We saw the black and white trend last night with actresses in bold dresses on both sides of the spectrum. First off we have Kate Winslet in satin black and white Jenny Packham. It feels like she’s phoning it in. The dress looks a little too cocktail party for an awards show, and it’s just not very daring. Plus it seems like Kate always does her hair like that, and would it kill her to look less smug? I do love her accessories though, that Fred Leighton bracelet is killer. Kate won Best Actress in a Miniseries for “Mildred Pierce,” and her acceptance speech was kind of formal and sounded a bit faux humble, but it wasn’t bad. (You can watch it below) She went to the awards with her new piece, Richard Branson’s nephew Ned Rock N Rolla. That’s really the guy’s name.

Also in black and white last night was Claire Danes, in sleek formfitting J. Mandel. I love the modern style of her dress and found it very flattering. I didn’t like her makeup though, and thought her lipstick was too garish. I know that bold red colors are a trend this season, but her makeup looks “off” to me somehow. Claire won Best Actress for Homeland, which Kaiser has been watching and tells me is incredible. I’ve also heard rave reviews from other friends, and know that President Obama is a fan. Claire brought her mother with her to the Globes and gave a very sweet acceptance speech, saying that she’d forgotten to thank her parents when she won her first Globe at 15 and that she wanted to make up for it. Homeland also won for Best TV series, which just reminds me that I need to start watching it.

Kate Winslet’s acceptance speech:

Claire Dane’s acceptance speech

Kate Winslet was named as the new “(Botox)face” of St. John’s last year. Her first batch of ads were memorable, in my mind, because Kate looked seriously pissed off in every shot, and St. John’s ad people must have found it difficult to Photoshop-out the “bitchface.” Anyway, these are some new ads from the St. John’s Spring 2012 campaign. We have two print ads and a video (which I’ve included below). The ad campaign was shot by Craig McDean, who does a lot of work for W Magazine, often creating airy, light-soaked images. I like the idea of this ad campaign – a woman in her 30s who isn’t a size zero, wearing comfortable, accessible, pretty business-wear. But somehow, the execution is “off” somehow. Maybe it’s because of whatever is happening to Kate’s face? Should we talk about Kate’s face? Um. You know my thoughts on it. Bitch is jacked to high heaven. Feel free to disagree.

In the video, Kate says: “This collection does feel very light and very fresh. What I love too is the lines are a lot more relaxed, and yet at the same time they still give shape, so you get those lovely feminine curves, which to me are very, very important. You don’t have to be a size 2 or even a size 4 to be able to wear these garments because they fall so well, they’re cut for women with a shape, and of course I love that. That’s me all over.”

Ads courtesy of St. John’s.

Back in September, Kate Winslet seemed to become instantly enamored with Richard Branson’s nephew, Ned RocknRoll. Ned was married at the time, but likely estranged from his (rich) wife. Kate was actually “with” Louis Dowler at the time too – Kate and Louis had been on and off for more than a year, but were seemingly loved up just a few weeks before Kate and Ned made their debut as a couple. It seems more and more like Kate and Ned had that “thunderbolt” moment and they both dumped their partners very quickly. Now Louis Dowler is speaking out about how brutally Kate treated him, although he doesn’t really go into details or a specific timeline. It’s interesting though:

Nearly three months after he was unceremoniously dumped by Kate Winslet when she took up with Richard Branson’s party-loving nephew, her former love is still coming to terms with the break-up — and the way he was so brutally discarded.

Speaking publicly for the first time since he was abandoned by the Oscar-winning actress, male model Louis Dowler, 35, says: ‘I don’t think Kate behaved well and it is still very raw for me.’

Famous for her own emotional performances at award ceremonies, Kate, 35, left Dowler close to tears after they went on what should have been a romantic trip to Branson’s Caribbean hideaway on Necker Island this summer. Instead, it was a disaster. While Kate was hailed a hero for rescuing Sir Richard’s mother, Eve, from the fire which engulfed the luxurious retreat, Louis was devastated when the trip ended with the actress flying to New York with Ned Abel Smith.

‘I was in love with her and you can’t switch that off overnight,’ Dowler tells me. ‘I’m not sure Kate treated me well.’

For his part Abel Smith, who eccentrically changed his name by deed poll some years ago to Ned RocknRoll, subsequently informed his wife, Eliza Pearson, 23, the sweet-natured daughter of multi-millionaire Viscount Cowdray, that he had fallen for the Titantic star.

While Eliza took it on the chin, Louis is still struggling with what happened.

‘Kate came home with me to Cornwall and we just hung out together. She met my parents and family,’ he says. ‘I thought we were inseparable. I certainly haven’t found anyone else since.’

