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Alexis Bledel welcomes her first child!

Congratulations are in order for the Gilmore Girls star, who has welcomed a sweet baby boy with husband Vincent Kartheiser.
Alexis Bledel Vincent Kartheiser

Surprise! It looks like Alexis and her handsome hubby pulled a fast one on all of us!

Rumours first emerged of the brunette beauty’s pregnancy in November of last year, but when she and her husband Vincent stepped out onto the red carpet in January of this year, the baby buzz was quickly quashed as gossip.

Now, as it happens, Alexis’ Gilmore Girls co-star Scott Patterson has dropped the big baby bombshell, saying that she was indeed pregnant, and actually gave birth in secret last year!

Speaking to Glamour.com about the upcoming Netflix revival of the show, the 57-year-old said of the new mum, “It was great to see her. She’s really blossomed as a woman and now she’s a proud new mother and married and happy.”

“I remember her as an 18-year-old kid, fresh out of college coming into Hollywood and being a little overwhelmed. She’s just the most likeable, intelligent person and adorable human being.”

“She hasn’t changed at all. She looks the same,” he added before revealing that she welcomed a baby boy.

The star quickly muted the rumours after stepping out in January with no sign of a baby bump. Little did we know, she already had a bub at home!

“We’re comparing notes because my son is about a year and a half older than her young son. I’m showing her photos and videos and what to expect. We’re just really enjoying each other’s company.”

The proud new parents met in 2012 when they played lovers on the hit show Mad Men. They announced their engagement in 2013 and the following year they were married in a private ceremony in California.

Congratulations to the new parents! We can’t wait to find out more about your little one.

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A premiere date for the revival is yet to be confirmed, but one thing’s for sure – we simply cannot wait.

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School slammed for running ‘bikini body’ classes for 11-year-olds

Parents in the community were outraged.

The Ripley Academy in the UK issued a hasty apology to parents after the “sexualising” lessons were criticised by horrified parents.

“I’m all for kids enjoying and getting into fitness but enough of the sexualisation,” Mum-of-two Sarah Reeves told the Sun.

“The general thoughts among us all was that it was appalling. We agreed we ought to let our feelings be known.”

“It is something that I feel very strongly about. As a mum of a young daughter it is an area that scares me,” she said.

Sarah, who also has a seven-year-old son, continues: “It seems the world is one that is oversexualised, with celebrities, models and magazines all giving the image that girls should be skinny and wear little clothing – should they get this message from school too.”

The school has responded by explaining that the after-school classes were being run by a supply teacher without the permission of school principal Cary Ayres.

A spokesperson said: “As soon as we were made aware of these after-school classes they were cancelled as they did not reflect the values of the academy.

“We would like to sincerely apologise for any offence caused.

“At The Ripley Academy we do run a variety of extra-curricular activities aimed at promoting a healthy lifestyle amongst all of our students and we would never condone any class, or after-school activity, that may put pressure on any young person in terms of their own body image.”

You may also like: Was the OJ Simpsons ‘not guilty’ verdict fair?

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Fans furious after Blake Lively’s Instagram post

Angry followers have labelled her comments "racist."
Blake Lively

She can do no wrong in the fashion stakes, but it seems the same can’t be said for her Instagram etiquette.

In the same week as being universally praised for her exquisite sartorial taste, Blake Lively has been slammed for a comment on one of her pictures.

The pregnant actress wrote “L.A. face with an Oakland booty” alongside a front and back shot of her at Cannes wearing the sparkling nude gown she used to debut baby bump number two to the world.

The seemingly innocent comment is actually a lyric from Sir Mix-A-Lot’s Baby Got Back, but it whipped the internet up into a frenzy.

Blake captioned this shot “L.A. face with an Oakland booty”.

“This is incredibly poor taste. Shame on you, Blake,” one follower commented.

“I hope she never gets another role again,” fumed another user. “This is so racist. How can anyone say this is OK?”

Various people accused the former Gossip Girl star of cultural appropriation, and “taking part of a marginalized group’s culture, yet not having to experience the racism that comes with being a black woman”.

Until now, Blake has been the belle of the Cannes Film Festival ball for her stunning fashion choices.

“As if her getting married on a slave plantation wasn’t reason enough to hate her,” another user chimed in, recalling Blake’s 2012 wedding to Ryan Reynolds.

But a swell of loyal fans jumped to Blake’s defence. “Those people who are offended need to get a life…” said one person.

See all the news on Blake and Ryan’s second bub! Post continues below.

