The online poll for the Most Beautiful Car of 2012, run by Eurosport, Festival Automobile International, J. C. Decaux, Bell & Ross, Le Point and Automobiles Classiques, has been won by the new, W176-series Mercedes-Benz A-Klasse.
   In second place was the third-generation Mazda Atenza, followed by the Renault Clio IV and the BMW 3er-Reihe Touring.
   Dropping out in earlier rounds of voting were the Opel Adam, the Peugeot 208 and the Mini Paceman.
   The new Mercedes-Benz A-Klasse is a departure from the innovative hatchback that originally débuted in the late 1990s. The new model is a more conventionally engineered car, losing the clever space efficiency and sandwich floor that made the original A a landmark model.
   It is sleeker and more aerodynamic, challenging established rivals such as the BMW 1er-Reihe and Audi A3. In terms of sportiness, the new car is far more eye-catching, with its sculpted sides and more aggressive stance, in line with how German design is evolving.
   Online voters participated in the competition between December 6, 2012 and January 20, 2013.

Top Gemma Arterton arrives at the Australian première of Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. Above Josefin Gustafsson won Monday night’s challenge on Top Model Sverige, and will model for Panos Emporio.

The Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters première circuit has hit Sydney, NSW, where stars Gemma Arterton and Jeremy Renner, along with writer–director Tommy Wirkola and producer Kevin Messick, were in attendance at Event Cinemas on George Street.
   Reviews for the film have continued to be mixed.
   The Australian push is intended to help with the film’s global box office, with an expectation that fans might be more receptive than in the US and Europe.
   Russia was the first market to show the film.
   Meanwhile, Josefin Gustafsson was revealed as the winner of the Panos Emporio swimwear modelling gig on last night’s Top Model Sverige.
   The challenge on the TV show saw Panos Emporio founder and designer Panos Papadopoulos head to Los Angeles late last year, working alongside America’s Next Top Model judge and photographer Nigel Barker.
   Despite some inside knowledge, the final result was kept secret from us until we learned of Gustafsson’s win at the same time as the TV3 audience in Sweden on Monday night.
   Episodes can be viewed on demand at www.tv3.se/node/13202. Panos makes his appearance 16 minutes in to the second episode of the current season.

WordPress has summarized the year of this news section, and told us something we know already: that our story on Marine Lorphelin being crowned Miss France 2013 was the biggest of the year. This also correlates with our Facebook fan page numbers.
   It also put France as one of the top countries accessing Lucire during December, though the United States remains number-one for our entire website. New Zealand, the UK and Australia were consistently in the top five each month.
   Last year, we did some quick arithmetic on the interest in Miss France versus its rival pageant, Miss Prestige National. In 2010, the ratio of readers for our Miss France story versus our Miss Nationale one was 2·7: that means, of Lucire readers, nearly three times as many were interested in Miss France than Miss Nationale. Last year, the ratio rose to 8·6. This year, however, the ratio is at 35·6 for Miss France versus Miss Prestige National—not great news for Geneviève de Fontenay and her committee, though if their online viewing numbers are healthy, then their sponsors will continue backing them.
   Our second most-read article was on We’ll Take Manhattan, and the interest in Bailey and Jean Shrimpton because of the BBC TV movie starring Karen Gillan and Aneurin Barnard earlier this year.
   The passing of Whitney Houston netted a lot of interest globally, and our article on celebrities paying tribute to her came in at number three.
   Interestingly, our Miss France 2012 article came in the top 10, as did a story on the Duchess of Cambridge wearing a dress by New Zealand-born designer Emilia Wickstead in May. A 2011 story on Keira Knightley modelling for Chanel Coco Mademoiselle also showed up in our top 10, making Knightley our most searched-for celebrity this year. Oscar winners Meryl Streep and Jean Dujardin appear after our top 10, in 13th place.
   The formula remains similar, with pageants, celebrity and royalty gaining the most public interest.
   As noted on our Tumblr, a number of countries were absent from our readership this year. This includes numerous African states such as South Sudan, Liberia and Lesotho, where fashion is hardly a priority with daily struggles, and Turkmenistan, where the state still has a say on what is and what is not permitted. One reader pointed out that in our map, Kosovo was also missing from our reader countries.
   As to our latest articles, pop to the main part of the site, where our Paris editor Lola Saab has her spring 2013 must-haves from New York.

