New, emerging talent kicks off Paris Fashion Week

 Fashion week in Paris is always a race against time.
Paris — the last city after New York, London and Milan to host shows — is offering up 95 frenetic catwalk spectacles back-to-back over eight days at opposite ends of the French capital.
So it's perhaps fitting that the spring-summer 2013 season got going behind a giant clock: The iconic timekeeper of Paris' grand Gare de l'Est train station. The setting may have been grand but the shows on the first day in Paris are often low-key, a showcase for emerging talent.
Young knitwear designer and Rick Owens alumnus Alice Lemoine emerged from the shadows of her former mentor to produce an unassuming but highly accomplished show in rich spring colors.
Belgian-born designer Anthony Vaccarello — whose star has been on a rise since Gwyneth Paltrow graced the cover of Harper's Bazaar in one of his dresses — delivered a slick and revealing show Tuesday, channeling black and white in an unusual summer collection.
South Korean designer Moon Young Hee also threw away the color wheel to produce a sophisticated, demure show, while Impasse de la Defense mixed bold colors with retro and street styles.
Wednesday's shows will include London's enfant terrible Gareth Pugh, Guy Laroche and Dries Van Noten.
IMPASSE DE LA DEFENSE
Post-punk design house Impasse de la Defense, tucked away behind the clock of the Gare de l'Est, got extra street cred as loud train announcements punctuated their colorful show.
Their eclectic and contemporary mix included vibrant patchwork dresses, outre tulle bridal skirts and large shawls printed with images of clock architecture. Their soundtrack — a single harmonica played by a man who looked like a busker — added a dash of boho insouciance to the many the casual, loose-fitting, splash-dyed dresses.
Designer Karim Bonnet said he was channeling German street style after a holiday there last summer — but at times, the clock seemed to turn to '70s flower power. The imaginative prints of cameras and the spines of novels on large shawls were a notable success.
At times, though, the sheer size of the shawls — which models had wrapped around them — made them look clumsy.
LE MOINE TRICOTE
No longer just for grannies, knitwear has finally been made cool — a youthful facelift courtesy of Le Moine Tricote.
Armed with two 12mm (half-inch) needles, a ball of wool and no rules, designer Alice Lemoine set about this collection with no idea what clothes she would make.
"I just let the needles lead and I make all sorts of different shapes and panels," Lemoine said backstage, wearing a wooly cardigan. "I then just fuse it together; not exactly patchwork, but the same process."
The result? An architectural — and highly huggable — display of some 14 soft, open knit looks — set off with creative spirals, polygons and geometric shapes.
Lemoine gives freedom to the natural weight of wool — producing some sumptuous effects, like one plunging gray and camel column dress. Lest we forget it's summer, it's all served up with a refreshing palette of sky blue, navy, pearl beige purple and white.
Splashes of delicate, tightly knitted silk alongside breezy organza undergarments and the occasional peplum was a new addition this season.
ANTHONY VACCARELLO
Sticking to black and white is one sure way to stand out in spring collections, which are famed for their use of color. But at the moment, it's not as if Anthony Vaccarello needs the attention. His recent fashion headlines include a design stint at Collette as part of Vogue's Fashion Night Out.
In this uber-sexy, color-free summer offering, the models' legs did the talking: Micro skirts with a tight, sweeped draping.
There was a distinct feeling of previous seasons' Milan shows — plunging necklines, draped tops with eyelets and loose shoulder-strong jackets. At times, the draping invoked a Grecian toga look.

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Individual shows boldly stamp Paris fashion week

