We’ve been noticing AnnaLynne McCord in more photographs of late in Lucire, and we wonder: is she the new “it girl” of 2009? McCord was spotted at the Raise Hope for the Congo event at Jane’s House in Hollywood on June 28, in an Eva Culture black strapless rusched dress (available at Curve) and Marcia Moran jewellery.
   Raise Hope for the Congo is a charity that raises awareness about women and girls who are victims of sexual violence. The event was hosted by actor Ken Baumann, from the TV show The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Julianne Moore, Juliana Margulies and Brooke Smith also support the campaign.

Volvo has been involved in motor racing since 1928. With a Volvo review coming up in Lucire, we thought it would be interesting to delve back into the Swedish car maker’s history. While people know Volvo for safety, it has been very successful in competition over the last 80-plus years.

We didn’t know there was a National Ice Cream Month in the US, but here it is: Miss USA, Kristen Dalton, visiting Serendipity 3 at Cæsar’s Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada, unveiling a Red, White and Blue banana split. The dessert has chocolate and blueberry sauces with scoops of strawberry, vanilla and blueberry ice cream topped with whipped cream and garnished with a cherry and an American flag.

Kevin Mazur/AEG/Getty Images

Above are Kevin Mazur’s photographs of Michael Jackson’s last rehearsal at Staples Center in Los Angeles, which should put paid to rumours suggesting the King of Pop had no intention to carry out his concerts.
   Mazur, who had photographed Jackson on numerous occasions, says, ‘When he hit the stage at rehearsal, I was thrilled that the magical Michael Jackson was back! I felt the same adrenaline rush as when I photographed him the first time moonwalking. I was so looking forward to shooting the O2 Arena performances with the amazing production that Kenny Ortega and AEG put together with Michael for his fans.’
   AEG Live (UK) Ltd. has announced that full refunds will be available to fans who purchased tickets through authorized agents for any of the 50 Michael Jackson This Is It concerts which were to take place at the O2 Arena in London.

TMZ was the first to report that pop star Michael Jackson had passed away after suffering cardiac arrest at his home. Presently, mainstream media outlets such as the Los Angeles Times are confirming the news, based on their sources.
   Jackson’s death comes on the same day another icon, Farrah Fawcett, died after a long battle with cancer. Fawcett was 62, Jackson was 50.
   From a fashion point-of-view, Fawcett was best known for her hairstyle in the 1970s, and was at one point the most famous pin-up in a poster by Pro Arts, photographed by Bruce McBroom. The poster sold millions of copies, buoyed by the actress’s subsequent success in Charlie’s Angels, a series for which she remained known for the remainder of her life.
   Jackson, being a pop star, had numerous reinventions, from a stylish solo recording artist in the 1970s to being proclaimed ‘the king of pop’ by the following decade. He had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, and had won 13 Grammy Awards and had 13 number-one singles in his solo career.
   His impact on the fashion world was evidenced by an auction of his property earlier in 2009. While his trademark is a single sequinned white glove, Jackson wore a series of elaborately beaded military jackets in the 1980s.
   It’s arguable whether people aped the Jackson style in the way many women borrowed Fawcett’s hairdo, but there is no doubt that both were cultural icons.

The folks at Lancôme have released their latest Magnifique commercial with actress Anne Hathaway. Previews have floated around for a few months—here is the final 30-second spot. Strangely, there has been less attention for Hathaway’s second spot compared with her first.

Maria Sharapova, as part of her role as Sony Ericsson brand ambassador, unveiled London College of Fashion student designs in the window of design store Liberty in London. The designs were part of a collaboration between Sony Ericsson and the School of Fashion Design and Technology at London College of Fashion, exploring the link between technology and fashion. Eighty students competed for a chance to have their work displayed at Liberty and to meet Sharapova.
   Sharapova comments on her return to tennis in one of the below videos, and there are general views of the event at Liberty.

[Cross-posted] I never expected this a few years ago, but a few weeks ago, it was becoming more likely: Koenigsegg will buy Saab, says The New York Times.
   GM and Koenigsegg say there is now a memorandum of understanding, contingent on loans from the European Investment Bank, guaranteed by the Swedish government.
   I am confident. Christian von Koenigsegg strikes me, in the conversation I had with him some years ago, as someone who is not afraid to answer questions directly. He is accessible, and he loves cars.
   People also had doubts about how Jaguar and Land Rover would fit with Tata, which made subcompact cars and heavy trucks in India. Yet, Tata has shown a readiness to push forward new models that Ford never had the guts to do. We need to look at the management style and the national culture.
   I think we might see information on a bunch of products inside Saab that the company was never permitted to do under GM ownership, either because they were too risky or that the funds were going to other brands. Saab fell into a GM-division funk like Saturn did. But new ideas have been bubbling under there, and while $600 million is nowhere near what it will cost to get some of them out—given that the funds have to cover everything from salaries to plant upgrades—the Swedish people are not short on ingenuity.
   Sweden has shown us that a little country can have leadership or near-leadership positions in so many things, from cellphones to defence technology to music. Once upon a time, the Swedish state even owned Absolut Vodka.
   I know the economies of scale are not looking that good for Saab: it sold fewer cars in more territories last year than MG Rover in its final year (2004–5) before that fell into administration. However, could make the same argument about economies with many Swedish products before they took the rest of the world by storm.
   And Christian has been thinking of a lot more than supercars. What the world seems to have ignored is that he showed a solar electric sports’ saloon at Genève this year, designed by our mutual friend Joachim Nordwall.
   Could it be released with the Koenigsegg brand? Probably not. As a Saab? Most definitely: it is a natural fit for the brand.
   GM, Honda and Toyota may have dabbled in solar energy but Koenigsegg may well outflank them all.
   Most of us will agree that the GM ownership of Saab has not been that successful and the division has been starved of new product for years. GM’s great contributions have been a few Opel Vectra platforms, rejigging a Subaru Impreza for the US market and put Saab badges on it, and reworking a deleted Oldsmobile SUV.
   When I was growing up, Saab was known for the Combi Coupé (a fastback, liftback coupé—not particularly common in the 1970s) and the early Turbos, then a great UK campaign connecting the car maker to the aircraft manufacturer. Stefan Engeseth says the company could have done quite well with a retro-modern version of the ur-Saab, the original postwar model with aircraft technologies incorporated. I am not so sure about now, but I agree that during the years of the New Beetle and the last Ford Thunderbird, a limited-edition ur-Saab could have been chic.
   Logic tells us that things are not sorted with the new ownership. The numbers do not add up, the new products are going to be expensive to get out, and how many of those forward-thinkers that Saab was once known for are still in the firm?
   But logic also told us that it was impossible for Sweden to be putting out a supercar that would take the world’s imagination. Christian has done that. Conventional thinking also says that a solar–electric car is too left-field. I beg to differ.
   Saab quality with Koenigsegg innovation sounds like a pretty potent mix to me.
   With hindsight, I wish I had made a few more calls then just so I could say I spoke to the boss of Saab, and show off that I do know a bit about automotive marketing strategy. I say with a lean R&D model, Christian can take the risks with innovative, world-beating Saabs that make a decent leap ahead of the rest of the industry.