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“The lyric she quoted from Sir Mix-A-Lot’s Grammy winning masterpiece was obviously being used to imply that baby got back, and then she attached photographic proof that confirms baby does have back… her story checks out,” one user amusingly wrote.

“Saying an actress cannot quote a lyric from a hit song , solely based on the colour of her skin, is racist,” he continued.

Meanwhile Khloe Kardashian and Katy Perry have both used the quote before online but it didn’t evoke such fevered backlash.

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Who will be on the next season of Seven Year Switch?

The show has been flooded with applications. Would you give it a go?
Seven year switch applications season two open

Reality TV show Seven Year Switch struck a chord with Australia audiences and now, it’s been revealed season two has had an incredible number of applications.

Counsellor on the show, Jo Lamble, told AAP that the production team have had more applications than they could ever have imagined.

Season one saw 500 couples apply but that number has now been trumped before applications for season two even closed!

Lamble said she believse it’s because the show has educational qualities as well as being therapeutic for those that have been in a troubled relationship.

“I get the impression from the number of people applying, and certainly from what I’ve found from all my clients, they all want to talk about it,” she says.

“I’ll say to my clients ‘let’s just talk about your stuff’ and they’ll say ‘let’s spend some time on this.’”

“They want to discuss and learn from it. People want to see these issues discussed and they relate to the issues.”

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What OJ whispered after verdict

Finally, his lawyer has spoken out.
What OJ whispered after verdict

OJ Simpson’s laywer Robert Shapiro has spoken for the first time since the infamous trial ended 20 years ago.

Speaking to Fox News, he revealed what his client whispered to him after the not guilty verdict was handed down.

“You told me this would be the result from the beginning. You were right,” Shapiro recalls Simpson telling him.

The trial – which focused on the killing of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronal Goldman in 1994 – captivated the world.

Shapiro believes more than one person was involved in the killings, saying it was possible a second knife was used.

WATCH: Was the OJ Simpson ‘not guilty’ verdict fair?

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Mum jailed for 24 years after murdering two daughters

It took the jury just one hour to convict the 24-year-old.
Mum jailed for 24 years after murdering two daughters

A mum has been sentenced to 24 years in jail after she was found guilty of murdering her two young daughters.

Three-year-old Evelyn Lupidi and 17-month-old Jasmine Weaver were both stabbed nine times by their mother with a 12-inch stainless steel knife, The Sun reports.

The girls were found at a women’s refuge in Bradford, West Yorks in the UK last November where Lupidi had arrived the day before.

It took the jury at Bradford Crown just one hour to convict the 24-year-old.

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Wedding reportedly off after Liam Hemsworth cheats on Miley Cyrus

Reports say the star confessed he's not ready to settle down... again.
Miley Cyrus Liam Hemsworth

Miley Cyrus should have been joyously preparing to walk down the aisle to her on-again off-again love Liam Hemsworth.

Instead she’s heartbroken after reports from Life & Style magazine emerged claiming Liam was seen cheating on her with a gorgeous model.

And it doesn’t look like there’s any coming back from it this time, with the hunky Hunger Games actor reportedly telling Miley he doesn’t want to go through with the wedding after all.

“He realized that he’s not ready to settle down, and that Miley really isn’t ‘the one’, so he recently dumped her, just days before the wedding,” the magazine reported. “She’s heartbroken, but pissed off, too.”

Apparently Liam admitted to cheating after the couple had picked a wedding venue in Byron Bay.

We don’t blame her! It’s claimed the alleged affair occurred while Miley was in New York filming a Woody Allen project for Amazon. Meanwhile Liam was miles away in California, hooking up with the other woman.

“He and friends had gone surfing in Malibu and picked up some girls on the beach who were visiting from out of town,” an insider told Life & Style. “The girls were really hot and Liam’s buddies invited them back up to their house for some drinks and fun. That’s when things got wild.”

The 26-year-old actor apparently admitted to the infidelity when the pair was holidaying in Australia in late April, telling Miley he wasn’t ready to marry her either.

See Miley’s touching song dedication to Liam, before the heartache. Post continues below.

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Awkwardly, it’s said this confession came after the pair had locked in their wedding venue and date, and informed their family and friends of their impending nuptials.

Liam’s wayward ways were reportedly what broke the couple up the first time, back in 2013. He and the 23-year-old star of Hannah Montana reconciled two years later but if the latest reports are true, it seems it’s a case of “once a cheater, always a cheater”.

