These are some new photos of Jessica Simpson at the NBC Winter Press Tour in Pasadena on Friday. OMG. I mean, she’s so beautiful, and she’s so, so pregnant, but it’s just amazing to me that Jessica is, like, barely six months along. I don’t even think she’s hit the six-month mark yet! She keeps saying that she’s due “in the Spring”. And this is how huge she is in her SECOND trimester. I understand that every woman carries differently, but I’d just like to point out, yet again, how weird Beyonce’s pillowy pregnancy was compared to Jessica’s obvious pregnancy. Everything about Jessica looks preggo, her face, her arms, her boobs, her bump, EVERYTHING. Even her hair looks pregnant. She’s a super-cute pregnant girl, isn’t she? I like that there are still some celebrities who carry heavily.

Jessica was promoting her new NBC show, Fashion Star, which is kind of a Project Runway knock-off. Jessica plays – no joke – the Tim Gunn-esque “mentor” figure to the contestants. Like, she comes in to the workroom and tells them what to change, etc. E! News had an interview with Jessica about the project:

Cute. I mean, good God, her boobs are HUGE. They look gigantic in that video. I’m also including a photo of Jessica with her creepy father, who has gotten himself a super-creepy haircut that makes him look… ridiculous.

I’m also including photos of Nicole Richie at this event – I absolutely loathe her hair here. It does nothing for her, and it looks super-damaged and busted. I like her outfit, though. Anyway, Nicole is one of the judges on Fashion Star (like, she‘s the Nina Garcia), and despite rumors to the contrary, she and Jessica do get along. Allegedly. We’ll see.

Photos courtesy of Fame.

This week’s issue of Star floats the theory that Nicole Richie and Joel Madden have hit a rough patch in their marriage even though they’ve only been married for about year. Of course, the couple dated for four years prior to marriage and are parents to two toddlers, Harlow and Sparrow. So to an outsider, these two eventually wed because they realized they were meant for each other, right? Well, anyone who’s been married can tell you that the after-wedding reality can sometimes feel altogether different than one imagined.

While I would ordinarily dismiss this story as symptomatic of an adjustment period in Nicole and Joel’s relationship, the photo evidence (or lack thereof) supports Star‘s story quite a bit. While the two of them used to regularly walk red carpets together, they haven’t done so since Paris Fashion Week in May (above), and they haven’t been papped in a casual setting since June (below) for a family lunch. Joel’s never been the kind of guy to broadly smile for the paps (unlike, say, Matt Bellamy), so I’ll take that into account here:

Here’s where it gets sketchy though. Over the past several months, Nicole has attended tons of events solo. Of course, this could merely function as evidence that Joel is at home taking care of the kids, but Star has spoken to an insider who says that Joel is basically never at home. He’s either jamming with the band or out on tour, and Nicole is doing all of the work with the kids. Now Joel’s new television gig is set to pull him away from his family for several months, and it sounds a lot like trouble:

The honeymoon is definitely over for Nicole Richie and Joel Madden. Just one year after they tied the knot, the parents of two are gearing up for a long separation while the Good Charlotte rocker serves on the panel of the Australian version of “The Voice” — and he’s leaving his L.A.-based wife behind fuming, an insider tells Star.

“Nicole was opposed to Joel’s doing “The Voice” form the start, because she doesn’t want to endure the months apart. But Joel isn’t listening. He insists that he needs to do it for his career and signed on without her OK, which set off a pretty nasty round of fighting,” says the insider, adding that the couple’s first anniversary on Dec. 11, was anything but a happy occasion. “They spent most of the day bickering about the show.”

A major reason Nicole, 30, is against Joel’s move Down Under is that she’s set to appear as a mentor on the NBC reality show “Fashion Star” beginning in early 2012. “She really can’t go with him to Australia, but also she just doesn’t want to,” says the insider. “Nicole relies on her family and friends in L.A. to help out with the kids, especially since Joel often isn’t around to pull his weight.”

