Aussie actor Liam Hemsworth knew when he hit the red carpet last week that it was the biggest night of his life. But even with his new film The Hunger Games breaking box office records, and his star hitting the big-time, he was surprised to find that all eyes were on his girlfriend Miley Cyrus – and that’s just the way she’d planned it. The former Disney star underwent a dramatic style makeover in time for her boyfriend’s special day. Gone were the scruffy clothes and ragged hair extensions, and her multiple tattoos were discreetly covered. In their place were a glamorous haircut, sleek gown and toned body. But the cameras were only focused on one thing – the enormous sparkling rock on the 19-year-old’s ring finger.
Read more in this week’s Woman’s Day on sale April 2, 2012.
Then and now: Miley Cyrus has transformed her look.
Miles takes underwear as outerwear.
Leaving veeery little to the imagination.
Where are your pants Miley?
Miley transformation first became apparent on the People’s choice awards red carpet.
Liam is said to be unimpressed by Miley’s hunger for fame, just when he’s hit the big time.
Liam’s achievement was overshadowed by what turned out to be a “fake engagement”
With parents like David and Victoria Beckham, baby Harper was always going to be good-looking – but no one expected her to be quite so adorable.
With her angelic face and designer wardrobe, Harper has quickly become the cutest kid in Hollywood, eclipsing previous favourites Suri Cruise and Shiloh Jolie-Pitt.
Harper even has several fashion blogs dedicated to documenting her style, despite the fact that she is only eight months old.
Do you think Harper is the cutest celebrity baby?
Harper with dapper dad David in February 2012.
Victoria takes Harper shopping at Marc Jacobs in September 2011.
Harper and Victoria out on the town in New York City in November 2011.
Jetset baby: At JFK airport in February.
David and Harper in February.
Victoria tweeted this picture of David and Harper last October.
David and Harper just days after she was born.
David put this picture of his “sleeping girls” on Facebook last year.
William and Kate board a plane in Canada last July.
Prince William and Kate Middleton might be royalty, but it appears they still appreciate a bargain, choosing a budget airline to fly home from their ski trip on Sunday.
Passengers on an easyJet flight from Geneva to Manchester were stunned when they boarded their plane and found the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge sitting in the main cabin.
The couple were travelling with police protection officers, but otherwise behaved like any other passengers.
They went through the usual security checks before boarding, and received no special treatment in the air.
Other passengers were delighted by the couple’s appearance, and took to Twitter to express their excitement at seeing the royals in the flesh.
“Still can’t believe how close I was to Will and Kate,” one flyer Chris Nash posted.
William and Kate were returning to the UK after a week-long ski trip in the French Alps.
William is believed to have organised the romantic trip to make up for missing Valentine’s Day due to his six-week RAF posting in the Falkland Islands.
Kate’s parents Carole and Michael Middleton and her sister Pippa joined the royal couple for a few days, but they finished their break alone.
This isn’t the first time senior royals have chosen to fly with a budget airline. William and Kate flew with Flybe to attend Zara Phillips’ wedding in Edinburgh last July, while Prince Harry took an easyJet flight to the same nuptials.
Harry also chose easyJet to travel to Geneva for a New Year skiing holiday last year.
William and Harry’s uncle Prince Andrew, however, prefers a more luxurious flying experience.
The prince, known as ‘Air Miles Andy’, is frequently criticised for abusing his position. In 2010, he spent $7700 to hire a helicopter to take him to an engagement just 95km away, while in 2009, he rented another helicopter to fly him to his favourite golf course for an hour.
Your say: What do you think about William and Kate swapping first class for budget seats?
Parents might say they don’t have favourites, but research shows they are lying. Jordan Baker reports on the science of parental preference and its life-long effects.
When US writer Kate Tietje confessed that she loved her son “just a little bit more” than her daughter, she provoked an enormous response.
Yet, surprisingly, there was more empathy than anger. Many parents sheepishly — and anonymously — confessed that they had a favourite, too.
