Cultural critic Camille Paglia (left) wrote an essay in which she describes Taylor Swift as being a 'Nazi Barbie' whose model girl squad (pictured) is nothing more than a performance prop. 'In our wide-open modern era of independent careers, girl squads can help women advance if they avoid presenting a silly, regressive public image - as in the tittering, tongues-out mugging of Swift's bear-hugging posse,' wrote Paglia.

Supermodel Gigi Hadad's father could go from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills to Real Inmate of Bel Air in the latest twist in the saga of a huge megamansion (top right) he has built in the millionaires' enclave in Los Angeles. A judge in Van Nuys, California, ruled on Wednesday that developer Mohamed Hadid (seen left with Gigi) must answer criminal complaints over the construction that the city claims is a whopping 9,000 sq. ft. bigger than it should be. Hadid's 89-year-old wheelchair-bound neighbor Carole Cramer (bottom right) had accused the developer of stealing her land to put up a retaining wall for his property.

Cheryl McCafferty (top left and center right), 51, convicted of murdering her husband Bob (bottom left) in his sleep in 2007 has been welcomed by her children (pictured) following her release on Wednesday after she was pardoned. Cheryl McCafferty's pardon for the killing of her husband Bob McCafferty was one of more than 200 pardons granted on Monday by Governor Steve Beshear. She was one of 10 women pardoned by Beshear who were victims of domestic violence as well as being convicted criminals.

If you think the feisty crime show queen you watch on HLN is the same toughie in her personal life, think again - Nancy is full of Grace. Nancy and her husband David Linch have just finished building their rustic dream home in Georgia. The couple set out the welcome mat for Daily Mail Online, joined by their precious eight-year-old twins Lucy and John David along with their newly adopted pets. The house is chockful of kid-friendly delights and surprises: secret doors, hiding places, fantasy bedrooms and a bright red tubular slide that takes the twins - and sometimes Nancy - from the main floor to the basement playroom. Nancy takes nothing for granted: 'I have so many blessings I never dreamed of having.'

The scorned wife was filmed as she sat on the bonnet of her adulterous husband's white BMW in Mexico - stopping him from driving off with her love rival, who was in the front passenger seat. When the mistress (pictured in jeans) walks past the front of the car, the wife, who had been talking to police officers, flings her arms out and slaps her across the face - prompting the officers and husband to intervene. The mistress then holds her head high as she leaves the scene in a taxi (inset).

Courtney Le'ann Hansche and her boyfriend, 27-year-old Michael Nordbye (pictured) have been arrested for the rape and murder of the woman's daughter Jaydenn Hansche (inset) in Washington County. The pair appeared before a judge Wednesday for a probable cause hearing and their bond has not been set. They took Jaydenn to a hospital on November 15 but she later died.

Bronx Catholic priest Rev. Peter Miqueli (left), 53, is accused of stealing over $1 million in donations for years of dirty sex with a muscled homosexual S&M; master named Keith Crist (right).A lawsuit filed on Thursday in the Manhattan Supreme Court by furious parishoners claims that Miqueli would spend $1,000 at a time for bondage sessions with Crist. Miqueli is currently a pastor at St. Frances de Chantal in Throggs Neck.

Glancing at the table in this video, you would be forgiven for thinking the items on it are all real. But what you're seeing is in fact a simple 'anamorphic' illusion. By using skewed photographs of objects, a visual artist has created a mind-bending example of just how easily our brains can be tricked into seeing something that's not there. He has made the image available online so that anyone can download them and try to recreate the illusion for themselves.

Stockholm's City Hall hosted the glittering event where the Swedish royal family including Princess Madeleine (inset, left), Crown Princess Victoria (inset, centre) and Princess Sofia (inset, right) joined the world's brightest minds after the annual Nobel Prize ceremony. The ten laureates and their regal dinner companions dined in a blaze of candlelight amid 20,000 white, yellow and orange flowers which were donated by the Italian city of San Remo, where Alfred Nobel died in 1896.

Britni de la Cretaz , a writer from Boston, said she used to participate in various sexual acts with partners and acte like a porn star in the bedroom because she thought that was what men wanted, and she didn't know she could choose to say no. And while many men would be uncomfortable with their wives swearing off sex, Britni said her husband loves her and 'supports her 100 per cent'.

Phil Haney, a former member of the Department of Homeland Security, says a project he worked on in 2012 could have flagged Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik to the security services years before they killed 14 people in San Bernardino. Haney believes it is 'very plausible' that Farook would have been placed on a no-fly list, preventing him from meeting or marrying Malik, and that Malik could also have been denied a visa to enter the U.S. However, large parts of the database were destroyed after government officials accused him of unfair profiling, he claims.

Family, friends and colleagues gathered in Calvino, California, on Thursday to pay tribute to 27-year-old Yvette Velasco (left), a Department of Health worker killed in San Bernardino last week. Sisters Erica, Adriana and Genevieve released white doves in honor of Yvette (top right), as did distraught parents Robert and Marie (bottom right). Valesco, who had worked her way up the ranks of the department for five years, was attending the holiday party at Inland Regional Center in order to collect a gold badge, marking her promotion to county health inspector. But before she could collect the award, she was gunned down by jihadists Syed Farook and wife Tashfeen Malik alongside 13 of her co-workers.

Patrick O'Sullivan had an illustrious career in the NHL, playing 334 NHL games in eight seasons with Los Angeles Kings, Edmonton Oilers, Carolina Hurricanes, Minnesota Wild and Phoenix Coyotes. But the 30-year-old ex-player had a violent childhood, where a dad he nicknamed 'Crazy John' would abuse him constantly and would force him into hours of training. John O'Sullivan was a failed hockey player who seem to take his anger out on his son - but when he made the NHL, O'Sullivan believes his father felt justified in his actions. he said: 'He would throw punches. Not like he was hitting a small child - but like he was in a bar fight with a grown man. 'From the moment I got my first pair of hockey skates at five years old, I got the living s*** kicked out of me every single day. Every day after hockey, no matter how many goals I scored, he would hit me.

The 28-year-old lost her bantamweight title to Holly Holm last month and recently revealed that she was 'f***ing sad' about the defeat. But she was all smiles on Wednesday during an outing with Nick Cassavetes, whose directing her upcoming movie, Road House. The director joined the actress as she took her dog Mochi to a Los Angeles dog park.

Tim Johnson, a Los Angeles-based engineer, has been helping his wife Molly Murphy with her depression, and so to cheer her up after a trip to San Francisco, he penned a 15-item long list on their bedroom mirror of her quirks and attributes that enrapture him.

A car crash victim who became known as 'Grateful Doe' because of two Grateful Dead ticket stubs in his pocket has been identified more than 20 years after he was killed, authorities said Thursday. DNA evidence confirmed that the man whose identity remained a mystery for two decades is Jason Callahan (left) of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a spokesman for the Virginia Medical Examiner's Office said. Callahan was 19 when he was killed in southern Virginia in 1995. His injuries made him unrecognizable and his body was never claimed. Callahan's mother filed a missing person's report for her son with the Myrtle Beach Police Department in January. She told authorities that she hadn't heard from her son since June of 1995 when he left to follow the Grateful Dead. Band member Jerry Garcia is seen on the right in 1991.

The mystery girl who caught Justin Bieber's eye on Instagram is 17-year-old Spanish student Cindy Kimberley (pictured and inset), who earns £3-an-hour as a babysitter, MailOnline can reveal. Going by the name 'wolficindy', the beauty lives in the Costa Blanca resort of Denia near Benidorm and advertises herself on the internet as a babysitter to children aged four to six and says she has one year's experience. Music star Bieber, 21, put her on the map when he shared a picture to his 47.5million Instagram followers asking: 'OMG who is this!'

