I’m sure you’ve all heard the news that Gwen Stefani is pregnant with her second child. Congrats to her, I adore Gwen! Her individual style, fashion career, lovely personality and attitude are a positive example that I admire. Plus, I was and still am a huge No Doubt fan. I’m so excited because she is just about as far along as I am, so we could be labor buddies come August! Except for the fact that my child’s birth won’t be chronicled in People, US Weekly and every other news medium of course!

What a sad loss for his family, friends, fans and especially his 2 year old daughter. Details are still emerging on the cause of his sudden death at such a young age. We’ve truly lost an amazing and talented actor today.

Totally unrelated to fashion and beauty, but are you as nervous about the Writer’s Guild of America strike as I am? I am a complete tv junkie, with my two tivos and all. My even more tv-obsessed friend, Mike, luckily started a new feature on his personal blog to give out ideas for DVD watching in the coming months. I’ll either have to add more DVDs to my Blockbuster queue, start watching waaay more reality shows or just play Scrabble instead. I’m really exaggerating here but a little part of me will be sad if my shows go into hiatus for awhile. Let’s see, I watch: The Office, Ugly Betty, Grey’s, Heroes, Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, The Soup, What Not To Wear, The Colbert Report, Amazing Race, and The Hills (I know, shameful) weekly. Then throw in my daily addicted-since-childhood viewing of The Young and The Restless and an occasional Oprah, HGTV or Food Network show. Holy crap! I have a serious problem. Although not watching commercials cuts the time down by at least 30 percent and I do get a ton done like cleaning and cooking while the tube is on. I would be most devastated by a break in Y&R, it is as strong as my dependence on Diet Coke. Rational? No. Necessary to live? Of course! (The pic is of the cast and the 18 years at #1 celebration earlier this year. They also just reached a record breaking 100 Emmy’s won. See, they are special!) Anyway, I’m just whining now. And I’ve just confessed my tv-aholic ways to you all, I’m a little embarassed!

So the Emmy’s are over. My thoughts on this year’s show: Ryan Seacrest did a pretty good job, the sensor cutting to a silent backstage shot was seriously annoying, the round stage looked cool but was not so cool for the people sitting behind it the whole night, there are WAY too many mini-series awards given out, and why was Kanye West there again?? My fave parts of the show were America Ferrera winning (Yay, Ugly Betty!), Terry O’Quinn’s acceptance speech (Yay, Lost!), Elaine Stritch and her adorable banter with the audience (“I’m not faking this, I really don’t know what the hell I’m doing,” she said and then squinted intensely to try to read the telepromter. She practically stole the show!), and especially when Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert presented an award, complete with a leaf blower and giving the award away to Steve Carell after the winner was a no show! They should host it together next year, that would be hilarious! My best dressed picks are: Eva Longoria in Kaufman Franco, America Ferrera in Monique Lhuillier, and Katherine Heigl in Zac Posen. Gorgeous! (images via People)

Hooray for more fashion shows on television! My favorite snobby yet endearing fashion guru, Tim Gunn, has his own show on Bravo- Tim Gunn’s Guide To Style on Thursday nights. The premiere last night was great and it only lasts for eight weeks so you should totally put on your Tivo list! Tim Gunn helps style victims find their signature look (and gives them a closet full of designer frocks) with a bit of firm but lovable guidance like only he can deliver. He even cried at the end of the show yesterday, awwww! On the show’s website Gunn says, “I want every woman to achieve her style zenith.” I mean, anyone who can perfectly interject a word like zenith into a normal sentence is pure genius in my book. I’m going to have to remember that next time I play Scrabble!

Oh, American Idol…I love to hate you and love you at the same time. You make me so mad and excited and addicted. Here’s my thoughts after last night, I love Jordin Sparks from my very own Valley of the Sun! She is cute, perky and has an amazing voice. I also adore Chris Sligh, he may not look like a typical American Idol but he has an awesome personality and great style to his singing. I love his song choices too. I am sooo sick of people picking cheeseball songs that you would never want to hear on the radio today (at least I wouldn’t want to hear “Queen of the Night” ever again.) My other faves are Blake Lewis and Lakisha Jones. One more thing, who in their right mind is voting for Sanjaya and Antonella? They were AWFUL this week and last (AJ should not have went home either.) But, we know it’s like this every year, so bring on the drama! 

