If you’re wondering whether or not Adam Levine feels intimidated by Simon Cowell’s emerging fall juggernaut “The X Factor,” the answer is “absolutely not.”

The Huffington Post recently sat down with the Maroon 5 frontman to talk “The Voice,” the new NBC show that he’s producing and his newest endeavor–professional tea-taster.

The 32-year-old Maroon 5 frontman, along with his bandmates Jesse Carmichael, James Valentine, Michael Madden, and Matt Flynn, created a Snapple drink, Tea Will Be Loved (conveniently named after their famous song “She Will Be Loved”), to benefit Feeding America. As part of the partnership, Snapple and Maroon 5 will donate $250,000 to the Feeding America, an organization close to the frontman’s heart.

“It’s so great to be in a position where you can help,” says Levine, “It seems like to not help out would be strange.”

And Levine and his bandmates were involved in every step of the tediously tasty process.

“We worked on the flavor, extensively, for hours in the lab–we really did,” says Levine. “We got really into it. We were so drunk off Snapple by the end of the day. I remember when Snapple got popular back in high school. It was huge. And then there was Fruitopia–R.I.P. Fruitopia.” Recently, in a cover story for Out Magazine, the winning “Voice” coach Levine ripped the reigning champ of reality television, “American Idol,” calling them out for their alleged policy on gay contestants.

“I’m not a fan of singing competitions,” admits Levine. “I never have been. But there was something that rang true with ‘The Voice.’ It’s just a very sincere, honest show where we were allowed to speak our minds and be ourselves and help people along–in a real way. No one is being teased; no one is being mocked. It’s all about positive reinforcement. We’re dealing with a bunch of people who are all really talented to begin with.”

And when it comes to those rumors regarding the cast’s off-screen relationships, Levine assures fans that there’s absolutely no drama between him and co-star Christina Aguilera.

“I love everyone I work with, and I think that really shows,” says Levine. “All the drama is kind of beneath us. We’re not trying to create stupid tension on the show. Any tension that we produced was all fabricated. We all liked each other. The media just played it up. Christina [Aguilera] kicks ass. She’s super talented.”

And no one knows that better than Levine, who recently collaborated with Aguilera on Maroon 5′s new single, “Moves Like Jagger.”

“We have our own path,” says Levine, referring to “The Voice’s” fall competition–Cowell’s “The X Factor”–”We’re fine.”

Yet, even though Levine isn’t a big fan of reality singing competitions, it turns out that the frontman has a soft spot for television musicals. Who knew Levine was such a Gleek? He’s going to take a step out of the big red chair and into the executive producing chair for a single-camera comedy project, with Jake Kasdan attached to executive produce and direct, that can only be described as “Cheers” meets “Glee.”

As much as $60 billion in U.S. funds has been lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade through lax oversight of contractors, poor planning and payoffs to warlords and insurgents, an independent panel investigating U.S. wartime spending estimates.

In its final report to Congress, the Commission on Wartime Contracting said the figure could grow as U.S. support for reconstruction projects and programs wanes, leaving both countries to bear the long-term costs of sustaining the schools, medical clinics, barracks, roads and power plants already built with American tax dollars.

Much of the waste and fraud could have been avoided with better planning and more aggressive oversight, the commission said. To avoid repeating the mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan, government agencies should overhaul the way they award and manage contracts in war zones, the commission recommended.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the commission’s 240-page report in advance of its scheduled public release on Wednesday.

Created by Congress in 2008, the eight-member commission held more than two dozen hearings, interviewed hundreds of military and civilian officials and traveled multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan. The panel’s final report is the most comprehensive examination so far of the U.S. dependence on contractors and the government’s ability to manage them in combat areas.

The commission said calculating the exact amount lost through waste and fraud is difficult because there is no commonly accepted methodology for doing so. But using information it has gathered over the past three years, the commission said at least $31 billion has been lost and the total could be as high as $60 billion. The commission called the estimate “conservative.”

Overall, the commission said spending on contracts and grants to support U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan is expected to exceed $206 billion by the end of the 2011 budget year. Based on its investigation, the commission said contracting waste in Afghanistan ranged from 10 percent to 20 percent of the $206 billion total. Fraud during the same period ran between 5 percent and 9 percent of the total, the report said.

