The National Enquirer claims that Nicole Richie and Joel Madden are fighting like cats and dogs. My first assumption was that Joel’s heart wasn’t into it, but as it turns out, Joel is committed. So committed he’s demanding that Nicole end her friendship with someone he sees as destructive, and a horrible influence. That person is Rachel Zoe, celebrity stylist, star of Bravo’s The Rachel Zoe Project, and professional whack-job. I’m saying that as a devoted fan of The Rachel Zoe Project – Zoe knows everything about clothes, but beyond that, she is a horrible, limited, selfish, vapid person. It’s actually great television.

After the styling stuff, Rachel is most famous for the rumors of her handing out diet pills to her clients, and encouraging them to cultivate eating disorders, all for fashion and fame. Where Hollywood’s motto is “You can never be too rich or too thin”, Zoe’s philosophy is “You can never be too thin.” On The Rachel Zoe Project, she never eats, not even for the cameras. She just downs copious amounts of coffee and mohair.

It seems that Nicole cut Rachel Zoe out of her life around May 2007, when Nic found out she was pregnant, and became a rehab out-patient. According to the National Enquirer, this was when Joel gave Nicole an ultimatum to clean up and cut out every bad influence. It seems that Nicole did just that, because within a few months she seemed utterly transformed and healthy. The following January (of 2008) Nicole gave birth to Harlow, who was totally healthy. Since then, Nicole has been maintaining a healthy weight, and has seemed drug-free and well-adjusted. But Joel fears that Nicole’s past behavior may come back, especially since Nicole has resumed her friendship with Rachel Zoe:

At a time when Nicole Richie and Joel Madden should be picking out baby names, they’re instead locked in a bitter feud over Nicole’s renewed friendship with celebrity fashion stylist Rachel Zoe.

Joel believes Rachel, star of Bravo’s “The Rachel Zoe Project,” is partially to blame for Nicole’s struggles with an eating disorder – and he’s fuming that the two women have reconnected, say sources close to the couple.

“Joel is very protective of the mother of his child, and he thinks Rachel is a terrible influence on Nicole,” an insider told the Enquirer. “He and Nicole have had some pretty heated arguments over the issue.”

Nicole broke off her personal and professional relationship with pin-thin Rachel in November 2006 amid claims that the fashion maven was an unhealthy influence. It was also around the time that she and Joel started dating.

The former “simple Life” star also entered rehab on an outpatient basis to focus on nutrition and proclaimed she “wanted to surround herself with positive people and influences.”

Just weeks later, Nicole posted a thinly veiled jibe at Rachel on her MySpace page, referring to her as “raisin face,” saying she “hides her deathly disorder by pointing the finger at me.”

Despite Joel’s steady influence and a period of recovery and healthy weight gain, Nicole continued to drift off-course. In May 2007, 5-foot-2-inch Nicole – pregnant and weighing just 83 pounds – checked into rehab to battle a prescription pill addiction and anorexia.

“Joel gave her an ultimatum and threatened to leave her unless she cleaned up,” said the insider. “He associates that nightmare period of Nicole’s life – the pills and the dieting – with Rachel. He is convinced that she corrupted Nicole.”

Rachel, who has styled weight-challenged starlets Lindsay Lohan and Mischa Barton, has fought back against charges that she’s encouraged clients to use dangerous weight-loss aids.

But the insider insisted, “Joel doesn’t think it’s a coincidence that as soon as Nicole erased Rachel from her life, she got healthy and gained 20 pounds.”

“Now with Rachel back in the picture, he’s scared of Nicole relapsing.”

Nicole, already mom to 16-month-old daughter Harlow, is expecting her second child with the Good Charlotte rocker this summer. She reunited with Rachel in November 2008 because she thought it was time to “forgive and forget” and because she believed Rachel could be an asset as she launches her new fashion and accessories line, says the insider.

Nicole has assured Joel that she’s in a different place in her life now and won’t fall back into her dangerous habits, but Joel refuses to drop the issue.

“It’s a shame that Nicole and Joel are bickering when they should be bursting with happiness over the impending arrival of their second child,” added the insider.

“But Rachel has become a big sticking point in their relationship.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, May 18]

I think there’s a lot to the idea that Nicole re-friended Rachel because Nic “believed Rachel could be an asset as she launches her new fashion and accessories line.” If it’s just business, Nicole is being smart. Rachel’s good word can launch a new clothing or accessories line.

I’m a huge fan of this new-and-improved Nicole Richie, but I still worry about her. She got healthy very fast, and she put her life on track within a matter of months. I want to believe she’s going to stay healthy for Joel, Harlow, and the baby she’s carrying, but old habits die hard. I have to admit, a relapse might be possible. But Nicole’s weathered worse, so here’s hoping she comes out ahead, no matter what.

Nicole Richie and Joel Madden are shown out on 5/2/09. She is also shown with adorable Harlow on 4/28/09. Credit: Fame Pictures. Nicole and Joel are also shown at the launch of House of Harlow on 5/6/09. Credit: Johnny Louis/WENN.com

The bones that call themselves Rachel Zoe took her out on the town last night for the ‘Cracked Xmas’ fundraiser event at Wiltern Theatre in L.A. Both Rachel’s face and ribcage were on prominent display, scaring children and the elderly, and making fellow guests wonder if she’d mistaken Christmas for Halloween.