Megan Boeh, 34, got down from 430lbs (top right) to 205lbs (bottom right) - but is still carrying around extra weight due to excess skin that hangs from her stomach, legs, back, and arms. A new TLC series, Skin Tight, will follow her journey, as well as 11 other people who've lost hundreds of pounds each but now only want to have skin removal surgery. Some of the men and women have six-packs that can't be seen under the skin, which is heavy, uncomfortable, and unsightly. Megan has to tuck her extra skin into her pants and underwear every day and apply talcum powder to avoid chafing.

The newborn is one of 130,000 babies born addicted to drugs in the US over the last decade - a dependence inherited from their addict mothers. The devastating symptoms of withdrawal can last for a child's first few weeks. Similarly, baby Braxton (top right) was born with a methadone addiction inherited from his mother, Clorissa Jones. She was an addict when she gave birth to her first son, Jacoby. Ms Jones said: 'I was in labor, in the bathroom shooting heroin, about to give birth to my child.' She eventually lost custody of Jacoby, before learning she was pregnant with Braxton. At the time, she was smoking crack and doing heroin. After entering a rehab program she was able to retain custody of her second child. Braxton went through withdrawal for the first two weeks of his life, but is now largely healthy - though he has trouble feeding. Jennifer Lacey Frazier (bottom right) was sentenced to 15 years in jail after accidentally feeding her baby daughter - who was also born with a drug addiction - a lethal dose of methadone.

The Duchess of Cambridge and her 60-year-old mother Carole Middleton not only share the same hairdresser and fashion, but also striking similarities in their habits and postures. They also have the same exuberant laugh when they share a joke and even strike the same pose on more sombre occasions with hands in front, left over right. They are both also passionate about sport, and cheer on their teams with exactly the same clenched fists and anxious O-shaped mouths. And, perhaps most noticeably, the share the same wicked grin and pearly white teeth when they are amused.

Newly-digitised images reveal previously unseen details of one of the greatest ever photographic records of human survival. The exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society honours the achievements of Sir Ernest Shackleton and the men of the Endurance Expedition of 1914-1917. For its launch a selection of pictures were released last month. Today, four more images, including a football match (left) and survivor hugging a dog (right), can be revealed.

Corlena Cloyd, who is five-months-old, was born with profound hearing loss in both ears, but the hearing aids she received on Tuesday gave her an entirely different life. Corlena laughed and screamed with joy when she heard mom's voice, clapping, and Grandma's funny noises (far right). Parents Cori and Kalonda (left) are overjoyed, but wrongly thought the hearing aids would make their baby a tad quieter.

Rob Stella of Illinois returned home from his deployment in the Middle East on December 5 and managed to surprise his family by photo bombing their holiday snap with Santa Claus.'It couldn't have gone more perfectly. Santa was pretty helpful. It was a good time,' Stella said.'I was hidden behind the bench as people were getting their photos taken with Santa,' he explained.

Call it a purr-fect imitation. Madame Tussauds San Francisco now includes an animatronic version of Grumpy Cat. The replica of the 'bad-tempered' feline was presented on Tuesday. Tardar Sauce is the cat's actual name. Her website says: 'She really isn't grumpy! She is a super cute and cuddly kitty and loves to be held and rubbed!'

This hair-raising video shows the route taken by a daredevil cyclist as he flips and hops between rooftops on the holiday island of Gran Canaria. Rider Danny MacAskill, from Glasgow, specializes in climbing, jumping and riding his bike off any object imaginable, and has challenged himself with more heart-stopping stunts in this latest video. The route - which sees him perching on ledges and balancing on railings - ends with him performing a dramatic flip into the sea (bottom right).

The image from Gunbalanya in the Northern Territory has garnered an array of encouraging comments on Reddit. It depicts an indigenous man dressed as Santa Clause with two white children sitting on his lap. Commenters praised the image's culturally-inclusive qualities and hailed it for bridging cultural divides in Australia.

A Nasa chief engineer, Brian Muirhead, has proposed a method to efficiently build a Death Star, and it's not the way the Empire would have done it. Instead of constructing the massive weapon from scratch, an asteroid could be used to provide all of the essential building blocks. As it turns out, the Empire was doing things the hard way. He explains in a video that Death Stars can't just be built by 'launching a bunch of stuff off of a planet.'