Carrie Underwood covers the June issue of Marie Claire, and good God I think Marie Claire’s editors kind of hate her. While I usually don’t think much of Carrie’s red-carpet styling (her default is “pageant girl”), I do think Carrie is a beautiful woman with gorgeous skin and big blonde hair that she could do so much with. I guess Marie Claire was trying to tone down the pageant-qualities and do, like, a sophisticated bedhead look? But it just looks like a big blonde rat’s nest. It’s terrible. As for the interview… well, this is one of my new favorite quotes: “But hey, I mean…I’m not a sociopath.” If you have to say “I’m not a sociopath” doesn’t that make it sound like… well, nevermind. Some highlights:

On her personality: “I’m not a mushy person at all. We were never a huggy family. Or a ‘let’s talk it out’ family. Technically I have siblings but they are quite a bit older than me – I was the accident – so I have the only-child syndrome going on. I’m a little more selfish, a little more independent, a little closed. I do wish I were softer. I wish I were able to form relationships better. But hey, I mean…I’m not a sociopath.”

On anxiety: “At the beginning of my career, I used to have panic attacks. People were touching me, screaming – it made me really nervous. In public, I just get nervous. It’s a physical reaction, feeling like the walls are closing in. The fans are great. It’s not their fault. I don’t ever want to come across as ungrateful. But on my end, it is hard for me to process. Because I am still just me.”

On awkward moments: “My husband calls me the queen of awkward moments. Anything that can be made awkward, I will make it awkward.”

What she wrote in her high school yearbook: “You were supposed to say what you would be doing in 10 years, and I said, ‘I will be rich, famous, and married to a hot guy.’ I guess I should have added a few more things.”

On having kids: “I don’t feel old enough to have kids. I know I am mature. But being responsible for another human?”

[From Marie Claire]

I know it’s weird (and I’m not a sociopath either!) but I totally relate to how she describes her personality. I’m getting more sentimental in my old age, but when I was younger, I hated to cry and I hated anything mushy or sentimental. I’m not big on hugging either, and I have the “selfish only child” thing going on too. But I swear, I’m NOT A SOCIOPATH. Promise.

Photos courtesy of Marie Claire.

Here is a tale of two country music blondes and how they deal with their stagnating styles in different ways. Some say Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift are nemeses. Some say that the drama between them in manufactured by the media because everybody loves a good girl-fight. I don’t know. All I do know is that Swifty really, really needs to change up her look because she looked flat-out terrible at last night’s Academy of Country Music Awards.

Swifty wore this gold, sparkly Dolce & Gabanna dress which… I guess the good thing about it is that her bolt-ons aren’t spilling out. But we’ve seem similar looks on Swifty a million times before (and she’s done this “sparkly metallic dress, hair back” looks better in previous appearances too), and at this point, it’s her default and it’s aggressively boring. I know the ACMs are not some mecca of high-fashion, but this is really cheap-looking and pageant-y even for Swifty. And I just can’t with the ponytail and bangs at this point. Ugh. Something nice: I’m glad she’s not wearing red lipstick and I like her earrings.

Quite honestly, I was expecting Carrie Underwood to wear a sparkly pageant gown like Swifty’s for the ACMs. That’s Carrie’s default too, although she usually goes strapless and sparkly, with big blonde pageant hair. So imagine my surprise when I didn’t really hate that Carrie changed it up. Carrie’s dress is Naeem Khan, a big, bold print that actually looks pretty good on her, right? It could have gone horribly wrong, but I think it works…? I especially like the black belt. My least favorite part? The hair. I don’t mind that she pulled it back and still managed to make it “big” but it looks too messy for the dress.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Over the weekend, I covered an Us Weekly story about Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift and how much they dislike each other. I covered it because I believed it, because there was enough evidence (for me) showing that even if Carrie and Tay-Tay don’t have a full-on hate-on for each other, the two ladies probably don’t care for each other in general.

