Expectant mama Ashlee Simpson was all smiles the Crayola Color Alive launch in New York City on Thursday (February 5). The radiant mom-to-be, 30, was joined by husband Evan Ross and her 6-year-old son Bronx.

While at the kid-friendly event, the singer-reality star revealed her baby’s gender.

“[It’s] A girl,” she revealed to E! News.

After the fun family outing, Simpson Instagrammed a group photo.

“Spent the afternoon with @Crayola for #ColorAlive Launch. Look what Bronx made! #spon #happytimes #familyfun,” she captioned the shot.

This will be the first child for Ashlee and her newlywed husband, 26, whom she wed on Aug. 30.

She co-parents Bronx with ex-husband, Fall Out Boy rocker Pete Wentz.

Spent the afternoon with @Crayola for #ColorAlive Launch. Look what Bronx made! #spon #happytimes #familyfun

A photo posted by Ashlee Simpson Ross (@ashleesimpsonross) on Feb 5, 2015 at 5:57pm PST

View Slideshow »»

View All Photos »»

The Kardashian-West family stepped out in Hollywood yesterday. Kim Kardashian was doing a photoshoot for something and Kanye West and North came along to keep her company, I guess. Or maybe the photoshoot was for the family. In any case, we’ve got some crappy-quality photos of little North, so I thought I’d pass them along. This little girl is just beautiful!! She has Kim’s coloring and Kanye’s facial structure, chubby cheeks and all. Kim has also grown out North’s hair to where it’s long enough to do a high top-knot. Adorable! And yes, they really should be this baby in some color!! Good God.

There’s not a ton of Kardashian-sister news out there this week, honestly. I’m sort of surprised, because usually the K ladies step out more during slow gossip weeks. Kim did post a throwback-Thursday photo on her Instagram yesterday and of course it was a vintage bikini photo – go here to see. I was going to say that it’s nice to see Kim’s original face, but I think that’s her in-between face, like she had started to mess with her natural face but she hadn’t graduated to The Katface yet.

I was thinking recently… I wonder if Kim and Kanye are going to be partying during Oscar weekend? They’ll be out and about this weekend in LA, because Kanye is going to perform at the Grammys on Sunday. He’s doing two performances actually – one with Rihanna and Paul McCartney and one solo performance. It will be his first time at the Grammys in six years, I think? So… Kim will obviously be there, I’m sure.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

This is one of the stupidest tabloid stories of the week, but the gossip is running dry and we need something fun/silly. This story involves George Clooney, otherwise known as America’s Bachelor-Turned-Husband-of-the-Year, and his runaway bride Amal. Two weekends ago, Amal finally ended her lengthy winter holiday on the west coast and flew out to France, where she appeared at a human rights court. It was big news and the paparazzi were there, of course. Since then, we haven’t heard much about Amal. Sources told Life & Style that Amal went back to London and that she’ll probably be there until March. George is probably going to be LA this month, so it’s a scandal because a married couple is spending five weeks apart!!

According to Life & Style, the newlyweds are on their own and happy about it. George is filming a movie in Los Angeles while Amal is working out of London, and “the couple actually welcomed the break,” alleges the tabloid. A so-called “insider” tells the magazine, “They’re really happy right now being on their own.”

That’s because the Clooneys “sure weren’t happy together.” The outlet claims they’ve been fighting about whether to start a family, and that George’s close friends are allegedly fed up with Amal’s seriousness and hoping “the distance is the first step on the road to divorce.”

[From Gossip Cop]

Have we gotten to a “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” point in this Alamooney gossip yet? For what it’s worth, Gossip Cop also has a “source close to the situation” who denies this story by saying George and Amal are “incredibly happy.” Which isn’t a denial that they’re spending five weeks (or more) apart and that they were actually eager to take a break from each other. Because they got married too quickly and possibly for the wrong reasons and they don’t really know each other that well?

Now, all that being said, of course it’s no big deal when a couple spends time apart. I’m side-eyeing it because they’ve literally only been married less than five months and it’s a little bit funny that they ALREADY need a break from each other, but whatever. They’re adults and they both have jobs. I’m sure all of this was covered in the contract.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

In a new Instagram image, Jessica Biel looks every bit the radiant mom-to-be.

On Thursday, the actress, 32, celebrated the newly designed logo for her upcoming kid-friendly restaurant, Au Fudge.

“We would love to introduce you #AuFudgers our logo. Hope you love!!! Intro to characters coming soon,” reads the caption on Au Fudge’s Instagram account.

In the photo, Biel is all smiles with gal pals Estee Stanley and Kimberly Muller while sporting cropped jeans, black heels, and a loose gray maternity top paired with a white blazer.

Recently, Biel and her husband, pop superstar Justin Timberlake, shared a much more revealing photo, when Timberlake posted a picture kissing her bare baby bump on his 34th birthday.

“Thank you EVERYONE for the Bday wishes! This year, I’m getting the GREATEST GIFT EVER. CAN’T WAIT,” he captioned the sweet image.

We would love to introduce you #AuFudgers our logo. Hope you love!!! Intro to characters coming soon.

A photo posted by @aufudge on Feb 5, 2015 at 2:00pm PST

Scandal Season 4 Episode 10 recap.

Okay, out of a pretend middle-eastern soundstage, into the fire. Oh, and the President of the United States was convinced to negotiate with terrorists and start a war by his wife, because she feared for the life of his mistress. I mean, I do love this show. …      

This is Kerry Washington on the cover of the March issue of InStyle. I merely glanced at the cover and began to read some of the quotes, wondering if any of it would be good enough to cover. But then I saw that people on social media were freaking out about the cover. Specifically, Kerry’s skin on the cover. There was an immediate backlash about the “whitewashing” of Kerry, not just lightening her skin, but airbrushing some of her features to make her look less like herself. I had to look again… and while I do think they lightened her skin, I don’t think they airbrushed her features into oblivion, like some magazines do to other women (regardless of race). But yeah, the different in skin tone is notable. It was so bad that InStyle had to release a statement within the same news cycle or else Kerry-loonies were going to picket their offices. Here’s the statement:

We are super fans of Kerry Washington here at InStyle. To feature her on the cover of our March spring fashion issue is both an honor and a delight. We have heard from those who have spoken out about our newsstand cover photograph, concerned that Kerry’s skin tone was lightened.

While we did not digitally lighten Kerry’s skin tone, our cover lighting has likely contributed to this concern. We understand that this has resulted in disappointment and hurt. We are listening, and the feedback has been valuable. We are committed to ensuring that this experience has a positive influence on the ways in which we present all women going forward.

[From InStyle]

Kerry tweeted a link to the statement and wrote: “Beautiful statement. Thank u 4 opening this convo. Its an important 1 that needs to be had.” Yeah, it’s bad. I feel sorry for actresses who get slammed with criticism for editorial decisions that are not even their call, you know? And hey, at least InStyle didn’t use the same people who did Bobby Jindal’s portrait.

As for the actual interview… well, none of it was as interesting as the conversation about the cover. Kerry says she loves bold colors and prints and bigger fashion risks and Olivia Pope is more about a neutral palette. She talks about how she got back into shape after giving birth, which included “pilates, Tracy Anderson pregnancy DVDs, hiking, the elliptical machine and yoga.” That sounds like a lot of stuff. She also discusses her feelings about mommy guilt – you can read more here.

Photos courtesy of InStyle, WENN.

Sometimes when I’m having a bad day, I look at sexy photos of English model David Gandy. It’s my crutch! I don’t even really need him to speak at all (not that I mind his voice, which is English-y with a charming lisp). But his body! His face! His eyes! His arms! God. I could stare at him for days. And I totally would watch him in sexy movie, especially if he was without clothes in most scenes. I know Gandy isn’t the most popular “Hot Guy” around here, but he does it for me and I think he would do it for a significant number of women. So it wouldn’t surprise me if Gandy had gotten a call to audition for Fifty Shades of Grey. But here’s something that would surprise me: if Fifty Shades producers wanted him for the part and he turned it down. That’s what Gandy has claimed in a new interview.

In an interview with Square Mile magazine, David Gandy says that while he respects the film, the role – now played by Jamie Dornan – wouldn’t have been right for him.

‘Critics and literary experts aren’t fans but I respect it for what it is. But was it right for me? No. It just didn’t feel right, in any way. And in my gut, it felt right to say no.’

The hugely successful model, who is currently the co-designer and face of a new M&S campaign, revealed that he has been offered, and subsequently refused, several lead roles in box office hits.

“I was offered Fifty Shades Of Grey, 300:2, Hercules, which a lot of people probably would have taken as actors but I’m in the fortunate position where I like what I’m doing. I don’t feel the need to act,’ he said.

[From The Daily Mail]

As I said, I like his voice… but maybe not so much with the talking for this one, okay? I don’t believe him. I think he’s flat-out lying about being offered the Christian Grey role. Did he audition? Probably. The producers saw tons of actors and model-types and reportedly there were a lot of higher-profile guys who turned it down, like Robert Pattinson and Ryan Gosling. I also don’t believe Gandy got an offer because… well, he’s too old to play Christian Grey. Gandy is hot but he looks older than his age (he’s 34) and add to that the fact that Gandy really isn’t an actor and he’s never had a major film role before…? Yeah, Gandy is lying! #DavidGandyMisremembers

Photos courtesy of Joe Alvarez, WENN.

