Magazines: Cover of the Week—Interview with the Beckham.

I love seeing a celeb with a book, and while VB doesn’t exactly strike me as the reading type, I do think there’s more to her than meets the eye.

Image via Coco’s Tea Party.

Magazines: Cover of the Week—Victoria Beckham Turns Chinese.

At first I didn’t think this was a legitimate Victoria Beckham cover; she looks almost cartoon with her red hair and somewhat Samurai-inspired styling. But it’s nice to see her breaking out of her rigid high fashion look and into something a bit more playful.

Image via BellaSugar.

Magazines: Cover of the Week—Victoria Beckham Back in the Swing of Things After Baby Numéro 4.

Victoria Beckham looks absolutely sublime in a mint green leather trench from Burberry in her first photoshoot outing since having daughter Harper Seven. Inside the mag, she gets down to her skivvies and is as skinny as ever.

Image via Catwalk Queen.

Magazines: Who Favours Victoria Beckham’s Baby Over 9/11.

With all the 9/11 covers sweeping the newsstands, I was expecting an equally fitting cover for Who, which came out on Friday.

No such luck.

While there is a small snippet on the “special report” about “The Children of 9/11”, Victoria Beckham and her new baby, Harper, dominate the cover.

And the anniversary content is even sparser inside, with only the advertised 9/11 kids in a seven-page special, which is also the focus of the editor’s letter. Throw them a bone, why don’t you, Who? (Pardon the crass pun.)

I suppose it really goes to show just how much celebrity culture has become the beacon of our existence, even for the most high-brow of all the celebrity gossip magazines.

Related: [The Early Bird Catches the Worm] Magazine Cover(s) of the Week: September 11 Tributes.

Event: Go Get Frocked—The Way We Wear Spring Vintage Fashion Fair.

It’s that time of year again, when The Way We Wear vintage market rolls around again.

Six months ago I cleaned up, picking up a gorgeous yellow dress, some jewellery and some postcards.

This time, however, I had my heart set on an A-line floral skirt and/or dress, and maybe some more jewellery, but to my chagrin, the items that caught my eye—a red, Victoria Beckham-esque shift and a navy and white floral A-line dress with matching bolero—were way out of my price range.

Instead, I got a scarf with a Hermes air about it, and a black satin poodle skirt for my Mum. As Clueless’s Cher would say, “It is a far, far better thing doing stuff for other people.”

In accompaniment to the vintage wares on sale, the event hosted a “Little Black Dress” exhibition, with authentic dresses from the likes of Chanel. In an ode to this week’s “Outfit Envy”, Lauren Conrad was also featured as a LBD aficionado!

[The Early Bird Catches the Worm] Event: The Way We Wear Vintage Market.

[The Early Bird Catches the Worm] Outfit Envy: “Sartorial Conservative”.

Event: Girls Night In Dream Guests.

This year will be my first year hosting a Girls Night In event in the hopes of raising money to battle women’s cancers.

I’ve been planning to hold a supremely cheesy movie night (where Legally Blonde and Clueless are on the cards) for a while now, so I thought, why not raise money for cancer while we’re at it.

Those who I’ve actually invited know who you are, but in the spirit of raising awareness of female cancers, I thought I’d churn out a list of my ideal Girls Night In guests.

No Girls Night In would be complete without the hilariously self-deprecating musings of Mia Freedman. It’s true; any chance I could get to speak to Freedman face to face I will take, so of course she had to be at the very top of my list.

Next is my blog-crush, Girl with a Satchel’s Erica Bartle. I’ve said time and time again that Bartle’s blog was what inspired me to start my own, and I would love to pick her brain whilst chilling out with Cher & Co.

Rachel Hills’ Musings of an Inappropriate Woman is a fairly recent addition to my blogroll, but her insights into pop culture, feminism and sex would go down a treat with a glass of champers or two and some nibblies.

Ah, Gala Darling, where do I start? With her quirky personality and ever-changing hair colours, she would be the life of the party, and no doubt bring along some über-cool DVDs that no one else would’ve thought of.

I can’t include all my favourite bloggers and not include Sarah Ayoub of Wordsmith Lane. We seem to have a similar admiration for all the ladies listed above, and with a wedding on the horizon, I’m sure Sarah could use a bit of pampering.

Not many Early Bird readers will be familiar with my next guest, but those of you who know me well won’t be surprise that I’ve included Stephanie McMahon on the list. Not only is she the daughter of World Wrestling Entertainment chairman Vince McMahon and wife of WWE Superstar Triple H (my favourite wrestler, BTW), but she is the Executive Vice President of Creative Development and Operations. At one point in my teenage angst years, I even claimed that McMahon had the life I wanted. So it’s only fitting that she be brought into the fold of women who have the lives I want now.

Sarah Jessica Parker has overstayed her welcome as Carrie perhaps a tad too long, judging from reactions to Sex & the City 2, however, I find Parker as a person fascinating and very normal. And in her honour, of course we would have to break out some Carrie fever in the form of the SATC box set.

Finally, provided she brings gifts from her fashion line and any number of her Hermes Birkin bags for us to caress, Victoria Beckham will be welcomed with open arms. I believe that, underneath it all, VB is a fairly normal person, with a tight reign of control over her public persona. I think everyone could learn a little something from Mrs Beckham.