 Coco Chanel once said: "The most courageous act is still to think for yourself."
Day five of Paris Fashion Week showed that even today the legendary fashion designer's words ring true.
Saturday presented a gold mine of eclectic and individual shows: Each one with a unique stamp of their designer.
London-based Vivienne Westwood led the crowd, celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee, but travelling — as she did — via Japan, Russia, Spain and Africa.
Westwood is the only designer on the Paris fashion calendar — or perhaps anywhere — who can cross the globe and several centuries, mixing up Bangkok-style catwomen, Chinese tea prints, tropical cowboys, Velasquez wenches, the Ballets Russes, and still produce a coherent and unified show.
Viktor & Rolf, meanwhile, went back to their signature plays on oversized proportion to produce a glitzy show — as they prepare to celebrate 20 years since they founded the label.
The epitome of femininity, Cacharel, explored spring through the natural colors of mother nature, in a trademark delicate display.
Sunday's shows include Kenzo, Celine and Hermes.
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VIVIENNE WESTWOOD
"Global exotic," is how English designer Vivienne Westwood described her brilliant and wacky spring-summer 2013 show, hosted on terra mater in Paris' British Embassy.
Disparate encyclopedic fashion references gelled together — amazingly — owing to her own, very British, eccentricity.
Westwood cited Sergei Diaghilev's "Ballets Russes" — the early 20th century's most famous ballet company — as a key inspiration.
The influential troupe used exotic styles with billowing trousers and turbans — which was evoked in many of the baggy globe-trotting looks.
One of the nicest looks came in a series of modified Japanese kimonos.
One in light gray silk, with wide bateau collar, had fluttering hoop panels that fluttered by.
Above all else, Westwood — who's 71 — has lost none of her humor.
There was a special guest star — a model portraying Queen Elizabeth II. She clutched a handbag in a crown and demure gray silk dress. In this cameo, unlike in the Olympic Games opening ceremony in which a queen look-a-like parachuted into the main stadium, the model just walked in through the embassy door.
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VIKTOR & ROLF
Viktor & Rolf were feeling reflective, looking back on almost two decades since founding their fashion house, and that was evident Saturday in their oversized spring-summer ode to 70s pleated glamor.
"We were in a reflective mood..." said Viktor Horsting, one half of the famed Dutch design duo which is approaching its 20th anniversary.
Not ones to normally take things quite so literally, the inseparable Viktor and Rolf channeled mirrors in their oversized spring-summer show.
The designers, who founded their Amsterdam-based fashion house in 1993, sent models through a reflective tunnel onto a catwalk wearing mainly black, white and silver ensembles that featured blinding mirror appliques on sumptuous silks.
Oversized proportion — a signature mark — produced some hits.
Giant bows in soft pink and purple were used high or low on the waist to sumptuous effect.
But there were some small misses in proportion, too: One tubular floor-length skirt had rose-shaped mirror appliques whose size competed with the model's head.
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CACHAREL
Cacharel perfectly captured the fresh mood of spring, in a feminine collection — typical of the popular French house — that brought aquatic life to the catwalk.
Free hanging A-line slip dresses and gently flaring peplums and skirts Saturday, floated alongside prints of goldfish skin, anemones and underwater tea flower bloom.
This spring-summer 2013 collection was also a celebration of the natural world in its careful palette the Cerulean blue of sky, orange of sea coral and tea green.
But perhaps nature is in the house DNA: After all, designer Jean Bousquet who founded the house in 1962, named it after a small, beautifully striped dabbling duck with the same name.
Today's designers Ling Liu and Dawei Sun keep these codes, therefore, adding this season a touch of contemporary graphic prints.
The gentle blurring made this collection a visual treat.
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MARTIN GRANT
Australian Martin Grant is not a household name, but he has a solid reputation in the fashion world and a string of celebrity followers like Juliette Binoche, Kate Hudson and Cate Blanchett.
Saturday's clean and on-trend collection proves it's little wonder.
"I wanted to play with volumes," Grant said backstage, referring to the many looks which had elongated peplums and jacket-skirts, twinned with black shorts — as seen in Raf Simons' show for Dior.
Black and navy was used well in A-line with trapeze silhouettes, and accentuated midriffs — one of the big parts of this season's fashion conversation —which nicely nipped the silhouettes.
One of the colors of the season, vermilion, was used perfectly as shards of color, or completely covering dresses.

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Anniversary Surprise for Husband at Airport: Wife Wearing Wedding Dress

Lacy Matthews, 48, of Parker, Colo., is certainly getting more wear out of her wedding dress.
On Oct. 3, she put it to good use again, exactly 14 years to the day after she originally wore it. At 8:15 in the morning, Matthews surprised her husband, Derek Matthews, 38, at the Denver airport dressed in her wedding dress and holding a huge sign that read "Derek, I'll do it all over again. I love you."
Derek Matthews returned from a business trip early in the morning so that he could spend the entire day with his blushing bride.