Tawny! Happy Birthday from Emi who wanted me to tell you that you’re “hot but not old but hot”. Here are Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and Robbie Williams by request.      

Dear Gossips,

Wednesday was the Start of Spring on the Chinese calendar meaning it’s now officially the Year of the Goat/Sheep (even though Chinese New Year is on February 19th). That day I posted a Squawking Chicken (my ma) advisory for those born in the Year of the Ox. The Goat/Sheep …      

Some of you have been begging for Beige Booty Shorts to make a grand return. Don’t let me down. As we’ve discussed, Bradley Cooper secured his third Oscar nomination for American Sniper, a film for which he rocked a fake baby and chugged 8,000 calories per day. I’m oversimplifying. He also played Chris Kyle as a guy who spent too much time talking to his wife on a satellite phone during battle scenes. I get that the script needed to stress the communication of a military family, but the excessive phone calls were a stretch.

Bradley won’t win the Oscar (or will he?), but he’s already won by ruling the box office with a $324 million film (so far). Bradley spoke with NPR’s Fresh Air. The whole thing is enormous (full transcript here), and he works it so hard. This is a really powerful interview — even though Bradley’s playing dumb about what he expected from audiences. Some key passages:

On the cultural lightning rod: “I don’t think one could ever foresee something like that happening. I feel a bit removed from it just because I’m in NYC doing this play, and my life hasn’t changed on a daily basis, you know? People aren’t coming up on the street or anything like that, either praising or yelling at me. But war is such an emotional subject, so maybe I was a fool to think that it wouldn’t.”

The film as a Western: “It was always to get Chris Kyle right and tell a human story, and I just liked the idea of a character study based on this conflict. That’s what I’ve enjoyed about it initially, and I love the idea of framing it as a Western. And that this guy happened to be incredibly charismatic. You have a guy going into a town, and there’s his equivalent on the other side – another sharpshooter. He’s a sharpshooter. You end it in, you know, tumbleweeds. At the dust storm, there’s showdown. This sort of, you know, one man and his sort of pursuit – that idea.”

When veterans come home? “Chris talked about … being over there and the choices and why, and he talked about how that’s not his job. He made a commitment and an oath to his country, and if you have an issue with it, the people that you really need to talk to are those who make the decisions of where to send the troops. And he would wish that that attention was diverted to them, and instead, maybe look at what the sacrifice is. That’s how we looked at this movie … as, hopefully, igniting a conversation about the lack of care and attention that goes towards vets. 22 vets commit suicide each day – that the amount of people that come home is so much greater than before because of medical advancement and that we need to take care of them.”

Getting into Chris’ head: “I lived with him. I basically made this document where I had every single thing he’s ever said recorded and I would just listen to it. It’d be the first thing I woke up with in the morning. I’d just put on the ear buds right away and last thing I listened to at night. And just really sort of soak him in. And so, God, I’m just – something about him – it was just beautiful.”

The 40-pound weight gain: “Without the aesthetic, I wouldn’t be able to see the inner. I had to adopt that or rather take on that sort of physical presence in order to understand what was going on inside. So that’s how I approached it, and that’s not really normal, but that’s what I did. And I also knew that if I didn’t feel what it was like to be him – if I didn’t believe that I was him in that way – that I don’t think I was ever going to get to the man himself. It wasn’t at all like a costume, it was like this sort of transformative experience to me because there was no going home from it. It was a gradual change that then became my daily life until the – until I started to shed him after we stopped shooting. I just woke up one day, and I could just feel it – that he wasn’t there. That sounds so crazy.”

[From NPR]

All of what Bradley says about veterans and aftercare is dead on. He’s done his research there. The problem I have with Sniper is how so much of it was fictionalized. They based it on Chris Kyle’s book of tall tales, and then it was further modified as a “Western.” The standoff between Kyle and the enemy sniper, Mustafa, never really happened. The two characters’ rivalry was a framing device, and it was a driving force in the film. That’s just one example of how Chris Kyle’s history was rewritten.

Do you believe Bradley was super surprised at how Sniper drew controversy? Character study or not, this is a movie about a controversial figure who draws strong opinions from both sides of the political spectrum. Of course people would get worked up. BCoop also revealed to USA Today how he’s also surprised the film is a box-office smash. He’s playing humble. This is more of the “I’m not handsome” game.

Something fun: Coop’s stylist spoke with InStyle to reveal how she’s feverishly planning his Oscar look. The plan is for Coop “to go old-fashioned, like Cary Grant.” LOL.

Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News & Fame/Flynet