Yesterday, Carrie Underwood was asked about the Swifty-girlfight rumors by Gayle King over at CBS’s This Morning. When asked if she was feuding with Taylor, Carrie told Gayle, “No, not that I know of at least… I really like ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’. It sounded a lot different for her. I liked the branching out, trying some different sounds.” Which… that’s kind of passive-aggressive, right? It’s like saying, “I like that one song you do because it doesn’t sound exactly like all of the other cheesy crap you usually do.” Carrie also said, “In every magazine, in pretty much every newspaper or on gossip TV shows, they can just get away with it by saying ‘a source said’ or ‘an insider said.’ I’ve read the most ridiculous things about myself when people do that.” So, is the feud done? Not really.

What Taylor Swift doesn’t say in song, she says with her silence. The country crooner’s feud with Carrie Underwood made seating charts a nightmare for the Grammys staffers, a source tells Us Weekly.

“Such a headache!” the insider said of the last-minute scrambling. According to another source, however, the strategic separation of the two wasn’t just limited to the Staples Center auditorium on Sunday, Feb. 10.

Staff members also had to keep the pair “from crossing paths” on the red carpet and throughout the ceremony. But the root of the country contention isn’t coming from Swift, a friend of the singer insists.

“Taylor feels Carrie is always rude to her, so she steers clear of her,” the pal told Us. (A Grammy rep countered: “No requests were received from either artist.”)

A source close to Underwood, 29, similarly denies any feud, saying instead that the singer is just “shy.” The American Idol alum gave a rousing performance of her hit “Blown Away” during Sunday’s awards ceremony, but Swift didn’t seem too impressed.

“After Carrie performed, Taylor didn’t stand,” an eyewitness told Us. “Everyone else did.”

An energetic Swift was seen dancing and singing along to other performances throughout the night with her pal Claire Waterman, daughter of celeb jewelry designer Cathy Waterman.

To be fair, however, Swift, 23, may not have been paying too much mind to Underwood at the Grammys — she had other musicians to avoid as well. The singer, who opened the show with an explosive rendition of her hit “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” that took a dig at ex Harry Styles, also made sure to steer clear of John Mayer and his current girlfriend, a mint green-clad Katy Perry, 28.

Perry and Swift have previously been photographed smiling and happily posing together at events. Mayer, 35, and the “Dear John” singer briefly dated in 2010.

[From Us Weekly]

So… it sounds more like Tay-Tay has an ax to grind because Tay-Tay is basically a 13-year-old girl stuck in the bolt-on-y body of a 23 year old. Taylor didn’t stand for Carrie? That might sound like something that could be easily explained away, but you know it MEANT something for Taylor. I’m starting to think that this feud is one-sided, meaning that Taylor might really consider Carrie to be her nemesis. And while Carrie probably doesn’t care one way or another about Swifty, Carrie isn’t going to waste her time “snubbing” Swifty.

As for the John Mayer stuff… I can’t. He’s like a Douche Plague. I don’t blame Taylor for avoiding him. I suspect a lot of people avoided him at the Grammys.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Is it weird that I think Nicole Kidman actually gets a kick out of coming to these music awards shows with her husband? She’s done the red carpet and awards-show circuit so many times in Hollywood, it must be relaxing for her to come to the Grammys where there’s no pressure, and she just gets to sit around and sing along to her favorite music. That must be why she always comes to the Grammys (and all of the country music awards shows) – she actually likes being there. And it shows! Nicole looked very relaxed (for her!) in this sparkly gold Vera Wang gown. I’ve been bitching about the whole “half-unlined gown skirt” thing for a few months now, but I actually think this is okay on Nicole. She has great legs, and it’s the Grammys. It’s acceptable, and I always love her in gold. One complaint: the middle-part. Blah.

Here’s Carrie Underwood in Roberto Cavalli. She looks like a pageant girl. Always. Forever. Too much makeup, big blonde hair, fake smile. I would have liked the dress more if it wasn’t two pageant-y black gowns fighting to live together. Either make the whole gown like the bodice, or make the whole gown that lacy stuff.

