Heidi Klum is already in a Halloween state of mind
Introducing Stage 1 of the 2018 edition of Heidi Klum's annual, over-the-top Halloween costume. The "America's Got Talent" judge shared a short clip from what appears to be the shop at Prosthetic Renaissance Inc. in Los Angeles on Instagram Tuesday, Sept. 25, showing off the molded white innards of her next secret look, which she traditionally keeps under wraps until the night of her Halloween party. "Getting ready for #heidiklumhalloween2018 @prorenfx 👻🎃😱🕷," she captioned the clip. Describing last year's costume — Michael Jackson's Varsity letter jacket-clad "Thriller" video werewolf — she admitted the prosthetics she often uses for her costumes are no small commitment. "It takes a long time to lay the prosthetics but then putting it all together, it took seven hours," she told People in 2017. In previous years, she's hosted her bash as one of multiple Heidi Klum clones, as an elderly woman, a red witch, a zombie, a cadaver, a butterfly and a serpent, among other costumes.
RELATED: Is Heidi Klum engaged?
Rashida Jones is a mom!
Rashida Jones and her boyfriend, Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig, have quietly welcomed their first child. That's according to Us Weekly, which confirms the couple became parents "months ago." Rashida, 42, has long kept a low profile with her personal life, including relationships with other celebrities. (Neither she nor Ezra, who were first linked in 2016, according to Us, have ever gone public with their relationship.) She's been more forthcoming on her feelings about marriage and kids and the notion American women are supposed to settle into a life that involves both. "Things are changing so much," she told E! News in 2011. "Especially this country, we have kind of failed with marriage. We're so protective of this really sacred but failed institution. There's got to be a new model. I don't know what it is, but maybe it's like 10 years with a lease to buy or rent to own." A few years later, the "Claws" creator opened up to The Guardian about the pressure to get married and have children. "My life's great!" she said at the time. "But it's just this weird thing that's been hammered into my head culturally: that's the only way to succeed, that's the only thing that counts for a woman. I'm happy, but the fact that I'm not married and don't have kids — it's taken me a long time to get to a place where I actually am OK with that, where I actually don't feel like I'm some sort of loser."
RELATED: Stars who had babies in 2018
Christina Aguilera hosts an onstage proposal during the first show of her tour
That's more like it! Three weeks after Cardi B picked a physical fight with Nicki Minaj during Christina Aguilera's set at the Harper's Bazaar New York Fashion Week afterparty, a pair of audience members at the singer's Liberation tour kickoff show in Hollywood, Fla., put a different kind of passion on display. Christina had just finished singing "Unless It's With You," when she invited "two special people" onstage with her, according to E! News. "I want to share this with you guys," she told the audience as Ben Lear and Mike Kontomanolis stood by the pop idol. "I have a really special surprise that's happening tonight," Christina warned the crowd. That's when a watery-eyed Ben faced Mike and told him: "I could not have imagined you could have a better moment than [with] this woman, who has inspired you throughout your whole life and has brought you so many things." Thanking Christina for "being an inspiration to not only everybody here, but to him," Ben then got down on one knee and reached into his pocket. "You're kind, you're beautiful, you're loving," he said, holding an engagement ring. "Six years ago, you proposed to me and you gave me the opportunity to say 'yes.' Tonight, in front of Christina, I'm going to ask you the same question." Mike accepted the proposal, Christina let out a congratulatory "squeal," according to E!, and Mike thanked the singer for getting him "through so many important things" over the years. "I don't know where I would be if I didn't have you and your music to lift me up and just carry me through," he told her. Speaking to the audience and husbands-to-be, Christina explained: "I wanted to share and dedicate this special moment to two people who have been tried and true through my life and supported me. So, I want to wish you guys the best of luck. Thank you so much! Muah! Congratulations, you guys!" When they left the stage, Christina asked the audience, "Should we celebrate this? Should we celebrate the love?" then declared the res of the night a "wedding reception." Congrats!