The Burberry model says that at first he was blissfully happy with Kate when they met after her split from film director husband Sam Mendes, spending time at her £2.5 million New York apartment.

Louis, who was at a party for the Omega boutique at the new Westfield shopping centre in East London, adds: ‘I don’t want to go into details but it wasn’t a straightforward break-up. I’m a laid-back guy, so I am not walking around with a long face — but I do still hold a torch for her.’

[From The Mail]

Apparently Louis didn’t know what I knew just from looking at photos – that Kate just wanted to be with some pretty and uncomplicated, a “just-for-now dong” and when someone “better” came along, she was going to dump Louis. Poor Louis, though. I thought he was a dolt (and he really might be), but he’s a dolt with a broken heart. Winslet is such a heartbreaker!

Photos courtesy of WENN.

I know most people won’t give a crap about this story, but I’m feeling a moment of gossip vindication! In March of 2010, Kate Winslet and her director husband/baby-daddy Sam Mendes announced their split. At first, sources were mealy-mouthed about the “reasons” for the split – stuff about how Sam and Kate’s marriage suffered after they worked together, and that Sam was “bored” in the marriage, blah, blah, blah. And then some of the British tabloids began saying that The Real Reason was Sam’s ongoing friendship/relationship with Rebecca Hall, a young actress who is probably best known to American audiences for her part in The Town. Here’s a photo of Hall:

Sam and Rebecca were working together when Sam and Kate Winslet broke up, and there were rumors of an affair. Rumors that Rebecca offered a non-denial denial for when they came up during The Town’s promotion. Time passed and I didn’t really hear anything, so I kind of thought my initial instinct – that Winslet left her philandering husband – was not on target. But it was on target. Rebecca and Sam have been seeing each other this whole time:

She’s the beautiful English actress who was blamed for the breakdown of Kate Winslet’s marriage to film director Sam Mendes. Now, 18 months after being implicated as the ‘other woman’, it has been revealed that Rebecca Hall, daughter of veteran theatre director Sir Peter Hall, is dating the Oscar-winning film director.

A spokesman for Mendes last night confirmed he was romantically involved with Miss Hall, 29, saying: ‘It’s true they are in a relationship.’

A source close to the star added: ‘They are dating and have been for some time. I can’t put an exact date on it, but certainly nothing happened until after Sam’s marriage was over.’

The couple are believed to be spending time together in London where Mendes, 46, is directing the new James Bond film Skyfall. News of their relationship comes 18 months after Miss Hall was blamed for the collapse of Mendes’ six-year marriage to Titanic actress Miss Winslet.

At the time it was claimed Miss Winslet ended the marriage after growing tired of her husband’s closeness to Cambridge-educated Miss Hall, whose father Sir Peter founded the Royal Shakespeare Company. But sources close to Mendes, who has an eight-year-old son Joe with his ex-wife, insisted the couple were nothing more than friends.

Miss Hall first met Mendes – who won an Oscar for his 1999 debut film American Beauty – on the set of her film, Starter For 10, where he was executive producer. He later cast her in two of his plays, a move that was said to have infuriated Miss Winslet. A spokesman for Miss Hall was unavailable for comment.

[From The Mail]

Shady. Totally shady. Of course, it’s totally possible that Sam and Rebecca were “just friends” while Sam was a married man and that once he found himself single, his relationship with Rebecca progressed romantically. But in my mind, it’s far more likely that Sam was either having an emotional or physical affair with Hall, and Kate simply had enough. I’m also saying the “affair” possibility is more likely because Hall looks so much like Rachel Weisz, who Sam was dating before Kate (Kate reportedly “stole” Sam from Weisz).

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Here’s Kate Winslet in black and red formfitting Stella McCartney, hugging up on evil troll justice dodger Roman Polanski. If that dress looks familiar it’s because she wore a black and white version of it a couple of months ago to the Venice Film Festival. Now that I’m looking at that earlier dress, I see that it featured a weird white boob shelf thing that this dress lacks. Let’s revisit that earlier dress in all its glory.

See, this red and black version isn’t half as bad. I still really dislike it. It’s a blatant attempt at an optical illusion that makes the wearer look smaller. As Kaiser wrote when she covered the other version of this dress, it’s tacky like a tuxedo t-shirt. Again, at least this one doesn’t emphasize her boobs too. It has the same stitching under the boob area but it’s all one color across the front.

