Christina Ricci has an opinion on Lindsay Lohan – don’t we all? – but for once it has to do with her acting roles and not her private life. Ricci says that Lohan somehow glamorized stripper roles in films, and that’s stupid.

Ricci claims stars like Lohan, who peeled off in 2007 movie I Know Who Killed Me, have created a culture of women who find flattery in misogyny.

She says, “It used to be something that we (women) were sort of ashamed of. You didn’t want to admit to people that you were a stripper.

“But now, the hottest thing to say is, ‘I can work a pole!’ Who gives a f**k? But it’s a huge weird thing.

“I mean, you see actresses, and their passion project is to play a stripper. It’s just stupid.”

Contact Music

A few years ago women were changing their attractive appearances to win Oscars. Remember Nicole Kidman’s nose in ‘The Hours’, Charlize Theron in ‘Monster’? Christina Ricci is currently doing it in ‘Penelope’ by wearing a pig’s nose on her otherwise flawless face.

There’s a little article this week in the Sydney Morning Herald about the volume of men now going full frontal in film, and how women don’t seem to react in quite the same way as men.

The 28-year-old comedian (Jason Segal, in Forgetting Sarah Marshall)is presented in full-frontal glory during a break-up scene that involves Segel naked, dripping wet and sobbing like a baby. No clever Austin Powers-style genital obfuscation with props. No artful lighting to preserve any mystery. And the camera cuts away from close-ups of his teary face (he’s being dumped by his girlfriend, the titular Sarah, played by Kristen Bell) to wider, phallus-inclusive shots three times.

At the South by Southwest festival, Segel almost brought the house down with laughter every time he was shown au naturel.

Segel wrote the film’s script, basing the scene on a real-life naked break-up of his own. The actor-writer contemplated inequalities between male and female film nudity before putting himself on display.

“When a woman does nudity in a movie, men immediately switch into a sexual mode,” he says. “For women, from what I understand, it’s not like that. They see a naked, out-of-shape man crying and it’s funny – something weird, disturbing and disgusting we can all laugh at.”

Maybe it is the increase in male nudity that is encouraging women to do more confronting nude scenes as strippers. Or maybe it’s just a result of the pole dancing work out craze, why bother to develop a skill if you can’t use it at work?

I tried the whole pole dance work out phenomenon. You really have to be very coordinated not to injure yourself. I think I gained 5 pounds waiting for my arms to stop hurting.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Christina Ricci and the cast of “Speedracer” are shown at the Grand Prix on 4/19/08, thanks to PRPhotos. Susan Sarandon looks great! Also shown are Matthew Fox, Emile Hirsch, John Goodman, and racers Gerardo Bonila and Ben Devlin.

Reese Witherspoon, Christina Ricci, James McAvoy and Amanda Bynes were among the stars at last night’s premiere of Penelope, a modern romantic fairy tale about a girl born with the nose of a pig. Christina Ricci stars as Penelope, with Witherspoon as her rough ‘n tumble sidekick friend. Witherspoon also produced the film. James McAvoy is the love interest who is able to look past the physical imperfections to the girl underneath. The film is getting mixed reviews, with some saying that it’s not cohesive. Many other reviewers call it charming and quirky.

Some commentors on Oh No They Didn’t note that the film has been out for some time, as it premiered at film festivals including Toronto in 2006 and Cannes in 2007. That doesn’t mean that it won’t be a commercial success, though, as it seems to be the type of cute film that movie-goers enjoy. I had high hopes for a box office success for Sweeney Todd over the holidays, but it only took in $52 million domestically. That’s nothing to scoff at, but it isn’t that high either, and the film may have suffered from its dark subject matter as well as the fact that it was a musical. Penelope seems to have broader appeal, and we’ll have to see how it does at the box office.

Penelope is out in US theaters on January 29.

It’s cute how Reese and Christina both have the same hairstyle with bangs and pulled back hair. Reese’s outfit is looking a little too casual for a premiere but maybe she didn’t want to upstage Christina Ricci. Rachel Taylor is also shown, and she’s wearing a very odd sack-like dress. Thanks to PRPhotos for these pictures.

Remember how everyone was getting those terrible helmet bangs about a year and a half ago and how Janet Jackson popularized it? My hairdresser had a big poster up from Jose Eber featuring that style, and when I asked him about it he just shook his head and said he hoped it would pass.

