girls rock !!

In quick succession, 5 contestants and then a further 2 were eliminated from the new series of Britain’s Next Top Model, hosted by the gorgeous Lisa Snowdon.

Although the double-episode first show struggled a bit to maintain the army bootcamp theme, the final 13 models (photo, with Lisa Snowdon top centre) achieved some good results.

Early indications are that there is the usual collection of moaners versus talent, with plenty of catty sniping already in the mix. 

Today.com require us to keep posts to a minimum, so see the full summary at Cheerleaders. 

The first show of the 2009 season of Britain’s Next Top Model was overloaded with the 20 wannabees. So many started with bad attitudes that they sounded like grumpy hornets rather than sweet honey bees.

Like all these competitions, it could be the bits we don’t see that make up the judges’ minds. Still compulsive viewing though, not least because of the gorgeous Lisa Snowdon (photo 1, centre).

The first elimination was of 5 hopefuls, and we were not surprised that Emma, Natasha and Jennifer had failed to impress the judges. It was more surprising about Emily and Natalie.

After the photoshoot competition, the next 2 to leave were perhaps more surprising, as Nell looked great during much of the show. Rebecca was a moaner, but certainly appeared more photogenic than Ashley or Daisy.

No doubt there will be many more surprises and upsets as the show progresses.

As Today.com has asked us to limit the size of posts and the number of images, go to Cheerleaders In High Heels for a full summary and more photos. 

It could be said that Vanity Fair would have a reasonable idea of the World’s Most Beautiful Woman, but even they must have been surprised at the results of their recent online poll. Not just the winning margin, but also the low ranking of stars like Beyonce Knowles and Carla Bruni.

The explanation behind the poll included the thought that modern-day Helens of Troy could start wars - and that is a pretty close description of what we term modern amazons.

So huge respect to Angelina Jolie (photo) for such a tremendous result. Another surprise, and also pleasant, was the comparatively high result for Jennifer Connelly, who we happen to have loved for years - through thick and thin.

• 1) Angelina Jolie 58 per cent
• 2) Gisele Bundchen 9 per cent
• 3) Halle Berry 4 per cent
• 4) Penelope Cruz 3 per cent
• 4) Scarlett Johansson 3 per cent
• 4) Jennifer Connelly 3 per cent

Of course we could be biased, but Angelina and Jennifer are more “complete” women than some of the others, having both acting and personal talents which show strong minds and passionate emotions. A great combination from our perspective.

The credit crunch has revealed that the so-called “adult” male-focussed business world got it all wrong. The money makers, in store and online, are products and services for the girls. You won’t find IBM, Microsoft or Nokia in the top 10 for girls, nor Toyota, McDonald’s or BMW.

The companies gaining success with the girls are the ones making big bucks. Which means Apple appear in the top 10 twice. The magic combination of the iPhone, iPod and iTunes give Apple a 97% majority for digital sales with teens - the consumers of tomorrow. That No. 2 slot for popularity with girls is worth 97 percent of sales in the sector.

The Apple Mac appears in the No. 9 slot because it works better and feels better. Therefore the efficient user interface and high quality design leave the Windows pretenders for dead. Girl-power on the keyboards, folks.

Freedom from male jargon and boy’s toys have made big impacts eleswhere, so Starbucks, which men think only ranks at 85, is No. 4 for girls. Again, think friendly and easy to use.

As Today.com requests we reduce post sizes and images, go to clik4music for the full rundown.

With her Fame Ball Tour inspiring fans throughout America and Canada, and her singles and album setting chart records in the States and the UK, Lady Gaga could be said to have “arrived” at centre stage.

As well as her music, Gaga is just as concerned with fashion and says they cannot really be separated: “When I’m writing music, I’m thinking about the clothes I want to wear on stage. It’s all about everything altogether — performance art, pop performance art, fashion.” To achieve the best, her own creative production team called Haus of GaGa create some of her fashion, stage props and hair treatments.

Never one to hold back, Lady Gaga (photo shows a typical fashion influence) also says, “For me, it’s everything coming together and being a real story that will bring back the super-fan. I want to bring that back. I want the imagery to be so strong that fans will want to eat and taste and lick every part of us.”

New single Poker Face will remain at the top of the UK singles chart, while mid-week charts show debut album The Fame will rise to the top of the album chart. Meanwhile Lady Gaga is making US Chart history by becoming the first artist of the new Millennium to top the US charts with her first two singles.

Madonna is well known for re-inventing herself, both in musical style and appearance. Following her creation of a range for Swedish high-street chain H&M  in 2007, the Material Girl is working on different materials, designed for high-end fashion with French fashion designer and entrepreneur Audigier.

The M by Madonna range was a huge hit with H&M shoppers, selling out as soon as it hit shelves, despite some pieces costing over £100 a pop. The new collection for Christian Audigier is thought to include tattoo-inspired T-shirts and diamante-encrusted T-shirts.

As well as Madonna, Audigier includes Michael Jackson and Britney Spears among his close friends, who both attended his extravagant birthday party in 2008.

Music star girls and fashion also go together regularly, especially with so many red carpet events and the need to look as attractive as possible. As you can see from Carrie Underwood (photo, right), high fashion and awards events are frequent bedfellows.

If your “pals” include Carrie Underwood, Eva Longoria, Brooke Shields, Lauren Hutton and Anjelica Huston, chances are you’ve been on the celebrity scene for a while. But when you can also boast exclusive photographs for your 20th anniversary by ace photographer Annie Leibovitz, you are pretty near the top of the field.

Which was the case when Annie posed fashion designers Mark Badgley and James Mischka alongside the music and film stars in celebration of the pair’s Badgley Mischka fashion line.

The 20th anniversary campaign will appear in April issues of magazines, including Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and InStyle. Badgley Mischka is available at Bloomingdales, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman, plus boutiques in West Hollywood and Boston.

Although the Top 13 contestants of American Idol had plenty to celebrate, and put on a perfect red-carpet performance, perhaps it was no surprise that the guest list would include ‘bikini girl’ Katrina Darrell who, in fairly tasteful green, accepted the opportunity for a little more self-marrketing.

The real ’stars’ included Allison Iraheta (photo 1) who mentions influences like Pink and Selena The 16-year-old always seems very comfortable with her style, which often includes her cherry red hair in contrast to punky clothes.

Big diamond hoop earrings were the choice for petite Alexis Grace (photo 2). Hailing from Memphis, Alexis has mentioned she will include more country flair in her upcoming performances.

Listing Bjork, Amy Winehouse and Adele as influences may not do Megan Corkrey (photo 3) many favors with the hardcore-pop Idol audience, but she doesn’t plan to change to get more votes. She said she’s happy just “doing what I do” and hopes people accept her.

Meanwhile, Katrina Darrell (photo 4) explained that she has been in a bikini many, many times prior to American Idol and so it just seemed to suit the very hot day and gave an opportunity to tan while waiting in line. “You know, I did runway modeling in my bikini so it’s nothing that hasn’t been seen before. I did runway for Ed Hardy, I’ve walked with Tyrese and Eva Pigford from America’s Next Top Model. I’ve done a lot of runway.” Nuff said.

DJ Scott Mills is in the house!  So the challenge for the British Best Friend contestants was to perform for Scott and Paris Hilton.

Paris explained: “I want a BF who is confident and enjoys performing. The challenge is more about confidence than performing.”

Kat is back in the house and sings Pussycat Dolls - she lacks the voice and the moves. Not a good start.

Chrissie danced to Katy Perry, then did a strip - saucy but still good burlesque. Also good was Flic with a great rap.

Next was more bad news. Samuel was pathetic. Meddy’s comedy routine was strained and rather offensive - to make fun of Barbie girls and LA in her routine was plain dumb. Ola tried a comedy dance routine and was just bad. Laura doing Shakespeare was terrible.

Most fake was Carrie trying to perform a Lyric Dance but with an imaginary injury. Even Scott Mills could see straight through her after just one meeting.

Emma had succeeded at annoying everyone trying to practice Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn but sounded rather good once she gort over her nerves. Paris even joined in.

Then Paris announced Chrissie, Flic and Emma were the finalists. As Chrissie had the most fun she took the prize - a gift from Shoe Heaven. Chrissie showed the most guts and had the most fun, which appealed to Paris who has burlesque friends in LA and could see how Chrissie would fit right in.

The game the next morning was Truth or Dare so everyone could get to know Kat better, although perhaps we got to know Emma better. Meanwhile Kat also joined the bandwagon of people who distrust Carrie.

The next challenge was Paris playing judge - bringing in the contestants’ best friends. Penny (for Carrie) was also OTT just like Carrie. Becky for Meddy was great and positive. Daniel for Chrissie was bright. Cathy for Laura was also good. Emma’s friend barely got a word in. Natasha for Flic was also a great supporter. Kat’s sister agreed that being direct was a huge benefit. Nothing really new but a strong confirmation of earlier impressions.

The next bombshell is that two BBFs are to be eliminated. Laura, Ola and Meddy are the bottom three - ye gods, why not Carrie?!?! Then Kat gets put on the spot and chooses Ola to go, then Paris chooses Laura because of lack of chemistry.

We are shocked that Meddy was in the frame - we hope she comes out fighting, just like Paris advised.

According to Dan, too much of life in high society is “reading, writing and aristocrats” and perhaps that is true off screen as well as on.

In our favourite show we hate ourselves for loving, Blair is on the warpath and, as usual, will probably hit the wrong target. The vendetta against Jenny will bring long term bad karma - we hope.

Serena is off the rails again and will end up in the gutter again, but not before she wrecks more lives, again. Sigh.

Meanwhile, back on the catwalk, disaster is averted: “How handy is it that society girls are so thin.” Although the storylines are a bit cringeworthy, Gossip Girl still acts as a great mirror on the rather fine line between fact and fantasy in our modern world.

One of those girls, Poppy, may be bringing some common-sense to the mix, and certainly looks amazing on the runway, although I doubt she will last long in the same circles as Blair.

Speasking of, loved the Blair “mix-up” which totally backfired and gave Jenny her big break.

And love that Jenny finally told her dad that she may be more talented than him, and also is not afraid to chase her dreams. He has been a limp wimp all through - and definitely no match for Lily.

XoXo - Blogit Girl

Photo shows Serena (sorry Blake Lively) in the real world, wearing Oscar de la Renta.