Vanity Fair's "Vanities"

Since Vanity Fair's rebirth 25 years ago, the magazine has delivered one of the most stimulating cocktails of style, politics and investigative journalism available on the printed market. In a recent issue, the mag revealed the identity of Deep Throat, the until-then secret Watergate whistle-blower, beating even Bob Woodward to his own scoop! But we digress. Vanity Fair continues to publish outstanding, sexy pictures and portraits of celebrities from all walks of fame. My dear readers will certainly appreciate the Vanities Girls feature, a showcase of impeccable retro pin-up style photos of hot young rising starlets by the magazine's top photographers. We have seen countless attempts at reproducing the vibe of those classic pin-ups, with various degrees of (mostly) failure, but the style artists at Vanity Fair are doing an impressive job. You may browse through the selected photos published here or visit the online home of Vanities to read about the subjects of the images.

CHÉ, ¿Qué pasa?

Steven Soderbergh and Benicio del Toro made an epic film about Che Guevara. Obviously, this posting has nothing to do with that. The reference to the film is just a ploy to squeeze some of their traffic out of search engines. It's called marketing. And when it comes to marketing, few companies beat the Belgian men's mangazine, CHÉ. Think Maxim and FHM, but Belgian and in Flemmish (that's a language, not a bodily expectoration). The target, of course, is male readers. Not only do they have extremely eye-catching ads, such as the Let Us Keep On Dreaming of a Better World campaign above, but they also come up with some extremely original merchandising, as attested by the pics below. As a branding fan, all I can say is congrats for sticking out in a highly competitive and cluttered indusry. Does anybody realize how difficult it is to come up with original sexy advertising? As a bonus, keep on scrolling down to check out one of their infamous TV ads.

The Megan Fox gambit

I don't know what to make of Megan Fox, yet. The girl is as photogenic as the pyramids. She loves comic books and video games. At the time of this writing, she's only been in one feature film about giant robots that turn into stuff, with two more about to be released (Diablo Cody's Jennifer's Body and How to Lose Friends & Alienate People). In her wildly popular GQ interview (October 2008), shamelessly entitled Megan Fox was a Teenage Lesbian, she dishes out such career-building quotes as "Yeah. Fuck Disney", "Olivia Wilde is so sexy she makes me want to strangle a mountain ox with my bare hands" and "I went out of my way to create a relationship with this girl, a stripper named Nikita." At the wise age of 23, she seems game to keep feeding the fantasies inspired by her sacrilegious looks and, so far, much against the puritan attitudes so pervasive in Hollywood, has decided not to excommunicate her sexual nature. Fans are lighting candles in churches across the nation, praying that she proves herself a worthy actress and goes on to a long career, loaded with controversial roles. The world needs at least one truly unapologetic bad girl. In the meantime, I've posted a wallpaper gallery here and a little video from her last GQ photo shoot. Envious actresses, please, forgive me, but the clip has a really catchy tune.

A word from Laetitia Casta

Mes chers amis,

You might remember me as a former Victoria Secret's and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model. I was chosen in 1999 by the Mayors Association of France to be the model for a bust of Marianne, a symbol of the French Republic, which stands proudly in every city hall in the nation. Shortly thereafter, I took up residence in London to save a few Euros in taxes, making some of my fellow French countrymen very upset. Since, I've pretty much retired from print and I've been busy making movies (check out my imdb!). I am proud to announce that I was recently cast for a lead role in Visages (Faces), the upcoming film by Taiwanese director Ming-liang Tsai, scheduled for a 2009 release. As you probably know, Tsai won a Berlin Silver Bear in 2005 for A Wayward Cloud and a Venice Golden Lion in 1994 for Vive l’amour. Visages is set and shot in the Louvre. Unfortunately, most of my films tend to be in French and not available in North America. So, just so you don't forget me, I've posted below a saucy music video I shot a while back with my good pal Chris Isaak.

Je vous aime,

Laetitia.

