With her tiny waist and shapely legs Rihanna is not exactly a prime candidate for airbrushing, but the front cover of July’s Elle magazine certainly seems as if she has been digitally enhanced.

The singer appears even smaller than usual in a shoot for a feature in which she discusses her new look and her new man. Compare the cover with a picture of her on stage in Madrid last weekend and it’s hard not to see the difference. Although she looks great in the shot on stage at the Rock in Rio festival, she is clearly much wider around the waist and hips.

Airbrushing of celebrities has become increasingly controversial over the years, with critics saying it creates an unrealistic image of women. In April this year 29-year-old Britney Spears released two sets

of photos from a shoot for fashion firm Candies to show the dramatic difference between her actual body image and the enhancement that usually takes place.

–Daily Mail

Is Gwyneth Paltrow’s friendship with Madonna over?

She once referred to Madonna as being ‘like an older sister’ to her, but there are new claims that the pop superstar and Iron Man 2 actress have stopped speaking after a series of falling-outs, which left 51-year-old Madonna out in the cold by her former best friend.

‘They don’t speak…I can’t tell you exactly why they had the falling out.’ America’s Us magazine quoted a source as saying. This quote comes after months of suggestion on Gwyneth’s part that she was in the midst of a serious falling-out with a close friend.

She told Vogue magazine in April, ‘I can be mean. I can ice people out and I can definitely harbour revenge. In fact, I’m having a situation right now with a friend, but revenge is corrosive and it doesn’t make me feel good.’ At the time it was widely believed that Gwyneth was referring to Madonna.

US Weekly claims that Gwyneth and Madonna’s friendship took a turn for the worse following Madonna’s split from Guy Richie in 2008. The magazine quotes a source as saying that things went downhill as they had ‘less and less in common’. Before the split both Americans had lived in the UK with their British husbands – Gwyneth has been married to Coldplay front man Chris Martin since 2003.

When Madonna relocated to New York, it seems they began to cut their ties, though a spokesperson for Madonna recently stated, ‘There has been no falling-out between the two.’

–Daily Mail

Obama Writing Foreword for Nelson Mandela’s Book

From one Nobel winner to another: President Barack Obama is writing a foreword for Nelson Mandela’s new book.

Publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux announced on Wednesday that Obama will contribute to Mandela’s Conversations With Myself. It is a collection of diaries, journals and other personal materials of the former South African president and apartheid foe.

The book comes out October 12 this year.