Kate was in Paris at a screening for Carnage, a Roman Polanski-directed film also starring John C. Reilly, Jodie Foster and Christoph Waltz. It’s out December 16th in the US. I hate to say it, but I watched the trailer and it actually looks good. It’s about two couples meeting to discuss a fight their 11 year-old sons had at school. Polanski shouldn’t have a career to speak of, but that doesn’t mean his films are total crap unfortunately. Is there a big difference between showing support for Polanksi by starring in his films vs. kissing him on the red carpet? Probably not.

Getting back to Kate’s look, I was going to say that she even wore the same shoes but she didn’t. Her earlier shoes were similar black platform peep toe heels, but they didn’t have an ankle strap. They’re both too clunky-looking for this type of dress. Mix it up, Kate!

Also, you can tell me she hasn’t had anything done to her face but I’m not buying it.

Photo credit: WENN and Fame

Kate Winslet began dating Ned RocknRoll in mid-to-late September. It’s thought that she and Ned became acquainted (“boned”) during that trip to Necker Island, in which Kate saved the life of Richard Branson’s mother. Kate was on the island with her piece at the time, model Louis Dowler, and soon after the trip, Louis was jettisoned and Ned came to stay. That all happened within, like, a week. Incidentally, Ned’s single status was in question at the time too – he was still technically married to his wife Eliza, and Eliza wanted to reconcile but Ned was all “No, I’ve got a Winslet now.” So Eliza and Ned’s divorce is going through, I guess. So now that Ned is almost technically single, and now that Ned and Kate have been together for two months, what is their future together? Sources say “marriage”. Sources say Kate thinks Ned Rocknroll is her “soulmate”.

Will the third time be the charm for twice-divorced Kate Winslet? Her romance with Ned Rocknroll has moved so fast since they first clicked in August, and now Kate has installed him in her NYC home, an insider tells Star – and friends expect an engagement announcement soon!

“Kate says she’s found her soulmate,” says the insider, who notes that Kate’s daughter Mia and son Joe are also wild about Ned, 33. “She wants to be his wife, and he’s keen on the idea.”

Once hitch: Ned’s divorce from his estranged spouse, Eliza, is still pending. But he’s already treating Kate like part of his family – which includes his billionaire uncle Richard Branson.

Says the insider, “Kate and Ned are spending Christmas on Branson’s Necker Island with his relatives.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition]

I’m just… disappointed. Kate could do better than some dude who is famous for having a rich uncle, and for changing his name to NED ROCKNROLL. This is Kate’s second bad boyfriend in a row – I didn’t care for her model boy-toy either, he seemed vapid and dull. Despite what I think of Kate in regards to plastic surgery (she’s had some and she lies about it, which makes me kind of hate her a little bit), she’s a catch. She’s beautiful, talented, funny, smart, and she deserves a good man. And I don’t believe Ned Rocknroll is a good dude. At all. I think he’s her K-Fed. And shouldn’t Kate be smarter than this?

Photos courtesy of Fame & WENN.

Kate Winslet is featured in the new issue of InStyle Magazine – I think it’s the December issue of InStyle UK. These are some shots from the pictorial. Winslet spends most of the interview talking about makeup, and you can tell that she loves talking about and applying her own makeup way more than someone like Gwyneth Paltrow. Winlset even talks about the “peach fuzz” on her face which many of you have noted – I don’t mind the peach fuzz, but sometimes Winslet walks a red carpet with a full blown mustache. Still, I enjoyed this because Kate seems to really care about makeup application and stuff. It also seems kind of like a testimonial advertisement for Lancome, the brand she reps.

Kate likes to do her own makeup: “I like to do my own make-up. I believe in less is more. Recently, I wore a simple, black Victoria Beckham column dress with long sleeves and small, gold belt detailing on the front. I knew that a curly hairdo would have completely gone against the dress, so we went for a high sculpted ponytail, with a little bit of height in the front. It pulled the whole look together.”

What glamour is to Kate: “Glamour to me is about remaining graceful and understated. For example, with very bold lip colours, you can’t overdo the rest of your face. With a bright-red party lipstick, just go with lots of mascara and keep everything else clean. I love Lancôme’s L’Absolu Rouge lipstick, as it lasts. Unless you spend the whole night snogging, you won’t need to reapply it.’

Mix foundations: “I rarely rely on one foundation – mixing two colours can make a big difference. I never use too much powder, only in the right areas [such as the T-zone]. I have peachy fuzz on my cheeks, so I have to be careful with powder.”

Picking the right dress for her body: “The comfort factor is all about the dress for me. I’m lucky to go in and out at the right places, proportionately that’s something I inherited from my mother. I enjoy my shape and my curves. At the same time, you have to know how to dress. If you are hippy, then pleats off the waist? Forget it! You absolutely cannot wear them. It’s about knowing how to work with the right fabric.”