A few quick snippets this weekend—at least in musical terms.
   Twilight’s Nikki Reed and her husband Paul McDonald have released an EP, entitled ‘The Best Part’. Reed, with a crystal-clear voice—with no autotune and overproduction—talks about performing as being the next step in her life.
   Reed and McDonald co-wrote the song over a six-month period, and it was produced by former Wilco drummer Ken Coomer.
   With the Les Misérables buzz at the moment, star Anne Hathaway discusses her performance in a separate video, calling the production ‘daunting’ and how the singing—which the actors trained for separately—came together. ‘We were all kind of this mixture of anxiety, gratitude, excitement and nerves.
   ‘I had done so much preparation and I was so in to it that it wasn’t really about performing. It was more about just honouring what I had learned and the research that I had done, and just trying to open myself wide enough to let all that out,’ she says.
   ‘We did everything in one take,’ recalls Hathaway, with the exception of a few cases, with director Tom Hooper using a multi-camera approach to capture as much of each performance as possible.

Stuck on something to give the fashion person in your life?
   Christchurch designers Mister have come to your rescue with a new range of jewellery using their signature scissors cast in sterling silver.
   The new collection is available in limited quantities, much like their clothing.
   The expansion into jewellery sees the design duo of husband and wife Mickey Lin and Ra Thomson offer something unique to their growing customer brand. It is an exciting move for the pair.
   Although small, the collection of brooches, earrings, cufflinks and scissor pendant are hopefully just the start of a new venture. They are all presented in a beautiful jewellery box. This is one thing we wouldn’t mind receiving come Christmas morning.—Sopheak Seng, Fashion and Beauty Editor

With so many pageants within days of one another, we’re at risk of being a pageant, rather than a fashion, magazine. But since we’ve followed Sarah Munn’s journey as Miss New Zealand at the 25th World Miss University 2012 (월드미스유니버시티), it’s only right that we announce that Mia Hasanagic, Miss Denmark, took the title at the pageant tonight at the Sheraton Grande Walkerhill Hotel, Seoul earlier tonight.
   Elina Grundane, Miss Latvia, was runner-up. We were in touch with Miss Grundane’s pageant director, Inta Fogele, at the weekend. Ms Fogele was confident, and, like New Zealand, her country had taken the title once before, with Julija Djadenko.
   Miss Hasanagic is 20, and attends Aarhus University. She studies global management and counts dancing and poetry as her interests.
   But who won the popular vote, a.k.a. Miss Netizen, at World Miss University 2012? We’ve encouraged Lucire readers to vote for Miss New Zealand Sarah Munn between December 3 and 11—who scored the highest. Yet this prize went to Miss Korea, who placed eighth. Have a read of our latest article, online today, and you can make up your own minds.

Breaking news: Miss Bourgogne, Marine Lorphelin, crowned Miss France 2013

Above Delphine Wespiser on the night of her win as Miss France 2012.

As the contestants at Miss France 2013 head into Saturday night’s pageant, it appears that the three beauty queens who raised eyebrows over their earlier posing—which some deemed ‘erotic’—will be able to participate.
   Miss Tahiti Hinarani de Longeaux, Miss Limousin Sandra Longeaud and Miss Corsica Louise Robert will enter the pageant as planned after the Miss France committee met on Thursday.
   However, things have not gone smoothly as a new scandal erupted. Miss Pays de l’Ain, Charline Chevalier, has been ousted at the eleventh hour after it was revealed she is in a relationship with the vice-president of the Miss Montélimar committee.
   Actor Alain Delon returns to the judging panel this year, with Mireille Darc, former model Adriana Karembeu, Nikos Aliagas and Alexandra Rosenfeld, Miss France 2006. Jean-Pierre Foucault will be master of ceremonies and the 2013 show is expected to pay tribute to actresses Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve and Meryl Streep.

It’s not the first time that the movie version of the musical Grease has inspired a charity single—Britons of a certain age will remember Hylda Baker (‘She knows, you know’) and Arthur Mullard teaming up for a cover of ‘You’re the One that I Want’ in 1978—but this time, it is with the original stars, Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta.
   Newton-John informed her fans earlier via Facebook that she would team up with Travolta in an album entitled This Christmas, but it was this week that a video of one of their numbers was released. The new song, ‘I Think You Might Like It’, joins others by Sir Cliff Richard, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Kenny G. and James Taylor to raise money for charities for children and people with disabilities.
   The new number, composed by Melbournian John Farrar, who wrote many of Newton-John’s hits including ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’ and ‘Suspended in Time’, features Travolta’s wife, Kelly Preston, and their children in the video. Travolta and Newton-John recalling their Grease roles by wearing black and driving a 1950s car (a Ford Thunderbird, in this case).
   Newton-John says, ‘My desire was to make This Christmas an intimate album, not something too ostentatious or showy. Gathering around the house listening to Christmas music has always been an important part of that time of the year to my family.’
   Reviews online have been mixed.