Natasha Bedingfield in EMERSON by Jackie Fraser-Swan gown from the Spring/Summer 2013 collection. HATE IT. That’s not some weird beige fabric at her waist either – that’s her actual flesh. For that alone, I hate it.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

I don’t know how or when the Carrie Underwood-Taylor Swift feud began. I feel pretty strongly that the feud isn’t some trumped-up tabloid hate, though. There’s enough evidence to show that Carrie and Taylor really don’t care for each other. Maybe it began when Carrie kept losing out to Taylor at awards show after awards show? Maybe it began because Carrie isn’t a very pleasant person in real life (maybe)? Or maybe it began because everybody kind of has a laugh at Swifty’s expense these days and Swifty has started taking names. At last year’s CMAs, Carrie was co-host with Brad Paisley, and they made some jokes about Swifty’s breakup with Conor Kennedy. When asked why the camera didn’t catch her reaction to the joke, Swifty said: “They don’t pan to you if you’re not laughing.”

Then, shortly after that, Carrie appeared on the cover of Allure and she was asked if she’s friends with Taylor. Carrie said, “I’m not close to her. We run into each other at events. We’re never in the same place at the same time.” Which is country-girl-code for “I hate her.” Now Us Weekly says the feud is SO REAL:

Taylor Swift never, ever wants to hang out with Carrie Underwood. A source tells Us Weekly that the country stars are planning to avoid each other at Sunday’s 2013 Grammy Awards.

According to the insider, Grammy execs were ordered to keep Swift, 23, and Underwood, 29, “from crossing paths” at the Feb. 10 show “since they hate each other!”

Says a Swift pal, “Taylor feels Carrie is always rude to her, so she steer clear of her.” (A Grammy rep counters, “No requests were received from either artist.”)

At last year’s Country Music Association Awards in Nashville Nov. 1, co-hosts Underwood and Brad Paisley mocked Swift’s recent split with Conor Kennedy.

“The greatest trade of the year had to be the Kennedy family. They somehow traded Arnold Schwarzenegger for Taylor Swift,” Paisley joked about Swift dating the 65-year-old bodybuilder’s nephew through marriage. “I mean, what they got for that . . .”

But Underwood (married to NHL hunk Mike Fisher since 2010) interrupted her co-host to inform him of Swift’s breakup. “What? Why don’t I ever hear about these things?” Paisley asked. “I’m the last one to know. Are they ever gonna get back together?”

“Never, never, never,” Underwood replied, referencing Swift’s No. 1 hit single “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. “Never ever.”

Swift is set to open the Grammys show at L.A.’s Staples Center Sunday. “What’s interesting is we presented this performance to the Grammy committee . . . and they said, ‘Okay, cool, you have a performance spot.’ And then like a week ago they call us and are like, ‘Oh, by the way, you’re opening the show,’” Swift told Ryan Seacrest Thursday, Feb. 7. “It’s not like they approach you . . . It just surprised me I was going to go first.”

[From Us Weekly]

Carrie always rude to someone? NEVER! Ha. Well, I know Carrie has a lot of fan-girls who defend her and claim she’s truly, secretly a nice person and maybe it’s true, but I’ve also heard a lot of stories about how rude and unpleasant she is. Maybe she’s nice to fans and bitchy to her competition? That could be it. But here’s the thing – I have no doubt that Taylor could do some damage if she put her mind to it.

Taylor is nominated for Record of the Year at tonight’s Grammys. And she’s performing “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” – that’s the open! So… yay?

Photos courtesy of WENN.

I swear, this has probably been one of the worst weeks in Taylor Swift’s life. Scratch that! The whole month of January has been rotten for her. Swifty’s 2013 has not gotten off to a good start. She started with a terrible breakup shortly after New Year’s, then she went on to lose a Golden Globe award to ADELE! And she had to sit there while Amy Poehler and Tina Fey made fun of her! THE HORROR. Add to that, everyone is talking about her boob job too – because her relatively new rack is really noticeable, and people are talking about it a lot now. Of course, we’ve been on Swifty Bolt-On Watch since last May, so her bolt-ons are old news to us. She got them just before she started hooking up with Conor Kennedy. They are noticeable.

So let’s continue with this “poor, poor Swifty” theme with Us Weekly’s (via HL) new story on her breakup with Harry Styles. It was EPIC!