Harold Lloyd and the 3D pin-ups

Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton are the most recognized comedic geniuses of the silent era. For some reason, their contemporary funny man, Harold Lloyd, is not as widely remembered today, even though he was probably the most popular of the three at the height of his career in the 1920s. Even less remembered is the fact that Lloyd was also an accomplished pin-up photographer, whose models in the 50s included Marilyn Monroe and the notorious Bettie Page. Lloyd experimented quite a bit with 3D photography and those funky red & blue paper glasses, in a tireless effort to better capture the topography of his subjects. In 2004, his granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd, published Hollywood Nudes in 3D!, a collection of some of his best images. Vanity Fair praised the book and the pictures at the time of its release, celebrating this hidden talent of one of the greatest movie stars of all-time. The still above (left) was taken from Lloyd's Safety Last. The film inspired one of Jackie Chan's most dangerous stunts: the clock tower drop in Project A. While we are on the subject, why not take a look at Jackie's top 10 stunts, courtesy of YouTube's LovMachine? The clock tower is number two:

Going CAMP-ing: Part II

So I was out there, searching for images of a certain comic book artist, when our trusty Google led me to a site called Super Sexy Heroines. Someone, somewhere in the U.S. of A, hires models, dresses them up in originally designed super hero costumes and produces photo-comics with their pictures. The site offers access to the comics and various features for a monthly membership fee. And I thought I was nuts writing a blog. On a serious note, the site does contain detailed bios of many of your favorite female comic book characters, including history, origins and list of appearances. I guess you can turn any hobby into a career. Thank you, Sexy Super Heroines dot com for showing us that "if you can conceive it, you can achieve it."

The mindscape of Saira Mohan

Saira Mohan is a 5'10" (and-a-half), Montreal-born, international model, whose face has appeared on the cover of numerous magazines. Now that I got your attention, go discover what sets her apart: saira.com. Take a slow tour. Click on every tiny button. Explore and read. Saira has exposed her mind in one of the most engaging and inspiring personal pages I've seen online. At a time when even millionaire superstars settle for confusing MySpace pages that look like a tie-dye scrambled egg in an alphabet soup, Saira's effort made me stand up and take notes.

Ellen Von Unwerth's cinematic fashion

Ellen Von Unwerth, a former model, makes love with her camera to the world's most beautiful women. Her images are neither obscene, nor pornographic in any way, and her subjects tend to be clothed for the most part. But, man, Ellen is a photographic sorceress, empowered with some kind of witchcraft that draws out and captures the sexual energy of her models like no other. Each photo shoot is practically a mini-movie, telling a story with impeccable art direction, in which her "actresses" play roles instead of just modelling (I'm particularly fond of the campy cat burglar theme she concocted for Monica Bellucci - see it all here). Her concepts are often inspired by an odd, but extremely sensual mix of classic films, dolce vita, erotica and a little S&M. Her retro influences have produced images that stand the test of time, decades after their first publication. She continues to be an inspiration to artists everywhere, in any medium. The hyperlinks in this blurb will bring you to a web site that contains an impressive collection of Elle Von Unwerth's best photographs. WARNING: Some images may contain nudity and adult situations. Oh, so now you're clicking...

Vanities Girls Gallery

Amber Smith: Supermodel web pioneer

The temperature of the Internet rose many degrees and servers had to be stored in cooled facilities when Amber Smith became the first mainstream supermodel in the 90s to make the leap from the runway to the web (trust me, before that servers could be stored anywhere). Amber is one of the finest specimens of the human species and will probably be promptly abducted by aliens after the publication of this item. Amber has appeared in numerous films and T.V series, including L.A. Confidential. Her magazine appearances are too many to track. I have arrived to the conclusion that she feeds on the blood of virgins, because this woman keeps getting more breathtaking as the years go by. Picking a picture for this piece was harder than splitting atoms, because she just never takes a bad one.

Aubade Lingerie

Forget Victoria's Secret and its priceless supermodels. For years, the photographers for Aubade Lingerie have been scouting models right off the street and delivering some of the most tasteful and erotically charged images anywhere. The photos are timeless and a few of them continue to be used in catalogues decades after their original printing. Boys AND girls, go here and get yourselves some Aubade wallpapers. Thank me later and send me a box of tacos from Loteria Grill, in Los Angeles. Do not go to the City of Angels without a mandatory pit stop at Loteria!