When you’re a 6-10 pro basketball player, you are used to getting things your way. But Los Angeles Clippers power forward Lamar Odom, husband to Khloe Kardashian, may not win the current battle he’s thrust himself into.

Odom and designer Jonathan Garcia launched a clothing line, Rich Soil, back in 2009 and one of its T-shirts caused so much of a stir that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo actually sent him a letter to tell him to stop selling it, the Associated Press reports. Cuomo expected Odom and his pal to stop sales within five days.

The problem? The shirt looks an awful lot like a logo for a New York State farming program. The Rich Soil shirt features a very similar Statue of Liberty that sits behind familiar-looking crop rows, encircled in a similar font reading "Rich Soil New York" as opposed to the program's "Pride of New York." Check out a side-by-side here.Continue reading...

Kim Kardashian is getting married — and it’s causing a minor rift with her mother. Not because Ma doesn’t like the fellow, New Jersey Nets forward Kris Humphries. And it’s not because of the wedding preparations for the reality TV star’s big summer event. No, it’s because 30-year-old Kim Kardashian plans to lose her last name, the golden family brand, and become Kim Humphries.

“I don’t think she should take his name and be Kim Humphries,” her mom, the 55-year-old Kris Jenner, reportedly said. “I think she needs to be Kim Kardashian because she’s worked so hard to get where she is.”

Of course Jenner ditched the last name of Kardashian, too, when she married Olympic legend Bruce Jenner. But her daughters — the K-named trio that is Kim, Khloe, and Kourtney — have made their names household ones since Keeping Up With The Kardashians debuted on the E! Network back in October of 2007.Continue reading...

The celebrity-branded beauty brigade is running full-tilt before Valentine's Day.

Sephora is stocking up on Justin Bieber's million-selling One Less Lonely Girl nail polish and a pink-haired Lady Gaga drops her new single and hits newsstands on the cover of Vogue.

Rihanna also released the above video for her Reb'l Fleur perfume; meant to be played backwards, it's best viewed as an interactive video on her website.

Not to be left out, the Kardashians — Kim and Khloe — are also vying for attention, promoting their respective perfumes with racy new videos.Continue reading...

It used to be that the celebrity endorsement game was mainly played in an arena wired with TV, radio and print. Now, with Facebook and Twitter at brands' and celebrities' fingertips alike, the rules of that game have changed. Witness the uproar over paid tweets, as CNN highlights above.

It's a tricky area, which has created an opportunity for firms such as Ad.ly to help brands and celebs navigate the choppy seas of celebrity endorsement in a highly social, visible and transparent era.Continue reading...

The irony is impossible to ignore.

The good news: the celebrity-led "Digital Death" social media campaign to raise $1 million for the Alicia Keys-backed Keep a Child Alive project that kicked off on World AIDS Day succeeded.

The bad news: the temporarily dead stars who’d pledged to go digital cold-turkey until the funds were raised couldn’t wait for it to happen organically, as originally intended.Continue reading...

Kotex now employs the Kardashian family. [Village Voice]

Apple fans scramble for the iPad ... which is banned in Israel. [Reuters | CS Monitor]

UA, Continental in merger talks. [Reuters]

KFC goes pink to support breast cancer research. [QSR]

GE develops light bulb that lasts 17 years. [PC World]

Toyota's US ruling on safety tests delayed. [Detroit Free Press | USA Today] Continue reading...