Beware of white: “Recently, I was presenting an award and I wore a lovely white Narciso Rodriguez dress with black trim. It was gorgeous but it was terrifying. You can’t hide a thing in white and if someone gets a bit merry with a glass of wine too close to you, you’re absolutely done for. Then, they started serving dinner, and the first course was beetroot salad. I was terrified for the entire night, from start to finish.”

Toenail polish: “There’s nothing like red polish on toes. I don’t have much time for pedicures, but if I haven’t done anything to my feet for months and I look like a Neanderthal woman, a coat of red means you can somehow get away with anything.”

[From The Telegraph and The Mail]

Just a few things – I believe that Kate really does go to extremes when she wants to lose weight. I’ve never bought her whole, “I never diet” crap – I think she just don’t want to be a bad role model for girls or whatever, or maybe she just doesn’t want to admit that at various times, she’s “gone Hollywood” and lost a bunch of weight and over-bleached her hair and gotten her eyes done. That’s my second thing – I think Kate has been wearing a lot of heavy eye makeup recently because she’s covering up some eye work. But other than that, I’ve always found her pretty. She has amazing skin and I believe she’s mostly real. The problem is when she tries to convince everyone that she’s 100% real.

Photos courtesy of InStyle UK and WENN.

Look at the photo above. Which is the real Kate Winslet? I cut out the background and in my opinion you can hardly tell the difference, although the pose kind of gives it away. I also looked very closely at the wax version, and wax Kate has more wrinkles and lines than current Kate does.

One of our photo agencies, Pacific Coast News, titled this photo set “Dame Helen Mirren and Dame Judi Dench unveil the Kate Winslet waxwork at Madame Tussauds, London,” but guess what? Those are just wax figures of Helen and Judi too! They’re all part of the British actresses section. The wax Kate is wearing the same red Elie Saab dress with similar jewelry and the same hairstyle she had at the Emmys this year. This figure is perfection.

Unlike Helen Mirren, who delighted in posing next to her wax self last year and mock-scolding her husband when he kissed it, Kate didn’t attend the unveiling. She was probably too busy with Ned Rocknroll. IMDB doesn’t have her currently working on anything, although maybe she could be off doing a makeup, fashion or perfume ad, or supporting whatever job Ned has working for his billionaire uncle.

Here’s the real Kate Winslet again.

And here’s her wax version. Madame Tussauds is really spot on.

Dame Helen’s doppelganger is having a lot more fun. They really captured their personalities here.

Photo credit: WENN, Fame and Pacific Coast News

Kate Winslet has been dating a hipster douche named Ned Rocknroll for about two months. You may think it’s harsh to label him as such, but he just happens to be married (he just filed for divorce, but still the timeline is sketchy) and to have changed his name to “Ned Rocknroll.” Even if he did that on a whim when he was young and stupid, changing your name is not like getting a tattoo. You can change it back. Mr. Rocknroll is the nephew of Virgin billionaire Richard Branson and has some job working for his uncle on that Virgin Galactic commercial spaceflight venture that we always seem to be hearing about that never seems to go anywhere.

As part of his job, Rocky and Kate went to the opening ceremony for a spaceport in New Mexico from which the Virgin spaceflights will launch at some point, they’re saying next year but I doubt it. The thing that bugged me was that this spaceport, which cost $209 million, was paid for by our taxes. I guess I shouldn’t care that we don’t have a manned space program anymore, since we’re making ports to enable space flights for the select few that can afford them, or who are high profile enough to get publicity for Virgin by showing up. Like Kate Winslet! Oh I should get the stick out of my ass, the government pays for airports they may as well pay for spaceports. Way of the future and all that. Here’s the story from People:

Looks like she’s part of the family!

Kate Winslet was on the arm of her new boyfriend, Ned Rocknroll, at Monday’s grand opening of his Uncle Richard Branson’s commercial spaceport in New Mexico.

The couple, who have been linked since meeting in August at Branson’s Necker Island home, were photographed at the opening ceremony, during which Branson repelled from a balcony and swigged champagne, the Associated Press reports.

The British billionaire was launching Spaceport America in a remote New Mexico desert. It’s the site from which he plans to stage his commercial space tourism venture, Virgin Galactic, which employs Ned.

Winslet, 35, and Rocknroll, who legally changed his name from Ned Abel Smith, 33, also have been spotted together in London.

[From People]

And here’s more on the spaceport, from the AP:

Before getting to enter the hangar, the crowd was treated to a flyover by WhiteKnightTwo, the mothership that one day will help take space tourists on suborbital flights.

