Blog Posts by Piper Weiss, Shine Staff

More on the return of the Swatch here.

A scene from the movie adaption of the S.E. Hinton book
As adults we can read--or not read--whatever we want. It's a luxury we sometimes take for granted. Remember when August was when, back in grade school, when we'd be catching up on our required summer reading. The kinds of books we were assigned, and expected to savor, usually involved a boy, his wolf, and the Alaskan tundra. Or better yet, a boy, his dog and a rifle. The only cool character was bound to die and you had to get through 200 pages to even get there.

Then, some one (usually an older sibling) tips you off about S.E. Hinton. Her books, about young punks having sex, running away, getting punched and getting high, felt like contraband. Even the covers, with their watercolor representations of greaser punks, pulled out the puberty from your 10 year old self like taffy.

These weren't the kind of books you wrote an essay about, these were books that made you want to be a writer. Moments that seemed mundane to adults were genuine plot-lines; heartbreaking issues you might have

Remember Kristen McMenamy, the 90's supermodel? She's 45 now and has the hair to prove it. Unlike most women of a certain age, she embraced her roots six years ago and never looked back. Now that she's gracing the cover of UK Vogue in all her gray glory, she may just kick off a trend.

So what if other celebrities followed suit and let their hair go gray? That's what we asked the patron saint of doctored images, St. Photoshop. Here are his predictions...

[Nick Harvey/Wire Image]

There's nothing like an eccentric older woman to brighten an average internet day. And the Duchess of Alba delivers. Today when she was crowned one of Vanity Fair's internationally best dressed, it was hard to continue reading the list of recipients. Followers of royal scandals may already be familiar with the 83 year-old. But for those who find this photo a revelation, prepare to have your mind blown with Duchess of Alba fun facts.

# For starters, she matches her red chinchilla coat with her eyeliner, people!

# She's related to Mary, Queen of Scots, Christopher Columbus and Winston Churchill.

# She has always enjoyed the company of male flamenco dancers and matadors.

# Her second marriage was to a Catholic priest.

# She hold over 44 noble titles (whatever that means)

#She wants to marry a guy who's 24 years younger but her children won't allow it.

#This is her full name (deep breath): Maria del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva

#Her

Last night, Ali got engaged to Roberto. If that sentence meant nothing to you, stop reading now. For "Bachelorette" fans, it signaled the end of a really pleasurable season of watching a popular girl get dumped a lot. (Check out a funny recap of last night's episode below)
For Chris Harrison it was another day on the job.

For Ali it meant a beginning of a new relationship riddled with more rejection... starting today. She just tweeted to her fiance, but more the world, @Roberto_M_Jr We did it! He replied with radio silence.

And finally, for former stars of the long-running series, it meant an opportunity to get more twitter followers.
Here's a round up of what former male contestants on the show had to say about the finale:

@edswiderski
"Amazing"...drink!

Translation: My buddies and I love to drink. But sometimes it gets boring, so we make up drinking games. We used to drink every time Sting sang Roxanne. But now that I was on the show and stuff, we drink every time some one

Taxi + New York + Fashion = Confessions of Shopaholic and 500 other movies. Today, a total genius found a new use for Wikipedia: looking up music video synopses. By some twist of fate, he discovered the site's hyper-technical, ultra-detailed explanation for the music video "Regulate". That got my noggin churning: could other wiki sites, like for example IMDB, offer similar jewels? Indeed.
If you love movies, but hate watching them, also if you're Rain Man, you probably know about "Plot Keywords." That's the feature on every movie's IMDB page that sums up any movie with a list topics in the film (For example, "The Godfather" plot keywords are "mafia" "wedding" "violence")

In the world of romantic comedies, the plot keywords are proof of the genre formula. "New York City", "Wedding", "Alcohol", "Fashion Show" and "Lie" and some kind of extreme weather pattern seem to crop up in every entry. Sprinkle in a little "Southern Accent" and "Dead Parent" and you've got yourself a blockbuster. It takes a true Rom-Com connoisseur to tell them apart. Have a gander at

Jason Bateman in a scene from
Trying to have a baby? You could go the old-fashioned way but that takes careful planning and serious luck. You could try to adopt but if you're not a heterosexual married couple with a hefty savings account, you might have your work cut out for you. Then there's IVF, the painful and expensive insemination process that isn't always a guarantee.

If none of these options are working, don't give up. If we've learned anything from movies, it's that children appear in the darndest ways. Take for instance this month's The Switch, where Jennifer Aniston employs a turkey baster to do her dirty work. And ends up likely getting pregnant with her best friend's baby, even though he wasn't the recruited sperm donor. Sound implausible? At least a sperm and egg are involved.

If you want to get yourself a child, the old-fashioned movie way, the first rule of thumb is: don't act like you want one. Then, employ the following approaches...

#1 : INHERIT ONE

The Hoff taking his Comedy Central Roast in stride. (Getty)This weekend, Seth McFarlane, Pam Anderson, Hulk Hogan and others gathered to for the roast of David Hasselhoff. Airing August 15, the special will lovingly mock the Baywatch star, no doubt incorporating his German Power Ballads, slow-mo beach sprints and talking car companion. Here's a preview of some of the zingers hurled at Hoff.
But there is nothing, absolutely nothing, funny about Sir David's career. In fact, his efforts in the entertainment industry over the past 30 years have been no less than heroic and deserve to be taken with extreme seriousness and gratitude. Don't believe me? Take it from the American hero, himself.
HE'S ABOUT SAVING LIVES
"'Knight Rider' was about saving lives. It was about one man making a difference, and it used both humor and action." (via Corpus Christie Press, 2008)

HIS HEART IS IN THE THEATER
"I'd love to appear in an (Henrik) Ibsen play, or maybe do some Shakespeare." (In a 2006 press interview on his post-"Baywatch" career)

HE IS YOUR MORNING