Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ Country music star Blake Shelton is
People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive for
2017, but it took some convincing by his girlfriend, Gwen Stefani, to get him on board. Shelton, who is also a coach on NBC’s The Voice, hates being the center of attention, the magazine said. “She goes, ‘Listen to me,’” recalled the 6-foot-5, Oklahoma-bred Shelton. “‘You’re going to regret this for the rest of your life if you don’t take this gift and just live in the moment.’ I’ve been ugly my whole life. If I can be sexy for a year, I’m taking it!’” As a bonus for the outspoken Shelton, he can hold the accolade over the head of Adam Levine, his fellow coach on the singing competition and 2013’s Sexiest Man Alive. Shelton said he was, in fact, proud and honored to have been picked, adding: “I’m not going to treat this like Hugh Jackman or one of those guys who’s humble about it. People are going to hate me over this. Because it’s going to be used in every conversation, whether it’s at The Voice or at the feed store in Tishomingo, Okla., or in a conversation with a doctor. Until I have to hand the title, which is what it is to me, over to someone else, this is mine. This is like a certification.” Shelton’s latest album, Texoma Shore, hit No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums this week. ■ The maker of Barbie has announced it will sell a doll modeled after Ibtihaj Muhammad, an American fencer who competed in last year’s Olympics while wearing a hijab. Mattel Inc. said the doll will be available online next fall. The doll is part of the Barbie “Shero” line that honors women who break boundaries. Past dolls have included gymnast Gabby Douglas and Selma director Ava DuVernay. “I had so many moments as an athlete where I didn’t feel included, where I was often in spaces where there was a lack of representation,” Muhammad said Monday at the Glamour Women of the Year gala in New York. “So to be in this moment, as a U.S. Olympian, to have Mattel, such a global brand, diversify their toy line to include a Barbie doll that wears a hijab, is very moving to me.” Muhammad, the first American to compete at the Olympics while wearing a hijab, won a bronze medal in fencing at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. “There was so much about the doll that was important to me,” she said, adding that sports taught her to embrace her body and the strength that it could produce. In helping design the doll, she wanted it to have larger, more athletic legs, “And I am very into eyeliner, so I wanted a strong-winged cat eye. And Mattel listened to everything, everything even down to the fabric of the hijab.”