Blog Posts by Piper Weiss, Shine Staff

She started as a competitive swimmer, became a movie star, a fashion icon and female pioneer. Esther Williams, who died at 91 on Thursday, will be remembered for the unbelievable imprint she left on film, style, sports and our imagination. Here's a look at the totally unconventional life and legacy of the original mermaid. -Piper Weiss, Shine Senior Features Editor

Read More »from R.I.P Esther Williams, the Original Mermaid

The age of man-scaped Michelangelos plastered to bus kiosks may be over. The New York Times reports that several men's underwear brands are putting their pants on a different kind of male model. "We want to find people who we feel are good looking and who emphasize the image of the everyday guy," Jonathan Shokrian, a founder of the men's underwear company Mack Weldon, tells the Times. Maybe guys aren't taking their underwear shopping quite so seriously anymore, or maybe they're just aspiring to be more like their Facebook friends, rather than Greek gods. And what's wrong with that? In the business of men's underwear, trends come and go. But some ads stay burned in our brains for better or worse.

Read More »from Men's Underwear Models: The Evolution

A&F is sorry for cookie-cutter cool kid policies.(Getty Images)A few weeks ago one of the most popular mass market clothing retailers became one of the most hated. 

First there was the scathing report on Abercrombie and Fitch's decision not to make their all-American clothing in larger sizes. Then there was the astonishing excerpt from a 2006 interview with CEO Mike Jeffries which resurfaced, sparking renewed outrage. "We want to market to cool, good-looking people," Jeffries told Salon. “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely."

Cue backlash, led by 18-year-old powerhouse Benjamin O’Keefe. "Stop telling teens they aren’t beautiful and start making clothes for people of all shapes and sizes," wrote the teenager in a petition posted to Change.org. His message was supported

Read More »from Here's that Abercrombie and Fitch Apology You've Been Waiting For

(Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson's break-up isn't exactly a shocker. 

There are probably a lot of reasons it didn't work—infidelity, time apart, quarter-life crises— but according to tabloids, it's all Kristen Stewart's moody, moody fault. For example, Us Weekly cites her "moody behavior", courtesy of an "inside source" who claimed Pattinson was upset "about how moody she always is" and other reports say he just grew "tired of her mood swings." 

For some time now, the word "moody" has accompanied Stewart's name like bathroom tissue paper. It was the explanation for her recent ranking as "least sexy celebrity" and was also the word that described she's dealing with her split—in a moody way. If you follow the tabloids, her mood isn't so much swinging as it is hovering like a dark cloud over red carpets.  It has something to do with the way her upper and lower lip seem to disagree on whether they should smile or frown. And of course her cheating scandal. And most damning—the fact that

Read More »from Kristen Stewart's Mood Blamed for Split With Robert Pattinson, Everything Else

There was a time when denim jeans didn't come with a $200 price tag and the qualifier "skinny." Don't believe me? Ask Ulysses S. Grant or anyone else alive in 1873, the year Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patented the blue jean. Over the past 140 years, the wardrobe staple has evolved from button fly to bell-bottom, and way, way beyond (wait till you see the guy with fire-breathing pants). But when it comes down to it, there's nothing like the basic blueprint. Durable, thick, unisex-the kind of cut that looks good on everyone, and particularly good on a few people. On Levi's birthday, let's reflect on the men and women who helped keep this great brand alive-hot celebrities and models. -Piper Weiss, Shine Staff

Read More »from Denim Porn: Levis' Best (and Sometimes Accidental) Models

What happens when you enter the search term "Mother" in a stock photography website? You get lots of sunshine, hanging laundry and salad bowls. You also get a month's worth of nightmares. Moms made of plastic, moms wielding weapons, and even worse, moms whose emotions we just can't read. In honor of Mother's Day, we bring you the scariest stock images of our nearest and dearest.

Read More »from For Mother's Day: The Creepiest Stock Photos of Moms

If you watched Bradley Cooper's new Haagen-Dazs commercial and thought, "What the $#% just happened?" you're in good company. The internet is aflutter with questions about why People's Sexiest Man Alive is eating a tub of ice cream like a Cathy cartoon at a black tie event, why he fell for the old locked-in-a-room-with-only-a-spoon trick (huh?), and why on earth the Oscar-nominated actor thought making this commercial would be a good idea for his career. Some people have attempted to explain the not-so-subliminal imagery. Here are some theories—both from around the web and inside our heads—about what's really going on in the 30-second spot:

It's intentionally bad and we just don't get the joke.

It's actually really emotionally complex—like "Sophie's Choice" but with Bradley Cooper and ice cream.

It's about butts, and people are into that.

It was made 10 years ago and was only supposed to air internationally (or not).

It's the long-awaited sequel to the DiSaronno commercial (really, they are

Read More »from Bradley Cooper's Haagen-Dazs Commercial: How to Explain its Awfulness

Sparks with Safe Haven's Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel. (Target Presse Agentur Gmbh/Getty Images)Nicholas Sparks knows a shocking amount about "ladyfantasies"—the ones where you move to a small Southern town and Josh Duhamel works at the convenience store. 

He's something of a female telepathic. "The Notebook," "A Walk to Remember," "The Last Song," "Dear John,""Nights in Rodanthe,"—those all came from his brain. If it weren’t for Sparks,we’d still be reading romance novels with Fabio on the cover, and Ryan Gosling would just be that young guy who briefly dated Sandra Bullock. Miley and Liam wouldn’t have met and R. Kelly would never have broken up with his wife (sure).

In his latest novel-turned-movie, "Safe Haven" (out on DVD Tuesday), a thriller about a woman with a dark past and a bright future sucking face with a hunky convenience store manager, played by, yes, Josh Duhamel. How does he know what feels good in the cushion-y parts of our female minds? "I’ve been blessed to have great women in my life," Sparks told Yahoo Shine. “I had a great mom, I married well.”  A little back

Read More »from Nicholas Sparks: What I've Learned About Women