“This is exactly how I feel with my three-year-old daughter and 10-month- old son,” read one comment.
Parents who say they don’t have a favourite child are lying, says Jeffrey Kluger, author of The Sibling Effect.
There might be equal amounts of love, but parents usually have a stronger connection to one of their children.
Not that they admit it, perhaps even to themselves, but that doesn’t matter, their preference will be betrayed by their actions.
“They tend to direct more attention to one child than another — their laughter, applause — and they tend to celebrate accomplishments [of the favourite child] with greater enthusiasm,” says Jeffrey.
His view is backed by myriad studies. One showed 70 per cent of fathers and 60 per cent of mothers demonstrated a preference for one child over another even when they knew their behaviour was being watched.
In another, 70 per cent of mothers named a child to whom they felt closest.
Children pick up on this, says Professor Dalton Conley, head of social sciences at New York University.
When siblings are interviewed as adults, they will all name the favourite. “They are shocked at the agreement between them,” he says
Often, the parent’s favourite will be the child most like them, with extra points if they are the opposite gender — Daddy’s girl or Mummy’s boy.
“We are all reproductive narcissists,” says Jeffrey Kluger. “We have children because we are driven by this primal need to reproduce ourselves. We tend to respond best to a child who reminds us of ourselves the most.”
There are also market forces which determine favour in families. Parents have limited amounts of time and money, so must distribute them wisely. Children will instinctively learn how to compete for those resources.
“We found that sibling equality is really a luxury,” says Professor Conley. “Wealthier parents can afford to invest in a way that creates equality.
“Sometimes, wealthier families are more likely to send the kid that’s doing the worst to private school. Poorer families have to put eggs in the most promising kid’s basket.”
Favouritism, real or perceived, can be damaging for the less-favoured child. One study found kids who felt less loved than their siblings were more likely to develop anxiety, low self-esteem and depression.
Another found that those who felt their mother preferred another suffered the emotional after-affects well into adulthood.
Yet there are down-sides for the favoured child, too. “There are obviously kids who do tend to come out of the incubator with a greater level of self-esteem or competence,” says Jeffrey Kluger.
“When you have been a favourite, you feel worthy. The down-side is there also tends to be a real sense of entitlement and often an inability to be comfortable with a larger world in which laurels have to be earned before they are bestowed.”
Denying the existence of a favourite, the tactic of most parents, is the kindest thing they can do.
“There are two benefits to parents not saying it out loud,” says Jeffrey. “One is that the child still has a level of plausible deniability.
“Secondly, when kids know it anyway, there’s an act of love and protection in the very act of denial. It’s a generous thing to do — it takes an effort to deny. You know, at some level, that your mother or father is making an effort to protect and love you.”
Read more of this story in the April issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Dannii Minogue and Kris Smith have ended their four year relationship, with the Australia’s Got Talent judge confirming the news on Twitter.
“It brings me great sadness to tell you that Kris and I have separated,” Dannii wrote.
“We still care for each other and ask for privacy at this difficult time, in particular for our son Ethan who remains our number one priority.”
The UK’s Daily Mail reported that the pair, who have a 21-month-old son together, split two weeks ago with Kris moving out of their multi-million-dollar home in Melbourne.
An unnamed friend of Dannii’s told the Daily Mail that tension was sparked due to continued rumours about Kris’ infidelity.
“It’s so sad, because Dannii gave up so much for Kris. Part of her decision to leave the UK and move full time to Australia was because of his insistence that his career was in Australia,” the friend said.
“Dannii turned down a chance to return to the X Factor because she couldn’t make the long-distance commute to work. It was all about Kris. Dannii’s career was most vibrant in the UK but she wanted her family to come first. So much was on Kris’s terms.
“Dannii really didn’t want to give up on them, but there comes a point when you have to admit defeat.”
The pair have not been seen in public together since October and have not mentioned each other on Twitter in more than a month.
One of Kris’ most recent tweets read: “It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice… not really sure what my job is anymore… but I do know I love my boy more than life…”
This isn’t the first time the pair have written cryptic messages about their relationship on Twitter.