The severe bangs were flipped to the side until they slowly grew out to make way for more classic hair trends, but now they’re back again in all their forehead-blocking glory. I blame Katie Holmes for bringing back this questionable style. She manages to pull off a severe interpretation of her daughter’s bowl cut, but only because she has either naturally thin straight hair or enough volume has been taken out of her hair to make it flat and sleek. In my opinion this style just doesn’t work with thicker hair and looks silly.

Here are some celebrities who work it, and others who just should flip it to the side and wait for the trend to pass. Rather than group them according to my opinion, I’ll just post the photos and let you discuss. I don’t think this style works with hair that isn’t straight and thin, but you may disagree.

It’s just hair. It will grow out eventually and can be styled to compensate, but unlike a bad outfit you can’t just switch it for something else the next day without some effort.

Shown are Katie Holmes, Heidi Klum, Kate Hudson, Christina Ricci, Elle Macpherson, Selma Blair, Kylie Minogue, Kelis, Paula Abdul in a messy interpretation of the style, Rihanna, Myleene Klass, and Janet Jackson.

Reese Witherspoon is a marketing genius. She knows exactly how much to say in an interview without giving much away. Reese says “Yeah, my divorce was devastating, but I’m not going to talk about it” and you’ve got your headline, baby. “Reese says divorce was devastating’. Ta da. And the conversation goes back to whatever project the actress is currently promoting.

Reese is currently out promoting Penelope, her latest flick from her production company Type A, in which Christina Ricci plays a woman with a pig’s nose. I’m not giving away any more of the plot, because I am dying to see this (I love Reese) and don’t want to spoil it.

Reese spoke to E! News telling them she wants to shoot someone. That’s headline-worthy right there.

Here’s what she said about shoot-’em-up movies wherein the leading man gets to take down the bad guy. “Why does the guy get to shoot him? I want the girl to shoot him!” she said, laughing intermittently. “I love watching Angelina Jolie kick ass in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and I can’t wait to see her in Wanted. I would love to shoot someone. In the knee cap or something, just to stop them!”

I would really like to see Elle Woods (Reese’s character from Legally Blonde) go crazy and shoot people. Elle, in a movie with Jason Bourne, where they go around shooting all her ex-boyfriends and members of her sorority. That is an instant movie classic.

Then, Reese told Good Morning America that she wants her kids to get bullied so they’ll have the experience:

“I’ve had movies that were stinkeroos! And then, you know, I think everybody has experience of a being awkward. I was always really short and really underdeveloped and had big coke-bottle glasses … I think, that’s where I got a personality from, though, man. I wouldn’t give any of it back — not for a day.”

Penelope has grown up not only dealing with the shame of her parents, but also with the ridicule of her classmates. Witherspoon sees this taunting as “formative” and says her own experience with failure has helped define who she is.

“I wouldn’t want my children to miss out on any of that teasing and bullying and don’t you think it kind of makes you who you are?” Witherspoon asked Connelly.

“This drives me crazy about today. Everyone wins the award and then, you know, everybody’s an MVP? No! They’re not! Okay? I distinctly recall the two weeks of crying because I didn’t make the softball team. It made me interesting, you know?”

Gee, why don’t you just put a couple of ‘kick me’ signs on their backs as you drop them off to school Reese? You don’t think they’re going to get picked on? All kids get picked on, and famous kids probably more so. Reese was actually talking about this in the context of her new movie, where the title character has a pig’s nose and I suspect would get some teasing. And when I say ‘some teasing’ I mean ‘relentless teasing’.

Then, she talks about paparazzi and her fear of a butt shot.

The mother-of-two admits the prospect of her bikini-clad bottom gracing the pages of tabloid magazines and internet sites around the world terrifies her.

Witherspoon says, “I hate that the paparazzi takes my picture when I’m on vacation: `Oh my god, did they see my butt? I hope they did not see my butt.’”

PR Inside

Which I totally sympathize with, because even the most bootylicious are afraid to see a photograph of their asses on the cover of a weekly rag.

Now this is all very cute and entertaining of Reese, and makes for good press, but what was the pink elephant in the room she was avoiding talking about? One was the death of Heath Ledger and her (unconfirmed) boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal’s reaction to it. The other was her husband’s latest interview about the divorce and the other woman Abbie Cornish.

