BGT’s Amanda Holden Channels Athena Tennis Girl Poster Ahead Of Tonight’s Final – What’s Hot and What’s Trending 7 June 2014

Amanda Holden as Athena’s Tennis Girl

BGT’s Amanda Holden Channels Athena Tennis Girl Poster Ahead Of Tonight’s Final – Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden has posted a photo which shows her lifting up her tennis skirt just as the famous Athena Tennis Girl did back in the 1970s.

Amanda was appearing with former British tennis player Tim Henman at a special pre-Wimbledon event being held at Westfield Stratford City and posted this photo on her Twitter account before going on court this afternoon.

The pose will be very familiar to many in the UK as it channels the Athena Tennis Girl poster that was such a huge success in the late 1970s. That poster showed 18-year-old student Fiona Butler exposing her pert bottom whilst wearing a short white tennis dress. Fiona was the girlfriend of the photographer Martin Elliott and has since revealed that she received no money for the pose despite the fact that the poster sold over 2m copies.

The poster is probably the most iconic reminder of the UK in the 1970s and is as representative of that generation as the Che Guevara poster “Guerrillero Heroico” is of the 1960s generation.

 

True Story Behind Sexy 50’s Pictures – What’s Hot and What’s Trending 25 April 2014

True Story Behind Sexy 50’s Pictures – it has been revealed that the sexy 50’s pictures by the man described as the greatest pin-up artist in the history of American illustration were not just drawn from his imagination but were based on real women.

Gil Elvgren (1914-1980) is best-known as the man behind all those cheesecake glamour calendars produced by US promo publishing company Brown & Bigelow.

Elvgren’s pictures date back to a more innocent time and capture women in moments where their dresses have been caught in the wind and they are revealing stockings or they have been caught by a garden sprinkler.

His women all feature prominent breasts and long legs and normally have an innocent expression and there is a feeling of catching them in an off-guard moment. All his pictures were painted in a vibrant colour scheme and his work earned him the reputation as the “Norman Rockwell of cheesecake”.

A feature on Nerve.com shows some of Elvgren’s original pictures but places alongside them the real women that he based the pictures on. It is interesting to note that he actually had photographs of them taken in the same poses as he painted them in. As they say in the article his paintings act as an early form of Photoshop photo manipulation.

There is still a big nostalgia market for this type of art and in fact to this day you can still get a calendar featuring some of Elvgren’s 50’s glamour pictures. There are plenty of pictures to choose from for the calendar as Elvgren produced over 500 different glamour paintings of women until he stopped working with Brown & Bigelow in 1972.

His work still commands high prices with his painting “Fire Belle”, depicting a busty girl sliding down a fireman’s pole, selling for over $190k in 2011.

You can check out more of Gil Elvgren’s original pin-up paintings on his tribute site.

 

Cheryl Cole’s Bottom Is Revealed – What’s Hot and What’s Trending 24 August 2013

Cheryl Cole’s Bottom Is Revealed – after having many hours of work done on her latest tattoo Cheryl Cole has now had her bottom revealed in a photo from her US tattooist.

Earlier this year she had surprised many of her fans when she revealed part of the giant rose tattoo on stage during the Girls Aloud tour.

Today her Californian tattoo artist Nikko Hurtado showed off his handiwork, and Cheryl Cole’s bottom, with an online photo of the completed artwork.

Hurtado is known for his very detailed ink work and is especially well-known for his portraiture pieces. He is highly skilled and our Geordie lass must have known that she would be in good hands when she picked Hurtado for the very involved rose tattoo.

 

Lady Gaga In Nude Video Release – What’s Hot and What’s Trending 8 August 2013

Lady Gaga In Nude Video Release – the singer has been showcased in a new video release on behalf of the Marina Abramovic Institute and is completely naked for much of her time on-screen.

The 27-year old has long been a big fan of the famous 66-year old Serbian artist who can also count Liv Tyler, Christina Ricci, Sharon Stone, Courtney Love and Bjork amongst her celebrity fans.

