Last week, some older comments by Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries got wide play in an article on Business Insider. In 2006, Jeffries admitted that his stores marketed to a certain demographic and that they didn’t want other people wearing their brand. He said “We go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.” The Business Insider piece pointed out that A&F does not carry women’s sizes above a large or size 10 although they do have men’s clothes up to XXL. A&F’s gradual decline could be due to their unwillingness to serve plus-sized customers, which seems to be built in to their marketing policy.

Sites like Reddit ran with those comments and made memes out of them for a while, and Jeffries was bashed for sizeism, and to a lesser extent, racism. Former employees of A&F and their sister store, Hollister, claimed that only white, attractive young people were allowed to work the floor. This isn’t new for A&F, they’ve faced lawsuits over race and sex discrimination in hiring. This is a new PR crisis though, and they should handle it with humility. Only not so much. Jeffries issued a statement in response to this that makes it clear that he hasn’t changed his stance at all:

“I want to address some of my comments that have been circulating from a 2006 interview. While I believe this 7 year old, resurrected quote has been taken out of context, I sincerely regret that my choice of words was interpreted in a manner that has caused offense.

“A&F is an aspirational brand that, like most specialty apparel brands, targets its marketing at a particular segment of customers. However, we care about the broader communities in which we operate and are strongly committed to diversity and inclusion. We hire good people who share these values.

“We are completely opposed to any discrimination, bullying, derogatory characterizations or other anti-social behavior based on race, gender, body type or other individual characteristics.”

[From ET Online]

He comes across as haughty and clueless as he did in the earlier interview seven years ago, but at least he’s trying. There’s no self awareness in this statement. There’s no acknowledgment that they’ve made mistakes and need to change. Plus he didn’t address the main controversy at all. The issue was over the fact that A&F doesn’t offer clothes for larger customers by design. They do it on purpose so only the “cool [white] kids” will be seen in their brand. He basically said the same thing here, they’re not changing that policy. They “care” about the “broader” (lol!) communities and they’re not going to admit that they only hire the most attractive young staff to work in their stores. They have to say this because they paid out millions in a class action lawsuit. Abercrombie & Fitch is opposed to discrimination and “derogatory characterizations” because they were busted carrying t-shirt designs which were racist. They have to say that too. Nothing in this statement makes me ever want to support this company.

Here is an image from Kate Moss’s latest endorsement/modeling gig for St. Tropez self-tanner. There’s another image – a butt shot – which I’m not including, but you can see here. I wouldn’t think Kate would want to associate herself with something as low-brow as a self-tanner, but when you think about it, Kate does mix up her advertising deals with high and low-brow stuff, so this kind of works. You can read more about Kate’s campaign here, and here’s the behind-the-scenes video of the photo shoot:

I love her voice. She’s got that smoker’s rasp, but it’s inviting and she always seems so happy and chilled out. I like that she seems jazzed about this campaign too. It’s fascinating to me that Kate looks sort of bedraggled in the video and yet the ad photos are gorgeous. At this point, I guess advertisers don’t even bother spending money on hair and makeup people because they know they can fix everything with airbrushing.

Really, I just wanted to write this post because we have new photos of Kate out and about with her daughter Lila yesterday in London. Lila is SO pretty. She turns 11 years old this year. I think she’s going to be a petite little thing like her mom.

Photos courtesy of WENN, St. Tropez.

Bradley Cooper stars in a brand new Haagan Dazs ice cream commercial, and I can’t stop giggling. Of course, no one can really blame the guy for cashing in, but this how he chooses to use his newfound Oscar nomination glory? Most actors in Bradley’s current state of career advancement at least pop over to Japan to “secretly” shoot a whiskey or camera commercial and reserve stateside endorsements for a decade or so down the road. No matter though, because this ad spot is amazing and awe-inspiring in its crazy-eyed glory — who invites a serial killer to a party, and why would said guest bring ice cream along for the ride?

Of course, BCoop immediately loses interest in his ice cream once he spots a beautiful young victim lady who can’t stop staring. For my part, I’m equally amused and captivated by Bradley’s ability to resist ice cream in favor of trying to get some.

Bradley does a relatively convincing job at appearing shocked and disappointed when his prospective lady swoops in and swipes his ice cream. Then he realizes that she doesn’t need the spoon and can merely use her fingers instead, and he laughs merrily. What a great sport, and what a gloriously hilarious commercial.

In other BCoop news, he (as Kaiser noted this morning) quickly boarded Natalie Portman’s ill-fated project, Jane Got a Gun, before immediately thinking better of it and quitting the film. BCoop also made a quick cameo on this week’s episode of “SNL” in a really weird skit called the “Jennifer Aniston Look-Alike Contest.” Basically, Bradley, Zack Galifiantis, and Ed Helms all flaunted ridiculous Aniston wigs, and it was pretty dumb, but Bradley gave a good “Hayy gurrl” face, and you can see a photo and get video details at Pajiba. For the moment, I’m still focusing on this ridiculously amusing Haagan Dazs promo. BCoop made it a memorable one.