Taylor Swift and Harry Styles‘ romantic holiday vacation to the island of Virgin Gorda began as a fairy tale — and ended as a nightmare. After spending some romantic time together Jan. 3, the One Direction frontman decided he needed to be alone for a bit, which is where things got really messy.

”He got drunk and left Taylor on their boat for a few hours without telling her where he was going,” a source tells Us Weekly.

By the time Harry, 18, and Taylor, 22, came face to face again, Taylor was reportedly “crying and furious.”

The source also claims Taylor had been knocking back a few drinks herself in Harry’s absence.

Then came the fight. Taylor reportedly “called him a d**k and accused him of running around with girls,” an accusation the source vehemently denies. “He didn’t do anything wrong!”

Taylor thought yelling at Harry, then leaving him alone on the island, would show him who’s boss — but instead, it just pushed him further away!

“She wanted to teach Harry a lesson; she expected him to call and apologize,” the source says. “He didn’t.” No, instead Harry remained on vacation to party with the likes of Richard Branson.

Taylor, who was said to be “a wreck and torn up,” started texting Harry like a madwoman — but to no avail.

So why didn’t he call her back? According to a source, “he thinks she’s too emotional.”

[From Hollywood Life]

I don’t know… can we bash her for this? Isn’t this what most of us were doing when we were 18-21? Have a few drinks, get into a crazy, sobbing fight with your d-bag boyfriend (“I HATE YOU I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU WHY AREN’T YOU SPENDING TIME WITH ME YOU SUCK”) and then when you sober up a little bit you were like, “Okay, he’s a d-bag, but I was acting CRAY! Let’s see if he remembers what went down.” Or was I alone in that college experience?

Here’s another “poor Swifty” story – you know how Carrie Underwood is the February cover girl for Allure? Well, in the interview, Carrie is asked if she’s friends with Taylor Swift and Carrie replies, “I’m not close to her. We run into each other at events. We’re never in the same place at the same time.” Ooooh… yeah. Carrie’s not a fan. To be fair, I don’t think Swifty likes her much either. I would love to see that girl-fight. It would be a hurricane of pageant dresses, blonde hair and crazy eyes.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.

Carrie Underwood’s Allure cover profile in the February issue of Allure is pretty good. I’m saying that as someone who has a someone who doesn’t have much of an opinion on Carrie – I think she seems like a Mean Girl and a diva, but I’ve also heard that she’s professional, a hard worker and she’s very no-nonsense. It could be that she’s just a blunt, no-BS person, in which case… good for her. Anyway, in the Allure story, Carrie talks about her love of the Lord and how she supports gay marriage, and how she’s kind of pissed that Hayden Panettiere claimed that she used Carrie as an inspiration for her role in Nashville. Some highlights:

Carrie says Hayden Panettiere’s character on Nashville isn’t her: “I’m not like that at all. It’s juicy, but I hope not everybody thinks that everything goes down like that in Nashville, and we’re evil.”

Carie says the real Nashville scene has less drama: “To be honest. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with other types of music — and we’re the least drama-rific people.”

Carrie on gay marriage: “I’m in favor of acceptance. And I am a Christian person, and I do love the Lord, and I feel no matter who you are, what you believe, how you live your life, it’s not my place to judge. I don’t have that power. I don’t want that power. It’s my place to love and to show God’s love to other people, even if they don’t live a life like I live. So that’s where I’m coming from.”

Having a career and a husband: “My mom had a job, and she also took care of us, and she also took care of Dad—I always saw her pulling triple duty, doing more than I ever felt like she needed to. I made a promise to myself that it would be more of a team effort in my family someday,” she explained. “And because of that, I became more independent. But it was tough figuring out what kind of guy would work with what I did. Because you have your problems with both.”

Finding Prince Charming: “We want that person to be everything we’ve always wanted. If they’re not Prince Charming, we try to make them Prince Charming. But Prince Charming does exist! I found one.”

Being married to a professional athlete: “We’ve seen a lot of celebrities, professional athletes, not exactly always being on their best behavior away from girlfriends, wives, families,” she says. But she’s not concerned about her husband, Mike Fisher. “People would say, ‘Do you ever worry that—you know—he’s an athlete, he’s young, he’s good-looking?’ And I’ve never had to worry about him,” she continues, “because I’ve never trusted anybody so completely. Or I didn’t know the true meaning of trust. He just…he just wouldn’t do that.”