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay may have thought his sex scandal woes were over, but his former mistress is claiming that a raunchy sex tape of the pair exists and has landed in the wrong hands.
In a recent interview with Star magazine Ramsay’s former mistress, Sarah Symonds, claims the pair made a home movie together during their seven year on-again-off- again affair. Ramsay has always refused to comment about Sarah’s claims of an affair.
“The Metropolitan Police (in London) contacted me recently to tell me that during their investigations into the News Of The World and Rupert Murdoch phone hacking inquiry they found sensitive information on Gordon and me, including tapes and transcripts of our personal meetings towards the end of our affair in 2008, and intimate phone conversations and voice mails,” Ms Symonds told Star Magazine.
“I know from a source that there is a sex tape too, I wonder if the police have found it though, and if so what happens to it?”
“I am desperately trying to find out. I feel very vulnerable that my personal business is being reviewed by Scotland Yard. Gordon has been contacted too, and informed of the situation by the same Detective Constable who contacted me.”
Symonds, who has written a handbook for mistresses, says she has moved on from that part of her life, but does have some regrets.
“I feel bad for his family if this tape comes out, and I don’t want it to. I have moved on and put the whole Gordon affair behind me and have closed that chapter of my life and bad behavior forever,” she said.
She said the only good thing to come out of the release of the sex tape is that it would “shatter Gordon’s denials” about the affair and prove she has been telling the truth.
Video: TRAILER: Gordon Ramsay’s flop Love’s Kitchen.
Researchers at the University of Sydney have come up with yet another reason for you to ban your kids from drinking soft drinks — it’s bad for their hearts.
The study of 2000 12-year-olds found that children who consumed one or more fizzy drinks a day were at greater risk of developing heart disease later in life.
Researchers from the university’s Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical Research quizzed children and their parents about their diet and lifestyle before conducting a series of medical tests.
They found that those who drank seven or more soft drinks a week had narrower arteries in the back of their eyes, a precursor to increased risk of heart disease and high blood pressure.
“This is just another piece of evidence to show that fizzy drinks really aren’t that good for our children,” study leader Dr Gopinath said.
“More studies like this would build a strong evidence base to perhaps bring about change in policy and practice and in the way foods are products are marketed or advertised to our children.”
Your say: How do you encourage your children to eat healthy food when they pester you for junk?
As a feisty 16-year-old, Cassi van den Dungen earned the runner-up title on Australia’s Next Top Model — and notoriety after turning down a New York modelling contract. Three years on, Cassi talks for the first time about the arrival of her son, Drake, and why his cleft palate doesn’t make him any less perfect.
Like most new mums, Cassi was both elated and exhausted when she held her newborn for the first time.
It had been a tough labour — more than 12 hours of nausea-inducing contractions — but as she studied her little miracle minutes after his birth last September, Bob Marley’s beautiful song Is This Love began softly playing in her head.
Tiny Drake had inherited Cassi’s crooked second toe, but otherwise looked just like his dad, with a head of bouffant black hair. “I was just amazed,” says Cassi, “at how perfect he was.”
There was no missing her little boy’s cleft lip and palate — Cassi had been expecting it since her 19-week ultrasound — but at that moment it didn’t matter. It never has.
“I love his cleft,” Cassi says. “To me it just makes him that little bit different. He’s had that little bit to go through and his smile is bigger because of it.”
It has been a turbulent three years for Cassi since she entered Australia’s Next Top Model as a naive but headstrong teen and emerged as the reality show’s controversial runner-up.
She took a media drubbing for her smoking, swearing and angry outbursts on set, but the claws really came out when the 16-year-old turned down modelling contracts in Sydney and New York to stay in Melbourne with her much older boyfriend, bricklayer Brad Saul.
For 19-year-old Cassi and her 28-year-old now fiancé, Brad, their son’s arrival has brought hospital visits up to three times a week and the prospect of multiple surgeries in the years to come.