Styled after the Truman Committee, which examined World War II spending six decades ago, the commission was vested with broad authority to examine military support contracts, reconstruction projects and private security companies. But the law creating the commission also dictated that it would cease operating at the end of September 2011, even as the U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to be heavily supported by contractors.

The commission cited numerous examples of waste, including a $360 million U.S.-financed agricultural development program in Afghanistan. The effort began as a $60 million project in 2009 to distribute vouchers for wheat seed and fertilizer in drought-stricken areas of northern Afghanistan. The program expanded into the south and east. Soon the U.S. was spending a $1 million a day on the program, creating an environment ripe for waste and abuse, the commission said.

He many only be 17, but Justin Bieber is already talking marriage — and kids!

During an interview with Women’s Wear Daily, the teenage hearthrob revealed some surprising plans for his future.

“Well, by 25 or 26, I want to see myself, like, married or start looking for a family,” he said when asked where he sees himself in five years. “I want to be a young dad. I want to be able to have done what I wanted to do — to be successful, to do a movie or whatever. But if the time is right, I definitely want to be married by 25.”

But before all of his young fans start proposing, Bieber added a key statement.

“One thing — I’m not looking to get married now,” he said.

However, it looks like Bieber is already getting some hands-on training when it comes to taking care of kids. The singer and his entourage were spotted in Atlanta this week walking with a small child, and Bieber even carried the tyke into a local restaurant.

Even though he’s only 17, perhaps Bieber’s comments about wanting to be a young dad stem from his own experience growing up with teen parents. Bieber’s mom was just 18 when she had him.

His family plans may still be a few years off, but we can’t help wondering what Bieber’s girlfriend, Selena Gomez, has to say about all of this.

Chaz Bono may be spending most of his time brushing up on his ballroom dancing skills, but he took time out to walk the red carpet with his longtime partner, Jennifer Elia, at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards Saturday night.

Bono is currently rehearsing for the upcoming season of “Dancing With The Stars,” where he will partner with pro Lacey Schwimmer when the show premieres Sept. 19.

“At first Chaz said yes to doing the show to have some fun but now he’s in it to win it. Not just for himself but for anyone else who has felt like they didn’t fit in,” a friend of Bono told The Huffington Post last week.

Bono himself talked about why he decided to join the show with ABC News.

“You know, it just kind of shows why for me it’s important to be on the show, because so little still is known about what it means to be transgender,” Bono said. “And there’s so many just completely inaccurate stereotypes and thoughts that people have.”

If this nifty little bugger looks familiar, that’s because it should. NEC’s LaVie Touch sports the same design and specs as the VersaPro model we spotted back in May. The difference here is, it comes packed with a bevy of accessories, including a keyboard, mouse and a dock that happens to hold a DVD drive. Underneath the 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800, IPS touchscreen is a 1.5GHz Oak Trail CPU, 2GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD. Sure the pair of full USB ports, HDMI jack, WiFi, Bluetooth and SD reader are welcome, but it’s that optical drive packing stand that really makes this a unique package. The NEC LaVie Touch should be landing in Japan next month for around $1,200 with the accessories. Sadly, here’s no word of whether or not it’ll ever find its way stateside. Pocket-Lint, TechCrunch NEC (translated) 24 Leave A Comment

NEC (translated)

I am in awe at the originality and creativity of Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale’s new tattoos. (I know that tone is sometimes difficult to interpret with text so please read the previous statement—and most of the following statements—with extremely heavy sarcasm and several eye rolls). People.com reports that the former costars of the teeny bopper hit, High School Musical, and apparent BFFs, Hudgens and Tisdale hit up a East Side Ink in New York City last week to be marked for eternity (or until older versions of themselves finally give in and spring for laser removal) with some pretty lame looking ink.

Tisdale, in a moment of mad genius, had the French phrase “jamais seule,” which means “never alone,” branded along her foot. I’m sure you guys are already forming theories about what that’s about. I just hope it’s not some Britney-Spear’s-Piece-of-Me-esque complaint about stardom or whatever. Honestly that would just be embarrassing as Tisdale is not exactly dogged by the media to find out who she’s eye banging at after-after-parties or what type of socks she wears. Show me some BritBrit-shaving-her-head level paparazzi problems and we’ll talk, Tisdale.

