It's back!

If you have never seen the US reality TV show, The Hills, then you're definitely missing out... 

The series follows the lives of a group of friends living in the exclusive Beverly Hills, Hollywood. And as reality TV shows go, it surprisingly makes for very good viewing.

Since it was first aired on MTV in 2006, we were introduced to former Laguna Beach star, Lauren Conrad. The show is centered around the lives of her and her socialite friends, as they try to make it big in the Hollywood celebrity scene.

In the last series (series 5) we saw the departure of the main star, Lauren Conrad, as she decided that she would take time out from the hectic celebrity world in order to concentrate on her relationship with her mystery man.

Conrad's departure has left many critics wondering what is going happen to the quality of the show, but it appears that series 6 has a lot in store. 

The series continues to follow the lives of the friends after the Speidi (Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag) wedding. We are shown the results of Heidi's shocking plastic surgery - she had ten major procedures in one day. And also the reactions of her friends and family - which will no doubt make good viewing.

It has been revealed on a Hollywood gossip site that Spencer and Heidi will be pulling out of the show before the series finale is produced, after rumours that they refused to 'fake' a divorce. This is also followed by rumours that Montag has accused show creator, Adam Divello of sexual harassment.

The new series of The Hills is set to return to our screens at the end of this month.

Tragic Lenoir's failed suicide bid

It has been revealed that French Supermodel, Noemie Lenoir has attempted to commit suicide.

Lenoir, 30, was found to be lying unconscious in a forest in  La Celle-Saint-Cloud, Paris, by a dog walker on Sunday.

She is now recovering in hospital and being treated for a drugs overdose and alcohol poisoning.

It is believed that Lenoir has been struggling to cope with on-off boyfriend, ex-Chelsea football player, Claude Makelele's infidelity. And that her attempt to take her life was a cry for help.

There are rumours that the troubled model has been battling with depression for some time due to her modelling career taking a battering. A controversial advertising campaign in which Lenoir models for Marks & Spencers received several complaints claiming it was sexist. The advert which was featured on UK screens at Christmas, showed Lenoir dancing around a winter woodland in her underwear. Adverts were removed from broadcast shortly after they were seen to be demeaning towards woman.

It has also been revealed that Lenoir was having a secret relationship with Swiss millionaire, Carl Hirschmann, 29. He is currently facing sexual assault charges in Switzerland. It is alleged that Hirschmann used footage of sexual scenes to blackmail women that he had been involved with, as well as having sexual relations with a 15-year-old girl.

The 3 year old fashion wars

Lately, there has been a lot of negativity in the media, surrounding the tender issue of celeb tots following in their mother's fashion footsteps. There seems to be a growing trend of mums dressing up their little ones to look like their very own identical mini-me. Are they taking it too far though?

Katie Price, aka Jordan, has recently come under a lot of criticism for allowing her 2-year-old daughter, Princess Tiaamii, to play with make-up. A photograph was posted on Price's facebook site, of her daughter caked in make-up and false eye lashes. There have even been rumours that Price is looking in to getting Princess her own make-up line, understandably this has caused a lot of controversy amongst mothers, as well as the 2-year-olds dad, Peter Andre. Princess, a regular feature in the former glamour model's television show, What Katie did next, was shown with straightened hair and smothered in lip stick. Is this really an image we want to be seen promoting to young children? Price has previously been featured in the media spotlight for highlighting and styling her four-year-old son, Junior's hair.

This trend which inevitably began in Hollywood is also being copied by the Beckham family. Brooklyn, 11, Romeo, 7, and Cruz, 5, are rarely ever seen out of their designer clothes and are often the trend setters for many Hollywood child a-listers. All three boys follow in their dad's footsteps when it comes to hairstyles, they barely last a week, and are regularly highlighted. But what effect is this media coverage and criticism having on these children? It seems they are likely to follow the path of many celeb children before them, watch out Lindsey and Mary-Kate.