Feeding Drake has been a struggle because the top of his mouth opens directly into his nasal cavity, making it difficult for him to suck.
The plate he has worn since he was three weeks old has helped, but he needs to be watched around the clock to make sure he doesn’t pull it out and gag on it.
Drake’s left ear is also deformed and he has hearing loss in both ears. Yet, despite it all, he sleeps well and rarely cries without a reason. “Me and Brad were shocked at how well he’s coped with everything,” says Cassi.
Brad has given up bricklaying to help care for Drake, but the family is now living on welfare payments in a rented house on Melbourne’s western outskirts.
Drake’s special needs make babysitting tricky, so the couple haven’t had any child-free time together since his birth.
Still, with her ready laugh, Cassi doesn’t seem fazed. As she nuzzles Drake’s head and Brad tenderly strokes him off to sleep, it’s obvious the couple are smitten with the baby boy they affectionately call “Magooba”.
“You see the laughs come from him and it’s like nothing compares,” says Brad.
When Drake was born, she made a conscious decision to keep him out of the spotlight. On her Facebook page, she mentions Drake constantly, but has only posted one photograph — with a pacifier covering his cleft.
Cassi has decided to speak to The Weekly now to raise awareness about cleft lip and palate, a condition she had never heard of before Drake’s diagnosis. (She neither sought nor received payment for this article).
Many a couple, she says, have terminated their pregnancy after discovering their unborn child has a cleft.
“There’s nothing wrong with him — he’s not disabled or anything — and people abort these children,” she says. “That’s heartbreaking to me. How could you abort such a cute little boy?”
“I wouldn’t change Drake for the world,” she says. “I wouldn’t even take away his cleft because it’s made him that little bit more of who he is. He is just so beautiful.”
The hunky actor and his pro-wrestler girlfriend, Stacy Keibler, are on rocky ground. Form an orderly queue, ladies!
It’s the news that will bring hope to every single woman who’s looking for love: George Clooney and his latest squeeze, 32-year-old ex-pro wrestler Stacy Keibler, are on the verge of splitting up. And, according to sources close to the couple, the relationship will be over within weeks. “George and Stacy are barely speaking at the moment,” a friend of Stacy tells US magazine Globe.
“She knew dating such a huge star would never be easy, but lately things have come to a head, and she’s feeling like nothing more than a decoration for his sleeve.” Tensions date back to the Academy Awards in late February, with George, 50, reportedly uncomfortable in the presence of his publicity-seeking girlfriend, who appeared on the American version of Dancing With The Stars back in 2006.
When he attended a glittering White House state dinner to welcome British Prime Minister David Cameron on March 14, Stacy was not in attendance. Nor was she with him earlier in the month when he protested at a rally in Washington D.C., where he was arrested, along with his father, for crossing a police line outside the Sudanese embassy.
According to a source close to George, Stacy’s absence is no coincidence. The actor is getting fed up with her alleged desire to share the spotlight and break into acting.
Read more about George and Stacey rocky relationship in this week’s Woman’s Day on sale Monday April 2, 2012.
Prince William may be the rescue pilot, but Prince Harry is being hailed as a hero after rushing to the aid of a rival polo player during a match that took place on his trip to Brazil last month.
Harry was the first to react when US businessman Bash Kazi dramatically fell off his horse, knocking himself unconscious following a collision during the charity polo match.
Harry leapt off his horse, immediately placing Mr Kazi into the recovery position. The British Red Cross say Harry’s quick thinking may have saved the man’s life.
Mr Kazi has since recovered from the fall telling the Washington Post Harry is ‘such a gentleman’. “Prince Harry was the first one off his horse, doing the right thing, turning me over to make sure I regained consciousness,” he said.
Flick through the pictures, then see the video of Harry helping Mr Kazi.
Prince Harry hailed as a hero.
Prince Harry witnessed Bash Kazi fall from his horse.
He was the first to rush to help him.
Harry placed Mr Kazi in the recovery position while waiting for help to arrive.
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