Last week, there was a lot of drama about whether or not Elisabeth Hasselbeck had been fired from The View after market research claimed that viewers found Elisabeth to be too “extreme and right-wing”. The initial reports – which claimed Barbara Walters had taken Elisabeth to the proverbial woodshed – seemed to come from well-placed unnamed sources at The View, and it seemed legit. But then Barbara Walters announced that she loves Elisabeth and there are “no plans” for Elisabeth to leave, which I interpreted as a face-saving gesture by both women. As in, Barbara didn’t want to look like she was firing Elisabeth, and she was going to let Elisabeth look like she was leaving of her own accord. Now Page Six has some insider dirt – does anyone else thing The View has a major leak problem?

Elisabeth Hasselbeck “is toast” on ABC’s “The View,” sources tell us, despite show doyenne Barbara Walters insisting the conservative blonde isn’t getting fired.

Rumors swirling that Hasselbeck was on her way out forced Walters to say last Monday, “We have no plans for Elisabeth to leave this show.” But a source tells us, “ABC is desperate to freshen the show. Ratings are going soft, and research numbers on the stars’ likability are scaring network execs.

“Dumping Joy Behar, who was there 16 years, and Hasselbeck would be the fastest way to do it, they decided. After giving Behar the bad news last week and letting her bow out gracefully, someone leaked the Hasselbeck thing. Some enemies she has on the show saw their chance to get back at her. Barbara was spitting mad that it got mishandled, and called off the firing over [last] weekend.”

While we heard Hasselbeck would go when her contract is up next year, the source added, “It could be earlier, because the ABC brass believes the show needs to be younged-up fast. They easily could coax her to go early.”

Meanwhile the well-manicured claws are out for Behar’s still-warm seat, with “GMA” anchor George Stephanopoulos’ actress-comic wife Ali Wentworth a favorite. But Christie Brinkley is also lobbying hard for the job.

Another source said, “They want another comedienne, so Ali is the favorite. And she’s already seen as part of the ABC family because of George. But Christie really wants the job. Brooke Shields is also very much liked.

“But, just as they did with ‘Live! with Kelly and Michael,’ they won’t rush. They’ll test out a number of hosts to see who works best with the women and the audience.” A rep for “The View” said, “This was all addressed on Monday’s show. [Walters] is not the least bit angry. She loves these women and wants what’s best for them. Everything else is speculation. Producers haven’t begun to search for a new co-host. We have no further comment.”

[From Page Six]

I said this last week, but Joy was like the only one on The View who I liked. I like how shtick-y she is, like an old-school comedian. As for the replacement hostesses being named… I could see Brooke Shields being good at that kind of show. I’ve never really gotten the Ali Wentworth thing – she used to be on Oprah all the time too. What’s her deal? Is she just famous for marrying George Stephanopoulos? She’s sort of brassy-funny, but I would love to see The View add a woman with an actual background in journalism, you know?

Photos courtesy of WENN.

It took a hot minute for PETA to go after Brooke Shields for her weirdly worded endorsement of the fur industry. Brooke visited a fur studio in Copenhagen this spring, during which time she made her own fur coat and then endorsed a statement written by a non-native English speaker about how awesome fur was and how it was every little girl’s dream. She supposedly said “I will wear the fur garment when I follow my children to school, when I drink coffee and when I sleep,” and that “I will advocate that both my generation and the younger generation can wear fur.” Yes, you and your daughters can wear fur, if you want to look like cruel bitches who don’t care about the plight of animals.

PETA was of course all over that, and went after Brooke, citing her fading career. This was just what Tom Cruise did when he disagreed with her confession to using antidepressants, and it doesn’t add to PETA’s case:

The animal-rights organization is lashing out at Shields for visiting Kopenhagen Fur’s workshop back in March and making comments such as “I will advocate that both my generation and the younger generation can wear fur” and “I will wear the fur garment when I follow my children to school, when I drink coffee and when I sleep.”

Not surprisingly, a post on PETA’s website reads: “When I was a little girl, I dreamed about growing up to be a rock star. Or maybe a veterinarian. Or a roller derby queen. I didn’t dream about anally electrocuting animals on fur farms, but apparently Brooke Shields did.”

But the criticism doesn’t stop there, with a few potshots at Shields’ livelihood thrown in for good measure.

“We understand that when some actors’ careers begin to fade, they’ll do just about anything to stay in the limelight, including appearing in eyelash-growing commercials and starring in short-lived TV shows,” continues the post. “But Brooke, did you really want the world to remember you as a ‘fur pimp’ who stares agog at rows of animal skins?”

[From E! Online]

I don’t know who I find more annoying, PETA or Brooke Shields. I actually liked Brooke before this whole debacle, so I would say that she’ll still slightly ahead and that it will ultimately depend on how she handles the fallout. Is she going to issue a statement clarifying her endorsement, or stay silent for fear of jeopardizing whatever she got paid for this? This incident speaks to both Brooke’s poor judgment and the sad fact that she’ll do just about any commercial. Jezebel ran a brief piece last summer “Why is Brooke Shields in every commercial?” in which they noted that she is a spokesperson for “Tupperware, Coppertone, Latisse, World Gold Council, Colgate, milk, Fertility Lifelines, and more.” I found a couple that Jezebel missed – Volkswagon and Godiva chocolate. What’s next for Brooke? Can she sink any lower than endorsing fur? Is her career as a celebrity spokesperson going to be jeopardized by an association with a fur company? We can only hope she becomes a little less ubiquitous.

Brooke Shields is shown on 5/24/10, 5/23/10, 5/3/10, and 4/25/10. Credit: WENN.com

Brooke Shields, who starred in that recent POS kids’ film, Furry Vengeance, loves fur so much that she made a custom fur coat at a Copenhagen studio. She also gave some confusing quotes praising fur. It’s all for cash, though, and we know that Brooke will endorse basically anything. I realize that no animals are going to go medieval on her ass and stage a forest revolt ripped off from Home Alone but I can dream. Now I’m getting flashbacks of that movie I was actively trying to forget, and I’ll never forgive Shields for that.

Brooke Shields visited Denmark in March to act out her ‘little girl’s dream’: to design her own fur coat. The Hollywood star is thrilled with Kopenhagen Fur.

“Wearing fur may be associated with something grandmotherish. Something you wear when you visit the opera, or if you are a rock star and wears it inside out. But I will advocate that both my generation and the younger generation can wear fur“, says Brooke Shields.

The comment fell as the American actress visited Kopenhagen Fur’s creative workshop, Kopenhagen Studio early in March. Here she began designing her own mink coat made of the best Danish fur skins. Brooke Shields chose to work with the short-haired, black mink.

“Brooke Shields will be proud to be an exponent of the beautiful Danish fur skins in the U.S. She thinks that Kopenhagen Fur is very unique”, says Kopenhagen Studio’s Partnership & Alliance manager Natia Linneman and adds that the star has been intrigued by the way Kopenhagen Fur is organized and how the company centrally supports disease control and quality on fur farms etc…

The visit of Brooke Shields, who at the age of 15 became famous for her leading part in the movie The Blue Lagoon, was arranged in February during New York Fashion Week, where Kopenhagen Fur, in cooperation with the design house J. Mendel, had a major event in the city. J. Mendel also helps Brooke Shields to design her coat.

“I will wear the fur garment when I follow my children to school, when I drink coffee and when I sleep“, says Brooke Shields, who calls it a little girl’s dream to be able to design her own fur garment.

[From International Fur Trade Federation website via D-Listed]

I really hope they paid her for this and didn’t just comp her visit to Denmark and give her some fur swag. Her people should have signed of on those quotes because they’re worded like only a non-native English speaker would phrase them. “I will wear the fur garment when I follow my children to school” makes it sound like Brooke is this crazy homeless woman stalking some grade schoolers in a tattered fur coat, babbling about how it’s her precious. (Yes, Michael K at D-Listed said essentially the same thing, but I like to think that I would have come up with that on my own although that’s probably not the case.) Now that’s what I think of when I hear about fur, crazy homeless old ladies and stinky moth balls. Even rich semi-old ladies wearing “new” fur makes me think of down on their luck homeless people, like fur is this monkey paw type curse that brings you warmth and the illusion of wealth and leaves you with nothing in the end.

I like Brooke Shields because she’s refreshingly normal and it doesn’t seem like an act. Sure she endorses too many things and it seems like I see her in commercials constantly, but there’s something very genuine about her. She’s honest and doesn’t come across like she’s trying to convince us that she’s just a normal working mom or that she hasn’t had any work done.

Brooke has a new interview in Parade in which she’s promoting a new family comedy she’s co-starring in with Brendan Fraser called Furry Vengeance, out this Friday. The movie looks dumb but funny. As the mom of a five year I have to say that I appreciate most family-friendly movies that come out and have enjoyed films that I would have mocked when I was single. (Tooth Fairy, for instance, wasn’t bad as far as kids movies go. Yes my standards are low, but The Rock is so easy on the eyes.) Furry Vengeance has both cute animals with human characteristics and a lot of sight gags, although I think it’s too mature for my son at this point.

