Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber had their big public reunion last night at the Billboard Music Awards, and although they walked the blue carpet seperately, they did sit together and kissed for everyone, which … sucks. I’m firmly in the “showmance reunion” camp for this event because both Justin and Selena performed onstage last night, and I have a feeling that Scooter Braun got together with Selena’s people and encouraged them to make nice. They’ll probably “break up” again next week.

Anyway, Selena wore this semi-futuristic, white Atelier Versace gown with neon details that featured mesh cutouts in the front and back. In the front, we’re seeing a bit of peekaboo boob curve, which isn’t terribly scandalous. If anything, I expected Selena to mix things up a bit more because this look is a little boring for her. Her hair and makeup look lovely though.

Carly Rae Jepsen synchronized with the nearly all-black dress code at this event. She won the award for “Top Digital Song Artist” — probably because of that awful “Call Me Maybe” song that played everywere on the internet (as well as at last year’s Olympics). Carly Rae wore a Dyanthe dress with little mullety side details at the bottom, and she looks pretty good here even though she matched her eyeliner to her new auburn hair color.

Alyssa Milano disappointed last night in this one-shouldered, white number that looked like a dressy toga that one would wear to a stuffy tea party. Man, I used to have such a girlcrush on her during the “Who’s the Boss?” era. She seemed ageless for so long, but it’s obvious that the urge to Botox has inevitably taken charge.

Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland seemed out of place in this baby pink Georges Chakra dress. She just had a baby last December though, so I have to give her kudos for the rocking bod.

Photos courtesy of WENN

Every time I think about Carly Rae Jepsen (which is unfortunately quite often since her singles play on heavy rotation on gym-centric, satellite radio stations), I am constantly reminded of how young she seems (musically and fashion-wise) and how she is really 27 years old. I guess she molds her image to appeal to the younger crowd, which would make sense since she’s touring with her fairy godmother, Justin Bieber.

Well now Carly has shaken things up a little bit by coloring her locks from dark brunette to a dark auburn color that is rarely found in nature. She posted a photo to her Twitter account. What do you think? I kind of like it.

The new color makes Carly look closer to her true age, but I suspect that wasn’t her intention in taking the redheaded plunge. What does occur to me is that she still needs to trim her bangs a good half an inch. How on earth does she see through those things? I get that they’re long for effect, but I’m vicariously squinting over here.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, WENN, and Instagram

Did you know that the Boy Scouts of America still discriminate against gay men? Not just gay men – they discriminate against atheists too, but that’s a discussion for another time. As far as I know, the Boy Scouts (as an organization, and through the leadership of various chapters) has always rejected gay Scouts and Scout leaders, openly banning them from the organization. But over the past decade, the Boy Scouts have dug in their heels more and more, refusing to change their policies, and some high profile politicians and celebrities have been highly critical of those policies. One celebrity in recent memory was Steven Spielberg, who resigned from the board of the BSoA in 2001. Now Carly Rae Jepsen has withdrawn from a scheduled performance at the 2013 National Scouting Jamboree in July after Change.org publicly pressured her to drop out:

Urged on by tens of thousands of petitioners, Carly Rae Jepsen has backed out as a headliner of a Boy Scouts of America concert this summer, saying the Scouts’ ban on gay members conflicts with her personal beliefs.

Jepsen, 27, was one of two headlining acts scheduled to play at the 2013 National Scouting Jamboree in West Virginia in July.

In a tweet Tuesday morning, the Canadian singer said she couldn’t participate in an event held by a group with an anti-gay agenda.

The other headlining act, the band Train, has not backed out – but has promised to cancel if the Scouts fail to overturn the ban at a scheduled vote on the matter in May.

Jepsen was apparently swayed by a petition at Change.org started by gay Eagle Scout Derek Nance that specifically urged her not to play the concert. Nance’s petition has garnered more than 60,000 signatures.

“I came out as gay because I realized the best way to help end this dangerous policy is to stand up, speak out and tell the organization I love to do the right thing,” Nance said in a statement.

“A Scout is brave, and I’m thrilled that Carly Rae and Train have joined me in standing up for what is right,” the statement continued. “I hope the Boy Scouts of America also choose to be brave this May.”

[From People]

I think this is a good sign for gay rights in general, and I admire Carly Rae for choosing what was probably a difficult option. I mean, she was going to be screwed either way – if she chose to ignore the petition, she would have been raked over the coals by her gay fans and the gay community. Now that she’s withdrawn, she’ll be raked over the coals by conservative groups and her conservative, “family-friendly” fans. Still, I think it’s wonderful that a young woman with absolutely ZERO political edge is throwing down a specific gauntlet about treating people equally.

Incidentally, did you know that the Girl Scouts of America is super-friendly to the gay community? They actively educate their Girl Scouts about gay and lesbian role models and they’ve been active in anti-bullying campaigns of transgendered youth too. Girl Scouts ROCK!

Also: here’s that Carly Rae/Nine Inch Nail remix/splice or whatever. It’s actually kind of awesome.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Miranda Lambert was one of the first performers at last night’s Grammy Awards, she did a duet with Dierks Bentley of “Home” and “Over You,” (video is here and a complete list of winners is here). The audio for the vocals was so low that you could barely hear them. I nded up feeling sorry for her, and it makes me wonder why, with the best audio engineers in the whole damn world, the Grammy Awards can’t get the sound perfect for every performance. About 3/4 of the way through the vocals were adjusted to sound clearer, but it was too little too late. Miranda and Dierks got shafted.