I know it’s a day late but I’m finally recovered from my sickness, so here’s my take on this year’s Oscars show. Is it just me or was it extremely long and boring? Not that I don’t love Ellen, she has subtle humor that is not crude or rude in the slightest and a goofy sweetness that is endearing. But I missed a little bit of the shock factor of past hosts. It also seemed like the acceptance speeches were more subdued than usual as well, where’s all the screaming and inappropriate political tirades? It’s what I’ve come to expect from Hollywood types! And although there were many beautiful dresses and accessories (my faves are Reese and Nicole), I was sadly missing some fashion train wrecks to spice things up a little. I guess in an age of celebrity stylists, we just have to expect that the days of Demi’s biker shorts and Cher’s Bob Mackie costumes are a thing of the past (except Bjork and Imogen Heap, we’ll always have them!) Overall, it was a  so-so Oscar night for me. Here’s looking forward to next year and if you’ll allow me to go off on a tangent for a bit… I saw the cover of the new GQ with my favorite-crush-since-grade-school actor Christian Bale on the front and I nearly died because the headline said “Next Year’s Oscar goes to…Christian Bale” and if that happened I would be so ecstatic, I would frame the Seventeen magazine article I saved of him from 1994’s Little Women and pass legislation that would make it mandatory for all children to watch Newsies and Swing Kids as well as a law that would prevent Christian from ever looking like he did in the Machinist because that almost broke my heart and the world would know me for the true Balehead I am! Wow, that took awhile to let out and now reading back on it I sound like a totally psycho woman. But don’t worry, my husband knows about my little crush (plus no actor crush can come close to the one I have on him)!  

I couldn’t resist, I know this is going to blind you all and make you either scream or throw up but I couldn’t help myself. Usually, I don’t like to poke fun at celebrities because, you know, I try to be nice and kind and give people the benefit of the doubt. But this is just too much, I think it goes down as the worst outfit (if you can even call it that) worn in public EVER. Seriously, what was she thinking? Remember sweet, innocent, swan-like, Olympic champion Oksana Baiul? Now she goes to parties hosted by girlie magazines wearing what can only be described as a bedazzled girdle…and what’s with the shoes?? I mean, if you’re going to let it all hang out like that, you’d think she’d wear some lucite, 5-inch platforms or something. Not ladylike shoes meant for an outfit like a DVF wrap dress. I am not even going to touch the whole matching issue or the accessories or the hair, it would take too long. But, I am so very perplexed by this, do you think she drank too much Cuervo and forget to put on her skirt? Maybe she ripped a hole in her dress while in the limo and decided to just wing it? Maybe she really wants to be in that girlie mag and thinks this outfit would impress the Hef? I need answers!!
(photo credit: AP Photo/Carlo Allegri)

Ten observations while watching the kickoff of the new American Idol Season 6 last night:
1. Jewel is so cute, it’s nice to see a girl in Hollywood looking healthy and semi-natural!
2. Paula is drunk…or taking too many meds. There has to be a reason for her insanity.
3. I loved Rachel Jenkins, the girl in the Army Reserves with the husband in Iraq, she was adorable!
4. Did anyone else notice that Randy wasn’t saying “dog” or “dude” every other sentence?
5. Sarah Krueger who got through singing “Somwhere Over The Rainbow,” her voice was okay but her shoes were seriously awful!
6. Man, my homestate of Minnesota looked baaadd. So many weirdos at these auditions! But hearing those Minnesotan accents made me miss my family there:)
7. My fave bad moments? Tied between Mariah Carey Man, who stopped for a water break, and spoke in complete run-on sentences in a montone voice and the Biggest Fan ever girl who went last and sang “Under Pressure.” HILARIOUS! Oh and honorable mention to ”the other door.” I don’t know why but that cracked me up!
8. Did you notice in the waiting room all the people featured on the episode were sitting by each other? They must decide beforehand who is actually going to been shown on TV out of the 10,000 people who audition…
9. My favorite Simon moment was watching him during the Cowardly Lion meets Chewbacca performance, his stare was priceless!
10. Can’t wait for tonight and the craziness in Seattle (Paula’s TV interview about it was so bizarre but I couldn’t stop watching!) Isn’t guilty pleasure reality TV awesome!?

I just saw this picture of Gwen Stefani wearing one of her very own L.A.M.B. blazers and I love it! It brings back memories of being in high school during the grunge era, when dressing for class was so easy because you only had to decide which plaid flannel shirt you were going to wear that day, and of course the ripped jeans and Doc Martens too! But this outfit is nice because it’s as if grunge flannel met its glamorous alter ego and got spiffed up a bit. You can buy it at Kitson for $485…or you can wait until it goes on sale…or find a cheaper alternative. I did look for pieces at other stores that were similar but nothing even came close to the style of the original!