I love Niecy Nash and am a big fan of her on Clean House. She’s full of herself, but that’s part of her persona and it doesn’t cross into insufferable diva territory. She’s like your friendly neighborhood diva who gives you self esteem tips when you’re going through a rough time. (i.e. hoarding.) Neicy also had a great turn on Dancing with The Stars last season, and made it up until the eighth week to finish fourth. Her star is on the rise and she’s been giving interviews lately. In a new interview with OK Magazine, Neicy has some advice for grumpy thin girls. As much as I think Niecy is awesome I have to say I don’t agree with her on this:

The Clean House host, 40, doesn’t care to step on a scale because it doesn’t matter to her.

For the divorced-and-dating mom of three, knowing what she likes and what she doesn’t like in the food department is key.

“There are things that I avoid, but not because I want to deprive myself,” Niecy tells me during Flushing For a Cause event hosted by Clorox. “It’s because I don’t care for it. I don’t care for potato chips. I don’t have a big love for French fries. Some people love French fries – it’s coming on the side with the shrimp that I ordered, but even if it didn’t, it would’ve been fine with me. I’m not a big fan. Cottage cheese, not a big fan. Some things I’m like ‘mmm, I don’t eat it because I don’t like it.’ Because if I like it, I’m going to eat it.”

She continues, “That’s what’s wrong with a lot of people. A lot of people are miserable, a lot of people are so unhappy because they’re hungry. They need to eat a little more. All those thin girls walking around on Dancing With The Stars, they’re arguing with their partners – you would have a better life if you ate some food, honey.”

Would the reality star, whose beau is Jay Tucker, recommend dancing as a workout?

“If you like it, I would recommend anything you want to do as a workout. I didn’t weigh myself before Dancing With The Stars, I haven’t weighed myself since Dancing With The Stars. My Mr. Wonderful has weighed in and said ‘you lost weight.’ I don’t know if it’s true or not.”

Because she’s pressed for time, Niecy likes to incorporate her family into her workouts.

“Sometimes I do things that are unconventional like take my kids to the roller-skating rink or have all my kids come in the room, and we have a hula-hoop contest. It doesn’t always have to be in the gym for an hour-and-a half doing whatever that is.”

She continues, “I work a lot. I don’t have time to be at work all day, and get home and say ‘now I have to leave you again to go to the gym for a couple hours.’ I have to make it work as a family.”

[From OK!]

First of all I agree with her that it’s very hard to find time to go to the gym when you have a family and are working all day. A lot of people struggle with that and it also depends on how far away the gym is. So that’s good advice to do healthy activities around the house with your kids because you get to spend time with them too.

But I have to talk about Niecy saying skinny women are unhappy because they’re not eating. That’s like saying heavy people are unhappy because they eat too much. I know both can make me grumpy, as can bad drivers and a lack of coffee. It’s just too simplistic and isn’t that much different from telling a bigger person that they would be happy if they exercised and ate more salads. Are there people who aren’t happy because they’re hungry? Sure. Happiness and being able to get along with others do not come from food or weight, though, and you can get in trouble for thinking that all bad emotions can be addressed with food! I do like her attitude toward her weight and the fact that she isn’t striving to fit some ideal body type. Niecy is hot and she knows it. Now if only she would be a little more accepting of thin people. I’ve been on both sides and I really hate it when people try and convince me to eat after I politely decline, no matter the reason. (Try this cake/strange meat/new food being the one that bugs me the most.)

If you’d like to hear more from Niecy, Celebrity Baby Scoop has an interview with her in which she talks about the charities she’s involved in, her family, show and her relationship. She is divorced with three children from marriage, Dominic, 18, Donielle, 15, and Dia, 10. She said something similar to Celebrity Baby Scoop about women needing to chill out and eat. “I think a lot of the other people on the show were arguing with their partners….girl, because they were hungry! I said, ‘Y’all don’t eat enough around here for me!‘” Oh Niecy.

