I wouldn’t call Gwen Stefani’s clothing trashy on any given day. Unusual, sometimes bizarre, perhaps, but she’s not constantly baring her nipples or anything. So I guess by American standards she’s pretty much the norm – not conservative, but not slutty, either. Well before performing in Muslim-majority Malaysia this past weekend, Gwen was faced with quite a backlash over her clothing, and had to agree to cover up.

“Stefani had promised to dress modestly after the 10,000-member National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students charged that her skimpy outfits and cheeky performances clashed with Islamic values. The opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party also accused her of promoting promiscuity and corrupting the country’s youth.

“In an interview with Galaxie, a local entertainment magazine, Stefani said she had made many changes for Malaysia, calling it a “major sacrifice.”

“’I’ve been in the music industry for 20 years and this is the first time that I’m facing opposition from people who have misunderstood me,’ she was quoted as saying. ‘I’m not a bad girl,’ she said.”

“Media photographers weren’t allowed to take pictures for copyright reasons, and those attending the show had to leave their cameras outside. Most fans in the stadium said protesters had gone overboard with their criticism.

“‘I think they were making a big ho-ha for no reason. Even the local artists, they dress even much worse, much more indecent,’ said Denise Chan, a 15-year-old ethnic Chinese. Fans also said Stefani had shown respect for Malaysia’s cultural values. ‘All international artists have to dress down a bit to respect our religion,’ said Linda Yusof, 33, a Malay Muslim.

“Under government guidelines, a female artist must be covered from the top of her chest, including shoulders, to her knees. No jumping, shouting or throwing of objects onstage or at the audience is allowed. Performers also cannot hug or kiss, and their clothes must not have obscene or drug-related images or messages.

“Ethnic Malay Muslims form about 60% of Malaysia’s population of 26 million, with ethnic Chinese, who are Christians and Buddhists, making up 25%. Ethnic Indians, most of them Hindus, are about 10%”

[From USA Today]

I’m a big “When in Rome” type, so I’m glad Gwen was respectful of local customs. I don’t quite understand why it was a “major sacrifice.” It was a change. But then again I’m not a singer; maybe she felt it compromised her artistry or something. It also doesn’t really sound like she was necessarily “misunderstood.” Her clothing isn’t raunchy for America, but it is for Malaysia. It’s not culturally appropriate, and every country has different levels of tolerance. It sounds like she was pretty good about it if she dressed more conservatively than local performers. I really wish photographs had been released, I’m interested to see what she came up with.

Picture note by JayBird: Header image of Gwen performing live on her Sweet Escape at Acer Arena in Sydney. Does anyone else think she looks like the Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak? Thanks to WENN for the photos.

I’ve never been pregnant, but I’ve never heard anyone describe it as romantic. Painful, cravings, stretch marks, mood swings, upset stomach, etc. Those are things I’ve heard. The more flowery terms probably apply too, but they don’t scare me, so I have a hard time remembering them. I’m sure it’s wonderful in its way, but, um, romantic? The stories friends have told me have been anything but. In fact most of them have been shockingly horrifying. But apparently Gwen Stefani finds pregnancy romantic, and if she’s that lucky, then more power to her.

“Gwen Stefani has no mixed feelings about one thing: producing a sibling for her 1-year-old son Kingston. “’Obviously I’m in a race to have another, but I don’t want to do it while on tour,’ the singer, 37, tells InStyle for its September issue (on sale Friday). ‘But I can’t wait to get pregnant again. It’s so fun and consuming and romantic.’

Being a mom already, she admits, means ‘I definitely don’t get enough sleep, but I’d rather spend time with him. I’ve got this extra-fun, amazing, little guy who just wants to hang out with me.’ Before she hits the stage while on tour, Stefani sings Kingston lullabies like “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” as he falls asleep. ‘But he sings a lot to himself,” she says. “He’s just getting into music. He does the whole head-bouncing thing.’”

[From People]

Aw, that’s so cute. Some might argue delusional, but cute. I kid, I kid, please don’t yell at me in the comments. I’m just more in line with Ellen DeGeneres, when she said “I want to have a baby, I just don’t want to have [be pregnant/give birth] a baby.” Yes I know it changes your life, I know it’s worth it, yada yada. No really, I do. But I still think it sounds utterly terrifying. When is that whole artificial womb thing happening? I’ve heard people talking about it – in terms of the dangers of medical technology becoming too advanced – but I’m all for it, and will purchase one as soon as Costco stocks them.

