Fluff: The prank photo that's gone viral.

1. Young Samantha Busch just wanted to go on a holiday to the Grand Canyon with her boyfriend. But her overprotective mother wouldn’t stop warning her about falling off a cliff or being blown off while hiking.

So Samantha decided to send the below photo to her mother… just to freak her out a little bit. We’re guessing it worked:

Apparently Samantha and her boyfriend found a ledge to stand on and angled the camera so that it looked like she was about to fall off, into the canyon.

The picture has since gone viral and has even spurned a whole lot of copycat images from world travellers.

But did Samantha’s mother forgive her? “She’s fine. She wasn’t even angry. She was just relieved upset,” Samantha said.

2. Some bad news for any Coldplay fans – at a gig in Brisbane last week, the band has announced that they are taking a three year break.

Singer Chris Martin told the audience that the group wanted to make the performance their best ever…because “this is the last big show for three years or so,” he said. “I don’t want to stop,” he told a crowd of shocked fans.

His statement was *technically* untrue – the band has a bunch of gigs lined up before a New Year’s Eve show with Jay Z – but won’t be planning any live shows after that (news, which will devastate everyone who went to the band’s recent gigs in Oz).

3. This might just be the coolest song you will hear today.

4. The Biggest Loser – explosive claims of dangerous weight loss practices.

Former host Ajay Rochester got into a social media skirmish with former contestant Adro Sarnelli – the winner of the very first series – on her website. It was prompted by Adro attacking overweight people on a forum for previous contestants of Biggest Loser. There are quite a few personal insults between the two but the most illuminating bit of information is what Ajay has alleged about the WAY contestants on the popular Channel 10 reality show lose such massive amounts of weight so quickly during the course of filming. In her open letter to Adro on her Facebook page, Ajay wrote:

Adro, if you remember, you were eliminated by the game and fellow contestants but you threatened the producers with a court case and all sorts of things, which in the first year of a show, a costly court case and scandal was not what they wanted or needed to make the show a success.

You forced them into giving you another chance, threatening to make trouble for them and so they rewrote the series and gave you a second chance, reluctantly.

I remember how you came to the show, a lost, broken, desperate, powerless father unable to save your own life and willing to do anything to fix it, putting your life in the hands of others, a TV show, trusting they would change your life FOR you. I also remember how you presented yourself at your final weigh in (behind closed doors and a few days before filming so contestants had time to recover and look healthy)…..you were starving, pale, had shallow breathing, low blood pressure, cracked lips and you were unable to stand on your own two feet – hardly a great advertisement for healthy weight loss….. all the contestants begged me to ask the producers to have you drug tested.

I took that request to the producers and was told they didn’t want to know the truth, they just wanted a good winner and told me to shut up and go away.

 

For years now, many health professionals have expressed concern about the crash diet tactics promoted on the show and the way contestants are incentivised to lose vast amounts of weight over a short period of time. Channel Ten is yet to respond to Ajay’s claims.

5. An ENGAGEMENT. A WEDDING. And a PREGNANCY.

Three bits of local happy news. Australian model Erin McNaught is engaged to music producer Example (real name Elliot Gleave). Apparently, Elliot proposed to Erin in Brisbane, while the couple were visiting her family.

Flick through our gallery of other celebrities who have recently announced engagements:

Designer Rachel Gilbert married Tom Williams over the weekend, at Kincoppal Rose Bay. Gilbert wore a strapless self-designed organza gown and her bridesmaids were dressed in long silver gowns. The reception was held at Catalina.

See THE dress (and other recent celebrity weddings) in the gallery below:

And X-Factor judge Natalie Basingthwaite has confirmed she is pregnant with her second child due in June next year. Congrats to all three couples.

6. Speaking of weddings – these are the guests nobody wants at their wedding. This gallery will make you laugh.

7. While Australia has adopted Halloween as a new(ish) tradition from the US, we’re yet to get into Thanksgiving.  But we can still appreciate the effort that everyone’s making in the States, what with the turkeys and the pumpkin pies… Sorry, why don’t we celebrate this holiday? Click through the gallery to see how celebs such as Oprah, Kanye West and Jessica Alba celebrated Thanksgiving.

(Warning: Prepare yourself to experience food envy.)

8. These are the celebrity pinterest accounts that you should be following (so you can see what inspires them).

9. Would you let HIM wear it? First men are being encouraged to wax and laser the hair off their chests. Now they’re being sold hairy ties. WTF. Zazzle is selling a rather interesting “Perfect Hairy Chest and Stomach Tie”. It’s for the man who is less than satisfied with the amount of hair he has on his chest. Oh, and it comes with built-in abs. Bonus! Would you want your significant other to wear one? They’re only $34…

Thanks to Hurricane Vanessa.