GWAS Playlist!

This week's pick of pop culture, magazines & pretty things...

1. Another week, another Sex and the City magazine cover (surprise!), this time care of Entertainment Weekly's double issue. Sarah Jessica Parker tells the magazine the movie is about more than closets, orgasms, and cosmos: ''It can't be just about wanton lust — that's not the truth about these women anymore.'' Well, that's not entirely true. Further on in the feature story (which you should definitely read), writer Missy Schwartz observes one of the movie's scenes: "Oohing and ahhing, Carrie sets down her shopping bags and saunters through the closet. ''Like it?'' Mr. Big asks. ''Like it?'' she replies. ''It's love at first sight.'' Then, as if handling a sacred relic, Carrie places — what else? — a brand-new pair of Manolo Blahniks on the closet's enormous shoe rack. Beaming, she turns back to Big: ''Now I believe this is all really happening.'' Meanwhile, Jennifer Hudson, who plays Carrie's assistant in the film, busts out some major Dreamgirls-style vocals for the movie's soundtrack (play "All Dressed In Love" below). The movie comes to Aussie screens on June 5. Still excited or has all the hype chilled your S&TC fever?



2. From the same TV network that gave the world Gossip Girl is Stylista (the show formerly known in the fash-goss-blogosphere as 'Fashionista'), which, according to New York Magazine (who poo-poos the show), "follows a group of desperate young fashionistas as they vie for the coveted position of assistant to Anne Slowey, fashion news director at ELLE magazine." Slowey comes across as Narnia's Ice Queen meets Ugly Betty's Wilhemina Slater – she literally makes the hopefuls quake in their shoes. Is she for real? See clip below.



3. The celeb signings continue with Vanessa Paradis scheduled to appear in Miu Miu's autumn/winter campaign (replacing Kirsten Dunst – is she out of rehab yet?) and Sophie Ellis-Bextor joining Kate Moss as the new face for Coty's Rimmel London cosmetics. Meanwhile, Lauren Conrad is designing jewellery for Avon's 'mark' division, Tori Spelling is modelling for Skechers, Miley Cyrus is the new Got Milk? pinup, LiLo has launched her range of leggings while signing on for Fornarina's spring campaign, and Josh Hartnett is the new face of Armani Diamonds For Men.

4. Baggy jeans are the business, according to The Daily Mail (as if we didn't know), who say Victoria Beckham, Kylie Minogue, Katie Holmes, Nicole Richie and Claudia Schiffer have all sported the look. The jeans are more 70s flares than baggy boyfriends (remember when Tsubi boyfriend jeans were all the unflattering rage?), with high waists and fitted bottoms to hold in problem bits – a welcome work-day/weekend alternative to high-waisted skinnies. Just Jeans online is selling its cute 'high wide leg light blue' jeans for $99.95; Witchery's wide 'button detail jean' is also $99.95; you can buy Grab's 'Kilda Brady Jean' at eightthirteen.com.au for $119; or the too-cute Little Lady From 'ringmaster jeans' for $129.95 at Australian Flavour (pictured; my pick – buying NOW!).

5. Whale-saving Heroes star Hayden Panettiere fronts the June/July issue of Teen Vogue looking suitably easy-breezy. She tells the magazine: “In Hollywood, there is no such thing as being a nice girl. Or being, you know, not messed up. If you’re not, [the tabloids will] make you that way. Nothing is private and when they write about you, it’s almost always completely false.” Go to teenvogue.com to view the behind-the-scenes shoot video. The issue also contains an interview with Ali Michael, the 18-year-old Texan model who was famously turned away from Paris Fashion Week in February because she'd gained five pounds (that's, like, 2.3 kilos!), being told her legs were "too fat". Appearing alongside Teen Vogue editor Amy Astley on the US Today show this week (see clip below), Michael, a self-confessed perfectionist who made it her goal to get down to 102 pounds (46 kilos) on the advice of her agency, said she hadn't had a period for a year, which is standard amongst the emaciated modelling set. Good on her for putting her career on the line for speaking out about the pressure to be super-thin. A review of Teen Vogue (out on May 20) will be up on GWAS soon.



6. When I was a wee Girl With a Satchel, my literary heroines were Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables and Jo March from Little Women. Both feisty, strong-willed, bookish girls with aspirations to rise above their humble circumstances by the power of their pens, they feigned disinterest in cute boys (both were pursued by perfectly suitable but uninspiring boys, and both turned them down) and courted trouble at every corner despite their good intentions. So I was very excited to learn that Puffin/Penguin books are re-issuing these wonderful texts: Little Women is a steal at $7.95 and the Anne of Green Gables centenary edition is $24.95 (the book was first published in 1908). I intend to keep both on my bookshelf in the hope that I might have daughters with a fondness for fiction one day – the ye olde English language might be a major put-off, in which case I will buy the films!

7. Jessica Alba is Allure's June issue covergirl, looking very Revlon spokesmodel in her berry-hued makeup (an odd choice for a summer issue?). Inside the mag she channels Charlie Chaplin for a shoot to promote her upcoming comedy film The Love Guru. Meanwhile, supermodel Claudia Schiffer, 37, has posed for a provocative cover shoot for German Vogue photographed by Mario Testino, and Heidi Klum is on the cover of US Marie Claire's summer body issue.

8. Braids are back. After going ballistic for them a few years ago, when boho came back for the first time via Sienna Miller (and her friend Matthew Williamson's summer 2005 show – still one of my favourites EVER), Nicole Richie and Rachel Bilson have been sporting the look this week. If you are crap at hair, or over age 35, I suggest you give them a miss.

9. The stars are out in force at the Cannes film festival (though it's kind of been eclipsed by Sex and the City: The Movie premiere fever), with Cate Blanchett, Eva Longoria, Mischa Barton, twin-baby-bearing Angelina Jolie and other red-carpet stunners in town. Natalie Portman, who's on this year's jury alongside Sean Penn, looked petite in purple ruffles at the premiere of Blindness.

10. Serious actress Charlize Theron, 32, (the thespian antithesis of Cameron Diaz?) has made the June 2008 cover of W magazine. She tells the magazine: “More interesting stories come my way about what we consider real people than about glamorous, beautiful people. It really irks me that people think I choose these roles because if I’m not looking attractive, they will take me seriously. I’m sorry, but if I’m going to play a cop, I’m not going to be wearing eyeliner. I’m not going to wake up in a scene with lip gloss on, because that’s not how women wake up, not even the most beautiful women.” Theron is one actress definitely not suffering from "woman-girl syndrome." (Pic: JustJared)

Sponsors rock – buy their stock! New York Magazine says shopping produces feel-good brain chemicals like dopamine and serotonin (retail therapy is scientifically beneficial!). Go to Australian Flavour, Sassi Sam, Beloved Boutique, Maximillia and Ku-Ture immediately.

Celeb quote of the week:
"When I see pictures I do sometimes think 'You miserable cow!' But I think it's just the way my face falls. If people like the way I look then great, and if they don't then fine." – Victoria Beckham

The Word for the weekend:
"There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." – Luke; 15:7

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel