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  • Constance Jablonski Sued By Former Modeling Agency For $3.3 Million


    The world of modeling has a pretty catty reputation, but do modeling agencies also have the same stigma? If you'd ask Constance Jablonski's opinion, we're guessing she'd say yes -- now that she's being sued by Marilyn Model Management, at least.

    The Victoria's Secret Angel has just been slapped with a $3.3 million lawsuit by Marilyn, her former agency, New York Daily News reports. The company is claiming that Constance, who serves as the face of Calvin Klein and Christian Dior, violated a three-year contract with Marilyn when she left to seek representation with DNA Model Management. (Ms. Jablonski was legally bound to stay with Marilyn until September 2014, according to NYDN.)

    The case asserts that Constance was “a virtually unknown model” before signing with Marilyn in 2008 -- ouch. Two years later, the French stunner was landing major contracts like Estée Lauder and strutting down the catwalk for her first Victoria's Secret show. Marilyn claims that losing out on that annual runway gig and Constance's lucrative beauty contract has hurt the agency.

    "DNA’s wrongful conduct is for the purpose of destablizing Marilyn’s business, and causing irreparable damage to its image [and] reputation,” the model's former agency claims.

    To add more intrigue, Marilyn alleges that the 21-year-old was lured to DNA "under false pretenses." We're not sure what that means, but, lucky for us, Constance addressed the drama via her Twitter account today:

    “With a New Year comes new beginnings. After my bookers, many of those I began with at Marilyn and my dearest Marilyn Gaultier left the agency this past year, I decided to move on to DNA. I’m very excited with the move and I hope you are too!! Wishing all my friends from Marilyn all the best with their new beginnings. Thank you to all of you followers and fans, for always supporting me!!”
    Hm, we'll just have to wait and see what happens. But, from the sounds of it, it seems like this is more of an issue between the two agencies than Marilyn and Constance. Can't everyone just play nice?

    Amanda Palmer, Dresden Dolls Singer: 'No Single Answer' For What Works In Independent Media


    The creators of "South Park," Andrew Sullivan and comedian Louis C.K. defied conventions by going solo with their own media companies. But what does it take to ensure indie media success? Amanda Palmer, singer for The Dresden Dolls, spoke to HuffPost Live host Mike Sacks on Tuesday about going from end to end of the indie spectrum.

    Palmer went from busking on the sidewalk for years, to raising over a million dollars on Kickstarter for her solo album, which became a top ten hit last year. Looking forward, she argues that there's no single answer for what will work for independent artist and journalists.

    "I think there's going to be as many different systems as there are outlets and artists, and I think trying to make a blanket rule about what will work for journalists, or what will work for musicians, or what will work for authors, is kind of the wrong conversation," Palmer told HuffPost Live.

    Instead, Palmer focuses on using technology to present a unique approach to fans, saying "the cool thing about the Internet now is that you can totally personalize and customize your little system."

    "Donnie Darko" producer Hunt Lowry also joined the conversation, saying that "there's always a few lucky breaks" in the world of independent film production, adding that producers need to be on as many platforms as possible, including the Internet, television, cable, and home video.

    "You may be small and independent, but you still want it to be seen by as many people as possible," Lowry said.

    Sundance & Independent Film Festival Sets Focus On Low-Budget Indie Movies


    It's that time of year again when a tiny ski-resort town becomes the place to be for anyone in show business – stars and directors, distribution executives, musicians, unknown filmmakers hoping that people might want to hear the stories they tell.

    Opening Thursday, the Sundance Film Festival takes over Park City for a week and a half every January. Anything resembling a theater is booked with screenings. Directors and their casts trudge snowy streets to introduce films and do interviews. Bars and restaurants are stuffed with people talking deals, or just talking about something crazy or unexpected they just saw on screen.

    "It's almost like Burning Man. Once a year, this tiny little town that then transforms itself into kind of a crazy film city for 10 days out of the year," said writer-director Lynn Shelton, a Sundance regular ("Humpday," "Your Sister's Sister") who returns this year with "Touchy Feely," starring Rosemarie DeWitt as a massage therapist suddenly struck by an aversion to touching others. "It's crammed with people all there for one reason. Whatever relationship they have to the industry, they're all there for the love of films."

    The top U.S. showcase for independent cinema, Sundance has grown along with the do-it-yourself film world and has played a huge role in creating opportunities for low-budget filmmakers to get their work made and seen.

    Robert Redford added the festival in 1985 as an offshoot of his Sundance Institute that offers professional support to indie filmmakers.

    That first year, the festival showed a couple of dozen films. This year, Sundance is playing 119 feature films from 32 countries, culled from about 4,000 that were submitted.

    "It's gotten pretty overwhelming," Redford said. "I never dreamed when we started – we didn't even know that we would last – and then when it lasted and grew, it became huge. I never anticipated that it would get to this size."

    Now the name Sundance is almost a synonym for the possibilities of independent film. The festival helped launch the careers of filmmakers such as Steven Soderbergh, Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarantino and has premiered such Academy Award winners and nominees as "Little Miss Sunshine," "Precious," "Winter's Bone" and last year's top Sundance prize winner, "Beasts of the Southern Wild."

    This year's lineup includes Ashton Kutcher as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in director Joshua Michael Stern's film biography "jOBS"; Amanda Seyfried as porn star Linda Lovelace in Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's "Lovelace"; Shia LaBeouf and Evan Rachel Wood in Fredrik Bond's romance "The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman"; Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen in Naomi Foner's teen tale "Very Good Girls"; Daniel Radcliffe as Allen Ginsberg in John Krokidas' beat-poet story "Kill Your Darlings"; and Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in Richard Linklater's "Before Midnight," a follow-up to "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset."


    There's also a reunion for two "Little Miss Sunshine" stars: Steve Carell and Toni Collette co-star in Nat Faxon and Jim Rash's Sundance premiere "The Way, Way Back."

    Redford has insisted on giving documentaries equal time with dramatic features, and this year's festival has a wild range of nonfiction topics, including Barbara Kopple's "Running from Crazy," a study of Mariel Hemingway and her family's history of mental illness and suicide, including that of grandfather Ernest Hemingway; Alison Ellwood's "History of the Eagles Part 1," a portrait of the pop super-group; Alex Gibney's "We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks"; Foo Fighters singer Dave Grohl's "Sound City," a look at a venerable recording studio; Freida Mock's "Anita," a portrait of Anita Hill, who accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment; and R.J. Cutler and Greg Finton's "The World According to Dick Cheney," an examination of the former vice president.

    "The company is such good company. The programmers at Sundance, their taste is impeccable," said Lucy Walker, who premiered her 2010 documentaries "Countdown to Zero" and "Waste Land" and returns this year with "The Crash Reel," chronicling the recovery of snowboarder Kevin Pearce from a traumatic brain injury. "I feel like right now, the documentary field at Sundance, it's just such a remarkable collection of top-quality films."

    Actress and filmmaker Lake Bell, who directed a short film that premiered at Sundance in 2011 and co-starred in last year's festival feature "Black Rock," said coming to Park City in January reminds her of going back to college.

    What A Naked Body Really Looks Like Nadav Kander


    In an age when airbrushing the naked body has become a photography standard, the works of Nadav Kander are absolutely refreshing. The Israel-born, UK-based artist captures a wildly diverse survey of form and flesh, exquisitely displayed in a new exhibit titled "Bodies, 6 Women, 1 Man" at London's Flowers Gallery.

    Kander's exhibit harkens back to Renaissance masterpieces, featuring classically styled female and male nudes baring and contorting their bodies. Covered in white marble dust, the models appear like pristine sculptures or a figure from an ethereal period painting.

    Yet as photographs, the works are innately modern, a characteristic not lost in the subjects' tendency to actively hide their faces from the camera. Unlike the pensive gaze that can be seen in works by Raphael or Bellini, the eyes of Kander's alabaster nudes almost always avert the lens, hiding behind outstretched arms or backwards facing bodies. Present yet private, archaic yet contemporary, familiar yet newly distinct; the efficacious project puts forth a new definition of the nude that alerts us to paradox after paradox.

    “I don’t want to make art that’s simple, ‘correct for the times,’ or merely to fit a gap in the market," Kander explained in a recent interview with TIME magazine. "I make things that nourish me.”

    The unabashed artist will be showing his work until February 9 at Flowers Gallery in London. Scroll down for a preview of his work and let us know what you think of his "Bodies" in the comments section.