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes's 4-year-old daughter, Suri, is another celeb tot who has been featured heavily in the media. Without a doubt, Suri is definitely the best dressed 4-year-old out there, but is it going a bit too far? Recently pictures of her were published in celeb gossip magazines wearing high-heeled shoes and clutching her beloved make-up bag like a teddy. It's all well and good children playing with make-up and dressing up, after all which girls didn't do that when growing up, but its worrying that its a major part of their day. For Suri, style seems to have become somewhat of an obsession, which is heavily encouraged by her mother, Katie, who boasts that her daughter is her fashion stylist and she only wears the clothes which her daughter picks out for her.


These kids all seem to be being pushed in to growing up too fast and far too heavily featured in the media spotlight. Their showbiz mums obviously seem to have big aspirations for their children, but don't they need room to have a normal childhood... In my opinion something is going to give eventually.

The end of an era

World famous department store, Harrods, has been sold for a staggering £1.5 billion.

It is believed that Mohamed Al-Fayed, 81, has decided to part from his beloved empire as he wishes to spend more time with his family, and put his businesses on the back-burner.

Al-Fayed bought the store in 1985, and has since turned it in to one of the City's major tourist attractions. The Knightsbridge branch, which was founded in 1834, began life as a humble groceries shop, and has since flourished to cater for the City's elite.

The new owners, the Qatari Royal Family, are intending to keep the traditional department store exactly how it is, although it seems that Al-Fayed will still have some say in the running of the store as he has taken the role of honorary chairman. So it seems he can't completely let go of his precious empire.

The future of Fulham Football Club, another of Al-Fayed's assets, has not been revealed yet, however, it is rumoured that it may also be on the market soon, as the 81-year-old enters long- awaited retirement.

Lauren Luke: From Newcastle to New York

By Maria Soleil and Melissa Green


It’s 14th December 2007. At her humble council house in Tyne and Wear, a visibly nervous Lauren is filming a make-up tutorial inspired by Leona Lewis’ ‘Bleeding Love’ video. She posts it to YouTube, and awaits a response from the masses of people that requested the look.
Fast-forward two years, and that same video has been viewed over 3,200,000 times. Lauren has launched her own make-up line in the States, been featured in countless magazines and newspapers, and has appeared on This Morning and Paul O’Grady demonstrating her talent. She has had unimaginable and certainly unforetold success in America. Her products are stocked in over 130 retailers, and during the summer of last year, her face was plastered over billboards in Times Square at the Sephora launch of her product line. Advertising campaigns featuring global superstars such as David Beckham have appeared on the very same spot, so Lauren is already in esteemed company. How did this bubbly young woman become an overnight phenomenon?
Lauren lives in a sleepy suburb of Newcastle-upon-Tyne with her boyfriend Ken, who is 12 years her senior, and her son Jordan, 11. Before finding fame and later fortune through YouTube, Lauren worked as a taxi dispatcher. As a single parent raising a son single-handedly from a teenage pregnancy, Lauren looked to other ways to raise funds. She looked to her passion in life – make-up. She began by selling masses of her favourite products on eBay. Lauren took photos of herself wearing the products to give ideas to her customers, however she was inundated with requests and it was not long after this she realised the potential of YouTube in providing tutorials.
Under the alias “Panacea81” (named after the Greek goddess and her year of birth) Lauren started accepting requests for make-up looks copied from celebrities such as Angelina Jolie, Lady Gaga and Rihanna. The tutorials that started as a part-time hobby soon turned in to a daily event, and to date she has uploaded over 200 videos to the site. The process of recording her tutorials is simple: she films all her videos using a standard camcorder set up in the corner of her tiny bedroom, a certain hum is familiar to the majority of her videos, her loveable little pug, Phoebe, snoring in the background. Lauren’s tutorials on YouTube differ from others, she has no professional training, and as she has admitted herself that she doesn’t edit her videos: “I don’t know how to.” She buys her own make-up; refusing to accept deals from companies paying her to feature their products in her videos. The development of her own products, named bylaurenluke, means that Lauren often uses them in her tutorials but she does suggest alternatives. Despite the hectic schedule resulting from her new-found fame, Lauren still finds time to go to evening classes at her local college to study the basics of beauty therapy.
Nine million channel views later and Lauren has built her own business empire. She has published a book, had a Nintendo DS game named after her and writes a weekly column for the Guardian beauty section. Include the lucrative deal with Sephora and TV appearances on both sides of the Atlantic and it is obvious that Lauren has come a million miles from her taxi dispatcher past.
Lauren’s unofficial video reviews and tutorials of beauty products led to her being noticed by major cosmetic companies globally, and currently she is representing the UK sector of Barry M cosmetics, creating exclusive looks for them on their website. This combined with her role of beauty product critic at the Guardian has proved that she has a massive sway on the market, influencing women worldwide, giving honest advice on the best buys. The fact that Lauren still remains unbiased to any products on the market, despite her contracts to major cosmetic companies such as Sephora who stock her make-up range in the United States and Barry M, just shows that she is what we as a nation of consumers truly want from a critic.
Growing up, Lauren had a very difficult life living in one of the poorest areas of Newcastle, where she still lives now, although her home has had a major re-vamp by an American firm who were inspired by her kindness. From an early age she was tormented by playground bullies who cruelly called her “fat” and “ugly”, from this she took her inspiration to give other girls and women the confidence to be proud of who they are, telling everyone that they are beautiful in their own individual ways. Lauren admits herself that she is often brought to tears reading the comments left by her die-hard fans on her social networking pages and on her video tutorials, her humbleness shines through her personality as she is completely overwhelmed by the profound effects which she has on many young women’s lives. For many, Lauren is a modern day heroin.
On her YouTube channel, Lauren says “Let’s show the world together that everyone is just as beautiful if not more with just the confidence we hold.” That may be a cheesy line, but Lauren is a true inspiration to those out there who don’t conform to modern-day standards of beauty. She is an example of a talented person who has found well-deserved success. And all she started with was a camera, a computer and a make-up kit.