And so concludes my dream guest list. I will be blogging about the actual event in a few weeks time, including the food, the flicks and, most importantly, how much we raised for the Cancer Council.

Loving… Taking Inspiration from Gala Darling.

Playing board games on the beach in fur?

In the words of Posh Spice in Spice World: The Movie: “Could somebody please tell me, exactly what is the dress code here?”

Magazines: Glamour-Puss.

The latest cover of US Glamour, with Vanessa Hudgens cuddling up to some kitties, looks reminiscent of the mag’s March cover, with Victoria Beckham posing with a puppy.

I’m all for some animal lovin’.

Lady Most Likely – Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People

 

Every time I turn on the readio, it seems like there’s a Will.I.Am collaboration (“3 Words” with Cheryl Cole; Usher’s “OMG”; “Imma Be” with Black Eyed Peas) or Will.I.Am sounding collaboration (“Nothin’ on You” by B.o.B.; “If We Ever Meet Again” by former über-producer Timbaland and Katy Perry) getting airtime. The BEP front man may indeed be the new Timabland, so I was surprised he didn’t make it onto the list. There’s always next year, I suppose… 

Someone who did make it on, though, is Lady Gaga. 

 

Cyndi Lauper, Gaga’s partner-in-crime for the MAC AIDS Fund, profiles her for possibly the most talked about ranking this year. I have no doubt Gaga is the most influential person in entertainment today, as she’s collaborating with and inspiring the fashion, beauty, art, advertising, music and film worlds with her own performance art—as Lauper writes, “she is inspiring other artists to go further in their own work”—and striking up water cooler conversation with her boundary pushing antics, both onstage and off. 

Time is spot on in naming Marc Jacobs the only influential fashion figure. Jacobs, who is profiled by fellow fashionista and friend, Victoria Beckham, glamorised grunge, began the bag lady chic movement, and is now championing voluptuousness in his new season looks for Louis Vuitton and his titular line. Perhaps Karl Lagerfeld and Anna Wintour would have made welcome additions, but Jacobs certainly has the respect of all facets of the fashion world— his peers, his models, his muses and his loyal subjects.

I am utterly dumbfounded to not see George Clooney on the list. Not only did he single-handedly organise the Hope for Haiti Now telethon but, like a fine wine, he only gets better with age.

In other “Artists” notes, shoe in Oprah is profiled by Phil Donahue, while her partner, “Mr Oprah” Stedman Graham makes the Least Influential list (more on that below); Robert Pattinson is bafflingly included (for influencing legions of teens and, worryingly, tweens ready and willing to let Pattinson bite them? Perhaps Brad and Angelina would have been better choices, as they actually contribute something to society—as well as being really, really ridiculously good looking. Or even Stephenie Meyer, without whom Pattinson wouldn’t have an Edward Cullen to broodingly portray); and “new media mogul” Ashton Kutcher, whom I was pleasantly surprised to see on the list.

Of course, President Obama makes an appearance as one of, if not the most influential leaders. While he certainly is the most well-known leader on the list, whether he’s been as influential as he could have during his first year in the presidency is a point of contention for a lot of politicos and American citizens.

My second favourite President (after Obama, George W. Bush is the only other President whose reign I was [un]lucky enough to grow up during, so Clinton wins via default), I find Bill Clinton funny, charming and smart—although, hey may not have been utilising the latter during Lewinskygate. Nonetheless, he’s making positive change, and that’s all that matters here.

On the other hand, former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin makes the list. She is certainly fascinating and controversial, but I wouldn’t call her influential. Perhaps she would be more at home on Barbara Walters’ annual most fascinating people list?

Speaking of other lists, on page 96 you will find Joel Stein’s “The Time Bum Hundred”, relaying how he chronicled the 100 least influential people of 2010, split into “four categories… Losers, Flameouts, Morons and Slimy Bastards”. The complete list is not available in the mag, but it is on Time’s website.

Here is a sneak peak of “the Least Influential People Who Used to or Ought to Have Influence”, not including babies (who really are the least influential people in the world!), “the tattooed chick who messed up Sandra Bullocks’ marriage” (negative influence), and Tiger Woods, who just had a “bad year”, but is “still immensely influential, only now his influence lies in preventing men from texting their mistresses”: the Tom Tom GPS navigation system; “We Are the World 25 for Haiti”; Paula Adbul; Michael Jackson’s doctor, Dr. Conrad Murray who, unfortunately, was influential enough last year to play a key role in the death of Michael Jackson; Joaquin Phoenix; gay-disapprover, sex tape “without any sex” star and Former Miss California Carrie Prejean; “first dog” Bo Obama; George Clooney’s ex, Sarah Larson; former MTV TRL host Carson Daly; questionably, The Doors, who “actually sucked and just had a handsome lead singer”; Grover; Carrot Top; news anchor Katie Couric; John Edwards; the quintessential douche bag reality show dropout, Jon Gosselin; keeping it in the family—Lindsay and Michael Lohan; Jersey Shore outcast Angelina Pivarnick; Bernie Madoff; Levi Johnston; Tila Tequila; Nicollette Sheridan; witches (“Charmed was like, ten years ago. It’s all about vampires, werewolves and zombies now”); and—drum roll please—Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, collectively known as Speidi. Let’s hope Heidi truly is uninfluential, especially for The Hills‘ primarily teen audience’s sake, or we could have an army of over-inflated, frozen-foreheaded Barbie clones on our hands.