    Tate Stevens Signs $5 Million Deal with Simon Cowell Record Label

    ‘The X Factor’ Season two champion Tate Stevens has signed a record deal worth $5 million with Syco Music/RCA Records Nashville.

    A news release Tuesday reported that the 37-year-old country crooner from Belton, Missouri has relocated in Nashville and is already writing and recording for an untitled album that will be released in the fall on Simon Cowell‘s record label.

    Tate hit Twitter late yesterday with the news, “This is really a dream come true, signed with Syco Music, RCA Nashville.  I am blessed because of you! #tatenation”

    The newest ‘X Factor’ winner began as the lead singer with Outlaw Junkies in 2005.  He moved on in 2008 to form the Tate Stevens Band, a six-man ensemble that has toured extensively in the Midwest.

    He auditioned in early 2012 in Kansas City and was selected to go to boot camp where he had to sing for survival.  The entertainer ended up competing as part of the top 24 in the “Over 25s” category and was mentored by L.A. Reid.  He was chosen to be part of his mentor’s top four and went on to win the top prize.

    Stevens married his high school sweetheart in 1997, and they have a son Hayden and a daughter Rylie

    Megan Fox Slams Lindsay Lohan, Believes in Leprechauns

    Oh my goodness, Megan Fox, what have you done? I can tell you part of what you’ve done … and you’re going to have to just go ahead and surmise the rest for yourself, because wow. Girl.

    No, what you did was unexpectedly get pregnant, drop off the radar and didn’t exploit your pregnancy for all it was worth (like you just know some people have done and—ahem—are going to do), disappeared after your little son was born and then, when you finally did emerge, it was like this new person took your place. It was like everything formerly Megan Fox had dropped away, and there was this demure, intelligent, in touch person in Megan Fox’s place, who luckily looked the same as Megan Fox. I almost had a brain crush on Megan Fox for a minute, especially when she said that she wasn’t going to be posing in bikinis anymore—for the sake of her son, of course.

    This new spread and interview with Esquire, though? Holy hell. It’s … well, here. This is what it is. Here’s Megan talking about Lindsay Lohan:

        “She [Marilyn] was sort of like Lindsay [Lohan]. She was an actress who wasn’t reliable, who almost wasn’t insurable … She had all the potential in the world, and it was squandered. I’m not interested in following in those footsteps.”

    On what it’s like to be famous:

        “I don’t think people understand. They all think we should shut the f**kk up and stop complaining because you live in a big house or you drive a Bentley. What people don’t realize is that fame, whatever your worst experience in high school, when you were being bullied by those ten kids in high school, fame is that, but on a global scale, where you’re being bullied by millions of people constantly.”

    On posing half-naked all the time, and then making the decision to not (after this shoot, of course):

        “I felt powerless in that image. I didn’t feel powerful. It ate every other part of my personality, not for me but for how people saw me, because there was nothing else to see or know. That devalued me. Because I wasn’t anything. I was an image. I was a picture. I was a pose.”

    On her belief the prior-mentioned leprechauns and other things:

        “I like believing. I believe in all of these Irish myths, like leprechauns. Not the pot of gold, not the Lucky Charms leprechauns. But maybe was there something in the traditional sense? I believe that this stuff came from somewhere other than people’s imaginations … Loch Ness monster? There’s something to it. … I [also] believe in aliens.”

    On the bible:

        “I’ve read the Book of Revelation a million times,” Megan Fox says. “It does not make sense, obviously. It needs to be decoded. What is the dragon? What is the prostitute? What are these things? What is this imagery? What was John seeing? And I was just thinking, What is the Antichrist?”

    And, ahem, on speaking tongues in church:

        “I have seen magical, crazy things happen. I’ve seen people be healed. Even now, in the church I go to, during Praise and Worship I could feel that I was maybe getting ready to speak in tongues, and I’d have to shut it off because I don’t know what that church would do if I started screaming out in tongues in the back.”

    London helicopter crash Two die in Vauxhall crane accident

    Two people were killed and 12 were injured when a helicopter crashed into a crane in central London.

    Police said the helicopter hit the crane on top of The Tower, One St George Wharf at about 08:00 GMT.

    About 80 firefighters were at the scene near Wandsworth Road in South Lambeth. Pilot Pete Barnes was killed in the crash, while the other person killed was on the ground.

    The pilot had asked to be diverted to a nearby heliport because of bad weather.

