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.”

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/

It’s always refreshing to see strong, independent and influential women celebrated. And with the help of Meryl Streep, Kristen Bell, Fran Drescher, Laura Benanti, and Kelli O’Hara, we have a unique opportunity to see just that!

On Monday, April 12, Good Housekeeping will host “Shine On,” a one-night only Broadway production, celebrating the magazine’s 125th anniversary. The mag plans to mark it’s anniversary with a salute to influential and inspiring American women of the past 125 years, from Icons to Goddesses and Visionaries to Hellraisers.

Lynne Taylor-Corbett, two-time Tony Award nominee and choreographer of the feature films “Footloose” and “Bewitched,” will direct the play, and proceeds will benefit the National Women’s History Museum. The 90-minute production will feature stars like Meryl and Kristen Bell and additional guests and performers who will be announced in the coming weeks.

“Shine On” honors all types of powerful and intelligent women, specifically those whose imagination and nerve changed our lives forever. Susan B. Anthony, Madonna, Sally Ride, Dorothy Parker, Diane von Furstenberg, Martha Stewart and many more are all part of the inspiration for this show.

To get tickets to the show, head over to NY City Center.

source: mtv.com

Kristen Bell has provided the voice of Gossip Girl since the beginning of the CW teen drama, and so far, she’s been doing a fabulous job meddling in the lives of our favorite Upper East Siders. In the future, however, the 29-year-old actress wants to step in front of the cameras —even just for a brief cameo.

“I want to make a cameo and shoot it right down the middle,” Bell said slyly with a wink and a smile Tuesday night as she was leaving Cosmopolitan magazine’s annual Fun Fearless Female dinner at the W Hotel in Los Angeles.

This isn’t the first time Bell has expressed her desire to appear on Gossip Girl. Evidently, she has been bugging executive producer Josh Schwartz to let her do a brief appearance since the beginning of the year.

“I’ve pitched [to] Josh Schwartz a couple of times for me to be on camera as a waitress or something but he wasn’t buying it. But hopefully he’ll change his mind in the future!” she said back in April.

Unfortunately, there has been no word on Schwartz’s response toward her request so it seems that Kristen Bell’s appearance is just gossip for now.

Prior to providing the voice of the seemingly omniscient Gossip Girl character, Bell became a household name for playing the titular character in the cult hit TV series Veronica Mars. She was then cast as Elle Bishop on NBC’s Heroes and appeared in films such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Serious Moonlight, and Fanboys.

Kristen Bell can next be seen starring in the romantic comedy When in Rome, in which she plays a young and successful real estate agent named Beth Harper who appears to be unlucky in love. But when she travels to Rome to visit her newlywed sister, she impulsively steals some coins from a reputed fountain of love, and is then aggressively pursued by a band of wannabe lovers. When in Rome, which also stars Josh Duhamel, will hit theaters on January 29, 2010.

source: buddytv.com