Screencaps courtesy of YouTube, images courtesy of Haagan Daz

Beyonce is the face (and body) of H&M’s Summer campaign this year, and these are some of the photos from the campaign. I forget when the announcement came exactly – maybe a few months ago? I didn’t think much of it at the time, other than “Why is Bey going so downmarket? They must have paid her quite a bit.” I still can’t find how much Beyonce is getting to be the face of the brand, but I would imagine it’s probably mid-seven-figures, don’t you?

The campaign was shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. I’m not crazy about some of these photos – Beyonce isn’t as good at modeling as she thinks she is, and her expression is exceptionally blank, even for her. I’m also not sure what’s being sold – gold bangles, maybe? Vacations? Ah, no. The bikinis are what’s being sold. Also, this is part and parcel of Beyonce’s new “collaboration” for her tour, like the deal she has with Pepsi. H&M ads and billboards with these images will be tagged as “Mrs. Carter”. As in, The Mrs. Carter World Tour.

Beyonce said about the ad campaign: “I’ve always liked H&M’s focus on fun and affordable fashion. I really loved the concept we collaborated on to explore the different emotions of women represented by the four elements – fire, water, earth and wind. It was a beautiful shoot on a tropical island. It felt more like making a video than a commercial.” Girl… “fire, water, earth and wind”? Your butt was on the beach drinking mojitos!!!!!!

Donald Schneider, Creative Director of H&M, said: “H&M’s summer campaign starring Beyoncé is an epic fantasy, with glamour, drama and also a sense of paradise. It was amazing to watch her on the shoot make it all look effortless – a quality that makes her such an icon for women around the world. The campaign is the essence of Beyoncé, and also the essence of H&M this summer.” An epic fantasy? These photos look like they’re from a Hawaiian Tropic campaign.

Photos courtesy of H&M.

I’ll be honest here and admit that when I first spotted this image, which purported to be part of the new Saint Laurent spring campaign, I honestly thought it was one of those incredibly annoying and not-so-funny April Fool’s jokes. That theory sounds plausible, correct?

Well, it’s not a joke, and Marilyn Manson is indeed the newest face of Saint Laurent as revealed by the Instagram account of Nicola Formichetti, who is the creative director for French fashion house Mulger. Formichetti is apparently a huge fan of the new campaign that features Marilyn wearing a rather subdued (for him) round of black lipstick and eyeliner with a very rock ‘n’ roll leather jacket. Is Saint Laurent trying to overhaul its image and appear “edgier” to consumers? I guess they could do worse than Marilyn Manson in that regard. Oh wait … they have done just that by adding Courtney Love to the campaign.

Some of you older types (like me) will notice that at least Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth is appearing in this campaign as well. As a whole, these ads will be known as creative director Hedi Slimane’s Saint Laurent Music Project. Before some of you suggest that perhaps Yves Saint Laurent himself is rolling in his grave as we speak, the designer was once known for collaborations with musicians like David Bowie and Marianne Faithfull. While Manson and Love aren’t quite as lofty as Bowie and Faithfull, they’re all icons (like it or not). Even Courtney, who is the perfect example of a rock ‘n’ roll trainwreck, is iconic in her own way. Sure, these ads make sense even if they do feature a not-so-pretty “shock rocker.”

Photos courtesy of Instagram and WENN

Whenever I see Grumpy Cat, aka Tardar Sauce, I just want to hug and pet and love her. She’s freaking adorable, especially in motion. Of course she looks like a sourpuss in still photos, which explains her astronomic rise to fame after her owners posted a photo of her to reddit back in September. Grumpy is an 11 month-old mixed breed who has feline dwarfism. She’s launched countless memes in which she mocks and dismisses anything that people can come up with. In reality Grumpy Cat is a very docile, sweet cat who is happy to be held by her owners and fawned over by millions of fans. She’ll sit through interviews, she’ll grace SXSW with her presence, and she’ll even let her owners bring her to Times Square for tourists to paw. That bothered me a little, and I’ll talk about that in a moment.

Tardar made an appearance on Good Morning America today to promote her new collaboration with Friskies. It wasn’t her first morning show appearance – she was on The Today Show last December. During her segment, they showed Grumpy cat accompanying her owners, Arizona based brother and sister, Tabatha and Bryan Bundesen, to Times Square. Grumpy was recognized by quite a few onlookers, who went on to fawn and pet her. This wasn’t unlike her SXSW appearance, where people lined up around the block for her, and it bothered me a little. Her owners have heard those complaints, and insist that she’s a normal cat “99%” of the time. Her website states that “99% of the time she is a normal kitty. She plays, hides, and acts as cats act. (She LOVES to hide behind the curtains!) She isn’t in front of a camera all of the time like many people perceive.”

That’s sweet and I’m sure she’s a very pampered kitty. I’ve probably had about a dozen kitties living with me over my life (not at one time! The most I had at one time was three) with various roommates and boyfriends, and I don’t think I’ve had one that would let you carry her out in public like that. Some were cool about being held, but they were all so headstrong that they would struggle away from you once you were outside or if they didn’t want to be there. Tardar is just a rare combination of frowny cute and very docile.

Here’s Grumpy Cat’s new Friskies web commercial. “Will Kitty Play With It.” She looks kind of scared and like she’s cowering! It makes me feel bad for her. She can’t help her face, and she’s just a very shy cat.

Photos credit: Friskies and ABC

Here are some images from Eva Mendes’ latest ad campaign – she’s the newest face of Vogue Eyewear. Which is weird because I’ve only seen her in sunglasses but never regular glasses. If I ran an eyeglass-frame company, I would want Tina Fey and Meryl Streep to be the stars of my ad campaigns. Also ridiculous? In a couple of these shots, I don’t think there is actually glasses in the frames. Right?

It doesn’t really bug me that Eva keeps getting modeling contracts – she’s worked for Calvin Klein (she was the face of Obsession and their jeans line), Thierry Mugler, Morgan and Pantene. A girl’s gotta eat, and I always like when women of color get modeling gigs. And God knows, I don’t think much of her acting. So if she wants to pad her income by taking these modeling gigs, good for her. It just bugs me that she’s promoting frames when we never see her wearing glasses in real life.

Meanwhile, did you hear that Eva and Ryan Gosling were in New York this week? They were doing some early promotion for The Place Beyond The Pines. And while in NYC, Eva stopped by a sex shop. No joke! There are photos here.

Halloween isn’t for another six months. But that didn’t stop Eva Mendes from purchasing a life-sized skull from kinky shop Kiki de Montparnasse in New York’s trendy SoHo neighbourhood Tuesday.

The spooky bone grinned up at the raining sky as the 39-year-old actress carried it face up in her shopping bag. Perhaps it was a joke gift for her boyfriend Ryan Gosling who, like many famous thespians, might one day take a crack at William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Kiki de Montparnasse is famed for its luxury lingerie, bridal, and ‘fantasy’ merchandise. Even in the cold drizzly weather, Eva blew a kiss and appeared in great spirits as she strutted down Greene Street.

[From The Mail]

Yes, Eva went to a lingerie and sex shop and came out with a bag full of goodies including a giant skull. Just how kinky IS her sex life? I don’t even think The Villainess Jolie is even messing around with skulls during sex. Although we shouldn’t give Angelina any ideas.

Photos courtesy of Vogue Eyewear.

Last October, Jennifer Lawrence was announced as the new face of Dior to mixed reactions. Many people thought she was a good fit for the brand — especially since she was tapped as the face of the Miss Dior handbag line rather than as a representative for the haute couture or ready-to-wear lines. However, just as many people thought Jennifer was too “girl next door” to represent a fashion house such as Dior. Both sides have a point, but since being welcomed into the fray, Jennifer has done her best to represent the label on the red carpet at the SAGs, at the Globes, at the BAFTAs, and to some of the Silver Linings Playbook promotional events … to varying results.

Now here is the first glimpse of JLaw’s Spring/Summer campaign for the handbag line, and it’s quite bizarre to see how they’ve transformed this silly, fart-loving girl into a bland mannequin. Don’t get me wrong though. Jennifer looks beautiful, but she doesn’t look quite like herself by any stretch. This will definitely take some getting used to. For certain, I am much more enamored of the new Catching Fire poster that’s just been released by Lionsgate, and I’ve included it at the bottom of this post. In the meantime, are you loving this new Miss Dior campaign, or is it too stilted and awkward? You know JLaw would rather be stealing bases and doing cannonballs into a swimming pool, but she signed willingly up for this gig.

Here’s the new Katniss and Peeta poster that promotes their ominous Victory Tour. Very effective stuff, and I have to say that I prefer Josh Hutcherson as a blonde.

Photos courtesy of Dior, movie poster courtesy of Collider

For better or worse, Kate Upton is all the rage now in the modelling world. Here she is doing more promotion for Sports Illustrated in a very flattering white dress, and in the past several months, she’s not only covered the SI: Swimsuit edition for the second consecutive year, but she’s also been branching out into full-fledged fashion circles with Vogue UK and Vogue Italia covers and a Vogue US spread, among other endeavors. Not bad for a “curvy” girl, right?

As I’ve noted more than once, none of Kate’s success has stopped the shameful body criticism from continuing, and Kate’s polar-boob shoot has served not only to please countless men but also to reignite a lot of sniping over Kate’s atypical (for a model) bikini body. I’ve really been trying to understand the complaints about Kate’s body, but I’m coming up empty on explanations other than possibly because she has a low hip-to-waist ratio. I still think that’s wrong though, and I believe that all of this criticism is affecting her no matter what Kate says to the contrary.

Recently I was a bit surprised when Chrissy Teigen, lover of all things food, admitted going on a 10-day cleanse immediately before the latest SI: swimsuit shoot. Here’s something that’s truly shocking though — for four months prior to the same shoot, Kate adhered to a cleanse two weeks out of every month. She also worked out with a personal trainer twice a day. Seriously, there’s even a People story on this:

What’s harder than posing almost naked in the freezing cold in Antarctica? Preparing to pose almost naked in the freezing cold in Antarctica.

We chatted with David Kirsch, the trainer who primed Kate Upton for her second Sports Illustrated cover, and let’s just say: Upton must be exhausted.

Kirsch began working with the supermodel back in August, and for the first two weeks, Upton met with him for sessions twice a day. From then on, the model exercised five to six days per week for one and half to two hours until the photo shoot in December.

“[She did] boot camp circuit training mixed in with cardio,” Kirsch tells PEOPLE. “Running, rowing and the elliptical.” He adds that there are six regions a model needs to focus on for an SI: Swimsuit Edition shoot: “Legs, inner thighs, hips, butt, abs and arms. Anything that shows when you’re wearing a bathing suit. Which is … everything!” (Especially when that bathing suit is as tiny as some of the ones Upton sported!)

It wasn’t just the constant sweat sessions that got Upton ready to strip down; she was also extremely careful about what she ate. “She followed my ABC’s – no alcohol, bread or processed carbs – and no sugar – 24/7 with no cheat days,” the trainer reveals.

Along with not eating pasta, pizza, candy or apparently anything else that tastes delicious, Upton did Kirsch’s seven-day cleanse for two weeks out of every month they worked together. And during the other two weeks? She regularly drank protein shakes and green drinks to stay energized.

Despite all that, Kirsch says Upton didn’t complain once throughout the exhaustive process. Though, the same can’t be said about Upton while she was kneeling on an iceberg in nothing but a string bikini. But can you really blame her?

[From People]

All of that and yet still, people have the nerve to label this girl as fat. These are extreme measures for sure — maybe not for a model in general but definitely for one who is being held up as more “normal” looking than the rest of them. The simple fact that Kate was willing to cleanse for 50% of her life for four months and also workout twice per day tells me that even this “healthy” girl has an unavoidably unhealthy outlook on food. And I’m afraid with all this criticism that she’s only going to get more obsessive as her career progresses.

In other Kate-related news, Upton has just been been revealed as the face of high street retailer Accessorize. Here are the first images from her spring/summer 2013 campaign. Especially in the swimsuit shots, she looks like she’s dropped a few pounds since the SI shoot, doesn’t she?

Photos courtesy of WENN and Accessorize

Guy Ritchie has directed the new David Beckham for H&M Bodywear commercial. Yes, you read that correctly. The same guy who directed action-packed, gun-slinging movies like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and RocknRolla is now pointing a camera at Goldenballs in his skivvies. Still, it’s definitely not the worst way to spend one’s day.

The concept of the commercial was developed by Marc Atlan Design in collaboration with H&M and Beckham’s team. Basically, David walks out of his house in a white robe to say goodbye to Posh and the boys (presumably — their faces are never revealed) in their Range Rover. When his family pulls away, David’s robe gets caught in one of the doors, and he gets locked out of the house by the family dog. Naturally, Becks takes it all in stride by picking a wedgie and deciding to chase the car.

The rest of the commercial focuses on Beckham in action and running through the streets of Beverly Hills with his bulge on prominent display. Somewhere along the way, he loses his shirt too. Here’s the commercial, and you can see for yourself:

It’s actually a pretty good commercial, and I don’t mind the double instance of wedgie picking if it means looking at David Beckham’s butt. Guy Ritchie did a good job of navigating the escapades of Beckham running through various backyards and even swimming through a pool to try and reclaim his white robe. At one point, he gets very close to the car, and it’s hard to believe that Posh wouldn’t notice her nearly naked husband running through the street in hot pursuit. However, I think Posh’s sense of humor would mean that she’d just keep on driving.

Look at that bulge! It simply can’t be real.

David Beckham for H&M Bodywear photos courtesy Nick Hudson, screencap courtesy of H&M