Who says there’s no appeal for the game in North America?

The new issue of Vanity Fair has a cover story on The World Cup and wisely choose to put star player and Emporio Armani underwear model Cristiano Ronaldo (right) on the cover along with Dider Drogba.

Now that’s ripped.

The only thing that would have made this better is if they had included the currently sidelined David Beckham with them.

The World Cup starts in just over a month.  I’ll be watching (boy , will I be watching)  will you?

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The good news?  It’s neither a has-been or a famewhore.   The bad news?  You’ve probably never heard of her.

Chely Wright is a country music star who also just happens to have a new album called Lifted Off The Ground as well as a memoir, Like Me being released this week. 

It’s all about cross-promotion these days.

Her book gives insight on her experiences living as a closeted lesbian in the country music sub-culture, which tends to be kind of conservative (when they’re not singing about bar fights, random hook-ups, cheatin’ spouses and vandalizing the cars of douchebags) in it’s views, especially when it comes to homosexuality.  

While Chely deserves props for being herself and no longer keeping things on the down low, I can’t help but be a little under-whelmed with her announcement.  I was sort of hoping it might be someone…bigger. 

That being said, today is only May 3rd.  Does this mean there’s someone else coming out May 5th that no one knows about yet?

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Finally!  Men’s Health gets a celeb to go shirtless for their May cover in what seems like ages. 

Approve whole heartedly of the choice too.  Ryan Phillippe may be a bit of a douche, but, well…just look at him.  Yowza.

Ryan is busy starting to promote MacGruber, the movie based on the SNL skit.  Ugh.  How do you go from being part of an ensemble Oscar winnner (Crash) and working with Clint Eastwood (Flags of Our Fathers), to drek like that?  Things must be tough all over, even for really pretty 35 year old men, or maybe he just wanted the money.  A cheque is a cheque after all.

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Oh dear, this won’t go over well with the soccer mom brigade.

Some things may seem like a good idea at the time but hindsight (and parents ire) often prove them to be otherwise.  Such is the case with the spread in V-Man magazine, which showcases the main characters of the Shrek movies in a series of suggestive photos with a bunch of male and female models, some in various stages of undress.

Cue the self-rightous outrage from watchdog groups and parents!

A spokesminion from Dreamworks issued a statement saying, “While we do respect V-man’s creative vision, the shoot did not turn out the way originally envisioned when the idea was first presented by the magazine. In hindsight, we would have declined to include the ‘Shrek’ characters in such a magazine spread.”

Actually most parents with young kids (if they stop to think about it for a second) get it. V-Man is hardly the type of magazine to be picked up by the age ten and under crowd and if you’ve seen the first three movies, half the humour is suggestive and aimed at adults anyway. 

On the bright side, this will certainly get people talking about the fourth installment of the franchise, Shrek Forever After, although maybe not in the way it was originally intended.

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Infamous un-authorized celebrity biographer Kitty Kelley has turned her attention to the mighty Opes. 

How long before Kelley has to go into hiding?  

According to the author, Oprah (wait until you hear this…) is a bit of a control freak who’s quite the power player.  

An extremely successful career minded billionaire, controlling and calling the shots? 

SHOCKING!

Kelley claims she’s been blacklisted from promoting her book by various heavy hitters in the industry, including David Letterman, Barbara Walters, and Larry King (King denies this). 

Kelley appeared on the Today Show earlier this morning, where she called Matt Lauer “brave“ for interviewing her.  Looks like his career and popularity are about to take a hit, if Kelly’s stories about Oprah’s clout are correct.

The biggest revelation in the book (so far) is that Oprah had a relationship with John Tesh (Entertainment Tonight, now born-again, new age musician) back in the 70′s when they lived together in Nashville, Tennessee.  The relationship ended when Tesh allegedly bailed on her in the middle of the night due to the social pressures of being an interracial couple. 

Other tidbits?  Oprah’s mother can’t reach her daughter directly and must go through her assistant like everyone else.  Given some of the stories Oprah herself has given about her childhood, and upbringing, this news doesn’t exactly come as a surprise.

As for those rumours about Winfrey and the ever present Gayle King, Kelly thinks the mighty Opes is actually “asexual” and is one of those people whose entire focus and energy is put into their career.

If so, it seems to be working for her.

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Alexandar Skarsgard (Eric on True Blood) is profiled in and graces the cover of the new Details magazine on sale April 13.

Also covered in this issue?  The male multiple orgasam.

1. Intriguing

2. Coincidenece?  (I think not.)

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Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the bookstore….

Looks like Stephenie Meyer isn’t quite done with The Twilight Saga after all.

Three weeks prior to the movie, an addition to Eclipse is being released on June 5 that follows one of the vampires that Victoria creates in her quest for revenge on Bella and Edward.

Meyer says this one is for her bank account the fans.  Apparently, the story evolved from an exercise the author did in exploring some of the darker elements that appeared in Eclipse into a 192 page novella.

Blatant cash grab or not, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is destined to be one of the top selling books of the summer, if not the year.

Haters to the left.

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Good news for Jennifer Aniston.  Looks like she’s finally going to be usurped as President and reining champion of the Sad and Lonely, Broken Hearted Club of Tabloid Covers by none other than Sandra Bullock.

Granted, the situation is quite different (dumped for another woman who wanted children as opposed to being married to an ex-biker who was pulling a Tiger Woods and possibly leaving him) but tabloids are very single minded with this sort of thing.

Will Jen take this lying down?  Or will she do something to ensure she appears on the covers again?

Stay tuned….

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Think The Devil Wears Prada only as a non fictionalized account and replace the “wears Prada” part with “makes gracious living look easy”.

This is the story of Mariana Pasternak’s friendship with Martha Stewart, who seems to have spent much of the time taking mental notes any occasion Martha did or said something questionable (at least in Mariana’s opinion).

Their “friendship” ended when the investigation of Martha for insider trading began and Pasternak threw Stewart under a bus cooperated with authorities.

Although the bit about Stewart charging Pasternak interest on money she loaned her to go on a trip to South America was priceless, the few excerpts available aren’t exactly jaw-dropping for a tell-all.  Martha gets mad at people, tends to tell them off, was jealous of Mariana (lots of examples of this behavior for some reason) and hasn’t been successful in the romance department since her divorce.

Mommie Dearest this ain’t.

“Mariana!  How many times must I tell you to separate the yolk and white prior to making a meringue?!”  Ok, Martha didn’t say that (as far as I know) but it sounds like her, no? 

She may be a bit of a bitch, but isn’t that why we sort of like her in the first place?

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Cool trend that started a couple of years ago with trailers being produced for books.  Unlike trailers for actual movies, the ones for books don’t tend to give away too much in an effort to lure you in.  Hollywood, pay attention.  

Sorry, I digress…

About a year ago, a “re-imagining” of Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice was published which introduced flesh eating zombies into the story.  English teachers and literary types without senses of humour were probably mortified at this turn of events, but the book caught on. 

Now a sequel is being published later this spring, and a trailer for it has surfaced hinting at what to expect. 

As for the original PPZ, it’s being turned into a film with Natalie Portman starring (she’s probably going to imagine she’s offing carnivores when her character dispatches zombies – method acting at it’s finest) and producing the movie.

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