The $209 million taxpayer-financed spaceport will be a launch station for people and payloads on the rocket ships being developed for Virgin Galactic.

With custom metal paneling and massive panes of glass, the state-of-the-art terminal rises from the desert floor to face the nearly 2-mile concrete runway.

The building will house Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft, mission control and a preparation area for travelers.

It was six years ago that Virgin Galactic and New Mexico officials reached an agreement to build the spaceport. Officials said the completion of the terminal and hangar marks another major milestone that brings the dream of rocketing tourists into space closer to reality.

Still, the question many are asking is when the first ships will launch from Spaceport America. It was Branson who once predicted the maiden passenger flight would take off in 2007.

Branson acknowledged the wait in an interview Monday. He and his two children will be among the first to fly, and he said he wants to ensure he can bring them home safely.

“We want to be sure we’ve really tested the craft through and through before turning it over to the astronauts who bought tickets to go up,’’ he said. “If it takes a bit longer, we’ll take a little bit longer.’’

Commercial service will start up after the company gets a license from the Federal Aviation Administration. NASA has already signed a $4.5 million contract with the company for up to three chartered research flights.

Tickets for rides aboard WhiteKnightTwo cost $200,000. The 2 ½-hour flights will include about five minutes of weightlessness and views of Earth that until now only astronauts have been able to experience.

Like development of the spacecraft, construction of the 110,152-square-foot terminal and hangar facility has been complicated. There were delays, building code problems, contractor disputes and costly change orders.

[From AP via Boston.com]

Well I guess they’ll go into space eventually. I’m predicting 2015 even though the spacecraft is supposedly ready at this point. Kate and Rocky will be broken up by then, but maybe she’ll score tickets to the maiden voyage before that happens. $200k is nothing to scoff at.

And here’s Kate and Rocky at the real airport in San Francisco over the weekend. He carries her bags, I’ll give him that.

Photo credit: WENN and Fame

Here are some photos of Kate Winslet and her relatively new piece, Ned RockNRoll. That’s seriously his legal name – he changed it a few years ago. Ned now travels everywhere with his lover, Kate. They were loved up in London, and she brought him with her to Shanghai, and these are photos of Kate and Ned arriving in San Francisco. They’re all hand-holdy and love-gazey. Ugh. Ned is Richard Branson’s nephew, and the situation around his “single” status is slightly complicated – it was widely reported that he was married when he and Kate first got together, more than a month ago. The marriage thing is weird, though – when he and Kate first got together, he was “separated” from his heiress wife Eliza, but his wife wanted him back and she wanted to work on their marriage. They had only been married for two years or so too – and Ned JUST filed for divorce, according to his wife. Eliza Pearson told The Telegraph: “The decree absolute should come through soon, maybe this month.” Here’s more:

Eliza Pearson and Ned separated after just 20 months. Winslet’s friends say she did not begin her relationship with Ned, 33, who works for his uncle’s space venture Virgin Galactic, until after his decree nisi was granted on August 10.

“Kate would never become involved with a married man,” says one of her chums. “Ned’s wife left him and he was very upset. Kate didn’t get to know him until the decree nisi had gone through.”

Pearson, 23, does not dispute this version of events. “I broke up with Ned,” she tells me. “I won’t disclose the reason, but the split was very amicable. We’re still the best of friends. I’m not seeing anyone else.”

The heiress, whose family’s wealth is estimated to be more than £1 billion, declines to comment on his relationship with Winslet. Last Sunday, I reported that Rocknroll had bought a vintage love locket for the 36-year-old star of Titanic that cost thousands of pounds.

“They are very serious about each other,” says another of Winslet’s friends. The couple have, however, tried to avoid being photographed together.

Confusingly, Pearson declared in July: “I’ve changed my mind about divorce. I am hoping this will turn out to be more of a break than a total separation, because the longer we are apart the more it’s making me realise how much I miss him.”

She added: “It went wrong, but it’s not as if it was a shotgun wedding – we’d been together for four years. I have never stopped loving him and we are soulmates – that doesn’t come along very often.”

[From The Telegraph]

Really, Kate? This is the best you can do? Granted, I think this guy might have some hidden talents – he pulled a billionaire heiress and now one of the most famous actresses in the world, and he doesn’t seem to have any job – or maybe he has the kind of career where he can just follow his ladies around. What‘s that job? Boy-toy to an Oscar winning sugar mama? Seriously, what does he do? I have no idea. Oh, well. Whatever makes her happy. I get the feeling Kate is still wanting easy, uncomplicated relationships, but this guy is making my Sketchy Radar ping.

Photos courtesy of Fame.