Getting back to Brooke’s interview, she talks about growing older, staying fit, and accepting herself as she is. These are worn topics that actresses get asked constantly, and she gives kind of cliche answers in that she downplays the importance of diet and exercise and says she’s content with herself as she is. I believe her, though, and I like that she admits she exercises and doesn’t chalk it all up to “running around” with her kids. The part about eating less because she picks at her kids’ food doesn’t ring true to me, though. I know I eat more because I eat my own portion in addition to what my son leaves and I have to train myself to just throw it out. A recent study showed that parents living with children ate the equivalent of an entire pizza more fat a week than childless adults, so I would assume that more people can relate to eating more, not less, with kids around.

Preserving that sexy bod.
“Having two kids helps. You eat less for some reason because you end up picking at what they had to eat and don’t eat real food. I’ve always danced and I spin and I love doing yoga. I don’t exercise every day, but in New York, it’s easier because we walk everywhere. So we’re walking all the time. I make my kids do that too.”

But she’s not a fitness fanatic.
“It’s sort of a cliche, but it’s definitely been post-children and just surviving my 30′s. It sounds so granola, but I sort of celebrate what I do have rather than what I don’t have. You spend so many of your early years, or I did, focusing on the things that I wasn’t. I was never petite. I was always getting unfavorably compared to other people. Finally, I started saying, ‘You know what, I am going to wear heels. I don’t care if I’m 6’4″ when I wear heels. Why should I compromise?’ There’s something freeing about not wanting to look 22 anymore. So as I’ve gotten older, I’ve given myself a little bit more of a break.”

Hooked on organization.
“I grew up without a routine at home, things were hit and miss. But my mother had me in a regular children’s school my whole life and that routine calmed me. My school became like my home. I never missed school for work, ever. Sometimes I used to take my organizing a little too far with my Filofax, but that was the way that I coped. I didn’t do drugs. I’m just organized.”

Passing it on.
“My kids thrive on the routine at bedtime, like the bath and the food and the book reading. Every night we say our prayers and we do a rose/thorn which is, ‘What was your rose of the day and what was your thorn of the day?’ I watch them and it just gives them a sense of comfort. It’s the same thing with rules. I have to enforce their behavior, including manners. But they like it. I think they just feel like they’re safe, and then they know that they can kind of go off and be kids at school.”

[From Parade]

In terms of Brooke talking about growing older – two years ago she said that she still looked in the mirror and expected to see the same person she was was in her 20s. I can definitely relate to that, but the part about not eating as much when you’re a mom – not so much.

Here’s the trailer for Furry Vengeance. I bet it will do quite well at the box office, as these kid movies usually do. I haven’t heard much about it though:

Brooke Shields and her husband, Chris Henchy, are shown on 4/25/10 on the opening night of the musical “Promises” in NY. Doesn’t he look pissed off? Credit: Joseph Marzullo/Wenn.com. Brooke is also shown on 4/22/10. Credit: WENN.com

These are photos of Susan Sarandon, Demi Moore and Brooke Shields at the Donna Karan fashion show in New York on Monday. Even though it seems like Demi has been hellbent on stealing the spotlight from whomever is around, at the show it was Susan who taught the master class in “pulling focus”. I can’t even believe what Susan’s wearing! At 63 years old, Susan decided to go ultra-lowcut in a plaid wrap-dress/caftan thing with righteous black boots. I don’t mind saying that I would rock the hell out of this outfit. But I can’t now – Susan already did it so well!

HuffPo makes a big deal about Susan’s monster cleavage. They call her outfit a “plunging plaid caftan that exposed a glimpse of black bra for the front-row photo op.” I can’t even see the bra! Other than the dress, though, I don’t really care for Susan’s hair or makeup. If she was trying to impress someone with how young and hip she looked, she shouldn’t have done her hair in a grandma bun and she could have tried some concealer. But other than that, yes, she looked great.

By the way, do you know what I noticed? Susan’s face looks the most natural when you can see the side-by-side comparison with Demi and Brooke. Demi and Brooke look like frozen, immovable sisters, the patron saints of Botox. Meanwhile, Susan looks so natural and unfrozen, it’s such a welcome relief. Bless her and her young, fey hipster boyfriend!

I don’t know if this is true or not, but either way it’s food for thought. Supposedly Brooke Shields, who has played Miley Cyrus’ deceased mom in cameos on Hannah Montana, is urging the smack-talking singer/actress to make something of herself and go to college. Brooke graduated from Princeton with a degree in French literature in 1987. She doesn’t really seem to use it in her line of work, but it was a growing experience for sure and who knows how she would have turned out if she didn’t go to school and apply herself. Miley is said to be on board and to be considering college. Of course this news is in Star Magazine, so it could be total speculation. Star reported last year that Miley wasn’t considering college, but that could have changed.

Brooke Shields plays Miley Cyrus’ mom on Hannah Montana, but she’s also cast herself as the teen’s college counselor! “Brooke’s been pushing Miley to go to college,” a source tells Star of the Princeton grad. “She says she needs something to fall back on.” And though home-schooled Miley loves living the rock life, the source says the 17-year-old is considering applying in 2010. “She’d love to be an Ivy Leaguer like Brooke!”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, January 11, 2009]

Miley has mentioned that she’d like to go to college, and once said she was interested in studying photography in London. She’s 17 and is around the age when she should be considering higher education. As a role model to countless young women, Miley would be setting a great example by going to college. She has two films in development and her movie The Last Song, with boyfriend Liam Hemsworth, is out in April. She also has another final season of Hannah Montana coming up. If Miley is serious about going to college she’ll have to make time for it. With all the opportunities she has I doubt she’ll bother.

Photos are stills from Hannah Montana

Brooke Shields has been talking about her struggles with post-partum depression for years. Since 2005, to be exact. That’s when she published her memoir on the subject, Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression. The book could have just been an eye-opening, acclaimed first-person story that shined a light on a tricky subject that was (and perhaps still is) seen as shameful and stigmatized in our society. Unfortunately, the book and Brooke herself became center-stage as Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology twisted the message of the book (“get help, go to a therapist, maybe go on anti-depressants, anything to get through a difficult time” basically) into their own anti-psychiatry, anti-medication message. Tom and Brooke fought about it publicly (“You’re so glib,” Tom told Matt Lauer when Lauer brought up Brooke’s book and message). Brooke and Tom eventually buried the hatchet, and Tom probably got Brooke some additional book sales in the end.

Anyway, Brooke is talking about PPD again, and this time she’s discussing how she came dangerously close to driving into a wall, she was so suicidal. It’s a powerful story:

Brooke Shields has been open about her struggles with post-partum depression, but in revealing new comments she expresses the true depths of her suffering.

Shields, 44, spoke movingly about the stigma of depression and her experience battling the disease on Monday while receiving an advocacy award from the Hope for Depression Research Foundation in Manhattan.

“We think and we feel that we should just be able to handle it on our own,” said the actress, who is mom to two girls, Rowan, 6, and Grier, 3. “I’ve always been strong enough to get through every single difficult situation in my life. I grew up in an addictive household. My mother [Teri] had acute alcoholism. It’s in my blood. I was never going to be the one to succumb to it.”

After a miscarriage and seven IVF attempts, she gave birth to daughter Rowan in 2003 with her husband, TV writer Chris Henchy. “I finally had a healthy beautiful baby girl and I couldn’t look at her,” she said of the depression she felt. “I couldn’t hold her and I couldn’t sing to her and I couldn’t smile at her … All I wanted to do was disappear and die.”

In her deepest moments of despair she said, that the disease led her to believe, “I should not exist. The baby would be better off without me. Life was never going to get better – so I better just go.”

Shields was prescribed medication, though she stopping taking it one point, thinking she didn’t need them. “That was the week I almost did not resist driving my car straight into a wall on the side of the freeway,” she told the crowd. “My baby was in the back seat and that even pissed me off because I thought she’s even ruining this for me. I just wanted to drive into the wall and my friend stayed on the phone with me and made me safely get home.”

She later called her doctor to ask for more help, and was eventually diagnosed with a chemical imbalance. “I learned what was going on inside my body and what was going on inside my brain,” she said. “I learned I wasn’t doing anything wrong to feel that way. That it was actually out of my control.”

Looking back, she said, “If I had been diagnosed with any other disease, I would have run to get help. I would have worn it like a badge … I didn’t at first – but finally I did fight. I survived.”