Picture note by JayBird: All images of Gwen from her show on May 24th. Image thanks to PR Photos.

No Doubt have a new album in the works, their first since 2001’s Rock Steady. Like the champion she is, Gwen Stefani has come out with the truth behind her solo albums and her band relationship.

She said: “It would be ridiculous to say there was no tension, because my solo career has been going on and on. It was never supposed to be this long”.

“I don’t think I will make another solo album. I can’t predict anything, but I don’t plan on making one of these solo dance project records, I definitely feel myself going back to No Doubt to do a new album. I’ve got the idea in my head and that’s all I can think about.”

New Zealand Herald

I don’t like Gwen Stefani’s solo music at all, but I really like her. She actually comes out and says stuff, instead of just giving the appropriate response. She also went to the Sydney Zoo recently, and didn’t get it shut so she would have privacy. She also takes her kid around like a very trendy handbag, but I mean that as a compliment, as she makes it more acceptable for the rest of us to tote babies. She also tells the truth about her weight, working out, and well, she’s tops.

Here’s what she previously said about her figure.

“That’s been really hard,” she said of losing the weight. “But it’s almost gone.” Stefani said she’s still nursing and that her exercise regimen includes jogging regularly.

“I’ve just been eating healthy,” she said, adding, “I cheat every day at least once.”

People

This is a much more motivating sentiment to put on your fridge in times of diet. Much better than “A moment on the lips, forever on the hips.”

The latest shoe offering from Gwen Stefani’s questionably styled and definitely overpriced l.a.m.b. line are these ridiculous sneaker pumps, priced at $225.

These look like something a Photoshop artist whipped up in a Worth1000 contest with the theme of “bad fashion hybrids.”

Commentors on ONTD, where we found this story, note that Victoria Beckham wore a similar white pump sneaker on her reality special. Commentor chung_chung includes this picture of Dries Van Noten shoes from the Spring Summer ‘07 collection, which are the shoes Posh owns and look suspiciously similar to the ones from the l.a.m.b. line. I personally find them less hideous, but maybe that’s because they’re white and seem more understated.

chung_chung writes:

I can’t believe she’s suing Forever 21 for stealing her designs when all she does is steal others’ designs. She just tweaks a little more.

Maybe this was one design she should have left well alone, but I guess that could be said for most of the rest of the l.a.m.b collection too.

These remind me of those ugly sneaker pumps that J.Lo popularized a few years ago that were basically high top converse with a heel. They actually look decent in comparison to these sloped clownish numbers.

J.Lo has her own line of shoes, too, but they’re much more palatable and about half the cost of Stefani’s brand.

If you like these sneaker pumps for some reason, (maybe you’re one of those fashion-forward people that has enough other stuff going on that you could pull this off) you’ll have to wait a while to get your hands on them. They’re not yet available on the l.a.m.b. store’s website.

Scan from TeenVogue via ONTD.

Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale seem to be such loving and doting parents. However it turns out that Rossdale has an 18-year-old daughter, British model Daisy Lowe. As Celebitchy previously reported, Lowe is the new model for Agent Provocateur. Gavin was friends with Lowe’s mother Pearl, and had a one night stand with her. Pearl always believed that her longtime boyfriend, an American traveler known simply as Bronner, was Daisy’s biological father. She named Gavin as Daisy’s godfather, and supposedly the two were pretty close until Daisy was a teenager. Then Daisy began to look more and more like Rossdale, and eventually he said they needed to get a DNA test.

Yet Rossdale was such an unusually devoted godfather, attending all Daisy’s sports days and parents evenings. Surely that’s the behaviour of someone who thinks they may be the actual father?

“We always thought there was a chance, but a remote chance,” Lowe explains. “In some ways it was our fantasy that he was the dad. We were so close. Best friends. So I wished he was but thought that he wasn’t.”

In 2003, Rossdale suggested that Daisy undergo a paternity test. He told Lowe that, as he had just married Gwen Stefani and they planned to start a family, it was time to sort this out. However, Lowe found it difficult to get him to take the test and it was eventually dealt with by lawyers. In 2004, DNA testing confirmed he was Daisy’s father. There was subsequent legal wrangling over a maintenance settlement.

The whole situation has soured their friendship. Lowe says she no longer has any kind of relationship with him. “No, he won’t talk to me.”