Courtesy Lacy Matthews
"We agreed not to spend a lot of money, but I wanted to say I love you, and I'm here for the long haul. I wanted to do it in a big way. I've done cards, done scrapbooks, but I wanted to do something big this time. I wanted to do something to make him feel really important and special," Lucy Matthews told ABC News.
Matthews never really tried to preserve her dress, but it was still in good enough condition to wear it again.
"It was kind of just crammed in a box in the basement, wrinkled with stains. I just dabbed those out a little bit. It still served the purpose," she said.
She eagerly waited by the arrival escalators for her husband to come up the steps.
"Every man that came up that escalator, all ages, business people, the guys barefoot coming off the beach, everybody's reaction was very positive," said Matthews.
When the moment finally arrived, when her husband at last came up the escalator, he was distracted and not paying attention, since he had no idea what was in store for him. But when he finally glanced up, he was shocked by what he saw just a few feet away. It was his bride, all over again.
"The sweetest thing he said afterward was that on our wedding day, he got chills when I came around the corner. He said, 'I was expecting you to walk around the corner that day, so there was all this anticipation. But when I was coming up the escalator, I wasn't expecting you at all, especially in a dress. I'm so glad we're together.' He kept telling me, 'I'm going numb, I'm going numb,'" he said.
Courtesy Lacy Matthews
For Lucy Matthews, the moment meant a lot, as she is currently fighting a chronic disease, a type of ulcerative colitis that can turn into colon cancer. The disease, along with a series of other unfortunate happenings in the couple's life, has inspired the two to adopt a "live every day to its fullest" mentality.
"My husband has been hit by lighting and lived to tell about it, and I myself have a chronic illness. It was life threatening. I continue to get a form of chemo every six weeks. I get the highest dose you can get. Our mentality as a family is just try to live your lives where every day is a gift," said Matthews.
"My son was 8 when I first got sick. I always have a party for my birthday. I celebrate it, because it's better than the alternative. Our whole family lives like that. Every year, every birthday, every anniversary is celebrated big."
Although she knew she wanted to do something on a large scale, Matthews admits she almost didn't go through with the wedding dress idea.
"I'm a very outgoing person, but it was not easy to walk into the airport in a wedding dress with a sign. It was very embarrassing. But leaving your comfort zone for someone you love is the best way to spend your day," Matthews said.
There was one thing that day, however, that surprised her the most.
"I was really taken by how many people asked, 'What anniversary is it?' When I told them 14th, they'd say, 'Oh it's not a milestone then?' But why isn't 14 a milestone?" Matthews asked. "The 25th, the 15t h, every year is big, especially in this day and age when people give up so easily. That was one of the things that surprised me the most. That it wasn't' a milestone according to society. I think every day is as milestone."

Courtesy Lacy Matthews
Afraid our society has completely lost the art of celebration, Matthews is attempting to prove every day is a gift.
"We've lost the art of celebration. We should celebrate how much we love each other, celebrate that we have life every day. I just think that every birthday, every anniversary, and indeed, every day is a celebration and a gift and we should treat it as a gift," Matthews said.
She and her husband are still as happy as they were on their wedding day, especially for Lucy Matthews, since she's still able to fit into her dress.
"I was trying to bless him, and I got blessed doing it. Hundreds of people took my picture, and our picture. One guy walked by and told me 'You just made my day. Love is still alive,'" she said.

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NYC exhibition: Katharine Hepburn as fashion icon

A new exhibition is hailing the fashion sense of Katharine Hepburn, whose trademark khakis and open-collar shirts were decidedly unconventional in the 1930s and 40s, when girdles and stockings were the order of the day.
The fiercely independent Hepburn famously once said: "Anytime I hear a man say he prefers a woman in a skirt, I say, 'Try one. Try a skirt.'"
But skirts and dresses abound in "Katharine Hepburn: Dressed for Stage and Screen" at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, which opens Thursday.
Hepburn, who died in 2003 at age 96, saved almost all the costumes from her long career that included four Oscars and such memorable films as "The Philadelphia Story," ''The African Queen," ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "On Golden Pond." Forty are on view at the exhibition, which runs through Jan. 12.
One of the first things visitors will notice is how slender Hepburn was — she had a 20-inch waist — and a grouping of seven khaki pants artfully arranged on a pair of mannequin legs.
"The fact that she wore slacks and wanted to be comfortable influenced women's ready-to-wear in the United States," said Jean Druesedow, director of the Kent State University Museum, which was given 700 items from Hepburn's estate. Kent State was selected because it's one of the country's only museums of performance clothes.
"That image said to the American woman 'Look you don't have to be in your girdle and stockings and tight dress. You can be comfortable. That was probably the first aspect of becoming a fashion icon," said Druesedow, a co-curator of the exhibition.
The strong-willed actress known for taking charge of her career worked closely with all her designers to decide her performing wardrobe.
"They understood what would help her characters, what she would feel comfortable wearing ... how it would support the story," Druesedow said.
Margaret Furse, an English designer who created Hepburn's wardrobes for "The Lion in Winter," ''A Delicate Balance" and "Love Among the Ruins," went shopping with the star and talked extensively about what kinds of things would set the scene.
Among the highlights is a stunning satin and lace wedding gown created by Howard Greer for her role as Stella Surrege in "The Lake." The 1933 production was her first major Broadway role and also a huge flop. Writer and wit Dorothy Parker described her performance as running "the gamut of emotion from A to B." The experience taught Hepburn to have a bigger say in what roles she accepted, said Barbara Cohen-Stratyner, curator of exhibitions at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
When she really liked a costume she had copies made for herself, sometimes in a different color or fabric. A silk dress and coat by Norman Hartnell from "Suddenly, Last Summer" and a green raw silk jumpsuit by Valentina from "The Philadelphia Story" were among the pieces she had copied.
Comfort was paramount to Hepburn — being able to throw her leg over a chair or sit on the floor. She always wore her 'uniform' — khakis and a shirt — to rehearsals and pant ensembles to publicity appearances.
A companion book, "Katharine Hepburn: Rebel Chic," describes how RKO executives hid Hepburn's trousers in an effort to persuade her to abandon them.
"Her response was to threaten to walk around the lot naked. Though she only stripped down as far as her silk underwear before stepping out of her dressing room, she made her point — and she got her trousers back," fashion writer Nancy MacDonell wrote in an essay for the book.
But comfort didn't mean sacrificing style — and she certainly knew how to be glamorous especially when a role called for it.
In her private life, she shopped at the major cutting-edge New York couturiers and worked with the best costume shops of the period, including Muriel King and Valentina, said Cohen-Stratyner.
"She really appreciated good fabric and good construction," she said. "Even her trousers are couture."
The exhibition is supplemented by film clips, movie posters, and archival photographs of Hepburn wearing the very costumes worn by the mannequins. Her false eyelashes, makeup trays and sensible shoes are also on display.

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Cancer Strikes 4 Times Before Bride Gets Wedding Dress