Various sites are already claiming that Jessica Simpson was Photoshopped to look slimmer on this Lucky Magazine September cover. I think it’s probably an interesting story, especially given that her profile excerpt includes her thoughts on body image, and obsessing on “looking like the perfect Barbie type, and that’s not always what’s beautiful.” Now, I’m not saying that this photo of Jessica wasn’t ‘Shopped. It was, totally. But it could have been WAY worse. It’s nice to see someone with serious curves on a September cover, even if it’s only for budget Lucky Mag. And I really don’t think they ‘Shopped her body that much – the most glaring work I see is on her neck. Jessica doesn’t have this long, slender neck in real life, so they did some work there. Here’s the excerpt from the mag:

Jessica Simpson has undergone a noteworthy personal style evolution, inspired, she says, by coming to terms with some serious body issues over the course of the last year. She stopped fighting her hourglass silhouette, for instance, after realizing that “we all obsess over looking like the perfect Barbie type, and that’s not always what’s beautiful. It’s about making peace with yourself.”

This sea change came out of her globe-spanning journey for her VH1 show, The Price of Beauty—a trip that also provided the tools to diversify her wardrobe. “I encountered such vibrant colors,” says Simpson, recalling shopping excursions that yielded ethnic accessories way out of her casual-pretty comfort zone: ornate Indian bangles, leather bags from North Africa. “Morocco was a huge influence on me when it comes to jewelry and fashion,” she says. “You can’t help but want to buy caftans when you’re there!”

[From Lucky Magazine]

I agree, it is about “making peace with yourself”. I don’t know about you ladies, but I hit the wall at some point in mid-twenties, and I stopped giving a sh-t if I fit into my goal size. I started taking better care of myself, eating better and drinking more water, and beyond that, I just stopped caring and made peace with my curvy body type (which is a lot like Jessica’s, only my ass is bigger).

Okay, now that I’ve defended her, I have to hate on Lucky Mag for this terrible ‘Shop job on this one photo – this is not Jessica’s real body, at all. I really think they just put Jess’s head on another model’s body!

Lucky cover courtesy of HuffPo.

Christina Hendricks is the September cover girl for GQ UK. Okay, why does NO ONE know how to style her? She’s so, so pretty and she has this killer figure, and yet in photo shoot after photo shoot, Christina proves that stylists don’t have any idea what to do with a pale redhead. It’s almost like stylists are completely befuddled when someone doesn’t look like Lindsay Lohan. Anyway… Christina talks about her body in this interview, just like she always does. I know, everyone is getting a little tired of reading her pro-curves interviews, and I think we’d all like to sit through one interview where she didn’t get any questions about her body. That being said, I think she’s still getting questions about her body because she’s just that bodacious, and – especially when it’s with a men’s magazine – people want to talk about it. And honestly, she doesn’t talk about it that much in this interview:

You probably didn’t need Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone to tell you that Christina Hendricks has a fabulous figure. As Joan Harris (née Holloway), the alpha female in Matt Weiner’s Mad Men and the cover star of British GQ’s September issue, we’ve admired her for some time. In person, Hendricks more than lives up to the hype – flirty, chatty and utterly charming, she makes a mean gimlet and tells some good stories. In a GQ.com exclusive interview with this month’s cover star, we ask her about fan reactions, her hopes for Joan in the future and how it feels to be a pinup…

GQ: What’s more unpleasant on set – being in incredibly tight clothing or smoking fake herbal cigarettes?
Christina Hendricks: I adore the incredibly tight clothing! My own wardobe’s changed – I’ve streamlined a little bit and definitely learnt from Joan’s sleekiness and tailoring. As for the herbal cigarettes, for the most part I don’t smoke as much as the guys do. I’m usually just strutting around a bit more so I don’t actually have to be inhaling it. I’m lucky because I do have scenes where the cigarettes work beautifully to punctuate certain things I’m saying.

Obviously one of our all-time favourite scenes is the lipstick test in the two-way mirror in season one…
That scene is perfect for Joan. She’s controlling the women – she has more knowledge than them – and she’s also manipulating the men at the same time. I lean over and I quite simply show my ass to the men. When I read it I just thought it was so fabulous. I just thought, “How strong and amazing is this woman?”

Do fans expect you to be in character all the time?
Everyone assumes we’re always going to have a cocktail and a cigarette in hand. Fans expect us all to be dressed up all the time. They always say to me, “You look so young. You don’t seem as tall!” We have defined these characters – people always expect to see me in a pencil skirt. When they see me out of one – much like when they see Jon Hamm’s hair when it isn’t slick – they say, “Wait a minute, you’re all 2010!”

