BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

Why is every style magazine, fashion website and now health initiative citing this downright ugly woman who looks like she FELL into her closet and then got PUSHED by out as some sort of ultimate female icon? Disgusting really. Trim? yes. Attractive? NO! By Geoff Earle Chicago may not be getting the Olympics, but Michelle Obama is looking fit enough to compete in the Games. The first lady took part in a triathlon of high-energy exercises on the White House lawn yesterday, showing off her skills -- and her thin new look -- at the Healthy Kids Fair. Mrs. Obama put her flattening stomach and still-curvy hips to good use when she took a turn with a Hula-Hoop. She managed a challenging 142 hula swivels, hiking up her fashionable wide belt above her diminishing waistline. She even ditched her shoes and ran barefoot through the grass on an obstacle course set up on the South Lawn. The first lady continued her heart-pounding workout by jumping rope, although her effort at double Dutch -- whi...

I don't get it. This woman is U G L Y. She's on the cover of every magazine as a 'style' maven and I am sick of it. She is tall like I am, though much thinner (like I used to be before illness hit) and wears these tiny little sweaters & jackets that make her look like a circus animal. The rest of her wardrobe - barely passable. My Nana was a designer and both she & my mother had wonderful, classic taste. ME-ME-ME-chelle can't seem to even BUY good taste! And her face? Puh-leeze. I know so many other African American women who are much much prettier. Beyonce Knowles, Halle Berry, Vanessa Williams... that list goes on and on. ME-ME-ME-chelle looks like a thug with more attitude. UGH! Class is something you can't buy... it's developed - much like character. Jackie Kennedy had it. Nancy Reagan had it. You, Mrs. First-Lady? Do not. from the fabulous DEADENDERS: 24 TWENTY FOUR 1. $172,2000 – Sher, Susan (Chief Of Staff) 2. $140,000 – Frye, Jo...

She needs more than a full-time make-up artist. She needs plastic surgery and an attitude adjustment. Narcissists - ALLLLLL about the image. GLAMOUR 'FIRST' by Annie Karni She's America's top "model." Michelle Obama is the nation's first first lady to add a full-time makeup artist to her traveling entourage, according to stylists who have worked with presidential wives over the past 16 years. Makeup artist Ingrid Grimes-Miles, 49, helped create Obama's signature look on her inaugural trip to Europe last week. Grimes-Miles, who has been working with the first lady for six years, now splits her time between DC and Chicago, where she dolls up morning-news anchors for WGN TV. "No other first ladies have consistently traveled with a makeup artist," said hairdresser Bernard Portelli, who styled Hillary Rodham Clinton's blond mane in 1993 and tracks trends in first-lady style. "It took Laura Bush four years to finally look good. It's ta...

BORN ON THE LOWEST RUNG I've been called a feminist since high school. I never ever considered myself one. I have never raised my fist or burned a bra. I find those things trite, actually. I don't dislike the term. I just considered equality common sense. As I got older I found it wasn't so common at all. I still get very annoyed at those who treat women as "less than." Or objects and a collection of parts. In my volunteer advocacy I have a few ex-escorts as clients now. I have learned a lot from them about the sickness of the sex trade and the serious mental and class problems of the people who hire them. Being reduced to ones parts is one of the more demeaning experiences. I know what its like to be used like that. It's awful. I hate myself and feel sick when I even think about it. That I even was so silly to allow some guy to coerce me by playing with my emotions. Not just when I was younger but even more recently... the attitude of "boys...