Indeed, the pair’s relationship was already strained due to Joel’s hectic schedule. “He’s usually either huddled in the studio or on tour,” the insider explains. So perhaps it’s not surprising that Nicole partied like a single woman — sans Joel — at a VuQo Vodka event dejayed by her pal Samantha Ronson in L.A. on Dec. 13. Says the insider: “Nicole complains all the time that she feels like a single parent.”

“Nicole accuses Joel of being married to his music and his career rather than her,” says an insider.

[From Star, print edition, January 2, 2012]

Naturally, Nicole knew that she was marrying a rock star who would be away on tour for much of the time, but it still seems like she’s getting a raw deal if this story is correct. I hope it’s all just contrived nonsense on the part of Star (which might have merely taken Joel’s new employment situation and fabricated the rest); but Joel’s not exactly going out of his way to support his wife on the red carpet either, so there might be some truth to it all. Previously, Nicole has spoken of marriage in terms of her being able to get away with more, but does that also apply to Joel as well?

Photos courtesy of WENN and Fame

Here are some photos from The 2011 UNICEF Ball at the Beverly Wilshire. The turnout wasn’t as good as the Snowflake Ball in NYC last week, but it’s still nice that celebrities came out for a good cause. Nicole Richie stood out because A) She looks really tiny, B) I’m still not in love with her hair and C) her dress was the best of the night. The dress is Osman. It’s a much more modern silhouette than I expect from her – usually she does flowy hippie crap. I like “modern Nicole” a great deal – now I just want her to do something else with the hair. Also: look at the girl Nicole is posing with – how jacked is that chick’s face?

Here’s Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally. Can I tell you how much I miss Will & Grace? I was just thinking about that show the other day. Megan and Sean Hayes together were lightning in a bottle.

Diane Kruger was my vote for worst-dressed. The dress is Emilio Pucci. Isn’t it hideous? And this is a woman who can pull off nearly any look, and this is just so bad, it transcends Diane’s Blanchett-quality. It looks like goth brothel curtains.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Here’s Nicole Richie last night at Fred Segal promoting her fashion line House of Harlow (above). I didn’t even recognize her from the thumbnails. Her face looks much different to me, like she had fillers or a minor procedure and it hasn’t settled yet. It could be just some overdone makeup and a tired mom, but I’m seeing a big difference in how she looks.

Compare her last night to how she looked on November 12th.

Also this is how she looked on October 17th.

It’s possible she gained a little weight that she really needed, or that she had dental work done. She also now bears a resemblance to her frenemy, Rachel Zoe. Are you seeing it? I am.

I have a question that occurred to me after watching “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” last week. If all your friends were getting Botox, fillers and minor procedures would you do it too? I probably would, I’ll be honest, especially if a close friend had decent results and could recommend someone. That’s why I’m grateful that I no longer live in a big city. I was getting pretty close to that point.

Nicole wore sequin Halston, and the cut of the dress is pretty unflattering. Maybe she’s pregnant and that’s why she’s looking different, or it could just be some unflattering angles or something. I should speculate on Richie’s womb or she’ll verbally bitch slap us again. I pretty much deserve it.

Oh this reminds me that she got new boobs recently. She probably thought she’d get a little something extra while she was in for a check up.

photo credit: Fame and WENN

I think we generally have to give Nicole Richie a lot of credit for turning her life around. I mean, at one point she was as annoying (or even more so) than Paris Hilton. But she managed to get clean and become a wife and mother and have a seemingly stable life and now she’s a productive member of society, and people root for her and actually like her. But besides all of that, I think we should also give Nicole credit for knowing her own body and for understanding what looks good on her. Yes, I get tired of the hippie crap and the boho trend is over. But when Nicole really tries, she looks great.