It is Gaga’s second fundraiser for Abramovic in the last few days as she was also involved with the recent arts benefit for the Watermill Center in The Hamptons. On that occasion she was seen embracing the artist on a haystack while wearing a black dress with sheer and leather sections that exposed a see-through black bra.

The Watermill fundraiser was a fairly hardcore arts event as shortly after her arrival Gaga was seen looking at a  new work by the artist Lisa Lozano which showed a naked woman in a giant container of honey. Completely unfazed by this Gaga’s response was to grab a spoon and sample some of the honey from around the nude whilst showing her delight to the assembled onlookers by simply saying “Mmmm.”

In this latest fundraising video for the Marina Abramovic Institute La Gaga is firstly shown wearing a white full body outfit whilst singing, if that is the right word for it, a single meditative sound. She is then seen wearing a grey industrial style boiler suit whilst sitting on a large wooden stool in front of a lake. She is finally shown completely naked bending over in the woods, on the grass wearing a black blindfold as well as some very bizarre shots of her hugging a giant crystal.

The NSFW Lady Gaga video can be viewed below via the link to Vimeo where as you can imagine it has received a very large number of hits in recent hours.

 

Beyonce Poses Nude For New Flaunt Magazine – What’s Hot and What’s Trending 10 July 2013

Beyonce Poses Nude For New Flaunt Magazine – the singer is seen naked in the latest issue of Flaunt but it turns out that the photos are actually 2 years old.

Beyonce is seen nude in several of the photos including the magazine’s cover feature. She has had her body covered in bronze and multi-colour glitter for the shots which are probably her most revealing photos so far.

The sexy photos were taken by Tony Duran in 2011 as part of the promotional work for her Year of 4 album and have been kept secret until now.

As well as the revealing photos Flaunt also carries an interview with Beyonce in which she discusses amongst other things what food and drink she enjoys. She has received some criticism for her relationship with soft drinks manufacturer Pepsi but is happy to stand up for the company and unlike a lot of celebrity endorsements it seems that this is a case where she actually likes the drink.

‘Pepsi is a brand I’ve grown up seeing my heroes collaborate with. The company respects musicians and artistry.’

 

Iconic Album Designer Storm Thorgerson Dies – What’s Hot and What’s Trending 19 April 2013

Iconic Album Designer Storm Thorgerson Dies – the man responsible for what is probably the most recognisable album cover of all-time has died at the age of 69.

Storm Thorgerson produced the cover art for a huge number of albums during his long career but no piece of work ever came close to matching the success of his cover for Pink Floyd’s massive 1973 album The Dark Side Of The Moon.

The simple prism design for The Dark Side Of The Moon came from a representation of the lightshow in the band’s live performances and a request from Pink Floyd’s keyboard player Richard Wright to have “a cool graphic – something smart, tidy, elegant.”

Despite the Scandinavian name Throrgerson was born in Potters Bar in Middlesex and grew up in Cambridge, going to the same school as Roger Waters and Syd Barrett. As a teenager he also got to know Floyd’s guitarist Dave Gilmour and these relationships were to prove very important in Thorgerson’s life.

 

Top 100 Favourite Albums From BBC Poll – What’s Hot and What’s Trending 01 April 2013

Top 100 Favourite Albums From BBC Poll – today saw the announcement of the Top 100 albums as chosen by Radio 2 listeners.

The poll saw Coldplay take the top spot with their second album, A Rush Of Blood To The Head.

The results were given out during Jo Whiley’s Bank Holiday Monday show and saw Coldplay’s 2002 album just edge past Keane’s 2004 release Hopes and Fears.

The poll was the culmination of BBC’s recent season The Golden Age Of The Album which featured shows on BBC 4 and 6 Music as well Radio 2.

One set of tv shows that we would recommend watching if they are repeated is Danny Baker’s 3-part series The Great Album Showdown on BBC Four which featured celebrities as well as music insiders debating their choice of the top albums in the genres of rock, pop and R&B.