[From Us Weekly & Allure]

Carrie’s speech about acceptance is what it is – she used different language back in June of last year and she was slammed by a lot of her Christian (I was going to put that in passive-aggressive quotes, but I stopped myself) fans who didn’t like that Carrie’s faith was a faith of inclusion, tolerance and love. I think Carrie sounds kind of defensive here, but it’s good to remember how many country fans were all “OMG I HATE HER NOW” after her she publicly supported gay marriage.

Also: Carrie has a lot of confidence in her husband and her marriage, right? I mean… that’s a good thing, I guess. She trusts him. And he’s never given her a reason to NOT trust him, right? Still… I’m always wary when someone is like “He would never do that, I trust him so much” etc.

Photos courtesy of Allure.

Here are some of the fashion photos from last night’s CMA Awards in Nashville. I only watched a few minutes of the live broadcast last night, during commercial breaks of the Rachel Maddow Show (What? Maddow is my Forever Biscuit!). You can see the list of winners and losers here – from what I gather, Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert had a big night, and it increasingly feels like they’re the “First Couple of Country Music” – a title which used to belong to Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. Little Big Town, Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney and several other acts walked away with big prizes too.

Miranda Lambert wore Maria Lucia Hohan… I don’t like it. At all. She’s a short girl with curves, but she dresses like she’s a tall girl with no curves. I don’t get it. This dress makes her look stumpy, and I don’t think it’s the right color for her either.

Colbie Caillat looks fantastic. Great black dress, totally wearable. Miranda Lambert might want to try this style.

Here’s Carrie Underwood, who was the co-host of the show (with Brad Paisley). She wore Reem Acra, and it looked like the same kind of pageant dress she always wears. Maybe it’s Carrie who makes all of these dresses look like pageant-wear.

Hayden Panettiere in Georges Chakra Couture. Hayden was there because of cross-promotion for her show Nashville. Connie Britton was there too, we just don’t have those pics. Anyway… I think Hayden looks cute. Kind of a Jazz Age throwback vibe.

Here’s Kellie Pickler in a Pamella Roland. The dress is flattering and Kellie has a great figure. Her hair looks like that because she shaved her head a few months ago in solidarity with a friend who has breast cancer, which is a really sweet and lovely thing to do. Her hair’s in kind of an awkward stage right now, but it’s sort of cute too.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

I realize that this news came out earlier this week. I was considering reporting on this new interview with Carrie Underwood in The Sun, and Kaiser reminded me of it. Apparently Carrie is in the UK now to promote her tour. She performs a sold out show at Royal Albert Hall in London tomorrow night. In an interview with The Independent this weekend, Carrie mentioned that as a Christian she supports gay marriage. She explained it very well. Carrie said that she can’t imagine how it would feel “to be told I can’t marry somebody I love,” adding that “above all, God wanted us to love others. It’s not about setting rules, or [saying] ‘everyone has to be like me.‘” It was a wonderful, inclusive way to explain her viewpoint, and most of the US agrees with her. Of course some groups are on her for it, claiming that she’s saying that being against gay marriage is not being Christian. I hate these debates, and I’m on Carrie’s side. Here’s more:

Underwood, who is a strongly believing Christian herself, spoke to the British newspaper the Independent about why she endorses marriage equality.

“As a married person myself, I don’t know what it’s like to be told I can’t marry somebody I love, and want to marry,” Underwood said. “I can’t imagine how that must feel. I definitely think we should all have the right to love, and love publicly, the people that we want to love.”

The 29-year-old “American Idol” winner also told the publication that she was brought up as a Baptist but now goes to a non-denominational church with her husband, Mike Fisher, a hockey player.

“Our church is gay friendly,” the “Jesus, Take the Wheel” singer said. “Above all, God wanted us to love others. It’s not about setting rules, or [saying] ’everyone has to be like me’. No. We’re all different. That’s what makes us special. We have to love each other and get on with each other. It’s not up to me to judge anybody.”

