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Princess Mary and kids in car crash

Princess Mary and kids in car crash

Princess Mary.

Denmark’s Crown Princess Mary had a scare last week when she collided with a cyclist while driving her children across Copenhagen.

Mary, 40, was driving two of her four kids through the Osterbro district of the Danish capital when a woman on a bike rode straight into the passenger side of the car.

The royal Range Rover was making a right-hand turn at the time, but onlookers said the cyclist was at fault.

In pictures: Mary and Frederik like newlyweds in Brazil

“The cyclist seemed to almost be lost in her own world,” a source told local tabloid BT. “It’s like she didn’t even see the car.”

The cyclist was unhurt, and the royal court later confirmed that Mary and her kids were involved but uninjured.

The palace also revealed Mary had contacted the cyclist after the accident to make she was okay, and offered to pay for any damage done to her bike.

Mary’s husband Crown Prince Frederik has been involved in several traffic incidents in the past. He is regularly fined for speeding, and was lucky to escape a car crash in France in 1988.

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Three of these women are fat, doctor says

'Three of these women are fat', doctor says

A recent Marks and Spencer shapewear advertisement.

Thousands of Australian women would love to look half as good as these lovely lingerie models, but a British doctor thinks two of them are overweight, while one is obese.

The five models above feature in a shapewear campaign for UK department store Marks and Spencer. Like many ordinary women, they range in size from eight to 16, but Dr Ellie Cannon thinks they set an unhealthy example no one should aspire to.

“Fat, truth be told, is neither a feminist nor a cosmetic issue,” she wrote in a piece published in the Daily Mail. “It is, quite simply, a health issue. And we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be steered into losing sight of that fact.

“The fact is it is absolutely outrageous that, in an effort to illustrate the diversity of women, obesity has taken its place alongside ageing and differing skin colours.

“Yes, these adverts have captured the notion of individuality beautifully, by using women in their 50s. But including overweight — and therefore unhealthy — women in the mix is downright misguided, at best. “

Dr Cannon says she treats women struggling with obesity-related health issues in her GP practice every day, and is appalled that it is now acceptable to be overweight.

While she is glad many companies have stopped hiring skeletal models, she says the current trend of celebrating obese ones is just as dangerous.

“I am really concerned by this trend of supposedly empowering women by what has become known as the ‘body acceptance movement’ which embraces the notion that fat is fine,” she wrote.

“While fat may be fine cosmetically, it is not fine for your health. Body shape has been hijacked solely as a fashion issue and as ammunition in the war of cool versus uncool.

“We know from studies of anorexics that when they idolise and obsess over images of these very thin women, it exacerbates their illness and perpetuates their self-loathing and body dysmorphia.

“Isn’t it just as irresponsible to promote the notion that being overweight is perfectly normal?”

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Halloween in Hollywood

The stars came out in their Halloween best over the weekend! Here are the best ones we have seen so far!

Halloween in Hollywood

The stars came out in their Halloween best over the weekend! Here are the best ones we have seen so far!

Nicole Richie

Nicole Richie was ready to sell some cookies in her Halloween outfit.

Seal

Seal and his new mystery woman arrived at a Halloween party dressed in opposition basketball team uniforms.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West

Kim posted this picture of herself dressed as a mermaid on Twitter. “Me and my captain,” she posted.

Hilary Duff

Hilary Duff certainly got into the spirit with his incredible Day of the Dead costume.

Jessica Alba

How cute! Jessica Alba, her hubby Cash Warren and their daughter Honor dressed up as The Incredibles.

Heidi Klum

Halloween queen Heidi Klum dressed up in this Egyptian number for her 13th annual Halloween bash!

Fergie

We are loving Fergie’s dedication to this outfit! She dressed up as Hollywood personality Angelyne Woodruff.

Connor Cruise

Connor Cruise and a friend posed in these creepy masks.

Paris Hilton

Paris Hilton and her beau were inspired by Alice in Wonderland.

Alessandra Ambrosio

Alessandra Ambrosio posed in her outfit alongside friends.