Way to go Reese. Penelope is in cinemas February 28th.

Note by Celebitchy: Here’s the trailer for Penelope, it looks so cute!

And here are some stills from the film, thanks to AllMoviePhoto. Also shown are Christina Ricci, James McAvoy and Peter Dinklage. The last three pictures were taken in May, 2006 during filming. Spoiler Alert: The final picture below shows Ricci with her full face for the film, so don’t look at that image if you would rather not spoil it before you see the film.

I really don’t think we have enough animal stories here at Celebitchy. And we definitely don’t have enough “when animals attack” type stories. Now to be fair, we’re a celebrity site. And animals don’t attack celebrities nearly as much as they ought to. So it leaves us searching. But once in a while the stars align just right and a monkey grabs an actress’s left boob. Okay by once in a while I mean once ever. But it’s pretty funny nonetheless. It seems that actress Christina Ricci has a longstanding fear of monkeys. Though to be fair, most people are hideously afraid of monkeys. They’re like spiders and snakes. Wait, that’s backwards. Monkeys are freaking adorable. I wouldn’t want one living in my bathroom or anything, but a monkey as a concept is pretty appealing to me. But Christina Ricci and I don’t share this opinion. It’s one of the many things we’re always fighting about. On the first day of filming for her new movie “Penelope,” Christina got attacked by a monkey. A pervert boob-grabbing monkey.

“I’m afraid of monkeys but I had decided not to be afraid of this monkey because no one else is: ‘Everyone else thinks he’s awesome so just be cool.’ It’s the first day of shooting and I have this kitchen scene where I’m sitting down and the monkey is sitting right next to me. Of course it freaks out during the take and grabs my left breast and will not let go, and he’s so strong. I’m thinking, ‘This thing is gonna rip it’s hand away and I will no longer have a boob there!’

“I’m so freaked out and the whole rest of the actors are turned around so no one sees that this has happened to me and I’m like, ‘Help, help’ as quietly and calmly as possible so this thing does not freak out any further.

“Finally they got him off me but my fear is completely validated and I did not go near him for the rest of the shoot… Monkeys are crazy and you never what they’ll grab onto; I don’t like unpredictable animals.”

[From Starpulse]

Something tells me Chim Chim the monkey doesn’t like you much either, or he wouldn’t have been trying to rip your boob off. In the animal kingdom, boob grabbery is considered the greatest of insults. It’s like giving the finger, except it hurts a lot more. Clearly Chim Chim thought Christina’s face was kina odd looking. But being the gentleman that he is, instead of scratching her eyes out he went for the boob. That’s one classy monkey.

Picture note by Jaybird: Here’s Christina Ricci at the Palazzo Las Vegas Grand Opening on January 17th. No specific photos were available, but her left boob appears to be in good working order. Images thanks to PR Photos.

I was always under the impression that gambling was a bad thing. You know, it’s like gambling is step one, prostitutes step two, and the next thing you know you’re laying in the gutter with a needle in your arm, a whore in your pants, and a bunch of dollar bills shoved in your mouth. Or some such thing. But apparently gambling is cool after all, because Christina Ricci is promoting it. I didn’t know celebrities promoted generic vices, I thought it was only specific brands for which they were paid. She’s not talking about poker or some other form of card-based gambling, but going for the old fashioned ponies.

“I’ve learned to love gambling,” Christina Ricci told PEOPLE at the grand opening party for the Palazzo Las Vegas. “I was in Australia for a few months and gambling is like a national pastime there, so I learned to love betting on horses, and now I even put in a few football bets and I’m kind of obsessed and into it. Gambling is pretty good.”

Thursday night, blackjack was her game of choice. When she wasn’t sitting on her boyfriend’s lap, Ricci was doubling down and splitting aces with Angie Harmon, her hubby Jason Seyhorn and Jerry O’ Connell.

Ricci, 27, seemed to find a way to win at Palazzo’s blackjack tables. Horse racing was another matter. “I have no strategy (with horses) and I never pick winners,” she says. “But it’s still fun.”

[From People]

I love how Christina says she “learned” to love gambling. Like how your mom made you “learn” to love spinach. Because it’s so good for you, so you better acquire a taste for it, damn it! And if you don’t learn to bet on the horses, you’re not getting any dessert for a week. Seriously, is so little going on in Christina’s life that she has to tell us about her new love of various vices? Is so little going on in my life that I have to write about it? Yes and yes apparently. I’ll see you at the track.

Picture note by Jaybird: Here’s Christina at the Palazzo Las Vegas Grand Opening on Thursday night. Images thanks to PR Photos.

Just in time to promote her new movie dealing with body image, Christina Ricci has come out and spoken about her battle with anorexia.

“I was a teenager going through adolescence and at one point I had a little anorexia phase and then I kind of ballooned,” she tells Entertainment Tonight in an interview to air on Tuesday. “I feel my body now is the adult Christina and it’s what I should have come to a long time ago if I hadn’t been screwing around with my body so much.”

The 27-year-old admits she used to waste many days worrying about her projected image on the red carpet, determined to look thin and gorgeous. The obsession consumed her so much that she was no longer enjoying nights out on the town.

“I was too busy thinking about my skin or my weight or the clothes I was wearing instead of just enjoying it and saying, ‘I can’t believe I get to be here. This is awesome and I’m going to experience it.’”

OK! Magazine

I think this is timely advice, separate to the fact that Christina’s new movie Penelope deals with body image. At this time of year we’re all going out and seeing colleagues at end of year functions, worrying about what to wear and what impression we might make on our work mates. Maybe just try to be nice to everyone, that’s probably going to make a better impression than great shoes. If you can’t manage nice, then maybe get a dress to go with the shoes!

Penelope, according to IMDb, deals with a girl born with the nose of a pig, which is the result of a family curse. She must find true love to break the curse, and she goes out into the world with Reese Witherspooon’s character Annie. Since this is the exact kind of film Reese Witherspoon is made for I can’t wait to see it. Forget dull political dramas like Rendition, give me a girl with a pig’s nose fairytale any day.

Note by Celebitchy: It sounds like Ricci is downplaying her eating disorder by calling it “a little anorexia phase” and then focusing on her weight gain when she was recovering. It takes courage though to let us know she is concerned with her weight and went through a period when it consumed her. For every celebrity that talks about their personal health issues, there are countless people who are helped who are going through the same thing.

Ricci is shown on 11/7/07 at the DKNY Delicious launch party, thanks to PRPhotos.

Reese Witherspoon has turned down an offer to star in another installment of the cutesy “Legally Blonde” series. The third Legally Blonde film will be set in London, and there is no word yet who will star as Elle Woods. One thing’s for sure, it will go straight to video:

That’s not surprising. Now that Reese has won an Oscar she’s really grown past making another “Legally Blonde,” although I thought the first two were cute and would watch another one.

Reese is currently starring in the dark comedic fable “Penelope,” in which she plays a cooky best friend to Christina Ricci, whose character copes with a family curse that left her with the nose of a pig.

Here are Reese and Christina at the premiere of “Penelope” at the Toronto film festival. Whatever issues Reese may have had with her weight, she seems to have conquered them because she looks fabulous now.

Pictures from Hollywood’s Best.

Here’s a recent Christina Ricci photoshoot that emphasizes her bobble head and gives her a creepy, other-worldly look. The guy who posted the photos notes that she has a tattoo on her right breast that’s visible in the picture of her in a red shirt.

These pictures remind us of the Gallery of the Absurd’s “Hollypops,” although Ricci looked healthier in the face in the illustration:

As of mid March, Ricci was shooting the film “Penelope” in London, in which she plays a woman trying to overcome a family curse that left her with a snout like a pig. Reese Witherspoon has a supporting role.

Pictures [via]

Plenty of stars attended the Tiffany and Company party launching the Frank Gehry premium jewelry collection. Guests pictured include Jennifer Love Hewitt and her boyfriend Ross McCall, Quincy Jones, Samaire Armstrong, Mira Sorvino, Roselyn Sanchez, Poppy Montgomery, Christina Ricci, William H. Macy, Felicty Huffman, Ellen DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi, Elijah Kelly, Laurence Fishburne, Gina Torres, and Ian Somerhalder. Patty La Belle, John Legend, and Elijah Kelly performed on stage.

19 more pictures after the jump.

(Read more…)