I honestly don’t know who this chick is except for the fact that she stars with Zach Efron in those High School Musical shows. She’s supposedly dating Efron, but the last woman he was said to be dating was his previous costar, Nikki Blonski from the Hairspray movie, and I tend to believe the rumors that he’s of the other persuasion.

In the last Enquirer there’s a story that Vanessa had some nude pics that she would be devastated if they got out, and low and behold, here they are. I know 18 year-old Hudgens is a teen star and is supposed to have a wholesome image, but I personally believe this whole nude photo thing was orchestrated for maximum publicity, especially considering that we were told that the photos were coming so that it could generate buzz.

Here’s the relevant excerpt from The Enquirer:

Naked pictures that star Vanessa Hudgens - intended only for costar/boyfriend Zac Efron - recently surfaced, and their discovery could bring down the wholesome Disney blockbuster that’s captivated millions of teen fans

“Vanessa took some suggestive shots of herself in the buff as a surprise for Zac,” a source told The Enquirer…

But [High School Musical, which has been a huge success[ could go down in a flaming scandal.

The Enquirer has learned that a third party has obtained the sexy pictures that were meant just for Vanessa and Zac.

"Vanessa's only 19, [sic: according to IMDB she's 18] so she had no idea how her flirtatious act could threaten the future of the multimillion-dollar plans Disney has for the show,” said the source.

“She just wanted to keep Zac interested!”

[The National Enquirer, print edition, September 10, 2007]

Now the Enquirer says in the September 10 issue, which came out last week, that the photos “recently surfaced ” Today is the first day they’ve hit the net, so I don’t see how they could have surfaced anywhere else if we weren’t all over them last week. It’s also suspect that they’re emphasizing that these pics were for Zac alone - as if it makes their relationship seem that much more legitimate.

This is a pretty damn wholesome naked picture, so I don’t see how it could ruin the “wholesome Disney blockbuster.” The young woman is standing smiling, there are no booze bottles or drugs visible in the background, and she’s not posing suggestively, wearing high heels, or even trimmed for bikini season. There is no one else in the picture leering or making gestures or trying to rub up on her.

In Europe we go to the coed saunas and nudity is matter of fact. I don’t think we should get to see everyone nude, but in my opinion I don’t see how a totally normal-posed nude picture is going to ruin anyone’s career. The girl is hot, it’s only going to help her image, and some PR person figured that out and set this all up.

It could have gone down like they claim, but I doubt it. Still, I might be wrong. I didn’t see the big deal with Janet Jackson’s boob flash either.

This is the same photo in different resolutions, thanks to Ninja Dude and Geece.org via DListed.

Update: A new higher-res version thanks to NS4W.org

Update 2: Photos removed by legal request.

Natalie Portman has disappointed Star Wars fans and red-blooded males everywhere by saying that she did indeed use a body double for her role in Goya’s Ghosts.

Natalie said: “There’s a long shot of a nude woman, but it’s not me. You do see some parts of me unclothed, but if they end up on websites making it look like I’m nude, I’m going to be really, really angry.”

But she quickly redeems herself with this comment.

She said: “I’ve never a dated a woman or anything like it. But I think it’s much more about the person you fall in love with.

“Why would you close yourself off from 50 per cent of people?”

Stuff

Actually, the nude scenes aren’t sex scenes, but take place during the torture of Natalie’s character during the Spanish Inquisition. Not really masturbation fodder for Star Wars fans! Still, the whole thing has brought out the teenage boy in me.

I am so glad to have someone as beautiful as Natalie Portman coming out and saying they use a body double. Although, with digital retouching and make up and lighting, who needs a body double. We can all look that good.

There is nothing I can imagine more embarrassing than having to act in a difficult scene, naked, in front of a few dozen colleagues. I would have thought body doubles would be standard practice.

Images are from Goya’s Ghost thanks to All Movie Photo.