How excited are you by the new season?
I’m waiting for the backlash and every season I think, “Can we do it again?” But Matt just keeps doing it. At some point some really mean person is going to go, “I don’t understand what all the fuss is about.”

One of the most talked-about moments in the entire show came when Joan made a catty remark to Paul Kensey’s black girlfriend…
First of all, she’s not racist. I had a long conversation with Matt about this because it was off-putting to me. When I read that script I got very upset, called Matt and said, “You’re turning her into a monster, what are you doing?” He told me, “Calm down, Joan’s not racist – Paul’s just a jackass”. She is just calling Paul Kensey out on his crap. He’s being a fool and she’s the only person who will say it out loud and tell him what it is – he thinks it’s really cool that she’s black. I thought I’d get lots of comments about this scene because I guess it goes so well with the period that it didn’t bring as much.

One of the many reasons we enjoy the series is it doesn’t take the easy way out. When Joan shows she has an ability to pick good sitcom scripts in season two, it’s heartbreaking seeing her being overlooked…
I get more response from that than anything else. People are horrified at how talented and enthusiastic she was, only to have it yanked away from her. People keep coming up to me and asking about that episode. What’s even more heartbreaking for her is that it’s never even referenced again.

How much did Helen Gurley Brown’s 1962 book Sex And The Single Girl influence you in creating Joan?
Gosh, it was very much about being aware of oneself. Each move being very controlled and manipulative, but not in a negative way. The book was about presenting oneself and how to do it. Joan is not trying to follow that book note for note but it gives a flavour of who she is. I think she’s very much about appearance, control and handling the situation.

Have you had any strange fan reactions?
It seems like a very masculine show but there are women who are absolutely obsessed by it. I had a girl last year who wrote me a very long letter about how she related to my character the most and how wonderful it was because she was having an affair with her boss at work. It was at that point I said, “It’s not my place to give any advice on this one!”

But what would Joan say?
I think Joan’s advice would be: always know more than anyone else, always be discrete as possible. And never cry at work.

What is it that makes Joan special?
Joan’s a dream to play – she’s not always prancing around the office. There’s that side to it, which is really fun, but there’s nitty-gritty. She’s what makes the workplace so fun – in a workplace that can be so dark and so much tension, Joan gives some levity. And the wonderful thing is she still has these darker moments among the fabulous highs.

Do you ever feel that the period detail gets in the way?
I think it makes it wonderful. We have the confidence to know that when we walk on that things are right. There’s no question. You mind starts to work in the same way – you start to walk on set and think, “I don’t know about that lamp.” It becomes something of sport. We make sure we’re perfect before we walk on set in terms of preparation and wardrobe – once we get on there it all clicks together perfectly.

Does it feel good to be a pinup?
Well, I’m thrilled. I’d love to be thought of as that…

What are your hopes for Joan in the future?
I just keep praying for Joan to get her power back. To resolve her problems and rise to the top. To fight back!

[From GQ UK]

SPOILERS for last night’s episode: Last night’s Mad Men had some really good moments for Joanie, and we found out that she’s still with her meatball husband, and that he hasn’t gone to Vietnam yet. We also found out that Roger Sterling is still really hot for Joanie (of course) and that she’s still awesome at her job and that she’s really wonderful at the head of the conga line. Also: Don Draper boned his secretary, so now we know that the newly single Don doesn’t have a huge problem with f-cking coworkers… so when are he and Joanie going to do it?!?

Photos via GQ UK online.

January Jones is the September cover girl for Tatler Magazine (a UK publication). January continues to garner lots of press in Britain – Mad Men is extremely popular there, and January and all of the stars seem to be big hits with the British press. I’m mentioning that in case you’re wondering why January seems to do so many interviews in England – because I was wondering about it too. Anyway, The Daily Mail had some interview snippets from her Tatler profile, and it seems like all she was talking about was the softer body image ideals in Mad Men, and how everyone really appreciates it. By the way, does everyone love how the horse is photobombing January on the cover?

It was a Size 14 bombshell, lobbed into the anorexic world of fashion. And Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone certainly caused an explosion when she declared last week that the curvaceous female stars of hit TV show Mad Men make ideal role models for young girls.

The Minister earned criticism for arguing that the buxom, hourglass figures of actresses such as Christina Hendricks were both healthy and empowering. But now one of the cult show’s other women stars has endorsed the Minister’s views, saying that men find a fuller figure far sexier.