Lori Allen, who runs a successful bridal shop featured in the reality show Bridals By Lori, got a 7:05 a.m. telephone call in April that changed her life -- she had breast cancer.
"I was not even going to go get a mammogram this year," said the 53-year-old from Georgia. "I am healthy as a horse and haven't missed a day of work in five years. I had no lump. I was just busy running a business."
Her business is Bridals By Lori, and since the cancer diagnosis, surgery and recovery, she has used it as a platform to inspire and help other women with the disease.
One of those women, DeLese Range, has battled cancer in 23 of her 25-year marriage. She and husband Lonzie, who live in Carollton, Texas, will renew their vows next June in a dress provided by Allen.
"When I first got married, I borrowed my brother's girlfriend's dress and wore it at 2 o'clock -- she wore it that night to the prom," said Range, 43, who's survived ovarian and breast cancer survivor and is now being treated for lung and lymph node cancers.
Allen's journey with breast cancer, "Say Yes to the Cure: Lori's Fight," premieres tonight at 10 p.m. on TLC. The special, which features Range, airs as part of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
An estimated one in eight women will develop breast cancer during her lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society. It is the most common cancer among American women, except for skin cancers. About 39,510 women will die from the breast cancer this year.
"It turned my world upside down," Allen told ABCNews.com. She was so terrified by her breast cancer diagnosis, "I couldn't say the word for five days."
But she approached TLC, which produces her show, and offered to tell her personal story. Three days after the doctor's call, TV crews began filming.
Allen was looking for a woman who had survived breast cancer to help her make wedding dreams come true. She found Range through the Susan G. Komen For the Cure Foundation, and the special follows Range's search for the perfect dress.
In 1989, just two years after her makeshift wedding and pregnant with her second child, Range was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
She recovered after chemotherapy and radiation, but in 2001, Range found out she had stage-four breast cancer.
"We had a nurse seven days a week and had to put a hospital bed in the bedroom next to my husband," she said.
After aggressive treatment, Range was prepped for a mastectomy. "We were in the hospital and the doctor came in and sat us down. He said, 'I don't think we have to do it now.'"
X-rays revealed that she had gone into a complete remission without treatment. Medical experts were baffled, but Range was overjoyed. "They can't explain it," she said.
But a decade later, in 2011, Range would face yet another cancer diagnosis. This time it was lung cancer, even though she had never smoked. And then, another blow -- doctors found unrelated cancer in her lymph nodes and she is now back on chemotherapy.
Bridals By Lori Gives Dress to Cancer Survivor
Range and Lonzie had hoped to renew their marriage vows this year, marking their 25th anniversary with their children at their side, but cancer stood in the way.
"When the chemo came up, we couldn't do it financially," she said. "It was going to have to wait."
But when Bridal's By Lori sought a breast cancer survivor for its TLC special, Range's husband, 45, who is a minister and also works for the U.S. Postal Service, responded. He wrote a letter to the Komen foundation explaining their story.
Allen had been there herself. "My whole family rallied around me," she said. "They were just as shocked as I was over the diagnosis."
Allen underwent a double mastectomy, but was spared further treatment.
"Doctors don't grab you by the hand and say, 'Do this' -- I had to figure it out my own path," said Allen, whose prognosis is now bright.
Helping others has "given me new meaning in my life," she said. "I have taken something that was really negative and turned it into a positive."
As for Range, she has continued to be active with the Komen foundation and has recently endured three straight weeks of chemotherapy -- so she can take time off from treatment to participate in its upcoming 60-mile, three-day walk for breast cancer awareness.
She hopes to get back to her work as a personal trainer soon.
But as the mother of two adult children and three grandchildren, Range is determined to be there for her family and is hopeful about her future.
"I am good, I am actually doing O.K.," she said. "I have my support system and it helps."
They only have one big worry now -- who will officiate their vows ceremony, scheduled for June 2013?
"My husband is a minister," she said. And so are her brother, father and father-in-law.
"I am going to have a problem picking," said Range. "I was estranged from my dad until 2001 and found him again. It's between my father and my father-in-law. I don't know.

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Alicia Keys dethrones Rihanna from Billboard top spot

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - American R&B singer Alicia Keys scored her fifth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday with "Girl on Fire," unseating reigning chart queen Rihanna.

Keys' fifth studio album sold 159,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, which was the lowest opening week of sales for any of the soulful singer's career.

Keys, 31, held off country-pop starlet Taylor Swift's "Red" and Rod Stewart's "Merry Christmas, Baby" for the top spot.

British boy band One Direction's "Take Me Home" and country-rock singer Phillip Phillips' "The World from the Side of the Moon" were fourth and fifth on the chart respectively. Rihanna's "Unapologetic" slid to sixth in its second week on the chart.

Keys' only album not to debut atop the Billboard chart was 2009's "The Element of Freedom," which sold 417,000 copies in its first week but was thwarted from the top spot by British talent-show sensation Susan Boyle's "I Dreamed a Dream."

First-week sales of "Girl on Fire" were in line with industry expectations of 145,000 to 170,000 units sold, Billboard said.

Album sales tumbled the week after the holiday shopping season kicked off, falling 23 percent overall. Only 13 albums picked up more sales in the top 100 this week, not counting chart debuts and re-entries.

The 7.52 million albums sold last week was a decline of 7 percent from the same week last year. In 2012, some 275.3 million albums have been sold so far, marking a 4 percent decline compared with the same point in 2011, according to Nielsen.

Black Eyed Peas mastermind will.i.am's single "Scream & Shout" featuring Britney Spears knocked Korean viral dance hit "Gangnam Style" by PSY out of the top spot in digital songs.

"Scream & Shout," which was released on November 21, leaped from No. 66 to the top spot with 169,000 downloads.

The electronic pop-dance song was buoyed by the music video's premiere on the U.S. television singing show "The X Factor," which stars Spears as a judge, and as the feature music of an TV advertising campaign for headphones starring will.i.am.

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"The Message" deemed greatest hip hop song ever

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The 1982 hit "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five was named the greatest hip hop song of all time on Wednesday, in the first such list by Rolling Stone magazine to celebrate the young but influential music genre.

"The Message," which tops a list of 50 influential hip hop songs, was the first track "to tell, with hip hop's rhythmic and vocal force, the truth about modern inner-city life in America," Rolling Stone said.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, a hip hop collective from the south Bronx in New York, was formed in 1978 and became one of the pioneers of the hip hop genre.