“Miley’s pretty open to anything, but not cheating,” the Life & Style source says. “Liam insists that he tried to make it work, but he just wasn’t ready to settle down, not with Miley anyway. The wedding is officially off.”

Say it ain’t so!

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Mariah Carey wants a prenup with fiance James Packer

The stars are both worth the big bucks.

Keep your hands off Mariah’s money, James!

Mariah Carey has indicated she and billionaire fiance James Packer will be very careful when it comes to their fortunes in an interview with Andy Cohen on US TV show Watch What Happens Live.

“Will there be a prenup?” the host asked the 46-year-old. “You’re both very valuable.”

Mariah replied, “We want prenup! We want prenup!” quoting Kanye West’s hit song from 2005 Gold Digger.

This appears to fly in the face of reports earlier this month in Radar Online that James Packer had tried to convince the chanteuse that a prenup wasn’t necessary.

Could the two be butting heads over this crucial issue?

Mariah chanted ‘We want prenup!’ in an interview with Andy Cohen.

She continued, “Look, everyone’s valuable.”

Not quite as valuable as these two, though! Mariah is one of the highest-selling artists of all time, with an estimated net worth of $510 million. Her husband to be, 48-year-old mogul James Packer is worth a heart-stopping $4.7 billion, according to Forbes.

The iconic pop diva also took the time in the interview to clear up a few rumours about her lavish wedding demands, shutting down recent reports that she wants a circus-themed wedding.

Check out Mariah spilling the real details of her upcoming nuptials with James. Post continues below.

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“No, that really made me mad,” she said. “These people really want to tell me I want endangered animals at my wedding?” she asked. “I mean, I have several dogs.”

The financially blessed couple got engaged after less than a year of dating, with Mariah’s sparkling rock reportedly worth a whopping $7.5 million.

The star is doing the interviews circuit to promote her new reality show, Mariah’s World, an eight-part series that will go behind the scenes of her preparation for her Sweet Sweet Fantasy tour.

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Magda Szubanski triumphs at ABIA awards

The actress has just won the coveted Book of the Year prize at the Australian Book Industry Awards.

She’s best known as Sharon Strezlecki from Kath and Kim but it seems Magda Szubanski has been hiding another skill from us for all these years – she’s a brilliant writer.

The 55-year-old’s first book, Reckoning, has just won the coveted Book of the Year prize at the Australian Book Industry Awards, proudly sponsored by The Australian Women’s Weekly.

Reckoning, a memoir that centres around Magda’s relationship with her father, a teenage assassin during World War II, also won the Biography Book of the Year at the gala, held in Sydney tonight.

Full list of winners at the ABIA 2016 Book Awards

BOOK OF THE YEAR

Reckoning: A Memoir (Magda Szubanski, Text Publishing)

Biography Book of the Year

  • A Mother’s Story (Rosie Batty with Bryce Corbett, HarperCollins, HarperCollins)

  • Flesh Wounds (Richard Glover, ABC Books, HarperCollins)

  • Reckoning: A Memoir (Magda Szubanski, Text Publishing) WINNER

  • The Anti-Cool Girl (Rosie Waterland, 4th Estate, HarperCollins)

General Fiction Book of the Year

  • Close Your Eyes (Michael Robotham, Sphere, Hachette Australia)

  • The Lake House (Kate Morton, Allen & Unwin, Allen & Unwin)

  • The Patterson Girls (Rachael Johns, MIRA, Harlequin Enterprises) WINNER

  • The Perfumer’s Secret (Fiona McIntosh, Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House)

General Non-fiction Book of the Year

  • Australia’s Second Chance (George Megalogenis, Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)

  • Island Home (Tim Winton, Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House) WINNER

  • One Life: My Mother’s Story (Kate Grenville, Text Publishing)

  • The Dismissal (Paul Kelly with Troy Bramston, Viking, Penguin Random House)

Illustrated Book of the Year

  • Cornersmith (Alex Elliott-Howery and James Grant, Murdoch Books, Murdoch Books)

  • I Quit Sugar: Simplicious (Sarah Wilson, Macmillan Australia, Pan Macmillan)

  • The Happy Cookbook (Lola Berry, Plum, Pan Macmillan) WINNER

  • Wendy Whiteley and the Secret Garden (Janet Hawley, Lantern, Penguin Random House)

International Book of the Year

  • Grandpa’s Great Escape (David Walliams, HarperCollins Childrens Books, HarperCollins)

  • Gut: the inside story of our body’s most under-rated organ (Giulia Enders, Scribe Publications) WINNER

  • The Girl on the Train (Paula Hawkins, Doubleday, Penguin Random House)