So it was at the ACE Awards two nights ago. Nicole was there, she was wearing this sleek, pretty, clean Antonio Berardi gown, and she was showing off her recent breast implants. This is the first good look I’ve had at them in a low-cut gown, and I have to say… they look really good. These are not wonky, mismatched LeAnn Rimes-style bolt-ons. Nicole’s implants look appropriate on her frame and she went for a modest size. I’m thinking she’s a B-cup now, which is probably close to what she was before she had her babies and nursed her boobs away (that was the reasoning Nicole gave to friends).

I also think she’s darkened her blonde, right? It was a rather garish “California blonde” but it’s looking darker these days. I’m still not loving the too-long bangs, but it looks like she’s trying to grow them out. *fingers crossed*

Photos courtesy of WENN.

These are newish photos of Nicole Richie at the 2011 Environmental Media Awards (in mustard Keepsake) and a QVC FFANY Shoes event (in black Helmet Lang), all over the past few days. A few things, right off the top. First, BANGS. I actually don’t think Nicole looks bad with bangs, but she’s wearing them much too heavy. When they go that far below your brows, and they’re THAT thick, it’s time to grow at least some of it out. Looking at the bangs between the two sets of photos, they work better when her hair is down – it’s more of a style than a trauma, like they are in the black photos.

Next: her new boobs. I kind of forgot that Nicole had gotten implants until I spied her rack in this mustard dress. What’s going on there? Is it a padded bra, or some kind of strapless contraption that’s pushing her boobs up? Because they look pretty big there. So big, I thought she was pregnant. She’s not (as far as I know) – she’s just got new boobs and some fancy new bras to make her new boobs look great.

As for the fashion – I’m rather blah on both of these outfits. Neither of them are bad or wonderful. But I do appreciate that Nicole takes the time and effort to put together whole “looks” – she really does care about red carpet appearances. One last minor thing: she has beautiful eyes, and there’s absolutely no need for her to go all Duchess Waity with her eye-makeup. Too much, Nicole!

Photos courtesy of WENN.

At the same time that Jessica Simpson was in Cabo San Lucas, wearing a series of muumuus and ponchos to cover her alleged baby bump, Samantha Ronson, Nicole Richie and a group of friends were also having a Cabo holiday. Some of the exclusive photo agencies got photos of Samantha and Nicole in various bikinis – which you can see here, at Pop Sugar. A few days ago, I glanced through some of the photos and noticed that Nicole was looking boobier than usual, but I honestly didn’t think that much about it. But! Us Weekly now claims that Nicole got herself a boob job – and they have the comparison photos here.

While nursing Harlow, now 3, in 2008, Nicole Richie said, “I really don’t like [having big boobs].” Times sure have changed!

An insider tells the new issue of Us Weekly — out now! — that the Fashion Star mentor got implants this summer.

“In the past, she said she wanted a lift, though we never thought she was serious,” another source says of Richie.

Still, “she’s been open about it to friends,” notes the first insider.

Richie flaunted her fuller physique while vacationing with pals in Mexico September 24 — a stark contrast to the flat-chested bikini body she showed off just one year earlier.

The second source adds that the House of Harlow 1960 designer wanted to improve her bustline for hubby Joel Madden, 32. “The pregnancies took a toll. She said breast-feeding killed what boobs she did have!”

[From Us Weekly]

Well, Gwyneth Paltrow would approve – recently, Goop said that plastic surgery and Botox are gimmicks for peasants, but Goop does approve of boob jobs after breast feeding. So… looking at the comparison photos, it looks like Nicole probably went up to a B-cup (or maybe even a C?). They look slightly big for her petite frame, but maybe I’m just being fooled by a really flattering bikini top. In any case, I don’t really have a problem with Nicole (or any lady) getting a boob job. Just as long as they don’t lie about it – “Oh, these old things? I’ve been a perky D-cup forever!” Bulls–t.

Note: these are some of the most recent photos of Nicole that we have access to, and they’re all from this month, September, so they are presumably post-boob job, according to Us Weekly’s report.