The full list spanned songs ranging from Sugarhill Gang's 1979 hit "Rapper's Delight," which came in at No. 2, to Kanye West's 2004 hit "Jesus Walks," which landed at No. 32.

"It's a list that would have been a lot harder to do ten or 15 years ago because hip hop is so young," Nathan Brackett, deputy managing editor of Rolling Stone, told Reuters.

"We've reached the point now where hip hop acts are getting into the (Rock and Roll) Hall Of Fame... it just felt like the right time to give this the real Rolling Stone treatment."

Rolling Stone's top 10 featured mostly hip hop veterans, such as Run-D.M.C.'s 1983 track "Sucker M.C.'s," Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg's 1992 hit "Nuthin' But A 'G' Thang," Public Enemy's 1990 song "Fight The Power" and Notorious B.I.G's 1994 hit "Juicy."

Other influential artists in the top 50 songs included Beastie Boys, who came in at No. 19 with "Paul Revere," and recordings by Jay-Z, Eminem, Missy Elliot, Outkast, Lauryn Hill, LL Cool J, Nas and the late rapper 2Pac.

The list of 50 songs was compiled by a 33-panel of members comprising Rolling Stone editors and hip hop experts. They included musician Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson of The Roots, who Brackett described as "an incredible encyclopedia" of both old and new hip hop knowledge.

Brackett noted that some songs considered to be one-hit wonders, such as Audio Two's 1988 hit "Top Billin'," made the final selection.

"The references in those songs become the building blocks of all these other songs down the road ... they become touchstones, really part of the meat of hip hop songs going forward," Brackett said.

The full list will be released online at RollingStone.com and in the pop culture magazine on newsstands on December7. The issue will feature four different covers of Eminem, Jay-Z, Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac.

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Kathie Lee Gifford's "Scandalous" musical to close after three weeks

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - So much for Kathie Lee Gifford's career as a playwright. The former "Live!" co-host's Broadway musical "Scandalous: The Life and Times of Aimee Semple McPherson," is shuttering a little after three weeks after it opened.

The musical, which opened November 15, will have its final performance December 9 at the Neil Simon Theatre in New York.

Gifford wrote the book and lyrics for "Scandalous," which chronicled the life of evangelist and proto-celebrity Aimee Semple McPherson, who rose to prominence in the 1920s, only to fall from public grace amid scandalous love affairs and other controversies.

In all, "Scandalous" will have played 29 regular performances before it goes dark and 31 previews. The musical stars Carolee Carmello (left) and George Hearn, among others, and is directed by David Armstrong ("A Christmas Story the Musical," "Catch Me if You Can").

Though Gifford had ample opportunity to plug the production via her "Today" co-hosting duties - and she certainly took advantage of the opportunity - critics were generally unkind in their appraisal of the show.

"'Scandalous' isn't so much scandalously bad as it is generic and dull," wrote the New York Times' Charles Isherwood.

Newsday's Linda Winer took specific aim at Gifford's "bombardment of nursery-rhyme lyrics."

Talkin' Broadway's Matthew Murray, meanwhile, scoffed that the play "is not distinctive in one positive way."

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A Minute With: Scottish DJ Calvin Harris hits big time in U.S

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Scottish DJ Calvin Harris may not be the most recognizable face in the U.S. music scene, but after writing Rihanna's biggest chart hit and with two other top 20 singles, Harris is fast becoming a chart staple.

Harris, 28, found success in the UK over the last five years before storming the Billboard Hot 100 earlier this year with "We Found Love," a dance-infused dark love song featuring Rihanna's vocals that became one of 2012's biggest hits.

The DJ, who released album "18 Months" in November featuring other hits "Feels So Close" and "Let's Go," sat down with Reuters to talk about his U.S. breakthrough.

Q: Did you ever think "We Found Love" was going to be one of the biggest hits in the U.S. this year, and what do you think of the growing British presence in the U.S. music charts?

A: "I hoped that it would do really well, but you can't predict writing Rihanna's biggest-ever record, else you're an egomaniac. Couldn't have predicted that - that was a surprise. It's nice that British music is getting played over here, it seems like everyone has a more even playing field than before."

Q: Why do you think dance music is becoming such a big part of the U.S. scene?

