Ah celebrities, the gossip and news surrounding their lives can be so amusing.

• Did you know that Heidi Klum can sing? The Victoria’s Secret model sung a duet with husband, Seal, on his upcoming album called Wedding Day. Now rumours are swirling around that the pair are set to perform the song at this years Victoria’s Secret fashion show. [GossipGirls]
• Finally, the polls are showing that while Sarah Jessica Parker wears Patricia Field’s quirky/cool designs well in Sex and the City, the actress is not your average Hollywood star. The actress who plays Carrie Bradshaw in the popular TV show was voted the unsexiest women alive in a Maxium magazine poll. Amy Winehouse, Sandra Oh, Madonna and Britney Spears also make an appearance in that list. [SMH]
• Heather Mills has Hollywood in her sights. Not in the acting capacity, but in a bio-pic, and she wants Reese Witherspoon to play her. Now did Sir Paul McCartney not put a gag order on her? If so, how interesting would a bio-pic about Heather’s life actually be? Most people would watch the movie to find out about Paul, but may not be as keen to find out about why she has a prosthetic leg. [Hello]

Armani Prive has been out in force on the red carpets around the world this past week. Cate Blanchett and Alicia Keys wore fall 2007 Prive gowns at two separate red carpet events, shoes and all.

Now Katie Holmes attended the German premier of Lions for Lambs with husband Tom Cruise in Berlin, Germany wearing a sparkling strapless Armani Prive number. She even paired it with the sparkly bow trimmed heels. Shame the plunging sweetheart neckline was altered so it was less plunging.

Who wore it better, model Natalia Belova on the runway or Katie Holmes on the red carpet?

[Images: Style.com and Just Jared]

Cycle 9 of America’s Next Top Model has begun airing on American television, but if you’re living in Australia and dream of being the next Gemma Ward or Miranda Kerr, cycle 4 of Australia’s Next Top model is now audition girls around the country.

Audition times will be from 10am-2pm, all models must be over 16 by or on January 8th 2008 and over 170cm tall. As the release says, there are no exceptions girlfriend! Check out the Australia’s Next Top Model website for an application form.
See below for the list of dates and locations near you.

P.S. Apparently one of the girls from cycle 3 came into my full time job for a casting yesterday. I did not even recognize her. If only I had Fox8 to watch the show.

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Carrie Bradshaw & co will be seen inside the offices of US Vogue in the Sex and the City movie. This explains why Sarah Jessica Parker was blatantly carrying around a mock up copy of Vogue on the set of SATC.

According to WWD, the actors and the film crew got to film in the offices of Vogue last week, as revealed by Willie Garson (aka Stanford Blatch).

Garson revealed the filming inside 4 Times Square at Monday night’s party to celebrate the third season of the television series “Iconoclasts.” And while Anna Wintour won’t show up on screen (not even dressed as Meryl Streep), she did consult on the sequences, according to a spokeswoman for the film, while André Leon Talley and Patrick Demarchelier will make cameo appearances.

I just hope Carrie doesn’t get lost trying to find those Manolo Blahnik Mary-Janes (you can buy them at Bergdorf Goodman now - they’re no longer an urban myth) or get drunk on Martini’s in Vogue again.

She’s well known for gracing the covers and pages of the world’s most prestigious fashion magazines, but now Gemma Ward is using her well recognised face to help fight poverty in Africa.

A recent trip to Malawi brought Ward face to face with the hardship that confronts many locals every day. Ward said it was a life-changing experience … the young model now wants to raise more than $500,000 in the next four years to do her bit to fight poverty in Africa.

“One of the most touching experiences I had in Malawi was meeting a 17-year-old girl who lived with her 1-year-old son in a one-by-three-metre straw hut,” Ward said. “She left her husband from her first arranged marriage because she did not want to be one of his many wives. She told me she would never marry again. She had nothing to eat for dinner that night.”

Ward visited Malawi with her father, with the charity organisation The Hunger Project, and after the their trip the pair decided that they would like to raise enough money to build a community house, to help the Malawi locals.

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The miscellaneous fashion news and gossip…

• Valentino Garavani won the Fashion Rocks Lifetime Achievement Award in London last week, but he almost lost the Swarovski statue. According to Page Six, “the statue was so heavy he decided to leave it behind, assuming it would be taken care of by event coordinators.” [NY Post]
• Expect to see more of Nicole Kidman, her new movie Margot at the Wedding will hit cinema screens next month and she’s on the promotional trail. Next up? The cover of the November 2007 issue of Interview Magazine with co-star Jennifer Jason Leigh looking very much like identical twins in their fall 2008 Louis Vuitton dresses.
• Cacherel has announced their new artistic directors to replace Suzanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro. The duo behind Eley Kishimoto, Mark Eley and Wakako Kishimoto will start their new roles at the fashion house immediately with their first collection scheduled for fall 2008. “We’re extremely excited,” said Eley, 39, Friday. “We are naturally drawn to the brand.” [WWD]

Chanel designed a surfboard a few season ago, and now you can add a bike to their growing collection of sports equipment.

The limited edition 8-speed bike features signature black matelasse leather on the seat and utility (quilted leather) saddle bag with the double-c Chanel logo. The 16.5kg aluminium frame bike will be released as part of the brands spring summer 2008 collection to celebrate the heritage of the house and Coco Chanel’s love of sport.

Care for a ride? Will this bike will set you back around £6,200 or US$12,695 when it hits select Chanel boutiques in December. Don’t forget to get a quality lock and waterproof cover if you plan to take it outdoors.

I read an interesting article on the News.com.au website. It talked about how we’re always on the look out for the next fashion bargain, but in the search for the next bargain find, do we even consider where it came from and how (and by whom) it was made?

The article looks at Green is the New Black, a new book by British style guru Tamsin Blanchard, with a foreword written by flame hair British model, Lily Cole.

The book is aimed at those who are more partial to Havaianas than hemp and who don’t want to spend their spare time knitting purses out of recycled onion bags.

As model Lily Cole puts it in the introduction, we may make an effort to ride bikes and buy organic apples, but rarely consider something as simple as inexpensive socks.

Sure, she goes on to explain, we may love the idea of the $4.99 cotton sock, but the bargain price makes it easy to overlook the fact that the cotton may have been picked by underpaid children in Uzbekistan and sewn together in Bangladesh by workers getting paid 11 cents an hour for an 80-hour week.

Read the article here, or buy the book on Amazon now.

P.S. I loath people who use the phrase, “[insert trend/colour] is the new black”, but the book could be interesting.

At the Fall 2007 runway collections in February/March, and not all of the camera’s were focused on what was on the runway. Some were focused on Vogue’s editor in chief, Anna Wintour; her bob, her sunglasses, the fur coats and the ever present Andre Leon Talley and her entourage.

While this clip called Signe Anna is in French, the commentary is so enthusiastic that it’s hilarious. And as a side note, the commentators point out that Anna wore the same dress on Sunday and Monday. Noooo… not Anna!

P.S. The team who put this together apparently introduced more members of her staff, including Teen Vogue editor, Amy Astley, in their Spring 2008 show clip. They were quoted as saying (in French) “who is this woman with the same hairstyle?”