Photos courtesy of Fame & Pacific Coast News.

These are photos of Nicole Richie at a Fashion’s Night Out event in LA. I’m assuming she’s wearing one of her own designs, right? Designers stopped doing these 1970s remakes shortly after Sienna Miller stopped making “boho-chic” happen circa 2005. It’s not that I always hate 1970s stuff, or that some ladies can’t pull off the boho look – I’m just tired of Nicole trying to make the boho thing happen. I don’t think it’s a good look for her, I don’t think it’s flattering for her, and she makes clothes look cheap, so instead of thinking “Nouveau Boho Is Happening!” I think “God, did she buy that tacky crap at WalMart?”

Yesterday, Us Weekly published a story that I took as gospel. According to sources, Jessica Simpson and Nicole Richie haven’t been getting along at all on the set of their new reality show, Fashion Star. Us Weekly’s report came after other tabloids reported similar tiffs between the two women, and honestly, why wouldn’t I believe that Nicole is a total bitch to Jessica? Nicole loves to stir the pot. Nicole loves to be the Queen Bee. Nicole loves to put girls in their place. But Nicole also reads her own press, so later Thursday, she called into Ryan Seacrest’s radio show and tried to convince us all that she and Jessica are tight:

What happens when you cast two reality TV stars-turned-fashion designers on a competitive show?

According to a tabloid report, Nicole Richie and Jessica Simpson are at war on the set of their upcoming reality show Fashion Star – but Richie is setting the record straight.

“I’ll tell you right now that that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Richie, 29, told Ryan Seacrest Thursday on his radio show, On Air With Ryan Seacrest. “I actually love and adore Jessica.”

“I’ve known her for years, first of all, so I already knew who she was as a person,” Richie added. “Who she is is someone who’s very kind, very sweet and extremely smart and a great businesswoman and someone that I really respect … I actually couldn’t love someone or respect someone more.”

In addition to Simpson, who announced she was joining Fashion Star in June, the series will feature menswear designer John Varvatos and host Elle Macpherson. The celebrity mentors will work with aspiring designers as they compete for a chance to win a multi-million dollar contract to start their own brands.

“I’m really excited and it’s something that I’m extremely honored to be a part of,” Richie said of the show. “We have a lot of fun on it.”

[From People]

Who are you going to believe, me or Nicole Richie? She’s laying it on a bit thick, in my opinion. Which makes me suspicious that Nicole really is being mean to Jessica… behind Jess’s back. We’ll see. I don’t believe ANYONE can say the line “Jessica Simpson is extremely smart” without erupting in a fit of giggles.

Photos courtesy of WENN & Fame.

Jessica Simpson and Nicole Richie are working together on a Project Runway-knockoff show called Fashion Star. It’s already started filming, and it will be airing on NBC in a few months. About a month ago, The Enquirer reported that Jessica and Nicole weren’t getting along at all. The claim was that Nicole is super-professional, always on time, always knows her mark, and that Nicole is kind of a Mean Girl. On the other side, Jessica is always late, always farting, always dumb as a box of mall hair, never knows what she’s doing or where she’s going, and she doesn’t even realize Nicole is mocking her and making fat jokes about her. It was an interesting story, and I really didn’t have any problem buying that dynamic between the two women. Now Us Weekly seems to be confirming that there are definitely issues between Nicole and Jess:

Two blonde ex-reality stars turned fashionistas don’t see eye-to-eye? Who could’ve predicted that one?

Nicole Richie and Jessica Simpson are both mentors on Fashion Star, a reality competition for aspiring designers debuting midseason on NBC. But a source tells the new Us Weekly — on stands now — that there’s “definite friction” between the two women.

“They chat only when they need to, and they have wildly different opinions about style,” adds an insider.

Richie, 29, “thinks Jessica doesn’t have much of a high-fashion eye” and “makes snarky comments about Jessica’s outfits,” according to a source.

