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    Slimmed down: Lucy lost four stone after dieting but admits keeping the weight off is a constant battle


    Three years ago, I was fat. I really was. I was a roly-poly great big lump of lard. I weighed 14st 4lb, far too much for my 5ft 8in frame. I’d go into High Street stores and despair that no clothes fitted me.
    I’d stand in front of the mirror and stare in horror at my increasing curves. I didn’t just look fat — I looked as if I was about to give birth. It was so bad that people got up for me on trains.
    A woman in a restaurant even came up and congratulated me on my pregnancy. ‘Not long now,’ she said encouragingly. I sat there, burning with shame and close to tears.
    That’s what really did it. I decided then and there that I couldn’t bear being fat any more.
    Like former Birds Of A Feather star Pauline Quirke, who this week revealed her new svelte figure after losing more than six stone, I decided there was only one thing for it. The excess baggage had to go.
    Quirke lost her weight on the LighterLife diet — a drastic regime that requires women to eat no more than 500 calories a day. I lost four stone with WeightWatchers, which offers a less drastic approach. But we both achieved the same result, losing 30 per cent of our total body weight.
    Slimmed down: Lucy lost four stone after dietingI am now — after three years of dieting and being extremely careful about what I eat — a healthy and light 10st 3lb. Every time I climb on the scales, I want to do a dance of pure joy. For the first time in 15 years, I’m slim. In fact, I’m actually lighter than I was in my early 20s.
    Yet proud as I am, something crucial and unexpected has changed. It’s not only my body shape that has been transformed, but my personality, too.
    It’s as if I have morphed into a different person on the inside, as well as outside.
    From being a laid-back type, happy to eat, drink, be merry and have endless parties, I’ve become a rampant control freak.
    Instead of cooking or spending time with my husband, I’m either doing stomach crunches in the sitting room or talking about how guilty I feel that I’ve eaten too much. I am, in short, a bore. I have that nervous energy I always used to associate with thin people.

    'Glee': Lea Michele, Cory Monteith & Chris Colfer Graduating After This Season

    Well, you can't say he didn't warn you.

    In June, Ryan Murphy told Ryan Seacrest that the "Glee" stars entering their senior year at McKinley High would graduate from the show at the end season, instantly stirring massive buzz given that three of the show's biggest names -- Lea Michele, Chris Colfer and Cory Monteith -- would be upperclassmen this coming year.

    In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Murphy made clear that there would be no prep years or college plot lines.

    Those stars -- Michele, Colfer and Monteith -- are "not going to be back at all for Season 4," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "You can keep them on the show for six years and people will criticize you for not being realistic, or you can be really true to life and say when they started the show they were very clearly sophomores and they should graduate at the end of their senior year."

    Those comments closely matched what he told Seacrest, when he said, "The thing that I wanted to do and the cast wanted to do, we didn't want to have a show where they were in high school for 8 years. We really wanted it to be true to that experience. We thought it would be really cool if we were true to the timeline."

    Murphy has aimed to add new stars to the show each year, with the second season bringing aboard breakout stars Darren Criss and Chord Overstreet, among others. Fans erupted in anger when they found out that, while Criss was made a series regular for the third season, Overstreet would apparently not be included in the show very much going forward. Soon after, a seeming reversal of the decision was announced, with Overstreet publicly extended the opportunity to continue on as a guest, with a series regular position possibly being attained as early as midseason.

    Murphy is also adding cast members through the summer reality show, "The Glee Project."

    Gates Foundation Gives Millions For Research On Malaria, HIV, More

    Using microwaves to kill malaria parasites and developing a way to give fetuses immunity to HIV are among the dozen ideas the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation thinks are worth more research dollars, after giving more than 500 scientists seed money to take an initial look at some far-out concepts.

    A dozen scientists or teams of researchers will each get an additional $1 million over five years to take their ideas to the next level and see if they have the potential to save lives, the foundation announced Wednesday.

    The foundation initially chose more than 500 scientific ideas out of nearly 20,000 proposals for its Grand Challenges Explorations grants, worth $100,000 each, saying it would be taking a calculated risk by giving money for whatever wacky idea the world's best minds come up with to combat malaria, HIV and other world health problems.

    The ideas remain highly speculative into the $1 million stage.

    "They run against conventional wisdom," said Chris Wilson, director of the foundation's Global Health Discovery program. "Of course, more often than not, conventional wisdom is right."

    As an example, he points to the idea of using microwaves to kill malaria parasites, from within their hosts – mice for the experiment, but humans eventually.

    "That's probably not going to work," Wilson said. "But if it did work, it would be pretty stunning."

    The scientist, Jose Stoute, a medical researcher who specializes in infectious diseases at Penn State University, might not appreciate that less-then-enthusiastic endorsement, but Wilson says the same thing about nearly all these grants.

    "Science is a place where lots of things don't work," he said, adding that the foundation remains optimistic about these grants. "I think we're cautiously optimistic that somewhere along this path, some of these might happen," he said.

    To graduate to a million dollar grant, the scientists have to prove their initial idea has merit as a potential way to save lives and that it is practical and potentially scalable and affordable, Wilson said.

    Stoute said he and his co-collaborator, Carmenza Spadafora at Panama's Institute of Advanced Scientific Investigations and High Technology Services, got the idea for the project from an innovative cancer treatment involving microwaves that uses iron to tag cancer cells.

    Since the malaria parasite naturally collects iron as a byproduct of its actions within the human body, they thought malaria might be another good target for microwave treatment. Stoute is working with microwave engineers to design a machine to deliver the treatment in the lab.

    Collaboration among different kinds of scientists is an attribute of many of the Grand Challenges projects.

    Mike McCune, professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco, said working in multidisciplinary teams has helped a number of researchers from his university get a Gates grant.

    His project, to fight HIV infection while a fetus is in the uterus, takes a number of known scientific principals and combines them in a new way.

    Gisele Bundchen Launches Second Clothing Collection for C&A

    Gisele Bundchen has launched a second clothing collection for retailer C&A, which has stores in Europe and her home country of Brazil.
    The budget-friendly line features pieces inspired by the model's own lifestyle, according to the U.K.'s Daily Mail.
    The casualwear pieces include a coral cropped blazer, v-neck leopard print blouse, cut-off demin shorts, lace cardigan and black tailored shorts.
    She also modeled her own creations in the recent shoot for the line and is said to have applied her own makeup for the photographs.
    Bundchen first collaborated with C&A for a collection that debuted in April. At the time, she served as a living mannequin, modeling the clothes in a storefront in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
    She is said to be the world's top-earning model. She also has dabbled in acting, appearing in 2004's Taxi and 2006's The Devil Wears Prada.

    Mumbai terrorist attack captured by Twitpics

    The serial explosions that tore apart Mumbai today is receiving attention from official news sources and the social media realm alike as reports of 17 dead and at least 81 more wounded surface. Pictures from Twitter users show the truly gruesome damage done. 
    Here are some of the shocking pictures of the aftermath of the explosion that are floating around Twitter. Be warned, these aren't for the faint of heart and are a devastating look at the raw destruction caused by this attack:

    Curvy Paris Hilton steps out in unflattering pink dress

    Paris Hilton is known around the world for her enviable svelte frame.

    So it was a surprise when she was seen in LA yesterday showing off a curvier figure in a fitted bright pink dress.

    Paris was arriving to join Mario Lopez on stage for celebrity entertainment show Extra at shopping mall The Grove in Los Angeles.
    She teamed her dress with an equally eye catching necklace, with high patent black heels and sunglasses and let her trademark blonde hair fall loose over her shoulders, maintaining her 'Barbie' look.
    It is possible that a more relaxed attitude to her diet has led to the change in the star's figure.
    Paris has been dating Hangover Part II director Todd Phillips, who she was spotted dining with at Hollywood's Madeo restaurant last night.
    Paris dispelled the myth that LA starlets don't touch carbohydrates as she tucked in to lasagne, while Todd ordered the ravioli.
    Paris was probably in need of a little relaxation following an alarming break in to her Malibu beach house over the Fourth of July weekend.
    She had previously filed a restraining order against the intruder, who was luckily spotted by nearby paparazzi as he tried to enter the building.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk

    Giuliana Rancic Talks Indulging in Italy: “I Eat Whatever I Want”

    After an emotional year, Giuliana Rancic and husband Bill Rancic are putting their fertility issues behind them and have vowed to have “a year of fun.” In the upcoming season of Giuliana and Bill, the couple will be going back to the basics to focus on heating up their relationship.

    Celebuzz chatted with Giuliana who candidly discussed their latest trip to Italy (and all that pasta she ate!), explained how she stays thin and gushed about why she’s madly in love with her husband.

    You just got back from your vacation in Italy. How was it?
    It was incredible. It was the best two weeks of my entire life.

    Lots of people are talking about the picture you posted online of you eating a big plate of pasta in Italy.
    Yeah. I went to Italy, and I consumed way too many calories a day, but I didn’t care. Bill and I made a deal on the plane over that we can’t say “no” to anything, including food. Like if Bill says, “Let’s have a crepe,” I can’t say no — even though I just had a gelato, and I’m full. We indulged like crazy for two weeks, but we took really long walks in the vineyards, and we stayed active. And when we got back to Los Angeles, we were back at Equinox the next day on the treadmill.

    If you could say anything to those weight critics, what would it be?
    I eat whatever I want. I never starve myself. I eat five times a day — if not more. I workout every day and bust my butt to stay in shape, which can be six to seven days a week.

    The Dirtiest Scenes In Film: Non-Porn Sex Scenes

    Movies, in many ways, are about fulfilling our wishes and seeing our fantasies lived out on screen. Sometimes, it's being a sports hero or brave soldier; others, it's creating fairytale romances.

    And then there's the dirty stuff.

    While buckled down society frowns on certain words, turns of phrases and bursts of charged, breathy ecstasy, Hollywood embraces it. Very often, in a hilarious fashion, too. Which is why the geniuses over at FilmDrunk surveyed their audience and put together this amazing clip of the greatest, raunchiest, most hilarious non-porn dirty talk and sex scenes in recent film memory.

    Sure, some are more disturbing when put into their context, but the word choices alone make them at least semi-laugh worthy. From films such as "Last Tango In Paris," "Me, You and Everyone We Know," "Superbad," "Knocked Up," and so many more, check out the selection below -- and make sure you head over to FilmDrunk to get the low down on how they make their picks and what they have to say about them.

    Of course, actors themselves aren't always so fond of them -- check out this list of all the greatest quotes about sex scenes being "awkward."

    Warning: this is most definitely a bit graphic and NSFW (unless you're wearing headphones or work at home).

    Awkward Family Photos: Vacation 2011 Edition

    It all starts with the best of intentions. Mom and Dad, feeling that the family needs to spend more time together, decide that we should take a vacation ... but between the itineraries, the sunburns, and the sing-alongs, the only thing relaxing about a family vacation is when we finally make it home.
    To see more awkward vacation pics or be a part of the Embassy Suites Awkward Family Vacation Photo Contest, where submitting one of your embarrassing family shots can win you a $20,000 vacation, click here

    Lady Friend: Angela Turkusowa Photo Gallery

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