  • The Story of the Lost Child (Elena Ferrante, Text Publishing)

Literary Fiction Book of the Year

  • The Natural Way of Things (Charlotte Wood, Allen & Unwin, Allen & Unwin)

  • The Other Side of the World (Stephanie Bishop, Hachette, Hachette Australia) WINNER

  • The Secret Chord (Geraldine Brooks, Hachette, Hachette Australia)

  • The World Without Us (Mireille Juchau, Bloomsbury Publishing, Bloomsbury)

Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year

  • Reckoning: A Memoir (Magda Szubanski, Text Publishing)

  • Rush Oh! (Shirley Barrett, Picador Australia, Pan Macmillan)

  • Salt Creek (Lucy Treloar, Picador Australia, Pan Macmillan) WINNER

  • The Anti-Cool Girl (Rosie Waterland, 4th Estate, HarperCollins)

Book of the Year Older Children (age range 8 to 14 years)

  • Cloudwish (Fiona Wood, Macmillan Australia, Pan Macmillan)

  • Friday Barnes 2: Under Suspicion (R.A. Spratt, Random House Australia Children’s, Penguin Random House)

  • Illuminae (Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, Allen & Unwin, Allen & Unwin) WINNER

  • The Cat With the Coloured Tail (Gillian Mears, illustrated by Dinalie Dabarera, Walker Books)

Book of the Year for Younger Children (age range 0 to 8 years)

  • Perfect (Danny Parker, illustrated by Freya Blackwood, Little Hare, Hardie Grant Egmont)

  • The 65-Storey Treehouse (Andy Griffiths, illustrated by Terry Denton, Pan Australia, Pan Macmillan) WINNER

  • The Amazing True Story of How Babies Are Made (Fiona Katauskas, ABC Books, HarperCollins)

  • This Is a Ball (Beck & Matt Stanton, ABC Books, HarperCollins)

Small Publishers’ Children’s Book of the Year

  • Kookoo Kookaburra (Gregg Dreise, Magabala Books)

  • My Pop is a Pirate (Damon Young, illustrated by Peter Carnavas, UQP, University of Queensland Press)

  • Numerical Street (Hilary Bell, illustrated by Antonia Pesenti, NewSouth, NewSouth Publishing)

  • The Underwater Fancy-Dress Parade (Davina Bell, illustrated by Allison Colpoys, Scribble, Scribe Publications) WINNER

Small Publishers’ Adult Book of the Year

  • All Fall Down (Matthew Condon, UQP, University of Queensland Press) WINNER

  • Body Lengths (Leisel Jones with Felicity McLean, Nero, Black Inc)

  • Give the Devil His Due (Sulari Gentill, Pantera Press)

  • The Art of Free Travel (Patrick Jones and Meg Ulman, NewSouth, NewSouth Publishing)

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The 5 funniest tweets about the US ‘cheese surplus’

Americans have been told they are drowning in cheese, and instead of crumbling, they are taking it lightly. #cheesesurplus

You guys, America is facing a pretty big problem. And this problem is old, it’s smelly and it’s rather partial to growing mouldy bits… no, no, we’re not talking about Donald Trump, we’re talking about cheese. ‘Merica is overrun with the stuff at the moment.

It appears Europe’s low export prices of cheese has resulted in a great “cheese glut over taking America,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

Apparently there is so much cheese that every person in the country would need to eat an extra 1.3 kilos this year to work off the surplus.

And while this is all a bit grating for the US dairy industry, some have taken to Twitter to shed some humour on the situation.

Here is some of the best commentary Twitter has to offer:

Cheese lover Ian Dunt (@IanDunt) quite rightly notes: “There is no such thing as surplus cheese, there’s just cheese which hasn’t been eaten yet.”

Erin Gloria Ryan (@morninggolria) is taking the problem personally: “Ever since I learned the US is experiencing a cheese surplus I’ve felt a deep and personal sense of failure.”

David M. Green (@David_M_Green) thinks Aussies might have some explaining to do: “Kim Beazley leaves his post as Australia’s ambassador to the US & now the US has the biggest #cheese surplus in history.”

But never fear, Corinna Carney (@corinnarc) has a real solution: “Since we have this ginormous cheese surplus issue, I think we’d all agree that it’s crucial we use it to make the world’s largest pizza.”

And Jennifer Levine (@jlevine3) feels like this crisis is in fact her calling: “MY TIME HAS COME puts on superhero outfit

In the meantime, we’ll be praying to Cheeses for y’all.

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