[Cross-posted] One of the topics raised by Summer Rayne Oakes, author of Style, Naturally and a scientist and strategist in her own right—not to mention Lucire’s editor-at-large—was why chat rooms fell out of favour this century.
   During the last week, Summer Rayne and I had plenty of good chats, but this is probably one that relates directly to some of the issues I discuss on this blog.
   The obvious answer is all the odd people who used to venture into these chat rooms, often wanting to get on to a sexual topic. I’ve encountered my share, and it seems that women are targeted even more. These were always at non-sex spaces, and even they would attract those looking to get off on discussing these topics.
   But that can’t be it. This is partly my memory giving chat rooms a bad name. The overwhelming majority of conversations I had on them were productive and only a handful had visitors whose minds were on sex.
   Yet in the last 10 to 20 years we’ve also seen the rise and fall of the email and online discussion group. Spam may have had something to do with that. But the newsgroups also seem to be less well frequented: in fact, I found it very odd when someone referred me to a newsgroup earlier this month on, of all things, Karl Malden’s nose. A newsgroup? Do people still use those?
   There have been the rise and fall of MySpace, and the rise and seemingly continued rise of Facebook and Twitter.
   Anyone who has been on Twitter for a little while can see that many people out there have their own websites now. The blogging revolution that people such as Helen Baxter predicted has come to pass: people are expressing themselves, and everyone is vying for their share of the internet audience. Some do it by being sarky (some of the celebrity gossip sites come to mind), others by being deceptive (a few so-called news sites attacking people), and, hopefully, the majority are there just trying to get by with some honest reflection and communication.
   But in this quest for self-expression, the victim seems to have been communicating in a common space. We bloggers still want to share, but we expect readers to come to our space to do it. The chat room, which worked on the idea of a central location that was common to one’s interest, has given way to everyone playing host to a variety of subjects, and netizens pop by to the one that suits their subject area. Ultimately, they are found on a search engine, not at something as neutral as Egroups.
   In other words, we no longer go to the community centre, we play guests at people’s homes. Except this is done virtually. And the relationships, seemingly, are more shallow.
   Unless it’s a blog that I have great affinity with, I’m unlikely to visit again. Last week, Ashes to Ashes finished its second series on BBC1. I frequented blogs that reviewed the finalé. I might leave a comment. But they are unlikely to be places I’d revisit, certainly not till the next series begins in 2010. By then I am likely to have forgotten who they were.
   There have been some wonderful readers on this blog whom I have come to admire and respect. But there are also many whom I do not know beyond their single comment.
   I’m wondering whether the blogosphere has given rise to the sort of deep connection that one can form personal or professional relationships on, because our contact is more fleeting. Certainly it cannot work alone: something must complement the blogosphere if two people are to form any sort of relationship. In that vein, the old discussion groups seem to be more self-contained.
   When I look back at my dozen or so years managing discussion groups and blogging, many of the strongest bonds are still with people I met on discussion groups. Someone like Simon Young falls into that category. Others I know in person, before they even became bloggers, such as Johnnie Moore.
   The blogs have opened the door to my meeting other people. I’m sure Cat Morley, whom I met on the blogosphere, and I, would get on famously if we met face to face. Jim Donovan falls into that category. But Jim and I meet almost monthly, and we’ve opened the door to that more extensive contact.
   Maybe I’m not one of those “celebrity bloggers”, so blogging has not resulted in a rise in my work. It has helped a bit with my profile. But it is a surface medium, one that hasn’t supplanted the chat room or email group. It is a very wordy business card or a calling card.
   Yet we humans still seek those deeper relationships. They are not to be found on Facebook groups, because at the end of the day, Facebook is about keeping in touch with those one already knows. It is a social network in the literal sense: people are there with brains switched off (I know I am), socializing. While I have met people through it, I am not convinced that it is a medium where one can espouse those deep thoughts in a group, the same way some of us used to on email groups. There are so many people there that it lacks the feel of a chat room or a discussion group, where there were regulars. Its one great benefit, as far as I can tell, has been the fact that the majority of the conversations have been clean and so far, no one has engaged me in a discussion about sex on a Facebook group about, say, freeing a jailed journalist.
   So the answer to Summer Rayne’s question may be that we have ventured too far into becoming talkers and not listeners. The shift to the blogosphere has allowed us to come forth overwhelmingly, because we could, all of a sudden. For those of us not wishing to write posts as long as this (1,000 words and counting), Twitter has become that great substitute, where 140 characters are all that are available. Everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame, and since few of us wish to debase ourselves on reality television, the blogosphere and Twitter allow us to control the message.
   I somehow think we will congregate again. I know some people who have set up Ning groups, to some success. A friend of mine, and a former Lucire beauty columnist, frequents one devoted to young mothers. We must get to a point where everyone who wants one has their own blogs or Twitter account, and we get sick of talking without any certainty over whether anyone is listening.
   People are creatures who wish to communicate, and that implies a two-way dialogue. Blogs were meant to deliver just that, but I’m waiting for the next online revolution that restores that two-way street.

We know this is one Lucire team member talking to another, but considering the subject is Summer Rayne Oakes and her fantastic new book, Style, Naturally, it’s certainly worth it. Fashion editor Samantha Hannah speaks to Summer Rayne, filmed by Snap Star.