    Jon Horne, chief executive of Redhill Aerodrome Ventures, where the helicopter began its flight at 07:35, said it was owned by the Rotormotion private charter firm.

    Metropolitan Police Commander Neil Basu told BBC News it was "miraculous" the crash was not much worse.

    Burning wreckage lay in the road but the fire was brought under control within 25 minutes, the fire brigade said.

    Five people were taken to hospital. One had a broken leg and the others had minor injuries. Seven people were treated at the scene.

    Pauline Cranmer, from London Ambulance Service, said: "There were a number of injuries that would potentially be consistent with being hit by debris."

    The Civil Aviation Authority said pilots had previously been notified of the crane involved in the crash.

    White House now requires ‘We the People’ petitions to have 100,000 signatures for official response


    President Barack Obama’s deputies have quadrupled the number of signatures that petitioners on the administration’s “We the People” website must collect to get an official response from the White House, following a series of popular, provocative and disrespectful signature drives by his critics.

    Some of the petitions sought approval for states to secede after Obama’s re-election, while others called on the White House to disavow executive orders that restrict gun rights, or to deport CNN’s British-born, progressive host Piers Morgan.

    “Starting today, as we move into a second term, petitions must receive 100,000 signatures in 30 days in order to receive an official response from the Obama Administration,” said an early evening Jan. 15 statement from Macon Phillips, the White House’s digital strategy director.


    Usage of the petition site has spiked since the election, partly because more than 600,000 people have signed various secession petitions. (RELATED: Secession petitions deluge White House website) “In the first 10 months of 2012, it took an average of 18 days for a new petition to cross the 25,000-signature threshold,” said Macon’s statement. “In the last two months of the year, that average time was cut in half to just 9 days, and most petitions that crossed the threshold collected 25,000 signatures within five days of their creation.”

    Pregnant Amber Rose Shows Off Huge Baby Bump

    Just last week, Amber Rose shared a photo of her sizable baby bump (in fact, tweeting bare-belly pictures seems to be a trend for pregnant celebrities lately).

    And now comes another glimpse of the mama-to-be, who looks as if she's due any moment. Rose, 29, stepped out to a salon in West Hollywood, Calif., Monday, looking ready to pop in a black Lycra ensemble and pink leather jacket.

    The model and fiance Wiz Khalifa, 25, recently made headlines for their candid remarks about how Khalifa's penchant for pot will affect their parenting.

    "Of course, I'm not going to be smoking right there over the baby, because smoke in general and being high is not good for a kid. None of that," Khalifa told E! News. "But definitely he's going to know what it is—and he'll know the difference between being a child and not being able to use it and being an adult and knowing how to use it."

    Stacie Halas, California Teacher Fired For Porn Star Past, Loses Appeal

    A middle-school science teacher fired after students learned she had appeared in pornographic movies had hoped not just to get her job back, but to set a precedent for people looking to escape an embarrassing personal history.

    A three-judge commission put a decisive stop to both, saying firmly and unanimously that Stacie Halas should not be in the classroom.

    "We were hoping we could show you could overcome your past," Halas lawyer Richard Schwab said Tuesday. "I think she's representative of a lot of people who may have a past that may not involve anything illegal or anything that hurts anybody."

    Judge Julie Cabos-Owen said such a past matters in an age when technology makes porn easy to access and hard to bury.

    "Although her pornography career has concluded, the ongoing availability of her pornographic materials on the Internet will continue to impede her from being an effective teacher and respected colleague," Cabos-Owen said in the 46-page decision issued Friday by the Commission on Professional Competence.

    Halas, 32, was continually deceitful about her nine-month career in porn before she went to work at the school, the judges said.

    Schwab said Halas "was being honest and forthright, but was embarrassed and humiliated by her past experience in the adult industry."

    Halas was fired in April from her job as a science teacher at Haydock Intermediate School in Oxnard after online videos of her in porn were discovered by students and teachers.

    Student claims that the teacher was moonlighting as a porn star were initially dismissed after school officials said they couldn't find any images of her on the Internet – but they were using the school's computers, which don't allow access to porn.

    Teachers then showed administrators downloads of Halas' sex videos from their smartphones.

    In hearings, former assistant principal Wayne Saddler testified that at the start of a sex video, Halas talked about being a teacher and he felt her effectiveness in the classroom had been compromised.

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