Heaven, with gorgeous cinematography and very detailed visuals. As the story progresses and the main players are established things really do pick up. I can't wait for next week's episode.

Lily Allen - Rags To Ritches- Channel Four

So I sat through the second episode of Channel Four's documentary on Lily Allen and her mission to enter into the world of retail. Alongside her sister Sarah the two Londonites had the bright idea to open up a Vintage boutique that specializes in high end designer pieces. Their gimmick being that if girls can not afford the full price of the garment they will be allowed to rent the piece for a fee.

Sounds like a good idea however in practice it's short comings are quite obvious. The girls enlisted the help of retail guru Mary Porta's as a consultant as neither of them have had any formal experience in the industry.

In short , she tore them a new one and gave them a reality check. As she correctly pointed out the shop will live and die based on the celebrity Lily Allen brings to it. By offering couture pieces at high costs she has automatically alienated about 70% of her fan base who are supposed to be the patrons of her shop. This is never a good business idea and their original intentions to offer a piece of high end lifestyle to girls who could not afford to buy the real thing quickly went down the toilet. Asking young girls aged 18+ to pay £100 + to rent a dress for an evening during a recession was not a smart idea.

It quickly becomes apparent that in fact Lily is not at all the type of girl her record company promoted her as. She is in fact your typical spoilt, Primrose Hill, middle class, rich girl. Not the wannabe chav running around London in a New Look dress and sneakers.

So as reality sets in the girls quickly realise that their initial target audience is not at all what they are aiming for and Mary Porta's points this out to them painfully, like a camp mother scolding her clueless children.

The other infuriating part of the documentary is Lily's constant admissions that she is over the fame game. If that were the case letting a Channel Four camera crew follow you around for months may not have been the best idea to gain some sort of annonyminity. The truth of the matter is Lily loves the spotlight. There were scenes of her contacting tabloid newspapers directly, in order to give them the story about her pregnancy, doing photoshoot's with her sister in order to promote the store, her sitting at her desk constantly whining about nosy journalists then taking to Twitter to confront them in a very public way. These are not the actions of someone who just wants a quiet life.

The show does have it's plus points though, the train wreck aspect of the documentary is entertaining and Lily is nothing if not charismatic/funny. Her sister Sarah comes across very well also, she must have the patience of a saint to put up with the constant tantrums her sister throws (and also the constant reminder that it's Lily's money, Lily's success that has enabled her to have a career in retail, what way to be humble..........). Bitchy celeb hairdresser James Brown also makes an appearance and he's always great to watch.

In conclusion I don't really understand the point of the documentary, if it was to promote her shop a featurette on her website and some photoshoot's would have been sufficient however it's obvious that Lily is not ready to step out of the spotlight and still craves attention. Perhaps instead of channeling her energy into retail she should put her mind to making a new album. Lily is in her 20's, its far too early for her to retire from the music business and I have a sneaking suspicion that in year or two we will hear something new from her.

Let's hope that her next venture is less hypocritical and more clearly thought out.

Woody Allen- Midnight In Paris- First Poster Promo

Sony Classics has released the first piece of promotion for Woody Allen's latest european romp Midnight In Paris. As usual Woody has assembled a first class cast, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Marion Cotillard (yay!), Rachel McAdams and most strangely Carla Bruni (blatant stunt casting or maybe Woody got a tax break from Mr Sarkozy ?).

Hopefully the film will be more enjoyable than last years When You Meet A Tall Dark Stranger. Woody is well known for his inconsistency despite the great actors he has at his disposal so let's hope the script is up to snuff.

In any event it seems as though Woody is on a one man mission to improve European tourism, so I'm hoping for Vicki Christina Barcelona type visual/cultural feast and I'm sure Paris will look amazing.

Madonna and Lourdes at the Vanity Fair Oscars Party

Madonna showed up and quickly left the Vanity Fair after party for the Oscars. She brought along her stunning daughter Lourdes for the ride.

Controversy is never far behind Madonna and she has been recieving a lot of negative press for her choice of attire. Wearing only fish net stockings, leotard and a fur vest she certainly was an image to behold.

While we have obviously seen Madonna wearing much less (see her Sex book) the controversy is based around the fact that she was dressed like this while accompanied by her 14 year old daughter.

Personally I don't see the problem, Lourdes's mother is Madonna for crying out loud, I'm sure she is well accustomed to her mothers daring style choices and the fact of the matter is that Madonna looks amazing. At 52 she has a body most girls in their 20's would die for so she is more than capable of pulling this look off.

Besides, I'd rather this Madonna than the one who a few years ago was dressing in an overly matronly way whilst selling books for children. While the press is constantly bashing her for being overtly sexual in her 50's , secretly I think a lot of these columnists have a real love for her.

Lady Gaga - Born This Way Video- Dir Nick Knight

Lady Gaga finally released her eagerly anticipated video for Born This Way on Monday 28th of February.

The video was directed by uber fashion photographer Nick Knight, known best for his work with Kate Moss and Vogue UK.

Gaga produced the script for the short, which revolves around the birth of a new race (literally shown in the promo), the battle between good/evil, zombie tuxedo wearing dance and of course a Gaga staple- dance routines in bra and panties only.

Visual references come from all over the place, Dali, Michael Jackson and of course most controversially Madonna.

Overall I was very impressed by the video and it's depth, although I do prefer her short film for Alejandro. What can I say, I'm sucker for anything Steven Klein :)