Alexander McQueen protege Sarah Burton steals the show in Paris - The Guardian

Sarah Burton wins plaudits for her debut show as creative director of Alexander McQueen in Paris Photograph: Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images

It was undoubtedly the most anticipated debut at Paris fashion week. Tonight Sarah Burton presented her first womenswear collection as the creative director at Alexander McQueen. In an extraordinarily beautiful show, Burton succeeded in both being faithful to the late designer's distinctive design ethos while taking the label into a new era.

As the first model wearing a white tailcoat with frayed edges walked down a catwalk of bare wooden planks with mossy grass poking through the cracks, the audience were in no doubt this was a McQueen show. But as it progressed it became apparent that this was a new, softer McQueen collection. There was none of the angst and aggression of previous catwalks; this was an altogether more feminine McQueen woman. The makeup was simple, the hair was plaited but uncomplicated.

The show celebrated craftsmanship and was inspired by the raw power of nature. Some of the more astonishing show pieces included a structured dress made from hand-painted feather butterflies, a trouser suit made from leather tooled into ivy leaves and a very pagan-looking "corn dolly" dress. Wedge shoes were hand-carved into the shape of butterflies and laquered to look like porcelain.

It was unmistakably the house of McQueen but there were new, more feminine shapes too. Ethereal dresses in layers of organza and printed silk looked bohemian – a departure for the label. Colours were predominately blonde, gold, black and ivory, while exaggerated hips idealised the feminine shape.

After the show, Alexandra Shulman, editor of British Vogue, said Burton had "taken away the angst and drama of the McQueen woman. All she had to do tonight was too say 'I'm here, this is my woman' and I thought she did that perfectly".

As the models lined up for the finale to a soundtrack of Michael Jackson hit I'll Be There, the goodwill surrounding the designer who had worked under McQueen for 14 years, was apparent – the applause came easily.

Backstage the designer, who still had a pair of scissors in her back pocket, was repeatedly congratulated, but she remained humble. "It's not just me, I have an amazing team," she said.

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Justin Bieber might host ‘Punk’d': Would you watch?

Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage.comUp to now, Justin Bieber has been a sweet, smiling bearer of good cheer — not to mention catchy hooks — in the pop universe. But the 16-year-old star might just be getting ready to show off his mischievous side in a revival of MTV’s Punk’d.

According to Deadline, Bieber is in final negotiations to host a reboot of the celeb-pranking reality show created by Ashton Kutcher, who will exec produce this new version. That means a Twitter team-up of Bieber (the site’s No. 4 most-followed user) and Kutcher (No. 3); something tells us the site’s birdie mascot is already fluffing its feathers in anticipation.

We’re not entirely sure whether or not Bieber’s fanbase be on board for a series that shows off the darker side of their tween idol. (Remember Punk’d is the show that made Justin Timberlake cry and nearly gave heart attacks to the likes of Beyoncé, Mandy Moore, and Zac Efron.) Kutcher pulled it off with frat-guy charm, but we haven’t seen that part of Bieber yet. Is it possible the “Somebody to Love” singer has just been looking for somebody to punk all along?

Do you think a Bieber-hosted Punk’d sounds like a good idea? Or should he leave the sneak attacks to the grown-ups? Sound off in the comments!

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Lil Wayne Won't Serve More Time Because Of MP3 Player - MTV.com

Lil Wayne will have plenty of time to himself during his final four weeks in jail at New York's Rikers Island. The rapper (born Dwayne Carter) was placed in solitary confinement on Monday as a result of an incident in May when guards found a pair of headphones and an MP3 player charger in his cell.

Luckily for Wayne, who has been behind bars since March as a result of a plea deal on a gun-possession charge, the infraction won't push back his tentative November 4 release. "It doesn't change his projected release date," said Stephen Morello, a spokesperson for the New York City Department of Correction. "It's a serous infraction because it's contraband, but it's not a weapon, and by comparison to a more violent infraction of the rules, like assaulting another inmate or an officer, [it's not as serious]." Why is Wayne just now getting put in solitary if the incident happened back in May? Morello explained that Rikers officials prioritize inmates who are guilty of violent infractions, so, in essence, Weezy had to wait for his turn in solitary until the harder cases finished their time in the hole.

As far as Morello knows, Wayne, 28, has not had any other infractions since May. As a result of the rule violation, though, Wayne will spend up to 23 hours a day in "punitive segregation," where he will be allowed one hour of solo recreation a day and will only be allowed to leave his cell for attorney visits, religious services or medical care. "Other than that, he will be confined to his cell, he'll have his meals there, and he'll have reduced phone privileges and not even use the public phone; one will be brought to him," Morello said. Wayne's lawyer, Stacey Richman, declined to comment for this article.

The Grammy-winning rapper pleaded guilty in October 2009 to attempted criminal possession of a weapon, admitting that he had a loaded handgun on his tour bus when it was stopped after his first headlining show in New York in 2007; the deal allowed him to cut down a potential one-year sentence to eight months with good behavior.

In addition to the headphones and charger officials found inside a potato chip bag in a garbage can in Wayne's cell — inmates can only listen to music on gear sold at the jail commissary — they also found the MP3 player itself in another inmate's cell.

Cash Money Records boss Bryan "Baby" Williams" said a big party is being planned for Weezy's release, most likely in Miami. "We still haven't really made up our mind," Birdman told MTV News. "I think what's important, we want to see family first. If the concert happens, it happens. But right now, we just want to come home and see our family and party, I think. That's what we gonna do: just come to Miami, and just party for a minute. Work and party and play. Have the whole team out here, and we gonna do it up. Miami is gonna be Weezy world. Weezy weekend."

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Donald Trump for president in 2012?

Image Credit: Virginia Sherwood/NBCThe Apprentice is getting fired by TV viewers, but billionaire Donald Trump already has his next gig in mind: President of the United States of America. Trump told Fox News today that he’s “thinking about” a run for the Republican nomination in the 2012 presidential race. “I’ve been asked for years to do it, and I had no interest,” said Trump, who insisted that the announcement is no joke. “I’m totally being serious because I can’t stand what’s happening to the country. First time I am being serious about it.”

When asked for his reasons, the real estate mogul-turned-reality TV personality spoke passionately about business relations between the U.S. and China, saying that the Asian nation is poised to crush the U.S. in the world economy. He also said he’s prepared for the modest salary of Commander in Chief — mere pennies compared to his earnings as the CEO of the Trump Organization. “It’s a big pay cut, that’s true,” he admitted.

Of course, we’ve got a few questions that the Fox team didn’t throw at Trump. Would he relocate the Oval Office to Trump Towers? Would he run with or against fellow Republican reality TV vet Sarah Palin? Would Ivanka get a cabinet post? And would he turn his term into a slick reality series, complete with a live results show for all legislation?

What do you think of a Trump 2012 campaign, PopWatchers? And what else would you want to ask The Donald about his plans?

Read more:
‘The Apprentice’ recap: Barking Mad

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Discovery to woo ‘Deadliest Catch’ stars back?

Production on season 7 of Deadliest Catch is expected to begin next week in Alaska’s Dutch Harbor despite the news that stars Sig Hansen and Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand have left the show because of a legal dispute. Discovery sued the Hillstrands for failing to finish work on a Catch spin-off; the brothers countersued that the lawsuit would force them to sell their boats, so they quit the show. (Though he wasn’t involved in the lawsuit, Hansen backed the Hillstrands and left too.) The network isn’t commenting, but there may be an 11th hour attempt to woo the captains back. Until then, Catch will still follow boats The Wizard, The Kodiak, and the sons of the late Phil Harris who will continue on the Cornelia Marie. The show may find replacements for the Hillstrands’ Time Bandit and Hansen’s Northwestern.

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Qualcomm Suspends Sales Of Mobile Video Devices - Wall Street Journal

(Updates with analyst comment and background.)

