TF1
Above Delphine Wespiser soon after being crowned as Miss France. Our article on her win was the most-read this year.

Last year, quite a few readers were interested in the most visited news articles on the Lucire website. This excludes the features we have on the main part of the site. Nevertheless, it gives us a fair idea of what people were interested in during 2011.
   Our most popular article of 2011 was about the new Miss France, Delphine Wespiser. It might have helped that Lucire was the first English-language publication to break the news, though traditionally we’ve noticed there has always been a healthy interest in Miss France.
   Our Honor Dillon article was next. This was a 2010 piece, but with Dillon marrying fiancé Dan Carter earlier this year, people were curious. The fact Dillon was modelling underwear will have prompted some extra searches that we didn’t anticipate.
   Unsurprisingly, given how much coverage this got at the time, Scarlett Johansson gets into third place with our story on her modelling for Moët & Chandon. In fact, each time we run a story on Johansson, there’s a good amount of public interest.
   The wedding of HSH Prince Albert and Charlene Wittstock gave royal-watchers their second major celebration of the year, after HRH Prince William and Catherine Middleton. But, with more media covering the British event, Lucire netted a slightly larger share of the Monaco one to get it into fourth place.
   And in fifth, Keira Knightley’s Coco Mademoiselle campaign got plenty of fashionistas and fans popping by, initially to get a preview.
   Stories on Vanessa Paradis, Miss New Zealand 2011 Priyani Puketapu, Brooklyn Decker, Bar Refaeli and Miss Prestige National 2012 Christelle Roca take us to 10th place.
   For actual search terms, the patterns were similar, though we can add Princess Catherine or the Duchess of Cambridge, Miss Nationale 2011 Barbara Morel, Aishwarya Rai, David Bailey and Jennifer Garner into the mix.
   Any bets from our readers on the top celebrities of 2012?

Summer Rayne Oakes and Benita Singh’s Cartier award-winning venture, Source4Style, which helps designers source sustainable fabric through a well designed, transparent website, launches its second version today. Lucire has the low-down in the main part of the site, and this story forms part of some of our next 2012 print and other non-web editions.
   We believe this will revolutionize the way the business of fashion is conducted. Think about it: consumers demand sustainability and the trend has no signs of stopping. Yet, according to Singh, suppliers are spending up to 43 per cent of their marketing budgets just on trade shows. ‘It’s a huge up-front time and financial commitment with no guarantee of a return,’ she says. On the other end of the scale, Cornell University research shows that designers are spending up to 85 per cent of their time visiting those same shows, going through online directories, or wading through sample folders.
   Source4Style uses the internet to bridge the divide, and has obvious positive implications for smaller suppliers, who are on a level playing field with the big names. Some of these suppliers are in third-world countries, so it’s not hard to see the financial benefit that Source4Style can have for them and their communities.
   It’s in line with the ideas in Simon Anholt’s Brand New Justice, where Anholt posited that good brands helped third-world communities find greater profits and margins. Source4Style doesn’t quite give these companies brands per se, but through the site, it allows them to be the equal of businesses that are operating in the first world, and levels the playing field.
   It is the solidity behind this venture that sees us devote two web pages and the cover to it. We encourage readers to take a look, as this may well be the moment when fashion changes for good—in more than one sense of the word.—Jack Yan, Publisher

Andreas Rentz/Getty Images/Paramount Pictures

We haven’t followed the press juggernaut for Tom Cruise’s new film, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (notice the shift of the colon from the original Mission: Impossible title in everything but the official logo) as it made its way from the Far East to western Europe, but the German première at BMW Welt deserves a special mention for motorheads.
   While Cruise, co-stars Paula Patton and Simon Pegg, director Brad Bird (The Incredibles) and producer Bryan Burk have winged their way to location cities such as Dubai, with part of the movie set at the Burj Khalifa, it was BMW’s involvement that made the trailer, in our eyes, something special.
   For less than a second, we thought the BMW i8 made an appearance, making Mission Impossible 4 the first cinematic appearance for the electric car.
   BMW says it was the Vision EfficientDynamics concept car, on which the i8 is based, that Cruise drove in Mumbai scenes. Other BMW cars in the movie include the X3, the 6-series cabriolet and the new Einser, the 1-series.
   The film marks a deeper involvement for product placement. BMW features are integrated into the script, namely ConnectedDrive and EfficientDynamics.
   Other celebrities at the München première include Heydi Nunez Gomez, lena Gerber, Sven Hannawald, Verena Kerth, and Natascha Grün.

Andreas Rentz/Getty Images/Paramount Pictures

Burberry has revealed more of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s campaign for Burberry Body, initially previewed by the brand in July with a five-second video and imagery.
   The campaign has been shot in London by Mario Testino, with the print and TV campaigns created under the direction of Burberry chief creative officer Christopher Bailey.
   Says Bailey in a release, ‘Burberry Body is the most exciting launch that we have ever created and captures the iconic spirit of the brand today in a striking and sensual way. Rosie’s effortless style and her staggering beauty made her the natural choice as the first Burberry Body.’
   Huntington-Whiteley says, ‘It’s a huge honour to be working with Burberry again, a brand that put my career on the map and helped launch me. To be asked to be the first Burberry Body is an amazing compliment.’
   The television campaign will break online on September 1, and features Huntington-Whiteley wearing a trench coat and the Burberry Body scent.
   The scent is regarded by the company as its ‘most sensual women’s fragrance to date’, and will be released in 150 markets. The Australian release is scheduled for September 4.

