Shape editor's mea culpa for LeAnn Rimes bikini cover

When the editor of a magazine apologizes to the mag's readers for putting you on the cover, you know your career is in big, big trouble.

And that's what country singer/actress LeAnn Rimes is probably realizing right about now.

According to TooFab, Valerie Latona, editor of Shape, sent out an email to subscribers this week that read:

"You are all in good company... as you all agree Shape has made a terrible mistake in putting LeAnn Rimes on the cover," the editor began.

Readers were aghast and reacted immediately when the mag put Rimes (wearing a sexy red bikini), who has admitted to cheating on husband Dean Sheremet with married Eddie Cibrian) on the cover with the self-serving headline: 'LeAnn Rimes: How Working Out Saved Me.'

"Please know that our putting her on the cover was not meant to put a husband-stealer on a pedestal-but to show (through her story) how we all are human," Latona wrote. "And this woman in particular found strength in exercise in what she said was her most difficult personal moment."

"But it did not come across that way... And for that I'm terribly sorry. I hope that we can do better the next time for those of you that will give us another chance."

The mea culpa email was signed "Humbly, Valerie."

What do you think LeAnn Rimes should do to repair her damaged rep and tarnished image? Is staying in shape with a few crunches enough?

Kim Kardashian in a pink bikini on the cover of Cleo magazine

Kim Kardashian is curvy woman and proud of it — these days. But she didn’t always feel that way. Like other young women, she was self-conscious about her figure because of the fashion industry’s idealization of skinny models.

As a teen, the bootylicious reality TV maven confesses that she wished she were skinny and less voluptuous.

“I grew up looking at skinny models and feeling like I didn’t relate,” Kardashian, 30, tells the November 2010 issue of Cleo magazine.

“So when people come up to me and say they’re proud that they have someone they can look up to who has curves, I’m honored.”

Kim, who recently celebrated her 30th birthday with lavish parties in Las Vegas and New York, confesses that as a kid she wanted to look more like her older sister, Kourtney, 31, who is five feet tall.

“Kourtney and I are around the same age but I developed quicker and was curvier than her,” the 5’1″ Kim recounts. “There was never any weird competition, but there was just me wishing I looked a bit more like Kourtney.”

Ironically, Kim’s younger sister, the 5’10″ Khloe, spent all her life being compared to her two petite sisters and wished she looked more like them.

“I’ve been bullied, basically, my entire life. I’ve been compared to my sisters since the day I was born,” said Khloe, who has been teased all her life for being overweight.

I don’t look exactly like them. I’m bigger than them, but I’m me. I’m just always told how big I am,” she recounts.

All three Kardashian girls now work out regularly and eat healthier, thanks to the pressures of constant media scrutiny over their looks and size.

Kim, who released her own exercise DVD, clothing line and fragrance recently, works out with a trainer several times a week, runs on the treadmill and does lots of squats and lunges to keep her curvy physique in shape.

Kim has been posing naked a lot recently. In her most recent shoot, she appeared nude in the November 2010 issue of W magazine.

But now she insists she may be hanging up posing in her birthday suit, although she said the same thing after posing for Playboy.

“I’m really honored [W] chose me for the art issue,” says Kim. “It turned out beautifully, and I love it.”

But, Kardashian added: “I don’t know [if I'll pose nude again]. I’m too old for that now…I wanted to get it all out of my system before I turned 30.”

Pamela Anderson's bikini butcher PETA ad

As People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) hits 30, it's unlikely the animal advocates group--which once portrayed the fur-donning Olsen twins as animal slaughterers in a video game--ever thought that they would be associated with sex appeal à la Pamela Anderson. In case, you might be wondering how sexy going meatless is to the 'Babewatch' girl, check out PETA's latest ad campaign, which features the 43-year-old buxom blonde clad only in a purple string bikini and her body parts divvied up.

The ad shows a done-up, hair-tussled Anderson in a very pin-up girl pose, that is, until you catch the black ink etched across her body. Not to be confused with a new tat, the ink suggest a butcher's diagram with her body parts labeled as "leg" and "ribs" to larger (er, meatier) portions like "breast" and "rump." A caption reads "All Animals Have the Same Parts," inferring that humans and animals are made of identical parts, so, as PETA says, why not pledge and go veg?

Despite a grand opening for the ad in London this week, Anderson's parts were not as welcomed in her home country. Montreal banned the ad for being too "sexist." Anderson had no sympathy for her fellow Canucks and chastised them for censorship.

"In a city that is known for its exotic dancing and for being progressive and edgy, how sad that a woman would be banned from using her own body in a political protest over the suffering of cows and chickens," she tweeted. "In some parts of the world, women are forced to cover their whole bodies with burqas -- is that next? I didn't think that Canada would be so puritanical."

While this is making news, what's not new is Anderson's long-time reputation as a voluptuous veggie (she's been one since her teens). Besides offering her "talents" to ads, she's campaigned against seal hunting in Canada and stood strong during PETA's fight against Kentucky Fried Chicken, saying "What KFC does to 750 million chickens each year is not civilized or acceptable." She also received the first Linda McCartney Memorial Award for animal rights protectors for her campaign efforts. And hat tip for her recent adoption of two dogs from a New Orleans shelter.

If a PETA-ized Anderson is not your thing, catch her in January's issue of Playboy, her 13th debut.

What are your thoughts about the ad? Does it portray women as just a piece of meat? Is that the point?

Kingfisher Swimsuit Calendar Hunt 2011 features Deepika Padukone

Bollywood siren Deepika Padukone, alongwith her beau Sidhartha Mallya, the son of Vijay Mallya, the liquor Baron, would be selecting the 12 sexiest models for the most sizzling event of this year, Kingfisher Swimsuit Calendar Hunt 2011. Atul Kasbekar will shoot the entire 2011 calendar again and the shooting for the calendar will be held in Mauritius. As for now the Bollywood diva who herself once associated with the calendar event earlier in her career, want brains alongwith the beauty in the models.

Kingfisher Swimsuit Calendar comes out in limited edition every year and everyone knows it as the best platform for the models to start their career, models are getting more and more anxious to be a part of the exclusive calendar. Mallya stated that the Calendar gives the biggest platform for the aspiring model and also complimented the models saying that they are bold and beautiful.

As for Padukone the models needs to be intelligent, witty and smart, along with a perfect figure as she was associated with calendar before she can easily identify with the models easier. “I think apart from just a great body and a great face, it’s also very important for the girls to be smart, witty and intelligent. It’s not the way you look but the entire package that matters. I think that being smart and intelligent takes one forward in life if you really want to become successful. So, I am looking for someone who is not just good looking but also very, very intelligent,” said Padukone.

She added that she had also been a part of the calendar, and empathized with the aspiring calendar girls. Deepika added that during her time, there was no model hunt and she feels lucky to get that opportunity. She said that Atul Kasbekar noticed her at that time as she already started modeling by that time and she did not even required to compete with anyone.

The calendar was first of its kind which launched in India in 2003, with an experienced model Deepika and Sidhartha will certainly able to choose some fresh faces this year too.