[From People]

This is one of the reasons I like Brooke – and I think her book and her interviews on the subject were eye-opening, and she made a lot of conversations happen. Do you think Xenu will allow Tom Cruise to let this one go by? I hope so. Tom seems to have learned his lesson, sort of, about telling (ordering) women to reject a psychiatric diagnosis of post-partum depression. I think the message finally got through to Tom – even if he truly believes that women shouldn’t get medical help for PPD, he definitely shouldn’t say it out loud.

Brook Shields attended the Hope for Depression Research Foundation annual seminar and luncheon in New York City, New York on November 16, 2009. Credit: Fame.

Does Brooke Shields have a reputation as a bitch? I posed that question to Google, and I came up empty. So if Google’s got nothing, I guess Brooke might actually be one of the nicer celebrities. But this report from Fox News 411 makes it sound like Brooke was having one of those “I’ll cut the next bitch who gives me dares to speak to me” days. Fox claims that Brooke was shopping with “two guy friends” at an Hermes sample sale (I wish I was there). Brooke and her friends were basically being big bitches to everyone in the store, mocking customers and being nasty to the staff, if this report is to be believed.

Sometimes Brooke Shields isn’t so nice to retail staff.

The one-time wife to admitted crystal meth-taker Andre Agassi was shopping in New York City with two male companions when sources say she exhibitied a surprisingly rude attitude and major diva behavior, given her sweet-as-pie reputation.

Shields, 44, was apparently getting some time off from her two little girls, Grier, 3, and Rowan, 6, when shoppers spotted her at an Hermes sample sale.

“Brooke was in a snit when she walked in the store. She had two guy friends with her and they were joking around and mocking people,” an eyewitness tells Fox411.

Then the model/TV star started getting snippy with a sales associate while searching for a bargain on Birkin bags and glassware, says the source. “A sales associate offered to show her some watches she was looking at when she bit his head off!”

Apparently, Shields took the offer of aid as an affront of sorts.

“When she was asked, like every other customer, if she needed any help, Brooke was truly rude. She could have said ‘no thanks,’ but instead said, ‘If I needed any help, I would ask for it!’” says the source. “People were definitely staring at her by that point!”

The former supermodel then sashayed down the aisles making jokes, says the onlooker. As Brooke continued to shop, she turned to her friends, holding up a champagne flute, and said, “If we bought these, we would have to have a gorgeous man serve us champagne as we sat around drinking all day.”

Um, what?

“Brooke could have used a glass of champagne to loosen her up,” joked the fellow bargain shopper. “She was tense and quite rude. She seemed to be there to make fun with her friends more than she was actually shopping. The second she walked out of the store, all the women turned to ask if that really was Brooke Shields acting obnoxious in public.”

That seems to be the case.

[From Fox News 411]

I have a feeling this is going to be one of those Salma-Hayek-throwing-a-hissy-fit situations where I side with a celebrity because I’m just as guilty of being as big a bitch as some of these stars. While I’ve never “pulled a Salma” and cussed out a hostess, I have been rude to wait staff a couple of times when I thought their service was extremely sub-par. As for the Brooke situation, that’s more my deal, although to me it just sounds like Brooke was hanging out with some of her best gay friends (clue: Hermes) and they were maybe a bit drunk and they didn’t want to be bothered. Just my take.

Brooke Shields is shown on 10/27/09 at an Alzheimer’s Association benefit. Credit: WENN.com

The National Enquirer has a new article explaining the circumstances behing the much talked-about incident in which a freelance reporter checked Brooke Shields’ mom out of a nursing home.

Brooke was outraged that her mom Teri, who suffers from dementia, was allowed to leave her assisted living facility with the reporter, and issued a statement about it to People Magazine. When she learned that her mother was out with a reporter that day she called the cops, who found Teri having lunch with the man at a nearby restaurant. The National Enquirer explained at the time that Teri had been friends with the reporter for over 10 years and that the visit was a planned one that was approved by the facility. They said that Teri and the guy ran some errands and had something to eat and that she was never in any danger.

The Enquirer now has a personal statement from the freelance reporter, Bob Hartlein, who was with Teri that day. He explains that he is good friends with Teri Shields and used to hang out and watch TV with her at her house in New Jersey. He had no idea that Teri had dementia and says he first heard about it from Brooke and her lawyer. He admits that he did run stories on Brooke Shields using things Teri told him, but says that he was genuinely fond of her and knows her well. They even include a picture with the story that was taken in May, 2008 and shows Hartlein kissing Teri Shields affectionately on the head as she smiles. She is dressed up well in the photo and looks coherent and aware.

