American Vogue's January 2011 edition brings the not unexpected offering of new-year transformations and "Fashion 2011". Bonus inclusions are stories on fatness (notice the all-inclusive "Why we get fat"?) and "beauty secrets of women you envy", to get the year off to a positive start. Dear God, please don't let the "women you envy" include supermodels – because there's only one thing more patronising than learning model eating tips; and that's model beauty tips. In the Natalie Portman cover feature, we get a glimpse into her eating habits, which were warped for the period she spent filming the "stylised horror tale" Black Swan, in which she plays an anorexic ballerina called Nina with lesbian tendencies and major psychological issues (see: "The Good Girl Takes on Her Most Provocative Role Yet" – is she competing with Anne Hathaway on this confrontational front?).
Portman's portrayal of Nina is described by Vogue as, "a tour de force that takes the audience inside Nina, keeps you with her as she transgresses taboos, and makes you participate, for a few thrilling moments when Nina becomes the swan, in the kind of transcendent self-loss that only artists know." Sounds like an Oscar nom endorsement to me!
In defense of her slim physique, vegan Portman declares that she eats her "own weight in hummus every day" but adds, "I’m tough on myself in terms of the standards I want to live up to, but that’s also part of my pleasure: knowing you are being your fullest self. Being your fullest self is a lot of work... It’s almost more important for me to be going at something full force than what the specific thing actually is."
The micro-finance advocate also tells Joan Juliet Buck, "I try not to read reviews or anything about me. It’s totally natural to be interested, but it’s completely damaging. Over the almost 20 years I’ve been working, I’ve been up, I’ve been down, I’ve been in, I’ve been out. Just getting to do the work is the privilege. I always feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. The one thing you have control over is having a great experience by doing your work fully."
Someone who'd know a thing or two about control and living at full force is Oprah Winfrey, who has hijacked all Australian landmarks, A-List celebrities and media (including this blog), and – surprise! – features on the January 2011 cover of her magazine. Like Vogue, O offers up editorial for making fresh starts, and losing fat, using Oprah herself (and her trainer Bob Greene) as the inspiration – 2011 represents the year she goes it alone with the Oprah Winfrey Network.
To mark the occasion, she's giving readers an in-depth preview of OWN's lineup, which includes BFF Gayle King (The Gayle King Show) and Sarah Ferguson (Finding Sarah) amongst the 600 hours of original programming scheduled for 2011. Black Eyed Pea will.i.am has even lent the song "Own It" to the promotional video. The new pay-TV network, the grand extension of her hourly daytime talk show, launches January 1.
"I want to take what I've established in daytime — inspiring people and giving them hope, and some cars — and build on that, 24-7, OWN-style," Winfrey reportedly told advertisers. "OWN will be the network built on great intentions."
New mum Amy Adams is happy to wear the innocent good-girl tag, though she tells marie claire it's a misnomer. "In my 20s, boy, I was a hot mess," she tells the magazine, which has orchestrated an interview with the star while she takes an erotic dancing class. "Some mom friends said it's a good way to lose the baby weight," she tells writer Christine Lennon. "And I'll do anything to get off of that treadmill."
Fittingly, Adams plays against type, taking on the role of a "tough, sexy bitch" in the upcoming The Fighter. Let's hope daughter Aviana is forgiving of her mummy's movie choices when she grows up and knows that there are other ways a lady can assert her femininity without getting down and diiiiirty in a movie or baring one's cleavage on a glossy cover.
The roles we all play tend to bite us back in the bum.
Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel