These photos of Naomi Campbell are maybe THE BEST THINGS EVER. Yes, she’s wearing Alexander McQueen, which is cool, and yes, she chose one of McQueen’s more uncongenial dresses, which is nice to see because McQueen’s odder designs deserve to be recognized as well. BUT HER FACE. Look at her face! Is that the face of someone is happy and content? Is that the face of a supermodel who is twerking it? Nope. That is the face of “I’m going to give you this one, people, because I know you love to laugh.” Actually, she’d probably shove a bedazzled cell phone up your biscuits if you laughed at her face, to her face. Don’t try it!

As for the dress… I mean, yeah, it’s not really great, in my opinion. But I like that McQueen’s girls wore his stuff to his tribute. And the detailing on the gown really is lovely. Sure, it’s bridal, and that makes Naomi’s married Russian fiancé kind of nervous. But at least it’s not as epically hideous-bridal as Fergie. Or Serena Williams:

The dress is Oscar de la Renta (is it a wedding dress?). Oh, and it’s a total and epic disaster. FEATHERS. FASCINATOR. FUG.

Photos courtesy of WENN & Fame.

On Saturday, Serena Williams won her fourth Wimbledon title. Her sister Venus has five – so you know Serena is going to keep on until she at least ties with her big sister. Before she even flew to Wimbledon, Serena participated in a photo shoot and interview with Harper’s Bazaar. While I like that Serena is confident in herself enough to pose in a bathing suit in a fashion magazine, I think the Bazaar people might hate her? Why did they do that to her hair? Is that a wig or a hairstyle? Because it makes Serena look just terrible. Anyway, the interview is interesting – Serena talks a lot about body image and the comparisons to her sister. The full piece is here, and here are some highlights:

After she won the Australian Open in January she worked out a lot: “I wanted to get really fit. I wanted to lose some weight. So I’ve been doing Pilates and yoga, trying to lean out my body so I won’t be bulky.” Her regimen: Pilates two or three times a week and when she’s training for a tournament, “a couple of hours of hitting, then an hour or two of cardio and strengthening in the gym.” Also, when she’s at home in L.A., she runs the half mile up a hill to Venus’s house instead of driving.

But no dieting. “I don’t even know the D word,” she says with a laugh. There is a training eating plan, though: “Smaller portions of every meal, a lot of grilled or baked chicken or fish, and steamed veggies.” Her weakness? “ I can never turn down a good piece of cherry pie, but,” she continues, “all I know is that in 10 years, I don’t want to be as wide as this couch.”

It’s working: Williams, who adds that “Pilates gave me results within a week,” looks the best she’s ever looked and is now a size 10 instead of a 12.

“Owning” her athleticism: “When I was six or seven in a swimsuit—I look back at those picture, and my arms are cut and my legs are strong,” she says. “I didn’t realize that I was really fit and most people aren’t. To this day, I don’t love my arms. People want more fit arms, but my arms are too fit. But I’m not complaining. They pay my bills.”

Serena’s body comparison to Venus: “I was 23 when I realized that I wasn’t Venus. She’s totally different,” she explains. “I’m super curvy. I have big boobs and this massive butt. She’s tall and she’s like a model and she fits everything. I was growing up, wanting to be her, wanting to look like her, and I was always fitting in her clothes, but then one day I couldn’t.” She pauses. “But it’s fine. Now I’m obviously good, but it’s a weird thing.”

On her favorite body parts: “Since I don’t look like every other girl, it takes a while to be okay with that. To be different. But different is good,” she says. She’s loving her new bob too. “I feel so much sexier with short hair. I wanted to reach inside me and feel better. I don’t want to hide behind a facade of hair.” Her favorite part of her body? “My smile. Does that count? I think a smile can make your whole body. Models, they look fabulous, but they don’t smile and they look so mad. But I like my smile, how it’s bright and it’s nice. Good thing my braces worked out.”

On her former relationship with rapper Common: She was dating the rapper and actor Common, but they broke up in April. “his schedule is actually worse than mine,” she sighs. “He didn’t want the responsibility. It’s really tough.” Common then began promoting his latest film, heaping enough praise on Williams that people assumed they were still on. (“Beautiful, intelligent woman, fun and spiritual woman. I think she’s an incredible person,” he told Access Hollywood.) Williams looks befuddled—befuddled but coquettish. “So I called him and I was like, Why are you saying all this stuff when we’re not together?”

[From Harper’s Bazaar]

I actually forgot that she and Common were dating, and that they had broken up. They kept their relationship quiet, didn’t they? And I like Common better now that I know that he not only dated Serena, but said nice things about her afterwards. That’s classy.

Anyway, thankfully Serena didn’t wear one of the borderline-obscene outfits that she and her sister seem to love. Instead she chose a more traditional flouncy white skirt and a little shrug-type cover (that she took off when she played). She looked really good!

Header photo courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar.

We haven’t heard much from Serena Williams for a few weeks, ever since her epic tantrum at the US Open, and subsequent apology. Serena hilariously told the line judge “I swear to God, I’m gonna take this f-cking ball and shove it down your f-cking throat.” And then she refused to apologize for three days, which kind of made it worse. But now Serena is out promoting her new autobiography, On the Line, and she wants to appear sympathetic, and not like the kind of girl who would ever, ever say anything like “I swear to God, I’m gonna take this f-cking ball and shove it down your f-cking throat.”

No, I’m being a little harsh on Serena. I thought that U.S. Open incident was funny, and I think the message of On the Line seems to correspond with the idea of Serena as someone who has learned to take care of herself. She’s learned how not to listen to whatever criticism is lobbed her way. Especially about that tricky subject, body image:

Serena Williams has one of the best bodies in sports, but she has still been called fat.

“I went through a really tough stage that took place when I was No. 1 and I had surgery and fell to almost 200 in the ranking,” she told Tyra Banks in an interview to air on her talk show on Thursday (watch video above). “Everyone called me fat, saying I was really unfit. Every [news]paper, the headline was ‘fat, fat, fat.’”

Her body image issues weren’t the only ones she was struggling with. Around that time in 2003, her half-sister, Yetunde Price, was shot and killed in L.A., outside the tennis courts where Williams and her sister Venus once played. The ordeal “was really, really difficult” for Williams.

Williams channeled that pain into an upcoming memoir, On the Line.

“It talks about my journey through that whole situation, playing again when everyone said I couldn’t do it,” she said. “They said I’d never be No. 1, they said I’d never win another grand slam.”

Her introspection helped, she told Banks, adding that she wrote herself “little notes” about “the importance of staying positive.”

Williams admitted that she does not read her own press and has instead stored all those clippings away until she is retired from the game — and ready to deal with them.

“You have to enjoy what you look like,” she said. “Sometimes I read things [that say] I’m too fit or my arms are too muscular, but that’s how I am. This is me, I love me. I think every person out there — man, woman, regardless of age or gender — needs to love themselves.”

That love, she said, even extends to her competitors. Williams, who recently made headlines when she verbally assaulted a line judge during her U.S. Open match, asserts that she is most sorry about letting down those who have supported her.

“I play with a lot of fire, and I play with a lot of passion for everything I do,” Williams said. “I think the worst part was the fans missed out on seeing the end of an amazing match. We played over two hours of amazing tennis.”

To see Banks’ entire interview with Williams — including a segment in which they play a game of tennis on the streets of NYC — tune in to The Tyra Show on Thursday on the CW.

[From Us Weekly]

I can’t even imagine being someone in the public eye with my body being dissected on a daily basis. I would cry all the time. That why I generally hate to do any “Whatsherface is drastically thin” or “Whosit is fat now” stories. People lose and gain weight all the time, sometimes it’s significant, sometimes not. I think it’s pretty smart of Serena not to pay attention to her press – both bad and good. And I buy it, too. Someone reading their own press would have apologized the same day she bitched out a judge.

Here’s Serena at the Miami Dolphins’ season opener against the Indianapolis Colts at Land Shark Stadium in Miami on September 21st. Images thanks to Johnny Louis and WENN.com .

Serena Williams had something of a major incident Saturday night at the U.S. Open. She was up against Belgian Kim Cjisters, and it was Serena’s serve. The lineswoman called Serena out for a foot fault in her second serve, and suddenly, Serena lost her temper in a rather spectacular fashion. There are a few different videos of the event, and in one version, Serena can be seen walking in a seemingly menacing way, yelling at the lineswoman. There’s some debate at exactly what Serena screamed, but from what I could lip-read and make out from the reports on the incident, Serena started out with something like, “I swear to God, I’m gonna take this f-cking ball and shove it down your f-cking throat. I’m gonna kill you.” It looks like Serena said a lot more than that, as she walked even closer to the lineswoman, shaking a tennis ball first, and then using her racket to point as she yelled.

Serena then walked away, and when her back was turned, the lineswoman ran over to the chair umpire, Swede Louise Engzell. When Serena saw that, she seemed dismissive, walking a few steps towards the umpire, then walking back to the her line. The lineswoman went back to her chair, and that when Serena got angry all over again. She began walking towards the lineswoman again, pointing her racket, and lineswoman, now visibly upset, ran back over to the umpire.

The official version of what happened next will probably go down in tennis history. According to the New York Times, “Engzell then assessed Williams a point penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, with Brian Earley, the tournament referee, in agreement. But Williams had no point to give — the penalty ended the match, and the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd, which was only about half-full after two days of rain delays, was stunned.” The crowd wasn’t just “stunned” that the match was over, as many people seem to be glossing over what happened when Engzell, Brian Earley and the lineswoman were deciding what to do. Serena stormed over and began arguing with all of them. She was visibly upset as well, and exclaimed “I didn’t say I would kill you, are you serious?” Oh, for goodness sake. I like a good fight as much as the next person, but when you’re caught on camera screaming, “I swear to God, I’m gonna take this f-cking ball and shove it down your f-cking throat. I’m gonna kill you,” the jig is up.

After the match was over (so suddenly) and Kim Cjisters was declared the winner (sort of), Serena didn’t even try to take the high road at the press conference afterwards. She didn’t apologize or offer up any kind of explanation beyond, “I didn’t play my best…I haven’t really thought about if I have any regrets.” Meanwhile, the press has dubbed this incident Serena’s “match-ending tantrum” and “meltdown for the ages”. The U.S. Open is now investigating if Serena should face other repercussions for her actions. I kind of think what she’s already lost is big enough, but it wouldn’t kill her to apologize to that poor, terrified lineswoman.