In terms of her fashion, Miranda wore this plunging navy Roberto Cavalli gown on the red carpet that I thought was pretty sexy, if a bit underwhelming. She didn’t go with her usual short, sequin look, and reserved that for her performance dress. I really liked her statement earrings and bold cuff bracelets. Her hair and makeup were also very well done. During her interview with Ryan Seacrest, Miranda joked about the letter that went out ahead of the Grammys warning the performers not to show too much skin. She pointed to her cleavage and talked about “puffy skin” being banned, but that part of the letter was clearly about “genitals” not boobs. They also didn’t want any nips showing. (See: Rihanna) Oh and Miranda was nominated for Best Country Album, which went to Zac Brown Band for Uncaged.

Also in Roberto Cavalli was the adorable Carly Rae Jepsen. I DVRed the red carpet interviews on both the TV Guide Channel and E! (although I only watched E! most of the time) and Carly was there at the beginning and she spoke to both Chris Harrison and Ryan Seacrest. Carly compared finding this dress to when Ariel the Little Mermaid got her legs for the first time. She was very gracious and happy to be there, and I came away with a lot of affection for her. In terms of the dress, it shimmered beautifully on camera and fit her perfectly. These photos don’t do it justice, it was gorgeous. I’m not a fan of her thick bangs, and her foundation looked really orange on camera when she was presenting, but overall this was a win for Carly. (She didn’t take home any Grammys though. She was nominated in the Best Solo Performance and Song of The Year categories, for “Call Me Maybe,” which went to Adele and Janelle Monáe.)

Faith Hill wasn’t as successful, in my opinion, in J. Mendel. The dress was somewhat cheap-looking to me, with mesh and sequins overlaying a sweetheart bodice. I think the skirt section is navy while the top is black, too. Plus her hair really doesn’t suit her swept up like that. She was probably going for edgy, but a softer, loose style would have lightened up the whole look. She looked really cute next to her husband, though. Faith and Tim McGraw are one of those couples that looks so alike that you can tell their relationship is solid. (Or not, they’re famous after all. Maybe they’re just good at keeping up appearances.)

In contrast to this longstanding married couple we have the on-off-on again engaged twits, Kat Von D and Deadmau5. They were interviewed by Giuliana on the red carpet and I got so distracted by Kat’s vocal drone. She wore this sweater dress that looks like she just picked it off the floor and threw it on to go for a coffee run. Trash to the E. He looks so over it, and it’s only a matter of time before they’re fighting and breaking up over Twitter again.

Finally I wanted to add Estelle in there as she wore this kind of funky dress that Kelly Osbourne was gushing about. It was a dress that Estelle designed along with her team, and I can’t decide if I like it. It’s very 70s and it’s not totally fug, it’s just funky and different. That must be her style and she looks like she has a sense of humor about it too.

photo credit: Adriana M. Barraza/WENN.com

Carly Rae Jepsen covers the January issue of Cosmo, and before you ask who she is … you’ve probably heard her earworm of a song, “Call Me Maybe” on the radio or just about anywhere. They played it at some point during the Olympics too. It’s kind of an annoying tune, but my daughter likes it a lot. She appeared on a season of “Canadian Idol,” but her real break came when Justin Bieber became her “fairy godmother.” Legend has it that Bieber was actually washing dishes for his mom (who knew he still did that?) when he heard Carly’s song on the radio. He subsequently tweeted about it and introduced her to (the ever-enthusiastic) Ellen DeGeneres, and now she’s opening for him on tour. Here are some excerpts from Carly’s Cosmo interview:

On the Bieber boost for her career: “I never get tired of being asked about him. I’m forever indebted to him for the lovely boost that he’s given me.”

People say she dresses too young for 27: “I love being classy and as elegant as possible in my apartment. But when I’m onstage, I can’t dance in 4 1/2 -inch heels, so I’ll generally sport flats. I’m 5 feet 2, so yeah, I’m going to look a little bit more playful. But I don’t think that means I’m trying for an age younger than I am. If people think I look younger, then that’s great; I’m stoked. But I turned 27 in November, and when I look in the mirror, I see all the years attached to that face, and I’m content with me.”

Her future: “For me, the goal of music has never been ‘I need to be the biggest superstar in the world.’ It was ‘I want to spend my life doing this, and I want to make a career that I can live off of so I don’t have to tend bar and waitress to make this fly.’ I don’t want to be Cinderella for a night. I want to be Cinderella for life.”

She loves life on the road: “Go to bed when you’re supposed to and drink a little extra water and you’ll be fine. When I was a little girl, my parents once asked me, ‘Carly, where do you want to live?’ I said, ‘In hotels. They leave chocolate on your pillow, and you never have to clean your room.’”

On life post-”Idol”: “Everyone says Idol’s a competition. And I’m like, ‘No, no….The real competition is when the show is over. That’s when we figure out how to turn this opportunity into a real career.’ Everyone else was trying to win the show–and the show would’ve been good to win–but I was looking at those contracts and asking a million questions, like, ‘Whoa, that doesn’t look too fair. You hold all our rights for how long?’”

[From Cosmopolitan]

Carly Rae seems like a relatively down-to-earth pop star, but I have to wonder about her longevity. She seems auto-tuned to death, but that’s typical these days, so who knows? Few people thought Katy Perry would have a successful second album and $45 million dollar tour, so I guess it can happen to almost anyone with the right team.

Here are some pictures of Carly Rae live on the Believe tour (opening for Justin Bieber) on 10/23. She really does dress young for 27, but it’s not in a fetishy way.

Photos courtesy of Cosmopolitan