But Simpson, 31, isn’t phased by Richie’s digs. She “really doesn’t care what Nicole thinks,” says an insider. After all, Simpson’s fashion empire had $750 million in sales in 2010, while Richie’s lines pulled in an estimated $10 million.

“Nicole may know trends, but Jessica believes she know how to make clothes for all kinds of women,” says a source. Still, other insiders tell Us the ladies “get along well, and hang out on set.”

[From Us Weekly]

Hm… I don’t think Jessica’s style is all that great either, but she occasionally wears stuff that I really like. On the other hand, I almost always hate what Nicole wears. She’s still doing that boho crap that’s SO Sienna Miller circa 2004. And when Nicole tries to go glam, it’s almost always cheap-looking and over-processed too. Honestly, neither one of them has any business judging fashion, but I’ll give Jessica more of a pass because her clothing lines are so wildly successful, while Nicole’s House of Harlow crap looks like 1970s vomit.

By the way, Jessica denied that story that originated in In Touch Weekly a few weeks ago, about the possibility that she might undergo a breast reduction before her wedding. Jessica tweeted her thoughts:

[From Jessica’s Twitter]

Ugh, “boobies”. Just say boobs. Or tittays. Or “the girls”. Or rack. Or “the money makers”. Boobies is just so juvenile.

Photos courtesy of WENN & Pacific Coast News.

Part of me thinks this National Enquirer story – about an alleged feud between Jessica Simpson and Nicole Richie – is simply a fluff piece sent out by a publicist wanting advanced publicity for their new reality show. Jessica and Nicole are working together on a Project Runway knock-off show called Fashion Star, which is apparently in production now. And according to the Enquirer, Nicole and Jessica kind of hate each other. The problem with just seeing this merely as advanced promotion? I have no problem believing that Nicole and Jessica would rub each other the wrong way:

Jessica Simpson and Nicole Richie are locked in an ugly feud on the set of their new reality series, Fashion Star, insiders say. Sources claim they’re constantly sparring, and the two have a rivalry that goes back years as competing heads of their own fashion lines, the Jessica Simpson Collection and Nicole’s House of Harlow.

“Producers thought pairing them on screen would mean lots of fireworks to attract viewers,” said the insider. “But their personalities don’t mesh at all. Behind the scenes, the set is a war zone.” While Nicole is a laid-back sweetie, Jess is a major diva, said the source.

“Nicole is always ready to go, but Jess lingers in her dressing room, keeping everyone waiting and asking to do multiple run-throughs,” the insider divulged.

Then there’s their weight issues. Jess is carrying some extra pounds while Nicole is runway skinny.

“Nicole has made a few digs about Jessica ‘throwing her weight around,’ while Jessica has joked that someone would have to be on a starvation diet to wear Nicole’s designs,” the insider said. “Now they’re barely talking, which doesn’t bode well for the show’s success – and it isn’t even on the air yet!”

[From The Enquirer, print edition]

I’ll buy that Jessica is always late and always slow (“slow”). I’ll also buy that Nicole is a Mean Girl to Jessica. But I don’t buy that Jessica cuts back. Jess simply isn’t capable of being that kind of girl who makes consciously rude comments about someone’s size. She’s just… not that smart. She can’t think of that stuff on the spot, I think. She’s never been the kind of stupid tinged with viciousness, like, say, Paris Hilton. Jessica is just sweet-stupid. It might not have even occurred to her that Nicole is being a bitch to her.

By the way, speaking of people making fat jokes about Jessica, CB covered Vanessa Minnillo’s recent interview where she called Jessica “the elephant in the room.” LOL, that’s bad. Here’s the context: “To address the elephant in the room, yes, coincidentally at the same time our wedding his going his ex is actually also doing the beautiful thing of getting married herself.” It’s just an expression, right? Of course Vanessa didn’t consciously decide to refer to Jessica as an elephant.

Photos courtesy of WENN.