Archive for November, 2009

Ivanka ‘Diamonds‘ Trump made a fresh statement when she married Jared Kushner, wearing a lace Vera Wang wedding dress with sleeves.

Trump’s dress has already inspired brides-to-be who have been opting for strapless dresses for years. “Nothing would make me happier,” Wang has said about the potential of a sleeve trend. “I’ve been doing strapless dresses for 15 years. It’s tiring.”

Michelle Rodriguez – Always a Bride – Michelle Rodrigues may be on the silver screen in the latest installment of the Fast & Furious movie franchise, but friends and family saw a different side to her when she ‘flipped out’ at a friends wedding where she was bridesmaid.  Michelle has become known in American tabloid heaven by the ironic nickname Loose Diamond.

At the welcome dinner at the Casa de Campo Resort in the Dominican Republic, Rodriguez pushed fully clothed guests into the pool. The next night, she broke up the bachelorette party yelling that the stripper was “fat and had a small [bleep].”

The Rapaport Group and the RapNet Diamond Trading Network have implemented an immediate trading ban on all diamonds from Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond fields due to severe human rights violations. As Marange rough diamonds are uniquely identifiable, the ban does not apply to diamonds from Zimbabwe that are not from the Marange area.

“The Kimberley Process (KP) is being used as a fig leaf to cover up human rights abuses in the diamond sector. Reports describing abuse have been kept secret by the KP and the World Diamond Council (WDC).

Rapaport calls on the WDC to immediately make public all information it has relating to human rights abuses in the diamond sector, including but not limited to Marange.

We call on the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) and the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA) to educate its members about human rights abuses in the diamond sector and to immediately halt the trade in Marange diamonds by publicly naming and expelling members that continue to knowingly trade in Marange diamonds,” said Martin Rapaport, Chairman of the Rapaport Group.

On average, U.S. households will spend $390 on Christmas gifts this year, a small percent drop from 2008. The average projected spending per household was slightly lower than an earlier survey taken by the National Retail Federation (NRF) in which average spending on gifts was projected to be about $508.

Consumers expect to approach offline online shopping very cautiously many preferring to save mney with the exceptional deals being offered at online stores, searching for incentives, such as free shipping and discounts, according to the group’s Consumer Internet Barometer, a separate survey produced quarterly by The Conference Board and TNS.

Top online items for shoppers this year include books, apparel, toys/games, movies and gift certificates. Some 0.5 percent of respondents planned to buy diamonds and jewelry online.

Take That fans met outside a famous church in a Scottish Highland village in a hope to catch sight one of thier idols, the singer Mark Owen as he marries his long term fiancee Emma Ferguson at Cawdor Village Church.
After a long engagement when Emma was presented with a stunning loose diamond for her to set into the ring of her choice, the couple spent some time planning where and how to marry.

The former Take That star planned a low-key wedding, with the couple refusing offers from a number of celebrity magazines to photograph the wedding in return for a large pay day. The couple and their children, Elwood and Willow Rose, were joined by a 50-strong wedding party, including fellow band members Jason Orange, Howard Donald and Gary Barlow.

Their wedding party was held at the nearby Cawdor Castle after the service.

The Highlands are known for high-profile celebrity weddings. In 2000, Madonna and Guy Ritchie tied the knot at Skibo Castle, and had their son Rocco christened at nearby Dornoch Cathedral.