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In pictures: 10 most expensive hotel suites

While a few weeks on the Australian coast make for a fabulous family holiday, there are more extravagant options — if you have the money. From the opulent Villa La Cupola Suite in Rome to the racy Hugh Hefner Sky Villa in Las Vegas we profile some of the planet’s most luxurious holiday accommodation. By Rosalind Scutt

Holiday like the rich and famous

While a few weeks on the Australian coast make for a fabulous family holiday, there are more extravagant options — if you have the money. From the opulent Villa La Cupola Suite in Rome to the racy Hugh Hefner Sky Villa in Las Vegas we profile some of the planet’s most luxurious holiday accommodation. By Rosalind Scutt Image: President Wilson Hotel, Geneva

Celebrities and fashionistas love to holiday at the Bahamas in this shamelessly indulgent 10-room suite. The Bridge Suite spans the space between the resort’s two Royal Towers (hence the name) and features a living room with a grand piano, a dining room with a 22-carat gold chandelier, a terrace overlooking the island, and a three-metre tall four-poster bed in the master bedroom.

Price: US$25,000 (AUD$24,200) per night

Image: Atlantis

The Ritz-Carlton hotel is located on top of the city’s tallest structure, Tokyo Midtown Galleria, close to the thriving nightlife district, Roppongi. The suite is located on the 53rd floor making it the highest hotel room in all of Tokyo and with views out to Mount Fuji, that alone may be worth the spend. Otherwise, the one bedroom suite features an oversized marble bathroom and a dedicated personal concierge.

Price: ¥2 million (AUD$25,000) per night

Image: Ritz-Carlton

Villa la Cupola is the largest suite in Italy and is said to be inspired by ancient Rome. It features extensive stained glass, marble and frescoes combing in a dramatic cultural opulence. A wraparound terrace, private spa and sauna and a private cinema are all included.

Price: €20,000 (AUD$25,200) per night

Image: Westin Excelsior

The multi-level Presidential suite sprawls across more than 240 square metres and has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a private gym, a steam room and a wine cellar. There is also a rooftop terrace with an outdoor saltwater swimming pool.

Price: €27,000 (AUD$34,000) per night

Images: Hotel Cala di Volpe

This three-bedroom suite boasts all the style and convenience of a luxurious seaside private home and includes a private marina and beach. Other highlights include indoor and outdoor pools, a gym, massage room and a business centre.

Price: €27,000 (AUD$35,000) per night

Image: Grand Resort Lagonissi

Hotel Martinez is a favourite destination for celebrities, especially during the Cannes Film Festival. The penthouse suite spans over 185 square metres, has four bedrooms, marble baths, multiple living and dining rooms, state of the art TVs and electrical amenities, and a spa set on an outside terrace with sweeping views of the Mediterranean. If the price is too stiff, patrons can a request the suite to be divided into four individual suites. Rooms are sound-proofed.

Price: €23,000 (AUD$29,000) per night

Image: Hotel Martinez

Buxom babes and pleasure seekers — this is your ultimate playground. The 836-square-metre, two-bedroom suite has been lovingly decorated by Hefner himself to give holiday makers all the comforts you might expect from a silk robe-wearing lothario. From the enormous rotating circular bed to the indoor bunny-branded infinity pool which looks out over the Strip this suite is the perfect party palace.

Price: US$40,000 (AUD$38,800) per night

Image: Palms Casino & Resort

If you love Manhattan then this is your ultimate holiday pad and with nine bedrooms there’s no need to holiday alone. The penthouse spans the entire top floor and is known as “the castle in the clouds”. A 360-degree view of the Manhattan skyline keeps you tapping the pulse of one of the planet’s most exciting cities. A personal butler, personal trainer and a Rolls-Royce driving chauffeur are all included in your room charge. There’s also unlimited international calls (go on, call the kids). Price: US$45,000 (AUD$43,700) per night

Four Seasons Hotel

One of the most luxurious hotels in all of India, the Raj Palace was once the residence of a Maharaja. The Presidential suite here spans four entire floors and is decorated in opulent furnishings including lavish fabrics, mirrors and ivory. There’s plenty of rooms to get lost in and more than enough to do with a private museum, a swimming pool located on a roof terrace, panoramic views and a gym.

Price: US$45,000 (AUD$43,700) per night

The Raj Palace Hotel

The Royal Penthouse suite takes up the entire top floor of the hotel and boasts a twelve-bedroom apartment featuring a grand piano, billiards room, library and private fitness centre. Aside from these features, the main draw card is a much celebrated panoramic view over Lake Geneva to Mont Blanc — not to forget the bulletproof doors and windows (who doesn’t need those on holiday!).

Price: US$65,000 (AUD$63,000) per night

President Wilson Hotel

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Man sues wife over ‘ugly’ baby

Man sues wife over 'ugly' baby

Jian Feng's wife spent $90,000 on plastic surgery before they were married

A man in China was perplexed and furious when his jaw-droppingly beautiful wife and himself, who he obviously believes to be quite attractive as well, somehow produced an ‘ugly’ baby.

Jian Feng has since divorced and sued his wife for being ugly, winning around $150,000 in a lawsuit.

Related: Pippa Middleton ‘devastated’ by ugly face taunts

Feng was reported to be absolutely in love with his wife and the couple were happy to fall pregnant soon after marrying, but when their baby girl was born that is when problems arose.

Born bearing no resemblance to either of the parents, Feng decided the baby was ‘incredibly ugly’ and initially expected his wife had cheated.

As it turns out, his wife didn’t cheat, but had undergone $90,000 worth of intense plastic surgery to change the way she looked, and had neglected to share this with her husband.

On discovering this, Feng divorced and sued his wife, claiming she got him to marry her under “false pretences”.

Related: 45-year-old woman gives birth to grandson

The judge sympathised with the betrayal Feng was feeling, awarding him a significant sum in the divorce.

The issue of custody has not been reported, but we think the ‘ugly’ baby would be in better hands with her ‘once-ugly’ mother than the allegedly attractive, but evidently ugly-on-the-inside dad.

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Another royal wedding! Princess Madeleine announces engagement

Another royal baby! Princess Madeleine of Sweden pregnant

Sweden's Princess Madeleine and her fiance Christopher O'Neill. © Kungahuset.se

Sweden’s Princess Madeleine has announced her engagement to her banker boyfriend Christopher O’Neill.

Christopher — who is 38, British-born and US-based — proposed to Madeleine, 30, earlier this month but her father King Carl XVI Gustaf had to have the union approved by the Swedish government before the engagement could be announced.

In pictures: Meet Sweden’s newest baby Princess

“Chris proposed to me in New York at the start of October and we are very happy,” Madeleine said in a video recording posted on the palace website.

“Madeleine and I have known each other for two years and I recently summoned up the courage to ask her to marry me. Thankfully she said yes,” Christopher added.

The wedding will take place next year during the Swedish summer. It is likely the couple will marry in Stockholm Cathedral, where most of the country’s royal weddings take place.

Christopher is not from an aristocratic background, but his family has a previous association with royalty — his glamorous mother Eva reportedly had an affair with Britain’s Prince Charles in 1986 while he was still married to Princess Diana.

There is also some scandal in Madeleine’s past. She was previously engaged to lawyer Jonas Bergstrom, but was forced to end the relationship after he allegedly cheated on her with a 21-year-old student at a ski resort.

She moved to New York after the split, where she met Christopher.

Madeleine is the youngest of King Carl and Queen Silvia’s three children. She is fourth in line to the throne.

In pictures: Mary and Frederik like newlyweds in Brazil

Madeleine’s older sister Crown Princess Victoria married her personal trainer Daniel Westling in 2010. The couple welcomed their first child, Princess Estelle, in February this year.

Victoria and Madeleine’s brother Prince Carl Philip is not yet married, though he is dating model Sofia Hellquist.

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Men are better at multitasking than women

Men are better at multitasking than women, study finds

It is a truth universally acknowledged that men can’t do more than one thing at a time — but a new study has challenged this long held belief, proving men are actually better at multitasking than women.

The controversial research — which will be published in prestigious US journal Psychological Science — claims that hormones linked to the menstruation cycle left women less able to juggle tasks at certain times of the month, while men’s performance was unaffected.

Psychologists at Stockholm University asked 160 men and women aged 20 to 43 to keep track of the time on three digital clocks that displayed different times at different speeds.

They also had to watch a scrolling ticker listing common Swedish names and press a button when one of the names was repeated.

Lead researcher Timo Maentylae found that men performed consistently, but women’s performance was linked to their menstrual cycle.

Those who were menstruating performed the tasks well, while those who were ovulating struggled.

“Previous studies have shown that women’s spatial skills vary across the menstrual cycle with high capacity around menstruation and much lower around ovulation, when oestrogen levels are high,” Maentylae said.

“The results showed a clear difference in multitasking between men and women in the ovulation phase, while this effect was eliminated for women in the menstrual phase.”

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Jessica Simpson: How I lost 30 kilos in five months

Jessica Simpson: How I lost 30 kilos in five months

Jessica back in March, in September and on the cover of the latest US Weekly.

Jessica Simpson’s baby-weight battle has been highly publicised, but the slimmed down first-time mum says she’s never going to be a supermodel and won’t let criticism get her down.

The 32-year-old has successfully shed most of her baby weight, losing 30kg in five months in a “healthy and realistic” way.

Jessica reportedly gained more than 31kg during her pregnancy, tipping the scales at more than 90kg. Following the birth of her daughter Maxwell Drew in May, she began steadily losing the weight through the Weight Watchers PointsPlus program and four-times-a-week training sessions.

“My body is not bouncing back like a supermodel. I’m just your everyday woman,” she said in a recent interview.

Now she has even recruited her friends to join her weight-loss battle, getting them to follow her new diet plan and join her for weekly Wednesday weigh-ins at her house.

“We talk about what we’ve struggled with. It’s really encouraging to know you’re all going through the same thing,” Jessica told US Weekly magazine.

“Our meetings are also a great time to celebrate victories. Most people can tell a difference every time they see me, which lets me know I’m making progress.”

Jessica’s celebrity trainer, Harley Pasternak, is certainly impressed by her enthusiasm and dedication.

“There was one time she stubbed her toe and had to miss an appointment to go to the doctor. So she booked an extra one that week to make up for it and even came in flip-flops because her toe was too sore to put on shoes. She could have easily used that as an excuse, but she didn’t,” he said.

Harley also helped Jess avoid temptation on the set on her TV show Fashion Star by re-routing the path from Jessica’s trailer to bypass the catering table.

“We literally mapped out a different direction from the trailer to the stage so she wouldn’t walk by it,” he said.

Despite her recent weight-loss success, Jessica admits her past weight struggles have caused her a lot of hurt.

“I definitely don’t pick up the magazines,” she said.

“I definitely don’t Google my name. I try to avoid it completely, but I subconsciously know the talk is going on. Every day it’s a struggle for me.

“I have to separate myself from the world’s expectations. I have to look inside myself. I’m not a supermodel…I just wanna be a better version of myself.”

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Special Olympian pens passionate protest against ‘retard’ insult

Special Olympian pens passionate protest against 'retard' insult

John Franklin Stephens and Ann Coulter.

A Special Olympian with Down syndrome has penned a touching open letter protesting against the use of the word “retard” as an insult.

US political commentator Ann Coulter provoked a barrage of criticism when she called Barack Obama a “retard” during the third presidential debate yesterday.

“I highly approve of Romney’s decision to be kind and gentle to the retard,” Coulter tweeted.

In pictures: The beautiful faces of Down syndrome

The comment offended thousands but it was the compelling response of 30-year-old athlete John Franklin Stephens that went viral, reaching far more people worldwide than the initial tweet.

“Come on Ms Coulter, you aren’t dumb and you aren’t shallow, so why are you continually using a word like the R-word as an insult?” Stephens wrote on the Special Olympics website.

“I’m a 30 year old man with Down syndrome who has struggled with the public’s perception that an intellectual disability means that I am dumb and shallow. I am not either of those things, but I do process information more slowly than the rest of you.”

Stephens says he spent several hours trying to understand what Coulter meant by her comment, before concluding that she was trying to insult him and everyone like him.

He went on to suggest that Coulter and others who casually use the word “retard” visit the Special Olympics to see just how inspiring people with mental disabilities are.

“After I saw your tweet, I realised you just wanted to belittle the President by linking him to people like me,” he wrote. “You assumed that people would understand and accept that being linked to someone like me is an insult and you assumed you could get away with it and still appear on TV.

“Well, Ms Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge of honour.

Related: Meet the toddler who shouldn’t be alive

“No one overcomes more than we do and still loves life so much. Come join us someday at Special Olympics. See if you can walk away with your heart unchanged.”

To read Stephens’ full letter, visit the Special Olympics blog.

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Kylie parties with Prince Charles

Aussie pop princess Kylie Minogue got Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall Camilla ready for their tour down under last night after she performed at St James palace.

Kylie was a special guest at a formal dinner for 200 London-based Australians, New Zealanders and Papua New Guineans.

“One is on one’s way to St James Palace,” Kylie tweeted about the surprise concert.

Other guests at the dinner included Aussie personality Rolf Harris who advised Camilla on what to see down under, comedian Barry Humphries and his wife Lizzie, author commentator Kathy Lette, and AFL’s Tony Woods.

Kylie sang three songs including her first hit Locomotion, and even had Charles wiggling and Camilla bopping to her hits, which she introduced by saying “the big question is are you ready to swing your hips now?”

Charles and Camilla’s Aussie Royal tour, will take place between November 3 to 16.

Camilla chatted to Kylie following her performance.

Kylie performed three songs at the surprise concert.

Kylie told Charles and Camilla “bon voyage, have a fantastic trip.”

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