 

Keira Knightley’s Naked Chanel Ad Banned For Being Too Sexy – What’s Hot and What’s Trending Valentine’s Day (14 February 2013)

Keira Knightley’s Naked Chanel Ad Banned For Being Too Sexy – Keira’s new ad for Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle perfume has been banned from showing at any time children might see it as it has been deemed too sexy for general viewing.

The ad shows the 27-year old actress being snapped on a bed by a photographer, who is helping remove Keira’s clothes for her before she takes over and strips off herself.

A woman who had taken her children to see Ice Age 2 at the movies saw the ad during the commercials section and complained to the advertising watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority that  the ad was too sexual to be shown.

Despite Chanel’s insistence that the ad was not offensive, showed no full frontal nudity and was meant to reflect their founder Coco Chanel’s ideals of being ‘a strong independent woman’ this was not enough to keep the ad from being axed.

Chanel have been told that it can no longer be shown in its current form in and around programs of particular appeal to children.

The banned ad was shot by English movie director Joe Wright who is famous for working on many successful movies including a number such as Pride and Prejudice, Anna Karenina and Atonement that starred Keira Knightley.

Keira’s saucy Chanel ad is just the latest in a number of fashion and perfume ads that have been thought just too sexy to show in their original form. Just the other month an ad for Marc Jacob’s Oh Lola! perfume was banned as the image of 17-year old actress Dakota Fanning sitting with a bottle between her legs was deemed to be too sexual and suggestive by the authorities.

Watch the original Chanel ad below or look at the stills and see what you think of Keira’s nude romp with the photographer.

 

World’s Most Reproduced Print To Be Auctioned, Nude Sherlock Star To Be In Bond Biopic – What’s Hot and What’s Trending 25 January 2013

Original Painting Of World’s Most Reproduced Print To Be Auctioned – the original painting of The Chinese Girl by Vladimir Tretchikoff is to be auctioned in London in a few weeks time.

Tretchikoff was born in Russia in 1913 but moved to China in 1917 at the onset of the Russian Revolution. He later moved to Singapore before finally settling in South Africa after the Second World War.

The Chinese Girl is probably better known to many as The Green Lady and was painted by Tretchikoff in 1950. The painting is actually Tretchikoff’s second attempt at this theme with the original version (using a different model) being destroyed when his South African studio was robbed.

The model for The Chinese Girl was a 17-year old girl called Monika Sing-Lee who Tretchikoff spotted working in a Cape Town launderette owned by his uncle.

The picture was hugely popular with the general public in the 60’s and 70’s but was always looked down on by the art world and Tretchikoff became known as the King of Kitsch. He said before he died in 2006  that he believed around half a million full size copies of The Chinese Girl had been sold. In addition to this the image was used on many other items such as mugs and tea towels as well as being sold in a smaller format reproduction. Although selling well around the world, the work was particularly popular in the Uk and The Commonwealth.

The original painting was bought by a woman in Chicago whilst Tretchikoff was touring the US in the 50’s and it has remained in the same family ever since. Prior to coming to London for the auction the painting will be on display in New York and Johanesburg.

The painting is being sold as part of an auction of South African art at Bonhams on 20 March. The Chinese Girl  has a guide price of £300-500k and is sure to surpass the record price for a work by Tretchikoff which currently stands at £337k. This was achieved by his picture Portrait of Lenka (Red Jacket). a semi-nude work featuring his lover and muse Lenka (real name Leonara Schmidt-Salomonson).

Nude Sherlock Star To Appear In Bond Biopic – Lara Pulver, the actress whose character captivated Sherlock Holmes when she appeared nude in front of him, is to feature in a new biopic of James Bond creator Ian Fleming.

The 32-year old actress caused a bit of a stir in the series when she appeared naked in front of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock character. Her character of Irene Adler was taken directly from the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories. Adler is the strongest of the female characters in the Sherlock Holmes stories and it is believed that he based Irene on the real life character of Lola Montez, an Irish dancer who was the lover of Ludwig 1 of Bavaria. The King eventually bestowed upon Montez the title of the Countess of Landsfeld.

As well as making a big impression on his Sherlock character it is thought that in reality Lara’s naked performance impressed actor Benedict Cumberbatch as the pair were said to be romantically linked last year.