Does he talk to Daisy? “He did at first, but he was always shouting at her. And then he just stopped talking to her.”

Why? “I have no idea.” She can’t even find out via friends they have in common. “Because anybody who’s associated with me he’s cut off. Apparently I’m just this taboo subject he doesn’t talk about.””

[From the Sunday Herald]

Both Rossdale and his reps have refused to comment on Daisy. Several articles have claimed that his wife, Gwen Stefani, was absolutely furious when she found out. The two have an adorable son, Kingston, who they both seem to dote over. This story is so sad to read, especially because we only know one side. Having a father figure in your life, and then just losing him, must be incredibly hard. Apparently part of Pearl’s rant is that Gavin refuses to pay child support (Daisy was still a minor when her paternity was confirmed) and won’t reimburse Pearl’s husband for the years he spent supporting Daisy. Gavin comes off as such a jerk, but somehow it’s hard to believe that we’re hearing the whole story. It looks like Daisy is making quite a name for herself, completely apart from her father. She’s doing a lot of modeling, and has a great, edgy look to her. Hopefully she’ll rally, and continue to do well for herself.

Update by Celebitchy: In terms of Daisy Lowe being the new face of Agent Provacateur, I just read that Maggie Gyllenhaal is now going to take over for Kate Moss, not Daisy. We’ll have to see what happens. Daisy Lowe is shown below at a Blackberry party on 5/15/2007. Thanks to PRPhotos.

Everyone was shocked to see rapper Akon dry-humping a hapless 14 year-old girl (some reports list her age as 15, not that it’s any more excusable) at a concert in Trinidad in mid April. The video quickly hit the net, and Akon is shown aggressively simulating sex with the girl on stage, who was let into the concert underage and was led to believe she won a dance contest for a free trip to Africa. It turns out the prize was public humiliation.

The girl is the daughter of a minister, and she says she’s sorry that she went to the concert and that she was hurt by the rapper:

I got carried away, I started to dance as well, but I never thought it was going to be like that,” Danah Alleyne told the Trinidad Express. “I was shocked. My head was hitting the floor.

Akon’s corporate sponsors Verizon, who are sponsoring the tour he opens with Gwen Stefani, have severed all ties with the show and refuse to be associated with such controversy.

They have also pulled ads for Akon off their mobile phone service.

Representatives for Verizon would not explain why they stopped sponsoring the Stefani/Akon tour, but it’s not that much of a stretch to assume it’s because of Akon’s simulated rape.

Akon is a Senagalese American, and his father back in the west African nation of Senegal has four wives, all of which he considered his mother. He said in an interview with a radio station that he also has multiple women in his Atlanta household, but he took that back in an interview with Vibe magazine, and said that he just has several girlfriends and they don’t all live with him. Akon has spent a total of five years in jail on various convictions, and was once a drug dealer.

According to Wikipedia, Akon owns a diamond mine in South Africa. When asked about conflict diamonds, he said “I don’t even believe in conflict diamonds. That’s just a movie. Think about it. Ain’t nobody thought about nothing about no conflict diamonds until the movie came out.”

Maybe if this happened in the states this guy would be slapped with a huge civil and criminal lawsuit and would have to pay millions to that girl’s family as well as attend sexual harrassment education classes and therapy. As it is, he’s living large and has so far just lost a sponsorship for such a despicable act. Hopefully his entire career will be affected.

Here’s the video of Akon violating that girl:

No, I’m not talking about her latest single (although I definitely could be), but about her latest fashion/beauty project. Coty has enlisted Gwen Stefani to create a series of L.A.M.B. scents, the first of which will be released in fall 2007. Stefani says Eau de Gwen #1 will be “broad, classic, and timeless, but from there, I can get more specific with my next one.”

Somehow I completely trust Gwen’s ability to create fun, unique fragrances. She may get a bit weird with her musical endeavours, and have strange taste in hairstyles from time to time, but her L.A.M.B. line is always on point (check out this amazing dress to see what I mean.) If nothing else, we know her scents will come in cute bottles.

Maybe Gwen Stefani is completely aware of how much her solo work sucks, because she says that she’s ready to do a “No Doubt” reunion:

Gwen Stefani wants to put her solo career on hold next year and resume her role as the frontwoman of No Doubt. The beauty has not made a No Doubt album since 2001’s Rock Steady and subsequently rocketed to fame in her own right with the release of Love Angel Music Baby in 2004.

