People: Esquire names Minka Kelly sexiest woman alive - San Jose Mercury News

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Contra Costa Times

Posted: 10/11/2010 03:06:17 PM PDTUpdated: 10/11/2010 03:31:53 PM PDT
Derek Jeter's main squeeze play is making headlines all by herself.

Esquire magazine named Minka Kelly the Sexiest Woman Alive in its November issue, which hits stands a week from today. Kelly, 30, who played cheerleader Lyla Garrity for four seasons on "Friday Night Lights" before seguing into the "Parenthood" TV series, dated that model of celebrity dating discretion, singer John Mayer, before seguing into New York Yankee Jeter.

The brunette, who talks more about her late exotic dancer mother than her Aerosmith guitarist father (Rick Dufay, if you must know), tells the magazine, "I'm confident ... in my skin, and I'm cool with my flaws and all that stuff. It just feels nice to be at peace with yourself. I think my 30th birthday gave me permission to have all that. The 20s were a pain in the (gluteus maximus)."

Kelly did what she says is her first sexy photo shoot in the November Esquire. On the cover, she wears a gray half-shirt and pants that look like they're falling off her pelvis, the better to show off her abs.

OPRAH IS NOT PLEASED: Oprah Winfrey said she was "profoundly disappointed" by the Monday acquittal of Tiny Virginia Makopo, former matron at Winfrey's school for girls in South Africa.

Prosecutors had accused Makopo of trying to kiss and fondle girls at the school soon after it opened in 2007 outside Johannesburg. Makopo also had been accused of assaulting

one teen as well as a fellow supervisor.

Winfrey had called the allegations crushing given her own stated history of childhood sexual abuse and promised an overhaul of the school.

"I will forever be proud of the nine girls who testified with the courage and conviction to be heard," Winfrey said in a statement Monday.

The lavish $40 million Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, which opened in January 2007, aims to give girls from deprived backgrounds a quality education in a country where schools are struggling to overcome the legacy of apartheid.

THAT WASN'T SNOW ON HOTH: A long time ago, on a movie set far, far away, Carrie Fisher did a drug she didn't even like because she wanted the high.

According to the New York Post, Fisher told Australian news agency AAP that she "did cocaine on the set of 'Empire' ('The Empire Strikes Back'), in the ice planet." Fisher, for those who didn't read her father Eddie's obituaries last month, is best known for playing Princess Leia in the first "Star Wars" film trilogy.

"I didn't even like coke that much," she said. "It was just a case of getting on whatever train I needed to take to get that high."

Fisher, 53, is in Sydney performing her one-woman stand-up show, "Wishful Drinking."

INSERT "NAILS ON A CHALKBOARD" JOKE HERE: Teen singer Justin Bieber is known for his distinctive bang-heavy hairstyle. But when you see his name at a Wal-Mart cosmetic counter near you, it won't be at the hairpiece aisle.

Bieber, 16, has partnered with Nicole by OPI to design a collection of nail polishes inspired by his hit songs. The line debuts exclusively at Wal-Mart in December.

This just in: Adam Lambert, who actually does wear nail varnish, is furious at being beaten to the punch.

Those familiar with OPI's way with forced puns will groan even before hearing such proposed polish names as "One Less Lonely Girl," "Me + Blue" and "OMB!", the last of which is a bright red, according to AOL's Style List.

THE WEDDING MARCH: Celebrities took advantage of that 10/10/10 date Sunday to make it their wedding date. Now to see how many of these mergers make it to 11/11/11:

"American Idol" runner-up Crystal Bowersox, 25, and longtime friend Brian Walker, who wed Sunday in Chicago. "Brothers & Sisters" actor Dave Annable, 31, and "Cloverfield" actress Odette Yustman, 25, who wed Sunday in Ojai in a ceremony officiated by Annable's co-star Ron Rifkin. "Spy Kids" actress Alexa Vega, 22 (yes, she's old enough, and yes, you ARE old), and "Napoleon Dynamite" producer Sean Covel, 34, who wed Sunday in Lead, S.D. "Spy Kids" director Robert Rodriguez walked the bride down the aisle. MICHAEL SPRUNG: Wayward singer George Michael was released from jail Monday after serving almost four weeks for driving under the influence of drugs.

Michael thanked those who had supported him while he was jailed and said outside his north London home: "I just want to start again."

The former Wham! singer received an eight-week sentence Sept. 14 for crashing his car into a London photo shop in July while high on prescription drugs and marijuana.

The judge ordered Michael to serve four weeks of the sentence in prison and the rest on parole. The musician also lost his driver's license for five years.

1492 (Old Style calendar): Christopher Columbus arrived with his expedition in the present-day Bahamas.
1810: The German festival Oktoberfest was first held in Munich to celebrate the wedding of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.
1870: General Robert E. Lee died in Lexington, Va., at age 63.
1915: English nurse Edith Cavell was executed by the Germans in occupied Belgium during World War I.
1933: Bank robber John Dillinger escaped from a jail in Allen County, Ohio, with the help of his gang, who killed the sheriff, Jess Sarber.
1960: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev disrupted a U.N. General Assembly session, supposedly by pounding his desk with his shoe (although there's some question about whether the shoe-pounding actually occurred).
1960: Japanese Socialist Party leader Inejiro Asanuma was stabbed to death during a televised debate in Tokyo by an ultranationalist student, Otoya Yamaguchi, who hanged himself in jail.
1968: The Summer Games of the 19th Olympiad officially opened in Mexico City.
1984: British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escaped an attempt on her life when an Irish Republican Army bomb exploded at a hotel in Brighton, England, killing five people.
2000: Seventeen sailors were killed in a suicide bomb attack on the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen.
2002: A bomb blamed on Islamic militants destroyed a nightclub on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people, many of them foreign tourists.
2005: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder announced he would not participate in Germany's new coalition government, ending seven years in power.BIRTHDAYSComedian-activist Dick Gregory (78), former Sen. Jake Garn, R-Utah (78), singer Sam Moore of Sam and Dave (75), broadcast journalist Chris Wallace (63), actress-singer Susan Anton (60), rock singer-musician Pat DiNizio (55), actor Carlos Bernard (48), jazz musician Chris Botti (48), R&Bs singer Claude McKnight of Take 6 (48), rock singer Bob Schneider (45), actor Hugh Jackman (42), actor Adam Rich (42), R&B singer Garfield Bright of Shai (41), country musician Martie Maguire of the Dixie Chicks (41), actor Kirk Cameron (40), Olympic gold medal skier Bode Miller (33). -- Associated Press

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