ANS’ death is definitely dramatic and interesting… I’m still not tired of hearing about it. I really want to know what is going to happen to her creepy lover Howard, who the baby daddy of Dannielynn is and what’s her mother’s ulterior motive and where she is going to be buried. I also want to know what’s going to happen legal-wise with her money. How fascinating!

But she is certainly not the first of the Playmates to suffer a sensation death and die before the age of 50. The concentration of hedonism is most definitely a contribution to the truncated lives of some Playmates but some also seem to be just freaky happenings such as Eve Meyer.

Below is a quick synopsis of the beautiful dead; seems like a lot of them like sleeping pills and driving:

• Elisa Bridges: 28, drug overdose, 2002 (also Houston raised, cue creepy music?)

• Ellen Louise Maligo: 40, murdered in Florida, 1997; no photo or mention other than the AP article for her. I couldn’t even find her name in the Playboy Directory.

• Dorothy Stratten: 20, killed by estranged husband, 1980; her death was the subject of two movies… perhaps as infernal and crummy as “Illegal Aliens.”

• Claudia Jennings: 29, car accident– she fell asleep at the wheel and was not on drugs. I wonder if it was suicide because she was in a tumultuous relationship with someone and the accident happened while she was going to retrieve her possessions.

• Eve Meyer: 46, airliner collision, 1977; 550 died when two airplanes collided on the ground.

• Paige Young: 30, drug overdose (sleeping pills), 1974; sad, her Playmate Profile shows that she likes a lot of the same authors I do. (Or this could be a Carmen Electra moment when she said she totally digs quantum physics and black holes. Bitch, please.)

• Willy Rey: 23, drug overdose, 1973; yet again sleeping pills.

• Carol Willis: 20, car accident, 1971; she too was born in Texas

• Jayne Mansfield: 34, car accident, 1967; driving at 80 miles an hour her car plowed into the back of a trailer. She and the driver were killed instantly and her children who were riding with them survived.

• Tonya Crews: 28, car accident, 1966; she was aspiring to be a mathematician.

• Marilyn Monroe: 36, sleeping pill overdose, 1962; does anyone else believe that Kennedy killed her?

The more that I hear about tragedies such as this, part of my head wants to attribute it Darwinism (survival of the fittest) but then again, it’s sad that these women who had a lot going for them died and I feel sympathy for them.

Thanks to the Houston Chronicle and AP.

Wow, so I was going to read up on the latest Harry Potter news because I am a big fan in a big way and when I google-searched Harry Potter, the first thing that popped up was an article entitled “Dirty Harry.” It was a really interesting interview about the play he’s set to star in with Uncle Vernon Richard Griffiths and other interesting tidbits about his life (read: he’s single).

“I think people are shocked that I’ve had girlfriends, which I have, and tend to think I’m a Peter Pan figure.”

(I would have thought of him more as a Harry Potter figure.)

He seems really level headed and down to earth for a child star, especially now that he’s entering into adulthood. I would really hate to see him go the way of Haley Joel Osmont and Lindsay Lohan.

A lone paparazzo has been hanging around outside the rehearsal room all day. “I have to admire his persistence. But does he imagine I’m going to come out naked? I can see why people want images of so-called celebrities falling out of clubs drunk. But a boy actor leaving rehearsal and being driven home to his parents? I don’t think so.”

I can’t really pretend that it doesn’t creep me out that I’m totally attracted to Daniel because he is really a nice hot piece of jail bait man meat.

He’s really a great actor and I love the HP books and watching it on the big screen is really rewarding (see him 7/13/07 for Order of the Phoenix). I also get a big kick out of his bit on “Extras.”

I really don’t think that he needs to prove himself as an actor in anyway because he really is quite superb but if he is compelled to prove it to me by removing his pants, who am I to judge?

“Equus is an iconic play. The nude scene is part of it. I can’t do it with my pants on. That would be rubbish. We’ve done the scene a couple of times in rehearsal. I had no particular qualms. There’s nothing that would stop me getting my kit off if that’s what the work demands. The key to serious acting is to lose your inhibitions, to become free and fearless.”

Yowza. Thanks 1000 to Metro.co.uk.

No not that Naked Heiress … Paris is no longer burning alone. Soon it’ll be Naked Heiresses as far as the eye can see. The latest one is Model/bag designer/Patty Hearst Spawn and Symbionese Liberation Army Brat, Lydia Hearst. Hearst had a valuable cache of 100 PUMA bags she had designed to give out for the Heatherette Show last week. The already controversial show amped it up a notch with some Britney-flavored backlash.

Britney requested one of the coveted little bags, promising to prominently clutch in her front row seat and was promptly DENIED. As a result Ms. Spears was a no show for the Fashion Week event.

I Don’t Like You In That Way cheekily reported and critiqued the scandal:

Britney Spears’ behavior is backfiring on her.
The hard-partying pop tart asked for a purse at the Heatherette show Tuesday, but a fashion source tells us that heiress-model Lydia Hearst turned her down - and it may be because she thinks Spears isn’t a good role model.

A Britney Backlash … can it be true? Clearly the Britney backlash is now of such immense acknowledged proportions that she is struck off the swag list of even the downtown Manhattan tranny crew. Remember this was a show featuring bare-assed munchkins, the ghost of tequila sodden Paris Hilton and Bitch Beating Goddess Kimora Lee Zilla. Surely drunken, slovenly, post-partum Britney should be in her element. Sadly for Spears that tequila-sodden worm has turned and she can’t get respect … much less a clutch purse

Hearst told us: “I’m only giving the bag to accomplished young women who are doing something positive to affect the world around them. They are women I look up to and respect, like Gwyneth Paltrow and Sarah Jessica Parker and Anne Hathaway.

Britney is now so despised by the up-and-coming naked heiress set that she is now no longer an acceptable young woman for the Hathaway 20s, the Paltrow 30s or even the young women in their Sara Jessica Parker 40s. Take note ladies: Back to Back FedEX spawning now has the horrifying power to stretch your failures across a three decade span.

More horrifying still you have ceded the moral highground to the Naked Heiress Crew …and if the Moral Highground at Fashion week is that far Below Sea Level … well then the fashionistas have won.

pics via I Dont Like you in that Way.

Quite a trick really for Keira and her shapely jaw - both naked and in silk - seems a contradiction in terms, but it turns out not to be a revealing silk teddy slipping off her bony frame, but Silk, a movie set for release next summer.

Funny how all the discussion of her being too skinny goes up like a puff of slender smoke when there’s a rumor that all her bits will be on display. The critics suddenly get very Spencer Tracy in their perspective “There aint much meat on her, but what’s there is Grade A.”

Reports do differ as to your over-all nudity quotient:

Rejoice, Keira Knightley fans! You will once again have the chance to see Keira Knightley nude when her new film Silk hits theatres on August 13. … it sounds like this movie will be her most revealing.
- For all the people excited to see Keira: yes you do see her topless many, many times.

via Egotastic

Not just the one time … its plenty o’ nude for your movie-going dollar/euro/yen. Ardent fans don’t need to wait for the DVD, rent it and scan back and forth for your thrilling Knightley glimpse. Just relax in your seat, eat your popcorn and let the multiple nudity moments flow many, many times over your Bent Beckham head.

Others who have seen the test screening are less generous, although more specific, in their assessment of the nudity quotient

- She is nude only in a couple of scenes in “Silk”, once during a love scene and another that readers of the novella will recognize which is when Herve is looking at the letter the “Concubine” wrote and Helene leans over him with her gown gaping open and he internally remarks about her breasts (something about how they are small and like a little girl’s or something like that).

Its good to see this superior quality of future Knightley nudity reporting emerging once again. It bodes well for the future of Keira Knightley nudity journalism, which many felt was in danger of falling into an amateurish enthusiasm for the sheer amount of KK nudity.