But she wants to return to the hitmakers following the release of second solo LP The Sweet Escape next month.

She says, “I don’t think I will make another (solo album). I can’t predict anything, but I don’t plan on making one of these solo dance project records, I definitely feel myself going back to No Doubt after this to do a new album.”

At first I didn’t believe this, because it was an unsourced quote and sounded like something a journalist would make up considering how shitty her latest music is. Supposedly she said it to MTV Europe, though. It sounds like a good move for her.

Here are Gwen, Gavin and little Kingston out shopping on 11/25. She could have put on some jeans and sneakers to go out. Thanks to ICYDK for these pictures.

So Gwen looks gorgeous and all, and she seems like a great mom, but she still has a sense of style that I can’t appreciate, and her new single is god awful. It’s not appealing to me on any level. I see what she’s trying to do here, she’s challenging the limits in fashion and music, but to me she just falls flat.

Here’s her performance of “Wind It Up,” a real mess of a song:

This is just my opinion. If you guys find this entertaining or whatever that’s great. There’s got to be a market for this somewhere.

Pictures from JustNoDoubt.net

Courtney Love may be sober now apart from the chain smoking, but she remains scattered and deluded, of that there is no doubt. In this interview with British Pop magazine, in which she bears her sloppy soul and body for some publicity for her scrapbook memoir, she reveals that somehow her daughter Frances Bean turned out ok despite having her for a mother. She said that Frances has never kissed a guy or tried drugs, that she refuses to get involved with projects related to her late father, Kurt Cobain, and that she’s a “square,” a term Courtney uses with pride.

Courtney also claims that Gavin Rossdale sent her a diamond ring in 1996 after she had dated him for about eight months. She says she was hanging out doing chores for Edward Norton at the time, and that she got Norton to date her by tossing Rossdale’s ring into the river. She seems to suggest that Rossdale would never have been with Gwen Stefani if she didn’t dump him first. She states that she doesn’t see Gwen Stefani as an “enemy or a problem,” but clearly she does or she wouldn’t phrase it that way:

Edward [Norton] was a tough one, too. It was about eight months of me pretty much going grocery shopping for him every day before we dated. Nobody knows this but I dated Gavin Rossdale for eight months and on Valentine’s Day 1996 or ‘7 I did not go and see Bush play in Little Rock, Arkansas. Me and Edward were in Memphis and I got sent a pretty diamond ring from Gavin. Not an engagement ring but it was… something. I said to Edward, “If I throw this ring that Gavin. Not an engagement ring but it was.. something. I said to Edward, “If I throw this ring that Gavin gave me into the Mississippi river, do you think that we’ll go out?” He turned to me and said, “There’s a slim chance… But if you do not throw it in the river there is no chance.”

So you did it? “Of course I did it. Gavin is such a gentleman. Nobody gives him credit, but he didn’t kiss Gwen Stefani until the next day that I didn’t show up in Little Rock. Isn’t that a sweet story? I adore Gavin. I miss him, actually. That’s one person who’s not in my life now because he’s married to Gwen and whatever. I don’t consider Gwen an enemy or a problem, she’s just… It is what it is.”

[From Pop Magazine print edition, Winter 2006]

Courtney goes on to tell some pointless story about how she told Gwen Stefani that she would write lyrics for her the one time she met her by accident at a studio or something. Somehow Courtney was nude sitting there with a woman in her panties when she met Gwen, but supposedly they weren’t doing anything sexual with each other. I didn’t really get it.

Courtney said Mel Gibson got her to go to rehab by camping outside her hotel room, and claims she knew that Gibson would get busted for DUI before it happened.

She attributes all her success in life to Buddhist chanting, and says that all the successful people she knows are spiritual.

She was in a rough relationship with Steve Coogan when this interview was given, but has since broken up with him. She tried to “save” him, but says that she “cannot have people that take drugs in my life.” She was also linked with comic Russell Brand recently, but claims they’re just friends after meeting up one night.

She looks decent nude, but seems to have put on a few lbs since this photoshoot was taken. Even if she was super hot, who would put up with her shit? She’s a mess. At least the drugs were a good excuse.

You can read the Pop article if your eyes are good at ONTD.

The full size pictures available from the thumbnails below are unblurred nudes and are NSFW at all.