A: "The people to thank are probably the Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga. They were the first two American mainstream acts to have that house beat in their songs, whereas before, it was all hip hop. I remember Ne-Yo, when 'Closer' came out ... and it bombed here but in the UK it was number 1, it was massive ... Black Eyed Peas' 'I Got a Feeling' and (Lady Gaga's) 'Poker Face' that was pushed really hard, and once they were huge, huge hits ... radio stations wanted more and there was plenty of it because it's been going on for years."

Q: There are a lot of DJs coming into the mainstream scene now. How do you make yourself stand out in a saturated market?

A: "I like making dance records with lyrical depth. I also like the music to sound rich and full and have real instruments, and not be that kind of synthetic sound, combined with lyrics about popping bottles, being in the club ... I like them to be the sort of lyrics you can find in another genre because I think dance music historically, the lyrics have been banal and I'm not into that. I like making actual songs but also something that still works on the dance floor."

Q: Your new album "18 Months" has songs that span different sounds within the dance-pop genre. Were any tracks challenging?

A: "The two most challenging mixes were the tracks with Example and Florence (Welch), because I think the key is to make it sound like there isn't that much going on when actually there is ... it was a more difficult mix because it was more dynamic."

Q: Some critics say that you use well-known artists like Rihanna or Florence just so you can get hits. What do you say to people who think you've sold out?

A: "Critics don't buy albums, they're also almost 90 percent either failed musicians or they don't know better than anyone else. Also, I don't like them. What's the point of a critic? ... I 'sold out' when I signed a major record deal, which was in 2006. People didn't say I sold out then ... so don't accuse me of selling out now. It's very very late to do that.

"If Florence Welch wants to do a track with me, I'm going to say no and use someone unknown? ... I want to do a track with people I like, not people I haven't heard of before."

Q: Some of your music videos have been provocative. "We Found Love" features domestic abuse and drug use, and Florence Welch's "Sweet Nothing" has violence. Do you think music videos have to provoke to be noticed?

A: "I like videos to be seen by all and the guy who's done my videos since 'Bounce,' Vince Haycock, I forever censor him ... But recently, I've let him do whatever he wants and it's more fun, I've discovered, to make whatever video he wants to make ... I guess you're more likely to get more views if someone is getting smacked in the face with a chair ... 'Sweet Nothing' was great, but there was a lot that was cut out, like a brutal fight scene at the end ... it got cut out because I couldn't watch it, and the soundtrack was my music. There's obviously a boundary. I've not had any naked people in my videos yet."

Q: A lot of DJs are now collaborating with brand names in sponsorship deals. Are you doing anything similar?

A: "I'm genuinely just making music, I'm trying to make it good. I know these guys with their headphones and their logos and their gimmicks - you can take that route but I think it's just added pressure to uphold something ... Other people do it much better than me because they're more like personalities."

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Justin Bieber's manager throws Twit-fit over Grammy nominations shutout

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Apparently, Justin Bieber's manager is unfamiliar with the concept of being gracious in defeat.

Scott "Scooter" Braun, the man who deserves the credit (or blame, depending on your view) for bringing the "Boyfriend" singer to prominence, had a Twitter meltdown Wednesday night, after his client was left out in the cold in this year's Grammy nominations.

In a fairly lengthy (for the medium, anyway) Twitter screed, Braun opined that the powers that be at the Grammys "blew it" by not including Bieber among the potential trophy winners.

"This time there wont be any wise words, no excuses, I just plain DISAGREE," Braun fumed. " The kid deserved it. Grammy board u blew it on this one."

Braun continued, "he hardest thing to do is transition, keep the train moving. The kid delivered. Huge successful album, sold out tour, and won people over..."

Bieber released his third studio album, "Believe," in February. The album entered the Billboard 200 chart at No. 1. So at least he has that. And the financial windfall that brings. And the adoration of millions of tweeners across the planet. And all of the other awards that the 18-year-old has amassed...

To be fair, Braun did congratulate "Call Me Maybe" chanteuse Carly Rae Jepsen on her two nominations in the Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance categories. Of course, Jepsen is also Braun's client, so that's to be expected.

And he did note, "so to all those nominated ... you do deserve it. You worked hard and u earned it. Just feel like so did JB."

Before signing off for the night, Braun offered a silver-lining message for the army of Beliebers out there who, no doubt, were also numb with slack-jawed amazement that Bieber had been shut out of the Grammys race.

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