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) said Tuesday it would suspend sales of devices that run on its mobile broadcast video service, taking the first steps toward scuttling its entire project and freeing up some valuable wireless spectrum for sale.

The San Diego wireless chip manufacturer said that customers of its FLO TV service would continue to receive programming into Spring 2011. The company also said that it expects layoffs related to the suspension, and brought up the prospect that the service would be discontinued altogether.

FLO TV service, a form of broadcast TV ...

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'Social Network': No girls allowed?

Image Credit: Merrick MortonThe Social Network has turned out to be the rare pop cultural phenomenon that is everything we hoped it would be. Smart, riveting, and very much of our time, it provides endless fodder for intellectual dissection and further exploration. The fact that it has become so all-engrossing, however, makes one glaring fact about it all the more disturbing: Its downright appalling depiction of women.

I want to recommend this film unequivocally to anyone who hasn’t seen it, but it’s hard to get past its female problem. I get that it’s ostensibly non-fiction. I know there aren’t a heck of a lot of female computer science majors, period — women make up about 15 percent of top university classes in the subject, according to some estimates — and I know that regardless of percentages, it’s a fact that no women were involved in founding Facebook. And it would be nothing short of condescending for screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and director David Fincher to have concocted some fictional spunky-girl nerd character or a wise female comp sci professor in an attempt to make their film more female-friendly.

But the way the women who do exist in the film are depicted is horrendous, like, ’50s-level sexist — if this were fiction, the snubs would be inexcusable. The shiniest example of female-dom is Rooney Mara’s idealized-woman-figure Erica Albright, who dumps anti-hero Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and, in a way, inspires him to start the company that eventually takes over the world. When Mark blogs nastily about her breast size and works out his rage at her by inventing “Facemash,” a viral hit allowing Harvard students to compare the hotness of co-eds on campus (before first considering comparing them to farm animals), it’s noted in the movie that this does not make him popular with female students. But that all seems to change once he invents the wildly popular Facebook. Then, we’re treated to a sequence in which a girl named Christy Lee (played by Suite Life of Zack & Cody‘s Brenda Song, in her I’m-not-a-kid-star-anymore moment) and her friend approach Zuckerberg and his business partner, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), because they’re the guys who made “the Facebook.” Oral sex in a public restroom ensues before Zuckerberg — inspired by a tense run-in with Erica — decides to expand the company. As he hands out orders back in his dorm room to his programming buddies, the girls look on blankly, until finally asking if there’s anything they can do to help — and being pointedly turned down, the floozy jokes of the otherwise geeky scene. Christy Lee will steal her most memorable moment on screen by setting something on fire, the ultimate crazy girlfriend.

From there, women in the movie are reduced to set pieces, gyrating, nearly naked scenery at parties, bimbo potheads, and mini-skirt-wearing interns meant to denote how far Zuckerberg has risen from his dorky beginnings. At one point, his mentor, Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) brings a Victoria’s Secret model along as his date, and her major function is to demand shots if the boys insist on talking about icky business stuff. Perhaps the most nuanced female character in the film is the object of Sean’s one-night-stand who happens to first introduce him to Facebook. At least she seemed to give him a run for his wits as she questioned whether he remembered her name or not — even if she was ultimately blown away to find out he’d founded Napster.

Without sifting through the backstories of Zuckerberg and company for strong female figures, it’s hard to know what the filmmakers could have done differently while still hewing to some version of the truth. And it’s clear that they’re showing us, for better or worse, how women function in these particular boys’ worlds, which, apparently, is as objects to be conquered with fame and fortune. The Social Network certainly provides, if nothing else, strong evidence that we still need feminism, that we need to inundate boys with it in particular — and that we need to nurture math and science skills in girls more than ever before, so they have as good a chance at changing the world as these guys did.

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12 world-changing documentaries

Influential for its epic scope, The Up Series has followed the same group of British children every seven years since 1964. The novel idea has been repeated in numerous other countries, and director Michael Apted is expected to start shooting the next entry in the series, 56 Up, by 2012.

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