As part of Gucci’s 90th anniversary, the company announced a special edition Fiat 500 earlier this month, with the trade-mark green and green stripe. It’s a suitable subject for the retro treatment—the 500 is meant to ape an Italian car from 50 years ago, while Gucci is happy to remind us of its heritage. It’s one of the birthday events that Gucci has in store, including a Gucci museum opening in Firenze this September.
   Of course, in a globalized world, the Gucci brand is owned by the French and the Fiat 500 is built by Poles, but no one’s really mentioning that.
   The car has been customized by Gucci creative director Frida Giannini.
   Pictured in London for its launch, among other celebs and VIPs, were Amanda Shepard, Florence Brudenell-Bruce, Tomo Kurata, Leah Weller, Tom Chambers, Serena Mattar, Lohralee Astor and the Hon Will Astor.

Dave M. Benett

Peeq Media/PR Newswire

Coty has announced a third fragrance in its contract with Beyoncé Knowles. The new fragrance, called Beyoncé Pulse, joins the earlier Heat and Heat Rush collections, and will be available from September 2011.
   Coty’s release says that the new fragrance has notes in citrus and orchid. The bluebird orchid in Pulse, it says, has not been used in a fragrance before.
   ’Sparkling top notes of pear blossom, effervescent blue Curaçao accord and frosted bergamot give way to bluebird orchid, delicate peony and fragrant midnight blooming jasmine. Finally, Pulse is anchored by powerfully sexy, irresistible base notes: warm, opulent Madagascar vanilla, seductive musk and sensual precious woods,’ it says.
   The launch will feature a TV and print campaign with the 16-time Grammy winner, running in 60 countries. TVCs begin showing August 2011. Facebook and Twitter will also be used.

Scott Weiner/Calvin Klein Cosmetics

If recent food price rises have families in shock, Oxfam has a worse outlook in the next 20 years if urgent action is not taken to change the system, says the charity charged with fighting global poverty.
   Oxfam’s Growing a Better Future report forecasts that maize and other key staples will rise in price by between 120 and 180 per cent by 2030, with up to half due to climate change. The world’s poorest, who spend up to 80 per cent of their income on food, will be hit hardest.
   Supporters of Oxfam’s latest campaign include Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, actress Scarlett Johansson, and former president Lula Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil.
   Oxfam says the world will hit a crisis point as the planet’s natural resources are depleted, and millions more hungry people will be created. Already eight million people face chronic food shortages in east Africa. By 2050, demand for food will rise 70 per cent, yet the capacity to increase food production is declining. The average growth rate in agricultural yields has almost halved since 1990, ‘and is set to decline to a fraction of one per cent in the next decade,’ says Oxfam.
   ‘In more than half of industrialized countries, 50 per cent or more of the population is overweight, and the amount of food wasted by consumers is enormous—quite possibly as much 25 per cent,’ the charity adds.
   ‘Our world is capable of feeding all of humanity yet one in seven of us are hungry today,’ says Jim Clarken, CEO of Oxfam Ireland. ‘Millions more men, women and children will go hungry unless we transform our broken food system.’
   His counterpart in New Zealand, Barry Coates, executive director of Oxfam New Zealand, echoes this view: ‘The food system needs to serve the interests of the seven billion of us who produce and consume food, rather than the interests of big agribusiness and powerful élites.’
   The crisis is, in part, driven by globalized corporations. Three companies—Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge and Cargill—control an estimated 90 per cent of the world’s grain trade. Their activities help drive volatile food prices and they profit from them, according to Oxfam. In the first quarter of 2008, at the height of a global food price crisis, Cargill’s profits were up 86 per cent.
   Small farms could lead the renaissance in feeding the world, if given the right investment and market access, says the Oxfam report.
   Johansson says, in her statement, ‘Sharing food is one of life’s pleasures. On a global scale, we don’t share fairly. Close to a billion people go to bed hungry every night. The fact is: the global food system is a broken one. All of us, from Kentucky to Kenya, deserve enough to eat. That’s why I’m joining Oxfam’s Grow campaign.’

Aishwarya Rai overtook Gong Li yesterday as being the most-searched celebrity on Lucire, so here’s a treat for all fans of one of the world’s most beautiful women: a one-on-one interview.
   Jonathan Ross is again the interviewer.
   Rai talks about feeling ‘at home’ at Cannes, thanks to her frequency of visits, and the honour of being the first Indian jury member at the Festival de Cannes.
   Ross asks an excellent question about cultural references in Indian films and Indian movie-going habits, both of which are handled with aplomb by the 1994 Miss World.
   The actress announced earlier today at the Majestic Beach Pier her new film, Heroine, produced by Ronnie Screwvala and to be directed by Madhur Bhandarkar.
   The new fictional film is ‘entertaining, daring, emotional, shocking, glamorous, scandalous behind-the-scenes account of the reality behind the world of glitz and glamour that our stars inhabit.’