And January Jones, who plays long-suffering housewife Betty Draper in the Emmy award-winning TV drama, says its creator Matthew Weiner agrees – telling female members of the cast to avoid strenuous exercise in order to maintain their curves and avoid muscle definition.

The 32-year-old actress says Weiner, anxious to echo the curvier silhouette of the show’s early Sixties era, is as demanding as any magazine editor or fashion designer – but with a difference.

‘He would prefer we didn’t work out and that we eat really well, so we look like healthy women,’ she says.

The actress, whose looks are often compared to Grace Kelly’s, says she is pleased the show has brought back the idea that ‘it’s OK to have curves and be a woman. I wish more women would realize that’s what men like’.

She admits to loving ‘beer and carbs’ and says she is now quite taken with her curves after producers admonished her last year for being too thin.

In an interview with Tatler, January also confesses that she has learned to love the girdle she wears to help her achieve her hourglass looks.

‘It gives you such a nice shape,’ she says.

She is surprisingly unshocked by the show’s Sixties sexism.

‘I don’t think we’ve come very far,’ she says. ‘At least they were gentlemen back then. They might say something s****y behind your back, but at least they opened the door.’

The first three series of Mad Men, which is set in a fictitious ad agency, were shown on BBC4 and the show has just begun its fourth series in the US.

[From The Daily Mail]

I don’t really have anything to add except that I do appreciate the contributions Mad Men has brought to the body image conversation. While I think January has a lovely figure, she’s very slender and she just seems… well, not like the actress who should get the most credit. That credit should go to Christina Hendricks and bodacious body. Speaking of, did everyone see this video, below? Christina was being interviewed on KTLA, and the anchor Brian McFayden… well, he just turned into a very sweet, very enamored stuttering dude when he was sitting across from Christina. My favorite is when he says that the idea of Christina taking a bath is “awesome.”

Tatler images courtesy of The Daily Mail.

Unlike her contemporaries, we don’t hear much from gorgeous Newlywed Penelope Cruz about her diet, exercise regime or how she keeps her bod so svelte. There may be a very good reason for that. You Magazine quotes her as saying that you don’t have to be thin to be pretty and that she would “close down all those teenage magazines that encourage young girls to diet.” (Please note that while these quotes are excellent and they sound legitimate, I could not verify on You Magazine’s website that she granted them an interview to go along with their cover story. All they have on their site is a general article about her under-the-radar marriage to Javier Bardem.)

She tells Britain’s You magazine, “I would close down all those teenage magazines that encourage young
girls to diet. Who says that to be pretty you have to be thin?

“Some people look better thin and some don’t. There is almost a standard being created where only thin is acceptable. The influence of those magazines on girls as young as 13 is horrific.”

The 36-year-old actress also says she’s determined to grow old “gracefully” like movie icons Sophia Loren and Audrey Hepburn, and that she’ll never play the Hollywood game of knocking a few years off her birth date.

“I never want to lie about my age,” she says. “If I look around at the actresses I admire, they are all women who have not fought growing older, but embraced it — women like Sophia Loren or Audrey Hepburn … It’s a good thing to be old, because that means you haven’t died yet right? And when I do get older, I want to have the grace to be proud of it, not to lie about it or try to fight it.

“The people who love me, love me for who I am. They love me for a mixture of things that makes anyone love another person, and those things will still be there when I am 40, 60 or 80.”

[From Wonderwall]

Actually the teen magazines and general media influence girls much younger than 13. It’s sad and disheartening. I hope that if Penelope said this she’ll repeat it in more interviews. We hear way too much about celebrity recommended diets and exercises and not enough reflection about how that influences fans, particularly young ones.

In related news about Ms. Cruz-Bardem, Johnny Depp has confirmed in a teaser trailer shown at Comic Con ( here) that Penelope is set to star in fourth Pirates movie with him, On Stranger Tides, and called her character “vicious and vivacious.” I hope that the next Pirates film isn’t as bloated and hard to follow as the last one. At least the stars are highly watchable.

Last week, Huffington Post asked Kelly Bensimon to participate in one of their new features (that they copied from OK! Magazine): “What I Ate Today”. I rarely read those things, because inevitably HuffPo or OK! Magazine chooses someone you know is totally delusional about body image and health and diet, and you know that person is just going to lie anyway, because no one wants to put down “two lines of blow, five cigarettes and a Tic Tac” for their diet.

