They make us eat six times a day. Three meals and three snacks. We all sit in the kitchen together and there is a monitor at the head of the table making sure we eat everything on our plates and drink everything in our cups. This is called the refeeding process. It must be done slowly and steadily, with more food added on as time progresses so we don’t shock our systems. So we are not in danger of ending up like Karen Carpenter — she gained too much weight too fast after starving for a long time, and her heart couldn’t take it.

The bathroom doors are locked so the bulimics can’t go in and puke. (I myself have never been a purger.) When you need to go, you must ask a monitor to unlock the door for you and after she lets you in she stands just outside the door and then you must either count while you are on the toilet, loud enough so that she can hear you, right up until the moment you exit, or you must let her flush for you after you are done — so that there is proof that you didn’t vomit your food into the toilet.

Every morning they wake us up at seven and we all put on hospital johnnies, first thing, and go and have our vitals (temperature, blood pressure) checked and have ourselves weighed. I have gained five pounds so far. I’m doing well. I’m a model patient, weight gaining-wise. My mental/emo health is another story — a longer story, a work in progress.

All I want is to be well and to have energy and to get back on track and to have my quiet little life back. It was a lonely and solitary life, but it was mine. And I was basically healthy-ish. And I was free, in a sense.

Singer/songwriter Juliana Hatfield, who blogged this in early November, while in treatment for an eating disorder at the age of 41. That’s some hardcore shit, and props to Juliana for being so honest about it. She recently released a memoir titled When I Grow Up. Obviously, she’s still working on it, as are we all.

Dude, I don’t understand this at all.

Tom Cruise is to merge his family with Victoria and David Beckham’s in a special ceremony.

The ‘Valkyrie’ actor will hold the bizarre service – during which the families vow to be brothers and sisters and exchange heartfelt speeches – at his wife Katie Holmes’ New York town house.

The gesture serves as a Thanksgiving present from Tom – who has two adopted teenage children, Isabella and Connor, with ex-wife Nicole Kidman and a two-year-old daughter, Suri, with Katie – to the showbiz couple.

A source said: “Tom and David have been friends for years and they and their families spend a lot of time together.

“This year Tom wanted to make a special gesture that would show how much he appreciates their friendship and he thought this would be the perfect way.”

So, uh, let me get this straight: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are busy adopting children from third-world countries, but Tom Cruise has decided to focus his energies on adopting international soccer stars and former girl-banders? Okay. I’m just checking.

Despite reports from this weekend, Orlando Bloom is denying reports that he and Miranda Kerr are engaged. “These rumors are not true,” he says.

You can breathe a sigh of relief now, ladies.

I just have to put in a quick plug for my friend Melissa’s line of chunky bangles from her Josie Girl company. I spotted them on another friend at a party and I was like, “OMG, I love those,” and when I found out it was Melissa’s company I told her how great they were and she gave me a couple. I’ve been wearing them pretty much non-stop since. They look great with damn near everything, but I’m especially digging pairing them with simple tanks and jeans. I think it creates a really fun and classic look.

She also does belts, but I’m not really a belt girl, what with my Buddha belly and all. I try to keep the area around my stomach as loose as possible. (As I told her when she showed me the belts: “Honey, you can’t wear a belt like that with a tummy like mine.” At least I’m honest.) But if you’re a belt chick, they’re worth checking out.

Bangles are here and belts are here.

I’d run the pics of Keira alone on the red carpet, but, oh wait, there aren’t any. She insisted on holding Sienna Miller’s hand the whole damn time. I don’t understand it and I don’t want to.

Oh, and I had the photo agency’s website programmed to display the oldest photos first — I did that to find the young pics of Nicole Richie I ran previously — but when I searched for these photos of Keira it actually brought up the earliest photos of her, including this one from the Pirates of the Caribbean premiere in 2003. In. Sane. I want that stomach. Now.

SO CUTE!

In this new pic of Harlow with her mommy, it is become increasingly clear that Nicole Richie’s little girl is definitely going to look like her mother! For comparison, here’s a shot of Nicole back in 1985.

I’m just going to copy-paste OK! magazine’s article here, because I don’t think I could sum it up any better myself:

Oh, how the mighty have apparently fallen!

From stadiums to bingo halls, Jessica Simpson’s performance venues have apparently slid towards the less-than-glamorous: Bingo regulars at the 2,500-capacity San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino in Highland, Calif., had to go elsewhere for their game on Nov. 13 when she performed there.

The hall’s florescent lighting, dirty carpet and fried-food odor is a far cry from the venues J-Simp played back when her album In This Skin sold 7 million copies.

“Jessica’s dressing room at the bingo hall was a little larger than a broom closet,” an insider tells OK!.

“There’s an iron, but no ironing board. There’s not even a fridge!”

I like how this article acts like the real victims here are the poor old folks whose Bingo game was displaced so that some washed-up floozy could do her singin’ and dancin’ act. There is no justice in this world!