Designers on the high street

Every fashionista’s dreams are coming true this season, with the new celebrity collections now available at local high-street stores.
This winter there seems to be a growing trend of designer clothing ranges on the high-street, with H&M paving the way for other stores by recruiting A-list designers Jimmy Choo and Sonia Rykiel.
The store’s new season pieces include an amazing lingerie collection from the up and coming Sonia Rykiel, whose range boasts some inventive uses of corsages. Pieces from her collection start from around £6.99 so definitely a reasonable price for such an inspirational artist. There are also rumours of Rykiel going on to design a range of affordable unique knits ready for the spring 2010 collection.
Not forgetting the new Jimmy Choo compilation, which saw women camping day and night, come rain or shine outside their local H&M store waiting for the launch of the designer. Not only does this party wear collection include variations of the iconic shoes but also handbags and clothing. The collection is heavily eighties inspired, with a strong theme of electric blue and keeping with current trends leather is also largely featured. Not good enough for you that Jimmy Choo has come to the high street?? Well H&M are charging high-street prices for these staple pieces – so it’s definitely something for everyone!
Topshop is also catering for those of us who have a desire for designer, collaborating with the likes of Christopher Kane and Peter Jensen. Kane describes his new collection as “bad in a good way” and I couldn’t agree more, the line features some rather risqué see-through embellished hotpants, certainly something for those of us who are a little more daring! However Jensen’s limited collection does feature some must-have cream ankle boots, which would go with almost anything. All of these pieces are at affordable prices showing that designer is not just for the rich but can also be for the ‘skint’ student.
Recently there seems to have begun a growing theme of celebrities designing their own clothing lines, with Kate Moss setting the standard at Topshop, closely followed by Sienna and Savannah Miller with their line Twenty8Twelve as well as Ferne Cotton and Holly Willoughby designing for Very.