Duran Duran still rocks. Call me crazy but I love ‘em. Always have, always will. (I even have a couple of songs from their latest album on my iPod. “Leave a Light On” reminds me of “Save A Prayer”.)  I may be “dating” myself badly here, but I remember the advent of MTV. When the vid for “Rio” was first released, it was a huge deal and it was in very heavy rotation for a very long time. Those gorgeous guys were tailor made for music videos.  Their popularity was based so heavily on their image at the time, that naysayers theorized the band would dry up when their looks did. Well one, their looks never did and two, the band has outlasted the music video.

For their latest single, “Girl Panic”, they’ve gone old school and back to their roots. There was a time when all a band had to do was fill three minutes of film with models and they had a hit. In fact this band’s first video was for a song called “Girls on Film”. (There was even a version that was too hot for MTV.) The most famous pairing of models and music was probably George Michael’s “Freedom ’90”.  With “Girl Panic”, Duran Duran has taken “Girls on Film”, “Freedom ’90” and mashed them with Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” and come up with a totally cool, highly stylized hybrid of a long-form vid.

Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Helen Christensen (all three of whom are in their 40’s and look AAH-MAY-ZING!) along with Eva Herzigova all appear as the members of Duran Duran: John Taylor, Simon LeBon, Roger Taylor and Nick Rhodes respectively. (The actual members appear in supporting roles). An unnamed model represents the rotation of replacements for guitarist Andy Taylor who has left the band. You have to watch this. “No models were harmed in this production.”

Sarah Jessica Parker, Kate Moss, Stella McCartney and Naomi Campbell attended a memorial service at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, England for fashion designer (Lee) Alexander McQueen.

Anna Wintour spoke at the private service A Service of Thanksgiving for the Life of  Alexander McQueen where she said:

"There was no containing his contradictions,"  [he was a]"complex and gifted young man, born not far from here, who as a child used to sit on the roof of his tower block and watch the birds circling overhead."

The London Community Gospel Choir led the congregation in Amazing Grace during which a collection was taken up in aid of the Terrence Higgins Trust, the Blue Cross and Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.  Bjork sang a haunting version of Gloomy Sunday (the Billie Holiday song about contemplating suicide).

Friends told stories of the iconic fashion desire and sang hymns.  The hour-long service ended with:

Milliner Philip Treacy, McQueen's nephew, and McQueen's CEO, Jonathan Akeroyd, led final prayers of intercession in which they also remembered the designer's mother Joyce, who died a week before her son, and his late friend Isabella Blow. As they did so, the sun sliced through the windows of the great dome above, throwing shafts of sunlight on to the speakers below. It was just the kind of wordless symbolism in which McQueen used to specialise.

Pictures after the break

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When she isn’t hurling telephones at people, Naomi Campbell is taking elevators and escalators cuz bitch doesn’t do stairs according to her former representative Carole White who said Naomi cancelled a promotional appearance for her perfume because the elevator broke down and she was required to walk up 2 flights of stairs.

The New York Post has obtained an affidavit from a lawsuit Naomi is currently facing with cosmetics firm Moodform Mission.  She is being sued for backing out of a fragrance deal with the company.  She failed to meet her obligations for the promotional aspect of the perfume including backing out of a 2000 appearance in Australia because of the stairs. According to White:

“Her failure to show was not only embarrassing, but caused friction with (the) Wella (perfume) people in Australia.”

Co-Director of Moodform Mission Chris Owen, alleges that Campbell was constantly late for meetings even tried to attack him with a bottle.  He should be a little more understanding given there were probably not any phones in the vicinity.  This shows flexibility on Naomi’s part, yes? The girl can improvise at the drop of a hat.

And of course being the misunderstood diva she is, Campbell’s people have said the lawsuit is ‘ridiculous and absurd‘.

Cheryl Cole was the Belle of the Ball at the de Grisogono Dinner Gala in Cannes.  They certainly know how to party and entertain in Cannes don’t they? I can’t imagine the money at these things, both in terms of what people are worth and what is spent on these parties.  It’s kind of decadent.  Like chocolate.

Cheryl Cole has recently stated that she now refuses to criticize her looks:

“I’m not critical, other people criticise me a lot, so I let them do that.

“I am what I am now. I’m at that point where I hate when other women pull themselves apart. I just want other women to feel good about themselves. That 100 per cent comes with age.

“It’s hard to look at yourself as a teenager. I just don’t think negatively now.”

Who in their right mind would criticize her looks?

Also at the gala:  Myleene Klass, hide-the-phones Naomi Campbell, Lionel Richie, Ivana Trump, Meg Ryan, and Tamara Beckwith.

Pictures after the break

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Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss get naked for Love Magazine and six other supermodels do as well.  That means 8 different magazine covers in all.

The six other nekkid supermodels featured are: Amber Valletta, Lara Stone, Natalia Vodianova, Daria Werbowy, Jeneil Williams and Kristen McMenamy, all with exercise cables photographed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.

Editor-in-chief, Katie Grand:

“For this issue of LOVE, we took eight women who are generally acknowledged as the most beautiful in the world, got them to show off their bodies – widely regarded as the most beautiful in the world – and photographed them all in exactly the same position for the cover,”

“We did this to show how much they differed physically from one another, which is why we also printed their measurements. The point is that ‘perfection’ is not fixed, timeless or transcendent. It varies, as the measurements of our cover girls show”

What do you think of the covers and the concept?

Gerard Butler spent Halloween in El Jadida, Morocco for the grand opening night of the Kerzner Mazagan Beach Resort.  Quite a change from last year when he attended Kate Hudson’s annual Halloween party.  I wonder if her decision not to throw it had anything to do with his decision to go to Morocco instead. 

The gala included 1,500 guests who were surrounded by 100,000 roses, 10,000 candles, 50 horses from El Jadida dressed in the national tbourida costume, more than 300 traditional folk troops and fire breathers in celebration of the opening night of the latest Kerzner International Resort. 

Lots of pics after the break including Gerard with Naomi Campbell and Guy Ritchie.

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