Forbes.com has released their list of The 20 Hottest Young Royals, which catalogues the creme de la creme of unmarried royals under 35 years old.  So, alas, recently married Peter Phillips didn’t make the list, but those hottie Swedes did (Crown Princess Victoria, Carl Phillip and Madeline are all in serious relationships, but still technically on the market).  My personal favorite royal (collect them like trading cards!) Charlotte Casiraghi came in at number 5, after Prince William, Prince Harry, Zara Phillips and Princess Beatrice.  How Charlotte–Grace Kelly’s granddaughter and a dead ringer for Angelina Jolie–isn’t a bigger media darling is beyond me, but lucky for her, as she gets to have her rich, privileged, gorgeous cake and eat it in relative privacy, too.  C’mon–she’s stunning!

Photo from Forbes.com

T-minus two days until we all get to see Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte again.  I barely care about the plot; I just want my cinematic equivalent of a tub of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.  (New York Super Fudge Chunk, please!)  The girls came out yesterday to Radio City Music Hall in New York for the premiere:

Say what you will about the Martian/Saran Wrap-quality of her dress; Sarah Jessica Parker’s still got it.  I adore her with long, loose, sex-kitten hair like this

Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kim Cattrall are sheer perfection.  Bravo, ladies—absolutely flawless!

I love Jennifer Hudson’s dress, but I’m less sure about her Katie Holmes/Posh Spice bob…

Photos from Usmagazine.com

Ashlee Simpson is legally changing her name to Ashlee Wentz, reports People magazine, quoting Ashlee as saying, “I think that’s something a woman should do when they’re marrying a man.  It’s a tradition that I think is a great tradition.”  I think I’m alone on this one, but I find this tradition about as sexist as they come!   (Alas, if only Jolie’s last name were something simple, like Davis or Smith, she’d be much less tempted to be a total hypocrite and change it anyway if she does eventually marry somebody with an easy last name.)  But that’s neither here nor there; I’m loving Ashlee’s red hair, I think it suits her fun, quirky personality while simultaneously looking glamorous and flattering her complexion.  Knowing how celebrities are quick to pounce on any trend, I wonder if any other starlets will hop on the red bandwagon anytime soon…

Photo from USmagazine.com

S. writes:

I’ve been reading your beauty blog for about two years now, and really love it!  You give great advice and your honesty about bad products make your rave reviews even more trustworthy.  Thanks for all the tips.  I have a question for you:  my mom is traveling to London for the first time ever (she is so excited!) and is worried about her hair styling tools working abroad.  I lived in Spain for a year and had no problems just using a converter with my American curling iron, but she has heard England has higher volts or some such nonsense, and she doesn’t want to fry her (very expensive) Chi flat iron.  Any advice?  Do you use a converter when you travel abroad, or do you use tools you purchased in England?  Any help would be much appreciated.  Thank you!!

Oh, dear God, S., do not let your mom use her American tools in England!  I have fried the hell out of my hair twice this way; the voltage is indeed screwy (something I can never understand) and not only will she be at a higher risk of burning her hair, but she may break the flatiron, too.  She’s better off going to Boots any buying a “cheap” (I say this with quotes because of the exchange rate) English version.  I’ve had the misfortune of both ruining an expensive flatiron and frying the bejeezus out of wide swaths of my hair while in London, so I speak from very traumatized experience!  Of course, she could always embrace the crappy English weather and try to rock a wavy look while there, but in that case, I’d recommend she bring grooming creme and anti-frizz lotion (the John Frieda Frizz Ease line works well), as well as some hair elastics, a chic skinny scarf or headband, and a damn-the-torpedos attitude!

I’m at the Palm Beach airport, waiting for my flight back to LAX after a weekend of visiting old friends and liberating old belongings from storage. Amazingly, I thought it was a good idea 16 months ago to put my Skin An Apothecary conditioners, Chanel perfumes and Neutrogena cleansers in a bag to keep instead of calling it a loss and giving them to friends. I felt a bit guilty this go ’round giving friends possibly expired shampoo and lotion, but they eagerly snapped the products up. Next time, to charity it shall all immediately go!

Three years ago today, I started version 1.0 of Jolie, which was of course called Jolie in NYC. (It was also the day I created the Nick and Jessica Breakup Watch, a silly little project I am simultaneously proud and ashamed of!) It has been a wild and woolly ride, so I just wanted to send a heartfelt thank you to all my wonderful readers. Jolie love you long time!

BellaSugar talks about Madonna’s comments last night on Nightline regarding aging.  She said, “I don’t think we just live in a sexist society, we live in an ageist society, connected to women.  I think women in an unconscious way are valued for their youth, youthful beauty, not so much for their wisdom and experience.”  See the rest of her comments here.  At 27, I hardly feel over the hill, and yet even I can sometimes feel a bit old compared to my early-twentysomething counterparts in the land of La.  It’s more exaggerated here in Hollyweird, of course, but when one of the biggest stars in the country is 15 year old Miley Cyrus, how can girls in their late twenties and thirties (who are beginning to–gasp!–show wrinkles!) compete?

The old guard — 80’s sex symbols Madonna and Sharon Stone in Cannes:

And the new — tweenage powerhouse Miley Cyrus

I love this: a blog dedicated to promoting positive body image and self-esteem among women, called 5 Resolutions to Transform the Beauty and Fashion Industries.  What are they?  “Educate Ourselves.  Educate Our Audience.  Take Responsibility.  Take Action.  Stay Connected.”

As a blogger who writes about beauty and celebrities and all that’s shiny and pretty and ooh! but who also supports movements promoting self-esteem and realism in the beauty and fashion industries, I often try to pinpoint where and when I’m being hypocritical…and I’ll be honest, I get tripped up.  I agree wholeheartedly with the Jezebel-led movement to stop bashing women over their looks…but to stop addressing looks altogether?  That’s where I run into an ehhh grey area of discomfort.  Does that mean I can’t comment on celebrity A looking especially squinty because of too much ill-placed Botox?  Shouldn’t suggest ways that celebrity B could make her hair look sleeker by using a certain anti-frizz product?  Must never speculate about what areas of her body MegaStar has had “done”?  Or even (horror of horrors!) need to stop checking out pop star makeup and hair pictures all together?  I mean, really, it’s all shallow, but is the goal to get us to stop noticing looks, period (never gonna happen), or to be kinder, more tolerant, and more realistic in the way we approach female beauty?  I think it’s the latter–my view has always been that there’s nothing wrong with trying to look your best in an image-conscious society.  Learning how to properly apply makeup and make the most of your hair is simply survival of the fittest, especially when you have news reports suggesting that prettier people get hired more easily, and that even babies prefer photos of more attractive, symmetrical faces.

In reality, I just don’t actually have an answer.  It’s something I think about all the time, I can tell you that.  I’m a lot kinder and gentler than I was in my early days of blogging, when I took pleasure in snarking on Tom Cruise, Sienna Miller, Britney Spears and company.  Nowadays, I try not to say anything about a celebrity that I couldn’t say to their face—or that I wouldn’t say to my best friend.  (”I love you, but please allow me to introduce you to mascara.  Kisses!”)  There’s enough negativity in this world—with a lot of the vitriol inexplicably spewing from fellow bloggers—and Jolie believes in peace, love and lip gloss, not schadenfreude.