When Brooke Shields and her lawyer first revealed the details of her mother’s “dementia,” I was shocked and upset at that tragic news. In the 10 years I’ve known Teri Shields, I’ve found her to be more in control of her faculties – and certainly more outspoken – than most young people I know.

When I first interviewed Teri in 1999, I didn’t expect to become her friend. She was 65 at the time, and she’d agreed to talk to me about her ongoing battle with alcoholism.

“I knew I needed help last year (1998) after I passed out in a New York City department store,” Teri confessed to me. “I was so sick, I couldn’t remember.”

Her brutal honesty and heartfelt attitude endeared me to this lovely woman. She was not the tough divorcee often described in press reports.

After our first meetings, I spent many afternoons with Teri in her comfortable Haworth, NJ, home, which is near my own. We watched TV (“Dr. Phil” was a favorite) and chatted endlessly about her love of movies.

It was an unconventional relationship over the years between the mother of a world-famous movie star and a freelance tabloid reporter, but I always treated Teri with the same warmth, kindness and respect that I do my own mother, who is 82.

Most of our wonderful afternoons together never resulted in a story, but one thing remained consistent. Teri was always clear to me about how much she loved Brooke…

Maybe not everyone was pleased with my relationship with Teri over the years, but I wish only the best health for my friend. She is truly a special woman.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, June 22, 2009, by Bob Hartlein]

Brooke and the National Enquirer settled their disagreement over the incident. The Enquirer issued an apology and made an undisclosed, said to be “generous” donation to The American Academy of Neurology Foundation. Their statement reads, in part, “It was never the intention of the reporter, the photographer or anyone at the National Enquirer to cause harm to anyone,” and they also state that the “police investigation revealed no wrongdoing by the National Enquirer” but add that they “apologize for alarming Brooke Shields.”

This story is not as cut and dried as it originally seemed. Brooke and Teri have had a contentious relationship over the years, with Teri admitting that she’s an alcoholic while trash talking Brooke and her current husband to the Enquirer. You can see how she would befriend a reporter and confide in him if she has another agenda. She also probably genuinely appreciated the company. Brooke is doing her best for her mom under their difficult circumstances and it’s understandable that she would get outraged that Teri was allowed to leave her nursing home with a reporter. She may not believe her mom is capable of making her own decisions now, while her mom doesn’t seem willing to give up her independence. Hopefully they will be able to bury old grudges for the sake of their family and put this whole thing behind them.

Here is Brooke out with her mother, Teri, and daughter Grier, three, in NY on 5/10/09.Credit: Daniel/INFphoto.com

Brooke Shields was giving an interview to Health Magazine, talking about how long it took her to grow comfortable with her body. She says she lost her virginity when she was 22 years old, which I don’t really think is a very big deal. Of course, Brooke was something of a sex symbol at an early age, and the assumption people probably made was that she was sexually active before her twenties, but I think it makes sense. Brooke worked a lot when she was young, and it doesn’t surprise me at all that she would have put her career and academics ahead of sex. It also shows that just because a young woman’s image is hyper-sexualized, doesn’t mean she knows the first thing about sex (cough cough Britney Spears cough Miley Cyrus cough). The Huffington Post has the excerpt from Health Magazine:

Buried in a Health magazine, Brooke Shields let slip how old she was when she lost her virginity – 22 – and her regrets over it.

Q: What’s your biggest health regret?

A: Not learning to love the way I looked earlier. And I think I would have had sex a lot earlier! [Laughs.] I think I would have lost my virginity earlier than I did at 22. I had the public and all this pressure, and I wish I had just gotten it over with in the beginning when it was sort of OK. I think I would have been much more in touch with myself. I think I wouldn’t have had issues with weight–I carried this protective 20 pounds [in college]. It was all connected. And to me, that’s a health regret.

Shields is twice married with two young daughters.

[From The Huffington Post]

CB pointed out that Brooke went to Princeton, enrolling at the age of eighteen (1983) and graduating at the age of 21 (1987). So she went through four years at Princeton with no sex. This caused some conversation between CB and I about the guys we nailed in college, and now I feel some sympathy for Brooke. Were all of the guys at Princeton total nerds? Could none of them man up and ask Brooke out? Or did they ask Brooke out and she just said no, because she was uninterested and/or uncomfortable with her body? And regarding Brooke’s “20 pounds”, I’ve seen pictures of her from that era in her life, and if she was carrying around an extra 20 pounds, she must have been much too slim before she enrolled.

Brooke Shields is shown at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on 4/25/09, credit: Tina Gill/PRPhotos