Anyway, Kelly didn’t hold back or dial down her crazy for the piece. She even has a video where you can watch her describe her very, very light meals – that she eats six days a week and then, much like God, she rests on the seventh day and eats some chicken wings.

Two things – according to the tabloids, Kelly drinks morning, noon and night, which I kind of believe. One tabloid had her chugging tequila for her breakfast. Second: This is Kelly’s body in a bikini. This tells me that her six-day brown-rice-and-tequila diet isn’t about health. She thinks she looks good, and that her figure is something that should be maintained. Yikes.

These photos are of Kelly out and about in NYC yesterday, looking totally jacked.

And here’s what Kelly looks like in a bikini:

Kelly in NYC on July 7, 2010. Credit: Bauer-Griffin.

There have already been excerpts from Christina Hendricks’ Los Angeles Times Magazine interview floating around, notably her description of being a natural blonde who was “over the moon” to dye her hair red. But there’s a lot more to the interview – and there are photos from the magazine shoot too. As you all know, I love Christina. I think she’s beautiful and amazing and talented, and I love the way she’s been embraced as a not-so-new kind of beauty ideal. That being said, I often find Christina’s styling to be crap. Both in real life and for proper photo shoots. I think photographers and stylists are so used to dealing with women who are just hangers for designers, and they don’t know how to handle Christina’s figure. Plus, she’s a pale redhead who doesn’t (or won’t) tan, so her styling can often tend towards “corpsey”. For this LAT Mag shoot, they went corpsey, with a dash of china-doll. It’s not all that great.

As for the interview, it’s extensive. The full piece is here, and here are some of the highlights:

Leslie Gornstein: Let’s talk about Joan Holloway [Christina‘s character on Mad Men]—or I guess it’s Joan Harris now.
Christina Hendricks: The new last name always breaks my heart a little. I am so attached to Holloway.

Joan seems to be one of the most nuanced female characters on TV in a long time. She clearly believes that dressing sexy and seducing the men in the office are part of the path of survival. And yet female viewers identify with her strength. She’s clearly not to be toyed with. Do you see her as a feminist?
You know, I think there are elements of that. Joan certainly is in the workforce before many women did such a thing, and she excels at it. She really has all these men on their knees in terms of needing her professionally, and I think there’s nothing wrong with how she has gone about getting there. I don’t think it’s not feminist to use every tool you have to succeed, and part of that is being a woman—presenting yourself in a certain way. And yet she has these things in her home life, with her husband, that are very old-fashioned and frustrating. She is definitely a woman of her times.

Women viewers seem more protective of Joan than any of the show’s other female characters. I imagine it’s her potential.
I always worry about Joan—I love her. I say to [creator] Matt Weiner all the time, “Please! She’s had such a hard time! Give her a bone—come on!” But true to Mad Men fashion, not the happiest things happen. Still, she always lifts her head up and fights back, and that’s one reason people respond to her. She gets back up again, cleans it up and moves on with a smile.

Joan has sprung to life on her own online. There’s a What Would Joan Do? blog, and she’s apparently Tweeting, even though she technically shouldn’t even have a PC. What hath Christina wrought?
Yeah, I heard about What Would Joan Do? I thought it was hilarious and very clever. I know there are people out there using Twitter in the voice of characters on the show, but I don’t really get that. The whole thing confuses me. It’s a very 2010 sort of deal.

You have said that you auditioned for a Woody Allen role, but he turned you down for being “too sweet.” Had he not seen Mad Men?
I think that comment was probably snipped out of an entire paragraph of something I said. Essentially, this is what happened: I auditioned for this sort of crass, cockney character—very, very blue collar and a little rough around the edges. And he said he felt I wasn’t rough enough and, in that context, maybe I was a little too sweet.

Have you gotten any meaner? Should we call Woody back?
I tried! I really hope that if he heard about that comment, he wasn’t offended in any way. He is, like, my dream director.

A friend insisted I ask you about your three-episode role in the late sci-fi show Firefly. Are sci-fi fans more obsessive?
I think sci-fi fans are so committed. They’re so immersed in this universe. Over the years, it seems Firefly has only gained momentum rather than lost it. I still get letters from people who watched the show—I get more Firefly than Mad Men letters.

