What girl hasn’t dreamed of designing her own shoes? This Tuesday Kristen Bell finally got to live out that fantasy–and it was all in the name of a good cause. Joining 25 young patients in the playroom at an Art of Elysium design workshop at L.A.’s Shriners Hospitals for Children, the actress put pen to paper and sketched her first-ever heel for a charity initiative with online shoe society ShoeDazzle. “I’ve never designed in my life,” she admitted to PEOPLE, but luckily her new young friends were on hand to weigh in. The end result? A faux-leather gladiator-bootie, which Bell dubbed “The Midge.” Kristen’s shoe will be produced for Kim Kardashian’s online shoe club ShoeDazzle later in the summer, with 100% of proceeds benefitting Art of Elysium, a nonprofit program that brings actors and musicians into the lives of seriously ill children. “I’m in a profession of vanity, so this is grounding for me, and I hope fun for the kids,” she explained of spending the day with the children, who also did a lot of playing, painting and drawing of their own. Kristen’s shoe will hit ShoeDazzle.com this August, but in the meantime, check out her sketch of “The Midge” below. “You can wear these anywhere,” said Bell, “and hopefully they’ll be comfortable.”

Kristen attended the 45th Annual ACM Awards on Sunday and I’ve added photos and screencaptures to the gallery. Thanks to Brianne for the screencaptures! Will have videos up soon, also made by Brianne:

Next weekend’s Academy of Country Music Awards are turning out to be a star-studded affair. Toby Keith and John Fogerty were just added to the lineup of performers and Kristen Bell, Matthew McConaughey, Jamie Foxx and L.L. Cool J will be presenting!

The show, hosted for the twelfth time by Reba McEntire, will feature Laura Bell Bundy, Billy Currington, Jack Ingram, Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert, Rascal Flatts and Darius Rucker.

Leading the nominations are the women – Lambert, Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift, followed by male country stars Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley and the Zac Brown Band. Lady Antebellum came out on top with seven nods, including album of the year and song and video of the year for “Need You Now.” Lambert and Underwood each have six, and Swift has five, including entertainer of the year.

The 45th Annual ACM Awards will be held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and air live on CBS on April 18 at 8 p.m. ET.

Source

Reports that the Veronica Mars movie is in the final stages of rigor mortis have apparently been greatly exaggerated. According to the franchise’s boss, Rob Thomas, there’s still a chance his teen sleuth will be reborn on the big screen.

“It’s not dead,” insists Thomas. “I continue to want to do it. It’s funny, because the rumors go around and around. Kristen Bell had said to somebody that I had written a script, and that wasn’t correct. I did have a treatment and a pitch, with which I went to Warner Bros. and [Mars producer] Joel Silver and said, ‘Here is the fastball version of the movie, the big studio version of the movie that I think we can make.’ And I think they did one of their brand-awareness surveys and were like, ‘We don’t know if we can make money with that.’ So it’s been back-burnered. But I still want to do it. I’m still happy to do it. We’re still looking into it.”

Thomas, whose Starz comedy, Party Down, kicks off its second season on April 23, acknowledges that the project has a built-in expiration date. “There is a bit of a ticking clock [because] Kristen Bell does continue to age,” he concedes of his 29-year-old leading lady. “And doing ‘teen detective’ [is a] dicey proposition. But frankly, I think Veronica Mars as a 30-year-old noir detective at some point in the future would still be interesting to me.

“In sort of the tidal wave and roller coaster of feeling upbeat or downbeat about it,” Thomas concludes, “I’d say I’m feeling in the middle right now.”

source: http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2010/04/07/veronica-mars-movie-is-not-dead/

Kristen was on Craig Ferguson on April 5th. Here’s a video of the appearance!: