BeChicMag.com

ONE MINUTE WITH ED WESTWICK

On Halloween Night I was standing near the exit of a high-end restaurant in Manhattan when I spotted Gossip Girl’s Ed Westwick who plays villan Chuck Bass. He was wearing black leather pants with a matching sleeveless leather vest showing off his arms. As he was leaving, Westwick stopped right beside me and unexpectedly asked me if I would do him the favor of holding his orange silk scarf as he adjusted his halloween wig. A little star-struck I replied “Sure,” and watched him put on his waist-length black wig. I was a little confused as to what his costume was so I asked him without realizing how fun the next 30 seconds were going to be.

With his English accent the British stallion said, “I am me.”

- “You’re you?”

– “Fuck yes. I am me.”

- “Nice. Do you need help putting that on?”

And that’s when he just gave me a drunken smile and stuck out his tongue. The gesture was a little much for me, though the impromptu flirting with Gossip Girl’s bad boy was lots of fun. With the wig (and the exploiting of his tongue) he looked more like a member of Kiss but without all the make-up.

JENNIFER HUDSON GRABS OSCAR AND VOGUE COVER
By KIMBERLY WATERS

From the cold and windy streets of Chi town, to being a household name recognizable from American Idol, to landing the coveted role as “Effie” on the hit motion picture, Dreamgirls, to winning numerous awards and recognitions including a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild award, and now an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in a motion picture, Jennifer Hudson’s road to success has been an instant one.

Ever since the debut of Dreamgirls, Hudson’s popularity has skyrocketed. She recently graced the cover of Vogue, a publication that rarely displays ethnic beauty- making Hudson only the third African American woman behind Oprah Winfrey and Halle Berry to earn the esteemed cover. For a full figured woman to grace the cover of a magazine that reserved its cover for starlet beauties, the 25-year-old triple threat has knowingly redefined high fashion aesthetics and affirmed that black full figured women can be beautiful and fashionable. Read the rest of this entry »

In the midst of celebrity mayhem in Manhattan, we had the pleasure of chatting with renowned photographer Nigel Barker at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. The British-born and New York-based artist who stars as a judge panelist alongside Tyra Banks on America’s Next Top Model just finished taping for the hit series. He gave us the inside story on season eight which premieres on The CW on February 28th.

We both sat down in our front row, VIP seats to catch Gustavo Arango’s models hit the runway at the Altman building. In his sexy British accent Barker filled me in on what we could expect to see in the upcoming new episodes of ANTM- though he couldn’t say much. And that’s OK with us. We’ll just have to wait and see for ourselves. In the meantime, catch our short convo below…

BeChicMag: What are you doing now that you’re done taping for ANTM?
Nigel Barker: Well tomorrow I’m off to L.A. to shoot for GQ and I’m also working on other TV shows like Style Her Famous on the Style Network with Jay Manuel- art director for ANTM. And we start shooting season nine of Top Model in May.

BeChicMag: Who can we expect to see in season eight? Any famous guest appearances?
NB: We have the same panel of judges. I’m actually the longest standing judge there. We have Twiggy and J. Alexander- the usual crew is back again. We go to the furthest place we’ve ever been to on the show, really great cool place. An unusal place for us, but I can’t say anymore because I’m banned.

BeChicMag: How are girls this time around?
NB: They’re the craziest bunch of girls we’ve ever had. It’s going to be some fabulous TV. We definitely had fun making it.

Catch the two-hour season premiere of America’s Next Top Model on The CW on February 28th @ 8p.m. EST. *ms

New York with her 20 Bachelors

VH1 had two successful seasons with Flavor of Love, but there are plenty of reasons to believe the show wouldn’t have acquired as many ratings without Tiffany Patterson aka New York. From the infamous scene when she almost gave Pumpkin a concussion to her unexpected return in the Flavor of Love 2, New York kept viewers coming back for more. Starting this month, the 24-year-old starlet returns to VH1 with her own show I Love New York. Here’s what the queen of drama had to say about the anticipated series. Read the rest of this entry »