Are you a sci-fi person?
I grew up in a sci-fi family, and my brother and dad are really into that kind of thing. It’s always fun for my brother to see me in a spaceship.

You’ve said you started dying your blond hair red at age 10. How exactly did you sell that choice to your folks?
They did it to me! I was obsessed with the Canadian novel Anne of Green Gables. I decided I was Anne of Green Gables. There was something that spoke to me about her, and I wanted to have her beautiful red hair. So my mother said, “Let’s just go to the drugstore and get one of those cover-the-gray rinses!” My hair was very blond at the time, but it went carrot red. And I was over the moon. I went to school the next day and felt like myself. And then I went back [to that color] over and over again. What a cool mom, right?

Back during awards season, you wore black dresses to two major events, including the Elton John Oscar party, and fashion journalists noticed enough to ask about your break from bright colors. Has that kind of press scrutiny changed how you choose red-carpet looks?
A little. I remember that very instance, and I thought, Oh my God, that is so weird—I didn’t even realize I’d done that. But there is such a business these days based on being critical. It’s always been there, but now there are entire magazines devoted to shredding people—who wore the worst dress, who had the worst cellulite. It just, you know, hurts your soul. At the end of the day, you’re just going to a big party. You have to remind yourself to wear the things you love. Sometimes your friends or a stylist will go, “Yeah…no.” Sometimes you can’t see yourself with objectivity, but you have to go with what you think is pretty. You’re borrowing these dresses to wear to events, and sometimes they don’t feel like you—like something I would ever wear.

Earlier this year, you told Glamour: “It is difficult come awards season, and I need to find a gown to walk down the red carpet in, and there are only size zeros and size twos available. Then it becomes downright annoying because all these designers are saying, ‘We love Mad Men, we love Christina, but we won’t make her a dress.’” Have those designers come to their senses yet?
Yes, it’s been really nice. The show has gotten more successful, and people started realizing we were winning [awards]. They’ve been incredibly generous, making really beautiful things. I guess it’s a good thing that story got printed. Someone got the message!

As a woman, I have to say the retro underwear on Mad Men actresses looks like utter torture. Am I wrong?
No, you’re not wrong. We’re so used to it now, but those undergarments really aren’t made for relaxing. If I get my entire costume on, and I have to wait a few hours for my next scene, I have to learn how to position myself, otherwise the boning presses into my guts! It can really hurt those internal organs! I have this little war wound—a blister from wearing a garter the other day for 17 hours.

There’s now a Joan Holloway Barbie. Do you like the doll?
I have only seen pictures of her so far. It’s amazing! I am such a girlie girl—such a Barbie girl. Am I weird if I want to give a bunch of them to my friends and mom and stuff? I’ll get one for everybody, and I’m sure my friends will be like, “Gee, thanks for the doll…of you.”

[From The Los Angeles Times Magazine]

I put a lot of the interview up, but you should still go read the whole thing – I took out the parts where she was talking about playing the accordion, and her supporting role in Life As We Know It, which she did with Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel. Christina always comes across as very grounded, and very respectful of her fans, which I love. I actually squealed a little when she talks about Mad Men – Joanie really is one of the best characters on a show full of awesome, well-written characters. And I’m really hoping Joanie’s part is a lot bigger this next season (less than a month, bitches, until it premieres!). I want Joanie and Don Draper to get together. For real.

Photos courtesy of the LAT Magazine.

On Saturday, Serena Williams won her fourth Wimbledon title. Her sister Venus has five – so you know Serena is going to keep on until she at least ties with her big sister. Before she even flew to Wimbledon, Serena participated in a photo shoot and interview with Harper’s Bazaar. While I like that Serena is confident in herself enough to pose in a bathing suit in a fashion magazine, I think the Bazaar people might hate her? Why did they do that to her hair? Is that a wig or a hairstyle? Because it makes Serena look just terrible. Anyway, the interview is interesting – Serena talks a lot about body image and the comparisons to her sister. The full piece is here, and here are some highlights:

After she won the Australian Open in January she worked out a lot: “I wanted to get really fit. I wanted to lose some weight. So I’ve been doing Pilates and yoga, trying to lean out my body so I won’t be bulky.” Her regimen: Pilates two or three times a week and when she’s training for a tournament, “a couple of hours of hitting, then an hour or two of cardio and strengthening in the gym.” Also, when she’s at home in L.A., she runs the half mile up a hill to Venus’s house instead of driving.