Many fans that don’t share the same views as Underwood have turned their backs on the country star, however. Some have taken to social media to attack the star, Gay Star News notes.

“I warned @carrieunderwood fans that their idol was going to get backlash for her support of marriage perversion and I was right! #asusual,” one person tweeted.

“@carrieunderwood Is a disgrace. Being vegan and supporting gay marriage doesn’t seem very country at all,” another said.

“Another day, and a another ’gospel’ artist signed to ’EMI’ comes out supporting gay marriage.@carrieunderwood Unequally signed to the devil,” someone wrote.

GLAAD also launched a Twitter campaign in order to support Underwood. The organization wants supporters to tweet words of encouragement to the singer with the hash tag #supportcarrie.

Not only did fans slam the country singer for her pro-gay stance but also a pastor from Franklin, Tenn. did, as Crushable.com points out. Scotty Smith, the pastor of Franklin’s Christ Community Church, talked about Underwood’s statements on the Christian Broadcasting Network.

“What she said in that interview, unfortunately, has increasingly become a pretty broken understanding of what the Bible is saying. You want to listen to the Scripture in terms of what it says about everything, including marriage, including sexuality.”

When the ultra conservative websites Life Site News and Free Republic reported the story swarms of readers voiced their disapproval of Underwood’s support for same-sex marriage.

“Using Christianity to defend and promote homosexuality is insulting. Ugh,” someone said. “Being Saved doesn’t stop you from being dumb,” another wrote. “Jesus just let go of the wheel,” a commenter said.

[From Edgeboston.com]

This only makes me like Carrie and root for her. I can’t believe some of the nasty things that people say when confronted with an issue they don’t agree with. She wasn’t going after anyone personally or calling them bad Christians, she was just explaining her viewpoint on it.

Getting back to Carrie, she said some funny, mildly bitchy things in that new interview with The Sun I mentioned. They have a video up of the whole interview and she comes off much nicer in person than she does in print. When she explained how she wanted to make country music more popular in the UK she kind of dissed rap and pop music. (That’s at 3:30 into the video there.)

“I don’t really know why country music isn’t popular in the UK but I’m hoping to change that.

“Country music is all about people, it’s about how you live, it’s not about pimped out limos and bling bling.”

She also said that if someone made a movie of her life she’d like Reese Witherspoon to play her – of course she would! It wasn’t like Carrie volunteered that out of the blue, she was asked that specific question and she answered it. She thought she was too young for a movie about her life, but said that if she died tomorrow she would want Reese. Those two seem like they have a lot in common, don’t they?

Carrie is shown outside the BBC on 6-18-12 and at the American Idol finale on 5-23-12. Credit: WENN.com and FameFlynet

The CMT Music Awards were last night, hosted by Kristen Bell for some reason. Carrie Underwood took home the awards for best video, for “Good Girl.” (Go here for a list of winners.) We’re going to be talking about the fashion. No one really brought it at all, as Kaiser explained earlier in her coverage.

Here we have Carrie in a “silver-and-black sequined Randi Rahm mini dress.” (To quote Red Carpet Fashion Awards.) Considering the event, the dress is decent and it’s very flattering on her small frame. I find her flowing fake hair to be a little much, but this is Carrie and she’s always styled to perform, including some very heavy-handed makeup. Those really fug shoes are just killing it for me, however. I don’t mind thick ankle straps, I have a pair of open toe heels with big straps like this that fasten around the ankles. Those fat straps don’t go with booties, though!

Carrie’s husband Mike Fisher came out to support her, which was nice.

I can’t find a designer ID on Miranda Lambert’s dress, but that’s ok as it’s unremarkable anyway. It looks very “Junior Prom” with the sweetheart neckline, flouncy skirt with fan pattern at the hem, and ribbon waistline. Coupled with the sequin gladiator shoes, it’s just a bad look overall. Miranda’s hair and makeup are very pretty, though. I love her wavy side pony. Miranda won best female video, for “Over You.”

Jordin Sparks was in a salmon color Kevan Hall chiffon gown. It’s a very feminine, pretty dress, but the color is a little too Pepto Bismol for my taste. I love her styling and the way she’s matched her lip color to the hue of the dress. She looks gorgeous.