In the new Ian Fleming biopic Lara is to play the part of Ann O’Neill. Ann became Fleming’s wife in 1952 after her divorce from her second husband Viscount Rothermere. This marriage broke down due to Ann’s affair with Fleming, who she had known since before the marriage took place in 1945. Even as early as 1947 it seems Ann and Fleming had rekindled their romance as she stayed with him at his Jamaican Goldeneye estate when she had in fact told her husband she was staying with Noel Coward at his neighbouring property.

The new biopic will star Dominic Cooper in the role of Ian Fleming  as well as also featuring Samuel West and Anna Chancellor. The Show is being produced for Sky Atlantic and filming is expected to start later this year in the UK and Bulgaria.

Lara has recently been talking about her breakthrough role as Irene Adler in Sherlock and said that she would love it if she could make a return to the series as the whip bearing dominatrix. From the reception the character got first time round it would certainly be a popular return.

 

Poppy Delevingne And Crystal Renn In Agent Provocateur Lingerie Campaigns – What’s Hot and What’s Trending 23 January 2013

Poppy Delevingne And Crystal Renn Feature For Agent Provocateur Lingerie – new campaigns from top-notch lingerie line Agent Provocateur feature the English model and socialite Poppy Delevingne and US model Crystal Renn.

Poppy is a well-known figure on the London fashion scene and is the older sister of model Cara Delevingne.

Crystal is not that well-known in the UK but is probably best remembered for her time as a plus-size model when she gained 70lbs in weight after years of suffering from anorexia nervosa. She later wrote a book about her experiences at this time ‘Hungry: A Young Model’s Story of Appetite, Ambition and the Ultimate Embrace of Curves.’ Crystal, as can be seen from the attached photo, is no longer a plus-size model and as of 2010 she was said to be a US size 8.

Poppy is to be seen fronting Agent Provocateur’s Valentine’s Day campaign. This together with Christmas is undoubtedly the big sales time of the year for lingerie firms when men make a rare excursion to the lacy, silky sections of the department store that is normally out-of-bounds for them. Now of course they can avoid some of the embarrassment of thumbing through the ‘intimates’ sections of stores by browsing online. This gives them a good excuse to look through many pages of sexy lingerie outfits so if they are caught out they had better make sure that something expensive gets wrapped up for Valentine’s Day as a gift!

Poppy can be seen in a saucy promotional video walking around inside her home before she gets herself locked outside wearing just her Agent Provocateur lingerie. She then gets seen by a stunned jogger who is greeted by a classic Are You Being Served line from Poppy.

Poppy looks like being a more permanent feature on the fashion pages and elsewhere over the next few months as she is also currently appearing in Killing Time, a new short film from the personalized watch company Bamford Watch Department. Poppy has also recently appeared on the cover of Harpers Bazaar Korea and with her boyfriend James Cook she also appears in the current edition of American Vogue.

Crystal Renn has been chosen to front up the Agent Provocateur’s On The Road campaign. This sees the sexy lingerie brand make the most of its silky retro styling with a set of photos shot against the background of a classic American gas station and some old cars.

The On The Road photos are to launch the company’s Spring-Summer 2013 collection and have been taken by Olivier Zahm, who is the man behind French fashion mag Culture.

Zahm says of the On The Road photos: ‘For this season, I wanted the Agent Provocateur girls to escape the city and the boudoir and go on an adventure. I had in mind the beautiful architecture of 70’s gas stations found in Ed Ruscha’s work ‘Twentysix Gasoline Stations. I also thought of girls shot by Helmut Newton in this same place, playing with the gas pumps. The gas station is a fetish, a place to have fun and stretch your legs after hours of driving, a place where you can accidentally meet a handsome stranger.”

We have to say that the photos look really stylish but for us some of the shots are also reminiscent of the classic Edward Hopper painting Gas from 1940.

Men beware if you are caught looking at the AP range and are shamed into buying some as a Valentine’s present it will look amazing but it doesn’t come cheap. As a guide just the little thong that Crystal is wearing will set you back around £65.