RELATED: Celebrity weddings of 2018
Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation announces new development in New Orleans lawsuits
Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation has issued a new statement to People regarding lawsuits it's facing from two people the group built homes for in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward following Hurricane Katrina. In the lawsuits, the residents allege the houses turned out to have been "deficiently constructed and built" and that the organization has not been forthcoming with promised and much needed repairs. On Tuesday, Sept. 24, People posted an update to its original story, announcing the organization was suing the architect behind the homes in question. "[Make It Right] has filed a lawsuit against its former executive architect, John Williams, and his firm for monetary damages to remediate and repair affected homes in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, arising from his engagement with the Foundation," the statement read. "Make It Right continues to work proactively with homeowners in the Lower 9th Ward, and we will make no further comment on the case at this time." A source previously told People Brad planned to keep "the promise" he made the residents of the once flood-ravaged region of the city, and that he would "keep contributing money as he has been all this time." The source also noted that "repairs began months ago" on the homes.
Rihanna's house was broken into again
For the third time in less than a year, police raced to Rihanna's home in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles on Tuesday, Sept. 25. TMZ reports an alarm alerted the authorities around 10:30 p.m., after which neighbors said they'd seen three people speeding off in what was described as "a silver vehicle," though it was not immediately clear if anything had been taken. Rihanna was reportedly not in the house at the time. The break-in comes just weeks after police descended on the singer's home when the alarm went off by accident. In May, a man was caught after allegedly burglarizing the home and then spending the night there. He reportedly told police he was waiting for Rihanna so he could have sex with her. He was later charged with felony stalking and burglary, according to TMZ.
Gisele Bundchen suffered panic attacks, contemplated suicide in her 20s
Gisele Bundchen's health consciousness has grabbed headlines for years. But it turns out she didn't open herself to yoga, clean eating and a substance-free life until she started having panic attacks in her early twenties. At 38, the supermodel is set to release her first memoir, "Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life," on Oct. 2. In the book, she shares how, after a rocky start in the modeling world, she shot to fame following a topless appearance on the runway for Alexander McQueen before developing a form of crippling anxiety that left her contemplating suicide at one point. After her career took off, she started dating Leonardo DiCaprio and found herself on red carpets and at Hollywood's biggest events when she wasn't modeling, she writes. Being in her early 20s, she recalls feeling "indestructible" — at first. Gisele writes that she had her first panic attack on a plane. After moving to New York City from Brazil, the panic began to strike in all kinds of places — cars, subways, elevators, even in her own home. "I had a wonderful position in my career, I was very close to my family, and I always considered myself a positive person, so I was really beating myself up. Like, 'Why should I be feeling this?' I felt like I wasn't allowed to feel bad. But I felt powerless. Your world becomes smaller and smaller, and you can't breathe, which is the worst feeling I've ever had" she writes, according to People. "I actually had the feeling of, 'If I just jump off my balcony, this is going to end, and I never have to worry about this feeling of my world closing in.'" When she was prescribed Xanax, she worried about adding that need to her situation and ditched the meds. "The thought of being dependent on something felt, in my mind, even worse, because I was like, 'What if I lose that [pill]? Then what? Am I going to die?'" Instead, she changed the way she was living on the advice of her doctors. "I had been smoking cigarettes, drinking a bottle of wine and three mocha Frappucinos every day, and I gave up everything in one day," she recalls. "I thought, if this stuff is in any way the cause of this pain in my life, it's gotta go." She and Leo split in 2005, as she was set on letting go of relationships that weren't working for her at the time, too. "The most negative period I'd ever experienced became the most transformative and the greatest blessing," she writes. Gisele went on to marry Tom Brady in 2009; the two now share her love of yoga, meditation and a life without sugar, alcohol, dairy and the like — as well as two children, Benjamin, 8, and Vivian, 5.
Jennifer Hudson: 'It's always been my dream to play Aretha Franklin'
At Aretha Franklin's funeral in Detroit last month, Jennifer Hudson's rendition of "Amazing Grace" was among the most memorable in a day packed with moving performances. She's about to get a lot more practice paying musical homage to the Queen of Soul, too. As Jennifer told Ellen DeGeneres this week, Aretha handpicked the singer to portray her in a movie in the works about Aretha's life. "Aretha said she wanted Jennifer Hudson to play her and it's always been my dream to play Aretha, and it's actually happening," Jennifer marveled (via JustJared). "It blows my mind. I've always looked up to Aretha and to portray her — I cannot even speak about it because it's like, 'Oh, that's a huge task.' Think about it: It's not just two, three decades of a career. This woman had a lifetime of a career. That's like 70 years. I cannot even begin to imagine how long it's going to take to cover." Filming was previously rumored to begin in 2019, although MGM has not made any announcements as of late August.
Tom Arnold: Roseanne Barr 'wasn't racist when I was with her'
The Roseanne Barr who posted a racially offensive tweet about former Barack Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett is not the Roseanne Barr who Tom Arnold married in 1990. "She wasn't racist when I was with her," Tom told Andy Cohen on "Watch What Happens Live" this week (via Page Six). "Look at her Twitter feed, look at how she is. She couldn't say one good thing about Obama. Something happened. But she wasn't like that [before], though." Before, she was apparently the kind of woman who stands by her man — and, in one case, used a photo of a co-star's posterior to do so. When Tom was on "Roseanne," he said Julia Louis-Dreyfus had taken his parking space at one point. "I didn't know it was her car at the time," he recalled. "And then my ex-wife, Roseanne … took a Polaroid of John Goodman's naked a– and put that on Julia Louis' car and then took soap and wrote 'Julia Louis-Dreypuss' on her car. If you know the whole story, the 'Seinfeld' people were being crappy, and God bless Roseanne." During his "WWHL" appearance, Tom also learned Roseanne's character had been killed off on the spinoff of the canceled "Roseanne" reboot, "The Conners." "Wait, I hadn't heard. Is that true? Oh my God," he said when it came up. "I don't think they're going to ask me back, either way you look at it."
Duchess Meghan's cookbook is a bestseller
Duchess Meghan's cookbook project is already a hit. According to People, "Together: Our Community Cookbook" — which the Duchess of Sussex organized in support of women whose community was affected by the fatal Grenfell Tower fire — has only been on shelves for a week and has already sold almost 11,000 copies in the U.K. Citing a sales stats from The Bookseller, People reports it's currently at No. 6 on Amazon's list of U.S. book sales, as well. "This is more than a cookbook, and what I mean by that is, the power of food is more than just the meal itself. It is the story behind it," Meghan said at last week's Kensington Palace book launch. "And when you get to know the story of the recipe, you get to know the person behind it," she continued. "And that's what we're talking about in terms of coming together, to really engage and talk, and to be able to celebrate what connects us rather than what divides us." The book features recipes from women who gathered after the fire to open the Hubb Community Kitchen as a means of supporting their community, many members of which perished or became homeless because of the blaze. Meghan visited the kitchen, then jumped on board to help. She ultimately suggested the cookbook project, used the Royal Foundation to find a publisher and wrote the forward. A portion of proceeds from the book will go towards keeping the kitchen open for more hours during the week, as well as to renovations.
John Legend urges fans to register to vote
Like lots of other celebs, John Legend spent Tuesday, Sept. 25, focused on encouraging Americans to register to vote ahead of the mid-term elections this fall. "This National Voter Registration Day, research the voting rights in your state and make a plan to vote," tweeted the newly christened EGOT winner. "By making your voice heard at the polls, you can determine the future of our country's criminal justice system. Call 866.OUR.VOTE to know your rights. #NVRD," he added. John, who's been vocal about his problems with Donald Trump and his administration and has recently joined in efforts to help reform the criminal justice system, also retweeted similar messages from the likes of Michelle Obama and civil rights leader and Georgia congressman, Rep. John Lewis. The singer's wife, Chrissy Teigen, meanwhile, was feeling less political on Twitter, although, to be fair, it sounds like she had a rough night. "I took a sleeping pill (consult your doctor)," she tweeted on Tuesday morning, "and john and I woke up covered in chewed gum."