Fringe Benefits

So today I’m going to use Puff for personal gain.

What do I usually use it for I hear you ask? Good question. Usually to vent and/or to get an opinion out there. But today it’s all about me, myself and I. So just not my opinion, but me. Aren’t you lucky! And actually, I’m essentially after YOUR opinion!

Ok, enough fluffing around here’s my predicament. For the past 9 months I have been growing my hair like most bride’s tend to do. You can tell this is going to be serious, World Peace kinda stuff now can’t you!

So here I am with long hair, and no longer a bride but now a wife. I inherited a gene from my mum (I swear it’s hereditary) where I tend to change my hair often. And when I say change I mean short black bob from long blonde curls. I was unfortunately ‘blessed’ with curly / wavy/ frizzy hair which on the upside is pretty easy to straighten.

Anyway. So. I’ve become accustomed to once again having long hair after chopping it April last year, but now that the wedding has been and gone I find the little hair fairy in my head chirping, “I’m bored with my hair, let’s do something different next time”. So, next time would be Tuesday 27th October and my question is this….

To get a fringe or not get a fringe?! BIG decision I know! Like I said I’m quite used the long locks at the moment, and don’t have any plans to become a brunette again just yet, so this is the next best thing to a ‘change’ me thinks.

So what do you think? And wouldn’t it be nice if looking like Heidi or Reese came along with the new do too!

You might also like: It’s all about the hair!

Too fat, too skinny, more boobs, less thigh. When will the photoshopping end?

Do you read Mia Freedman’s blog? Well you should, but only of course after you’ve read mine!! Well recently on www.mamamia.com.au, there have been some fabulous stories on celebrities without makeup, before and after airbrushing shots and pictures of plus-size models, who are actually more real-size than plus size. I think these types of stories are fantastic and are showing that the fashion and magazine industries are slowly getting that we would like to see REAL people!

So after feeling all warm and fuzzy after reading a story about a plus-size model, my warm and fuzziness quickly disappeared when I saw this story on www.ninemsn.com.au:

Keira’s boobs pumped up for Chanel ad

Slimline Keira Knightley doesn’t need to be slimmed down in Photoshop for her ad campaigns… she just gets plumped up instead. In a new image from her latest shoot for Chanel perfume, Keira’s chest looks somewhat fuller than what she’s famous for. UK’s Daily Mail called in airbrushing expert Chris Bickmore to study the new picture of the 24-year-old actress, and concluded that “her breast has had some shading added to it to give it the effect of being rounder and more pert and it has also been increased in size slightly.”

Der.

It’s just pretty lame that women in advertising seem to be either too fat or not voluptuous enough these days. UK Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone, a fervent campaigner against the use of excessive airbrushing in ads, said Keira’s Chanel shoot was fine – but that people need to realise the image had been tampered with.

“Keira is a beautiful woman and that’s the point,” she was quoted as saying.

“If the image has been airbrushed then people need to know so they don’t try and achieve what is totally unrealistic.

“Young girls especially will try and aspire to things which often they can’t achieve and which will leave them feeling bad about themselves.

“Where an image has been altered and retouched, we are simply saying there needs to be a symbol showing what has been done and where.”

Keira’s no stranger to boob controversy – in 2004 her King Arthur publicity images got a chesty makeover. The image used for the UK release showed her natural chest, where her breasts were digitally enhanced for the US version.

“Those things certainly weren’t mine,” she said at the time.

“We had an interesting discussion when they said, ‘We want to make them slightly larger and you’ll get approval’ and I was like, ‘OK, fine. I honestly don’t give a s***’.”

Firstly I think this issue is going to be an ever evolving one in this industry, and unfortunately stories like this are like 2 steps forward and one step back. Secondly, I think that Keira should give a shit. If she’s proud of the rack she’s got then she should have said no to the digital enhancement.
So what do you think? Are we always going to be banging our heads against a brick wall on this issue, or slowly slowly wins the race?

Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall.

Well Kyle Sandilands did anyway. So following on from his ‘radio scandal’ and ‘dumping’ from Australian Idol, now comes the next Kyle installment which was always bound to happen: ‘his entire fall from grace’.

This week’s Womans Day reports:

The shamed radio host fears that with his career in crisis he’s about to lose it all, writes Angela Mollard.

Just 10 months ago, Kyle Sandilands sat on his throne like a portly king surveying the opulent scene before him. He took in the A-list celebrity guests, the ostentatious eight-tier cake, the thousands of Swarovski crystals used to spell out his and his bride’s names and, of course, Tamara herself, dressed in 200 metres of finest quality silk.

If ever there was a moment when he felt he had made it, this was it. Yet less than a year after his grossly extravagant wedding, the self-styled media king has hit rock bottom.

In TV’s most humiliating dethroning, he has lost his $1 million-a-year job on Australian Idol, cost his radio employers millions in lost advertising, and invited the spotlight onto his finances, with his debts estimated at $2.2 million.

And all because he cast aside decency, caution and the traditional seven-second program delay which might have saved him, and instead grilled a 14-year-old girl about her sexual experiences on-air.

Now, just as he has reached the peak of his career, Kyle’s world is crumbling around him and Woman’s Day can reveal that he is terrified he is about to lose all he has created.

“He’s spent his whole life working towards being rich and famous, and now that he’s achieved that, he’s extremely worried that it’s all going to evaporate,” says one media insider.

Reactions to the radio stunt have been strong, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd saying, “This is really off. It’s wrong, shouldn’t be done. This is a young girl and I am really distressed at the way in which the young person has been treated. [A police investigation] is entirely appropriate.”

So where does ‘King Kyle’ go from here? Did he deserve everything he got, was it only a matter of time?

When the ‘radio scandal’ broke, I, much to my own surprise, defended Kyle and what had happened. I didn’t however defend the segment and nor will I. Ever. But has this fall from grace really been justified. (Don’t worry I’m ready for the disagreements!)

In this whole situation and looking back on Kyle as a ’shock jock’, he can’t be entirely to blame. There have been reports that the people surrounding the Kyle & Jackie O radio show have become yes-men to the radio stars, basically letting them do whatever they like, because they are, or were, the number 1 radio show in Australia.

Now humour me while I liken this to a parent/child situation. If a mother gives her child everything they ask for, then that is what they will continue to expect it and if not, then brace yourself for a tantrum. See the similarities? Kyle, and Jackie O as well for that matter, no doubt have become accustomed to pretty much doing what they like, while they continued to get ratings. Was their coming undone inevitable? Well, yes. Should it have been over this ’scandal’? Probably not.

And don’t even get me started on Australian Idol. Well ok, I’ll have a little rant. Did you watch it? If you did you would have seen that most of the entertainment came from Kyle. Didn’t watch it? Well I can assure you that Kyle just says what no doubt most of us are thinking. He does it for attention, he does it for ratings and he does it because that’s what he has always done and up until now no one has told him to stop.

So I guess only time will tell if all the kings horses and all the kings men can put this humpty dumpty back together again.