Celebrity gossip, articles on fashion, health, fitness, and beauty.
David and Victoria Beckham are expecting their fourth child! A rep for the posh confirmed the news and released this statement to People.com, “David and Victoria Beckham are delighted to confirm they are expecting their fourth child in the summer.” The couple already have three sons keeping them busy, Brooklyn, Romeo, and Cruz, ages 11, 8, and 5 ½.
Reese Witherspoon is making it official. People.com confirmed that the actress is engaged to boyfriend of one year, Jim Toth. Witherspoon, 34, and Toth, 40, began dating last January and grew serious fast. Toth has met and bonded with Witherspoon’s children, Ava, 11, and Deacon, 7. This will be the second marriage for Witherspoon, who divorced from actor Ryan Phillippe in 2006 after seven years of marriage. Toth works as an agent for the Creative Arts Agency in Los Angeles, and Witherspoon can currently be seen in the romantic comedy How Do You Know.
Sir Elton John is now a father! The music icon, 62, and husband David Furnish, 48, welcomed a son, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John via a surrogate on December 25th. The baby was born in California and weighed 7 pounds, 15 ounces. Usmagazine.com was the first to break the news, and released this statement from the couple: “We are overwhelmed with happiness and joy at this very special moment. Zachary is healthy and doing really well, and we are very proud and happy parents.”
This is the first child for the couple, who married in 2005 after 12 years together.
Sounds like Natalie Portman had a good holiday season! People.com has confirmed that the Black Swan actress is not only engaged to choreographer Benjamin Millepied, but it also with child. This will be the first child for the couple, who first met on the set of Black Swan. Portman, 29, is due in 2011. No other details were given.
Who saw this coming? At age 84, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner is engaged. The ladies man, known to have multiple girlfriends, proposed to just one lucky lady, Playmate girlfriend Crystal Harris, 24, on Christmas Eve. Hef announced the news on Twitter: “After the movie tonight, Crystal & I exchanged gifts. I gave Crystal a ring. A truly memorable Christmas Eve. When I gave Crystal the ring, she burst into tears. This is the happiest Christmas weekend in memory.” He later clarified: “Yes, the ring I gave Crystal is an engagement ring. I didn’t mean to make a mystery out of it. A very merry Christmas to all.”
This will be the third marriage for Hef, the first for Harris. No wedding date was announced.
Recently, I have developed an obsession with candles. I have a candle on the stove, on the kitchen table, on the countertops, and in the bedroom. I love lighting one each night and smelling the cinnamon or lavender or whatever scent I have chosen, spread through the house. But after reading an article in October’s edition of Women’s Health magazine, I might need to consider pulling back on my candle lighting.
Women’s Health published an article titled ‘Beat Bad Air Days’ and it featured common household items that can pollute the air inside your house. Candles were number one on the list. Turns out, “paraffin candles emit chemicals that are linked to liver damage, neurological problems, and leukemia (page 76). Say what? Even more- the black soot that is released each time you light that wick, could be damaging your lungs and heart tissue.
So do I throw all my candles away and go for the plastic candles with LED lights to achieve that cozy ambiance? That was one suggestion from Women’s Health, but another was buying soy candles. Soy candles burn at a slower rate and emit less soot than the regular paraffin counterparts. I now have soy candles on my shopping list, and you may want to consider going the healthy-air route too!
Information from: Women’s Health Magazine, October 2010 Edition, by Katherine Bowers/page 76.
Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Weight of Silence, follows her phenomenally successful debut novel with THESE THINGS HIDDEN (MIRA Books, February 2011, $15.95 U.S./$18.95 CAN.), an equally absorbing dramatic work. In THESE THINGS HIDDEN, Gudenkauf deftly tells the story of three families united by a chilling secret the night two babies are born.
The story begins with a girl named Allison Glenn being released from prison after spending five years there for an unconscionable murder. Without any contact from her parents or her sister, Allison is sent to a halfway house in her hometown. She is determined to reconnect with her sister Brynn and desperate to atone for involving her in what happened that fateful night. Brynn wants nothing to do with her sister and feels that it is she who is still imprisoned — forced to keep hidden the truth of what really happened.
As a precocious sixteen-year-old high school student, Allison seemed to have an ideal life in the town of Linden Falls, Iowa—perfect grades, sports achievements, beauty and popularity. But there were cracks under that flawless exterior. Her parents were relentlessly driving her to perfection and the pressure of meeting unrealistic expectations propelled her into the arms of Christopher Tullia, an unsavory college student who offered her an escape from the demands of her day-to-day existence.
That respite came at a high cost when Allison realized that she was pregnant. Desperate to preserve the illusion of her perfection and future she hid the pregnancy. That facade was shattered when Allison, suddenly in labor, convinced her loving and sensitive younger sister Brynn to help keep her secret.
When the truth is revealed the consequences are unimaginable and change the lives of the families involved forever.
THESE THINGS HIDDEN
Heather Gudenkauf
Mira Publisher
$15.95 U.S./$18.95 CAN.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7783-2879-7
352 Pages
HEATHER GUDENKAUF
Heather Gudenkauf is the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling novel The Weight of Silence. She lives in Iowa with her family. Heather is an advocate of Safe Haven laws that are enacted in most states to provide a safe place for parents or another person who has the parent’s permission to leave an infant at a hospital or health care facility without fear of arrest for abandonment. Visit her website at www.HeatherGudenkauf.com
Anyone else close to Jessica Simpson going to get engaged? Not only has Simpson herself recently gotten engaged, ex-husband Nick Lachey popped the question to girlfriend Vanessa Minnillo, but now Simpson’s ex, Tony Romo, has proposed to his girlfriend! The Dallas Cowboys quarterback popped the question to girlfriend Candice Crawford (brother is Chace Crawford of Gossip Girl) Thursday night during her 24th birthday dinner in Dallas. Romo, 30, began dating the former beauty queen in September 2009, only two months after breaking things off with Simpson. The ring is approximated at four carats. No word yet on when the wedding will be.
Wait! Didn’t Romo break up with Jessica Simpson on her birthday? And now he proposes to his next girlfriend on her birthday? Hmm…interesting.
What is eating Hollywood? It seems to be the week for breakups- and it’s only Tuesday! Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens split after four years of dating, Jennifer Connelly and Michael C. Hall are on their way to a divorce, and now Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds have separated! People.com reported the news, and released this joint statement form the couple, “”After long and careful consideration on both our parts, we’ve decided to end our marriage. We entered our relationship with love and it’s with love and kindness we leave it. While privacy isn’t expected, it’s certainly appreciated.”
A source close to the couple says Johansson initiated the split and the couple has been separated for six months. Johansson, 26, and Reynolds, 34, have been known for their hush-hush relationship, rarely speaking out about each other. They married in 2008 in Reynold’s hometown of Vancouver, with only friends and family to witness the ceremony, and no wedding photos were ever released. The couple have no children.