Though I don’t think anyone – celebrity or otherwise – should ever feel they HAVE to get Botox, Rachel thankfully got some and smoothed out the forehead of her Nicole Richie dubbed “Raisin Face” awhile ago. But the rest of her is still a living example of what cigarettes and anorexia will do to a person’s face. The 37-year-old looks easily ten to fifteen years older. Nutrition – or even a Big Mac, if nothing else – can do wonders for a person’s complexion.

There’s thin and then there’s unhealthily skinny. Rachel has long claimed that she’s not anorexic, but she’s also admitted to barely eating a thing. Her whole argument was that the motivation was different; she wasn’t trying to be skinny, she was just too busy to eat all the time.

I don’t care what the excuse is; at this point it’s clearly a health issue of paramount importance. Whatever else is going on in her life, Rachel needs to make this priority number one. She looks so brittle I’m afraid a decent necklace would topple her down. Seriously, this is beyond the “get help” point. Her bones are going to start poking through and screaming for an intervention soon.

Thanks to Just Jared for the story idea.

Here’s Rachel Zoe at the 11th annual ‘Cracked Xmas’ fundraiser event in Los Angeles yesterday. Images thanks to WENN and PR Photos.

Stylist Rachel Zoe has often been cited as the reason so many starlets have become so stick thin in the last few years – and accusation she wholeheartedly denies. Though for her recent cover of Harper’s Bazaar they had to Photoshop her from a size 0 to a size 8. And she admits eating isn’t exactly on the top – or the bottom – of her to do list.

Rachel Zoe admits eating doesn’t always make her daily agenda. “I’m a textbook definition of that perfectionist girl who has huge expectations of herself,” she says in the September issue of Harper’s Bazaar. “It’s hard for me to take care of myself, let’s put it that way. I am my last priority.”

When she’s working on her own, she says it’ll sometimes be 7 p.m. and she’s only “had coffee and a grapefruit” all day. Zoe, 37 — who was retouched from a size 0 to a size 8 for the magazine — says “it’s not that I don’t eat. I eat.” She just doesn’t always have the time. Asked if she eats lunch, she replied: “Truth? I don’t. I’m not a lady who lunches; it’s a lull in the day.”

She says she doesn’t get why she was to blame for celebs being too skinny. “We’ve had Audrey Hepburn, we’ve had Twiggy, we’ve had Veruschka, we’ve had Kate Moss,” she says. “I’m trying to figure out why I am to blame for skinniness… Truthfully, I’ve never seen myself as being too thin,” she adds. “Sometimes I’ll look at photos and be like, ‘Oh, that’s not a good look.’ But generally speaking, I’m not too thin.”

[From Us Weekly]

I just look at this woman and get the chills. I think a lot of people blame her for the skinniness because she’s supposedly passed on a lot of very unsafe tips and techniques to help starlets become a scary kind of thin. And it’s a lot more than grapefruit and coffee.

Here’s Rachel Zoe at the NBC All-Star Party in Beverly Hills on July 20th. Images thanks to WENN. Header image thanks to Images thanks to PR Photos.

Rachel Zoe issued a response to the news that Nicole Richie fired her as her stylist, basically saying that they’re no longer friends. She kind of couched it in a lot of flowery PR-speak, so it’s hard to tell, but there are some mild disses in there:

Rachel issued the following statement to TMZ: “There has been a lot of speculation as to the cause of my parting with client Nicole Richie. The tabloid reports have no merit. After trying to be a good friend to Nicole, we made a mutual decision to sever our working relationship. Changes are inevitable in any business relationship. I am very fortunate to have such a wonderful life, I have been married for 10 years and have been a stylist for more than 15 years and am lucky to work with such a diverse group of women of all shapes and sizes that inspire me everyday. I have nothing but love for Nicole and wish her only health and happiness.”

Nicole wasn’t having that, and she posted the following “blind item” on her myspace, basically saying that Zoe has an eating disorder and has tried to make it seem as if Nicole is the one with the problem, not her:

BLIND ITEM:
What 35 year old raisin face whispers her order of 3 peices of asparagus for dinner at Chateau everynight, and hides her deathly disorder by pointing the finger at me, and used her last paycheck I wrote her to pay for a publisist instead of a nutritionist?
HINT: Her nickname is lettucecup…

[via ONTD]

I really like the way she wrote that “whispers her order” and “deathly disorder.” She spelled publicist wrong, though. She would make a decent blogger.

Rumor had it that Zoe was dealing drugs to her “girls” and that she encourages them to be stick-thin so that they’ll fit into the tiny samples she gets from designers.

Whatever transpired, Nicole wants everyone to know that she’s over it and that Zoe is the one with an eating disorder, not her. Get to a size six, Nicole, and maybe we’ll believe you.

Nicole is looking good, but maybe she does need some fashion advice, because this Beetlejuice outfit is just not doing it. At least she’s keeping it under wraps though, which is more than I can say for Paris’ other “friends.”

Pictures from HauteGossip.