But no dieting. “I don’t even know the D word,” she says with a laugh. There is a training eating plan, though: “Smaller portions of every meal, a lot of grilled or baked chicken or fish, and steamed veggies.” Her weakness? “ I can never turn down a good piece of cherry pie, but,” she continues, “all I know is that in 10 years, I don’t want to be as wide as this couch.”

It’s working: Williams, who adds that “Pilates gave me results within a week,” looks the best she’s ever looked and is now a size 10 instead of a 12.

“Owning” her athleticism: “When I was six or seven in a swimsuit—I look back at those picture, and my arms are cut and my legs are strong,” she says. “I didn’t realize that I was really fit and most people aren’t. To this day, I don’t love my arms. People want more fit arms, but my arms are too fit. But I’m not complaining. They pay my bills.”

Serena’s body comparison to Venus: “I was 23 when I realized that I wasn’t Venus. She’s totally different,” she explains. “I’m super curvy. I have big boobs and this massive butt. She’s tall and she’s like a model and she fits everything. I was growing up, wanting to be her, wanting to look like her, and I was always fitting in her clothes, but then one day I couldn’t.” She pauses. “But it’s fine. Now I’m obviously good, but it’s a weird thing.”

On her favorite body parts: “Since I don’t look like every other girl, it takes a while to be okay with that. To be different. But different is good,” she says. She’s loving her new bob too. “I feel so much sexier with short hair. I wanted to reach inside me and feel better. I don’t want to hide behind a facade of hair.” Her favorite part of her body? “My smile. Does that count? I think a smile can make your whole body. Models, they look fabulous, but they don’t smile and they look so mad. But I like my smile, how it’s bright and it’s nice. Good thing my braces worked out.”

On her former relationship with rapper Common: She was dating the rapper and actor Common, but they broke up in April. “his schedule is actually worse than mine,” she sighs. “He didn’t want the responsibility. It’s really tough.” Common then began promoting his latest film, heaping enough praise on Williams that people assumed they were still on. (“Beautiful, intelligent woman, fun and spiritual woman. I think she’s an incredible person,” he told Access Hollywood.) Williams looks befuddled—befuddled but coquettish. “So I called him and I was like, Why are you saying all this stuff when we’re not together?”

[From Harper’s Bazaar]

I actually forgot that she and Common were dating, and that they had broken up. They kept their relationship quiet, didn’t they? And I like Common better now that I know that he not only dated Serena, but said nice things about her afterwards. That’s classy.

Anyway, thankfully Serena didn’t wear one of the borderline-obscene outfits that she and her sister seem to love. Instead she chose a more traditional flouncy white skirt and a little shrug-type cover (that she took off when she played). She looked really good!

Header photo courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar.

It’s been a while since we’ve had something interesting about my favorite redhead, Christina Hendricks. Christina is the cover girl for the July/August issue of Health Magazine, probably to promote the new season of Mad Men (in less than a month!!!). In the interview, Christina talks about how gorgeous she is and how happy she is that she’s a lovely, curvy woman. But instead of sounding like Jessica “My beauty hinders my career” Biel, Christina sounds like a sweetheart:

Mad Men star Christina Hendricks says she’s always been proud of her curvier figure.

“Back when I was modeling, the first time I went to Italy I was having cappuccinos every day, and I gained 15 pounds. And I felt gorgeous!” Hendricks, 35, tells the July/August issue of Health. “I would take my clothes off in front of the mirror and be like, Oh, I look like a woman. And I felt beautiful, and I never tried to lose it, ’cause I loved it!”

In February, the actress came under fire when the New York Times posted an article that slammed the star for flaunting her assets at the Golden Globe Awards. “You don’t put a big girl in a big dress,” the critic wrote.

“I made the grave mistake after one awards show of reading comments online about what I wore, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, people are so mean!’” Hendricks reveals. “I still remember all those negative comments, despite all the wonderful positivity. That’s why we’re all in therapy!”

Because of the criticism, the newlywed admits she’s surprised to learn she’s often cited as one of the most desirable bodies in Hollywood.

“Really? They don’t say Jessica Alba? ‘Cause that’s what I say!” she laughs. “It’s such a compliment, because of all those times I had agents who were like, “You have to lose some weight,” and all of a sudden, people are celebrating it.”

But the buxom redhead — who admits she could “sit down with a bag of chips and French onion dip and go to town” — also makes an effort to stay healthy by varying her gym routine.

“I get kind of bored on the treadmill, but I do it. And I do a little bit of weight training,” she says. “I’m really into the BOSU ball. You have to balance on it, and I do weights and squats on it. I’m pretty good at it — I feel sort of like a Karate Kid!”

[From Us Weekly]

I’m totally with her on the salty foods. Potato chips are the reason any attempt I make to diet is dead on arrival. Both my parents loved sweet stuff, and I don’t have a taste for cakes and pastries whatsoever. I can pass by a donut place and never feel a twinge, unlike the rest of my family. But put me near a McDonalds, and I have to go get some fries.

In another part of the interview, Christina credits her healthy body image on her mom: “I guess my mom raised me right. She was very celebratory of her body. I never heard her once say, ‘I feel fat.’” Mama Hendricks needs to come give me a pep talk. She also talks about playing Joan Holloway, the coolest girl on Mad Men: “When I first started to play her, I would think, Oh my God, I would never want to hang out with this person. She would crush me like a bug! And then, I started to love her. I think Joan and I have a “no excuses” kind of mentality—I’m going to stand by my decisions, no regrets, no apologies. But she is far more confident than I am. She’s far more confident than most women are in the world!” I really want Joanie and Roger to get back together this season.

As part of People Magazine’s 50 Most Amazing Bodies issue with super buff Zac Efron on the cover, they have a roundtable interview called “The Body Summit: Stars Tell All.” It features lesser celebrities you may need help remembering like Lisa Rinna, 46, Nikki Blonsky, 21, Dayna Devon, 40, Garcelle Beauvais, 43, and Whitney Port, 25. They’re all talking about body, beauty and weight issues, and Lisa Rinna really dominates the conversation. They discuss dealing with pressure from the media to stay thin and look perfect and it’s common stuff that’s moderately interesting. The best part is when Lisa Rinna complains that she never should have admitted to having her lips done. Lisa came clean about her painful-looking obvious silicone injection lip job about a year ago after sporting those puppies for 23 years. I don’t ever remember seeing her without huge engorged-looking lips. She told People that she wishes she never owned up to the work she had done, though, because people just bashed her for it. (Lisa even got in a Twitter war with someone last month and claimed they were “cyber bullying” her for pointing out that her lips looked bad.)

In the quoted text below I’m also including a statement from Dayna Devon, who I’ve never heard of but who People notes is a “former Extra correspondent and Juvederm spokeswoman.” Her face looks painful but she seems to like it that way and she admits to having a lot of work done. Here’s a picture of Dayna to start us off: (Her daughter is so over it.)

What body issues do you face in Hollywood?
Dayna Devon: My issue is that there are so many celebrities who say, “I got in shape because I had salmon and vegetables.” I personally have been very open. I do Juvederm, Botox. I had a tummy tuck and my boobs done after my baby [Cole, now 3]. I want people to know it’s not necessarily fish and vegetables.

Lisa Rinna: I was open and honest last year. I had something done to my lips 24 years ago. It was like getting a tattoo – spur of the moment. I never spoke about it, but once I called out the pink elephant in the room, I took a tremendous beating.

Whitney Port: Because a lot of people probably think you’re shallow, right?

Lisa: They do! I felt so judged. I became somebody who did something bad. I actually wish I hadn’t said anything, to be honest.

[From People Magazine, print edition, June 28, 2010]

Good for Dayna Devon for admitting what she had done and earning some money for promoting it, if that’s her thing. I think her face looks like it can’t move, and her mouth looks like she can’t smile properly in the People photo that accompanies this article. That’s what Lisa is talking about, though – people nitpicking her looks after she makes herself vulnerable by admitting that she’s had surgery. Maybe she shouldn’t have told us about it if she didn’t want to hear the comments, but she was promoting a memoir at the time. It would have been suspicious if she published a story about her life without acknowledging her most prominent feature.

Lisa Rinna is shown on 3/31/10 with her husband, Harry Hamlin, and on 4/17/10. Credit: WENN.com