As for Hudgens, (who you may no longer care about since she stopped smooching Zac Efron BUT may now care about since she is allegedly smooching Hunger Games star Josh Hutcherson) she went for the classic ‘Om’ symbol, which I assume is extremely personal to her. Beyond being pretty weak content-wise, what I really find silly about this choice is the location. Hudgens had the symbol inked in two halves along the edges of her hands. For an actress this is an odd and potentially career affecting choice as it is not quite as easy to conceal as Tisdale’s canny foot-tattoo. I know this is a thing actresses are doing now (see Angelina Jolie and Megan Fox) but I just cannot understand the logic behind it. Part of the job description is to be able to transform yourself into another person. What if someone wanted to offer her the role of a girl who was smart enough not to get an ‘Om’ symbol tattooed on her hands? (Not likely but possible). Then covering the tattoo immediately becomes a factor—dealing with body makeup on her hands or paying for expensive CGI removal or writing in a character quirk where she always wears opera gloves—what a pain. And since she has nothing like the star power of a Jolie or even a Fox, producers might just skip the headache go for one of the other billion non-tattoo-having starlets out there.

The first celeb we saw at Cynthia Rowley’s show Friday night — though by no means the last — was America’s Next Top Model‘s resident dreamboat Nigel Barker, and the gravitational pull of his hotness pulled us down to the front row to ask him about the most important development that’s occurred since we saw him in February: his once-again shaved head. And thank God. Nigel Barker with hair was like Tom Selleck without a mustache. Nigel explained that the shaved head is just cooler for summer, and that he’d only grown out his hair in the first place because he wanted to prove to his little girls that he was capable of growing hair at all. “I was astounded by the press I received,” he said. “Miss J was rather pissed off that I was stealing his moment.” Speaking of Top Model, we also couldn’t resist wondering whether or not Nigel has read Miss Tyra’s forthcoming young-adult magnum opus, Modelland, coming out Tuesday. “I haven’t read the entire thing,” Nigel hedged, “but we’ve been working on it since the last season of Top Model, so I am very familiar with all aspects of it.” We speculated that this meant they were prepping some Modelland-themed shoots for this upcoming All Stars season. Nigel just smiled. “What are my eyes saying?” he asked. “My mouth is saying nothing, and my eyes are saying something else. I’m smizing an answer to you. Read into it.” Trust me, kind sir, we will read the hell out of it. Possibly several times.

Cynthia Rowley - Front Row - Spring 2012 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week

We were still toasting in the glow of Nigel’s hotness when, right before the lights went down, a platinum-and-orange waif in tiny trousers, massive shades, and hypnotically puffy lips burst forth from backstage, hustling to a front-row seat with ruthless efficiency (and several security guards). For one glorious, confusing moment, we — and, we later learned, everyone in the rows around us — thought this walking creamsicle had to be Donatella Versace. Then, the entire room full of journalists sat ramrod straight and let out excited, disbelieving, four-letter expletives as we all realized this was actually Lindsay Freaking Lohan. We then simultaneously commenced trying to figure out if she was wearing pants. (They were shorts. Small ones. Very, very small ones.) The take-home here for Lindsay should be that we all initially mistook her for somebody much crispier who is thirty years her senior, but we suspect instead she will mentally gloss over that part and focus only on how fast the crowd of blasé, already-burned-out fashionistas whipped out their smartphones and overloaded AT&T service. One photographer even went so far as to walk down onto the runway — which we’d been expressly forbidden to do, given that it was mirrored — and get in her face to take a photo, prompting event organizers to confiscate both his camera (which looked more expensive than her extensions) and his credentials, which they ripped from his neck with soap-operatic verve. The room applauded, led by Lindsay herself, as she settled into her seat between a shell-shocked-seeming Leigh Lezark — we feel you, Leigh — and Lindsay’s companion, who is either a Johnny Depp superfan or an actual pirate. Seriously, he had the long hair and the scruff and the vest flapping over a mostly-open shirt… all he was missing was a parrot and an eye-patch, although we’d bet Lindsay has a couple of those floating around her hotel room somewhere.