And just like that, the most-discussed — and admired — first lady fashion trend since perhaps Jackie Kennedy’s pillbox is gone.

Michelle Obama’s ballyhooed bangs have been banished, as evidenced by her commencement speech today at Bowie State University in Maryland.

Her new look is a familiar one, a return to her side-swept, softly waved layers.

When the fringe statement made its debut four months ago, in time for Obama’s 49th birthday and the inauguration, style editors swooned over it. The president himself declared his “love” for it.

The first lady herself told Rachael Ray the look was her “midlife crisis”: “I couldn’t get a sports car. They won’t let me bungee jump. So instead, I cut my bangs.”

Props to The Hill for first spying the breaking ‘do news.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

And just like that, the most-discussed — and admired — first lady fashion trend since perhaps Jackie Kennedy’s pillbox is gone.

Michelle Obama’s ballyhooed bangs have been banished, as evidenced by her commencement speech today at Bowie State University in Maryland.

Her new look is a familiar one, a return to her side-swept, softly waved layers.

When the fringe statement made its debut four months ago, in time for Obama’s 49th birthday and the inauguration, style editors swooned over it. The president himself declared his “love” for it.

The first lady herself told Rachael Ray the look was her “midlife crisis”: “I couldn’t get a sports car. They won’t let me bungee jump. So instead, I cut my bangs.”

Props to The Hill for first spying the breaking ‘do news.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Looks like Heidi Klum has joined Gwyneth Paltrow‘s commando club.

The 39-year-old model was onstage Thursday night at the Toys ‘R’ Us Children’s Gala in New York wearing a slinky, black-sequined KaufmanFranco gown slit so high that it was clear to all that she was knicker-less.

But the drawers-free fashion came into full focus when Klum took a tumble alongside co-attendee Martin Short — and her slit gaped open to reveal undergarment-free glutes.

Like Paltrow, Klum had a sense of humor about her experience, tweeting a picture of the fall alongside the caption “(no comment)”.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Call it the new celebrity trend-let: Losing the baby weight before the baby is out of the Bjorn.

The list of new star moms slimming down postpartum in a matter of weeks vs. months is growing, from Megan Fox and Claire Danes to Holly Madison and now Kristen Bell, who was snapped Thursday in Hollywood looking noticeably trim only 7 weeks after giving birth to baby girl Lincoln with partner Dax Shepard.

Toward the end of her pregnancy, Bell, 32, readily showed off her bare bump to cameras.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

NEW YORK — Prince Harry got to play ball in Harlem.

The sun was shining Tuesday afternoon as the royal arrived at the baseball field of the Harlem RBI organization after a morning trip to the Jersey Shore and then a double-decker bus ride on the streets of Manhattan, where he was joined by British Prime Minister David Cameron.

The prince’s stop at the ball field is to mark the launch of a partnership with Harlem RBI and the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry. Project Coach is a program that presents coaching opportunities and community mentoring. It’s a match for the groups; The mission of Harlem RBI is to inspire young people on and off the baseball field.

After some tossing and catching practice, Harry, 28, seemed at ease as he tried his hand at swinging. With every pitch made by New York Yankees player Mark Teixeira, the prince easily connected his bat with the ball.

Said Juliet Mercado, 24, Harlem RBI coach and alumna, when she heard that the prince would visit the group: “My heart kind of dropped a little bit. I had to pick it back up. It was really exciting. It just made me feel like I came from something really special and I came from a program that is really unique.”

After playing ball, Harry listened to speeches about the new partnership between RBI and the Royal Foundation.

Richard Berlin, executive director of Harlem RBI, observed that “Prince Harry of Wales” is now “Prince Harry of Harlem.”

Nick Booth, executive director of the Royal Foundation, stepped up to the podium and said of the prince’s turn at baseball, “To us cricket-loving Brits, it’s a bit strange, but I think he’s gotten the hang of it.”

One young player was impressed. Ericeliz Carrilla said, “Playing with the prince was actually surprising, because I didn’t think he actually was going to be a good hitter in baseball.”

Teixeira shared the assessment: “Great swing. Three for three. For a guy who’s never played baseball before, to hit three line drives in a row, that’s pretty impressive.”

Early Tuesday, Harry visited Seaside Heights, N.J. Snooki put the Jersey Shore town on the map; Sandy just about wiped it off. But Harry put it back on.

Almost seven months after the superstorm thrashed the boardwalk and pier, Prince Harry surveyed the scene himself — and returned the spotlight to the rebuilding effort.

The prince spent the morning of the sixth day of his U.S. tour back on the East Coast, visiting the site of some of the worst of Sandy’s $71 billion in damage. His first stop was to a residential area still heavily damaged by the hurricane.

The second stop was to the recovering beachfront commercial strip, which includes the Shore Store, where the Jersey Shore gang worked. Gov. Chris Christie accompanied the prince for the 90-minute tour.

Christie, dressed in a mint-green shirt, gave Harry, dressed in a white button-down shirt and dark aviators, a fleece jacket similar to the one he wore during days of dealing with the storm. Among those Harry met first were first responders.

It was a crisp and clear spring day, gloriously sunny. Cranes and games and funnel-cake stands share a swath of freshly rebuilt boardwalk here. Security was relative light: sniffing dogs but no metal detectors. The crowd was three-deep by the barricades, and fans squealed when they caught sight of Harry arriving.

Harry tried one of the boardwalk booth games, tossing balls into a bucket and competing with kids from Seaside Heights Elementary as well as the governor. But no joy for them; the kids walked away with the stuffed toys.

Alexandra Cirigliano got to do what most 7-year-olds only dream of: meet a prince.

“He looks really different” from what she was expecting. Where was his crown? “At his hometown?” Alexandra said, scrunching up her face.

Her ball-tossing partner was the governor — “he got one in” — but it was the prince who acted as her knight in shining sunglasses: He won her a stuffed Hello Kitty.

“He’s cute,” concluded her sister, Taylor, 11.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said mom Jill Cirigliano. “I think their teacher will understand why they’re not in school.”

Later today, Harry will attend a charity fundraising gala.

Harry, third in line to the throne and a captain in the British Army, is on his second-to-last day of a week-long visit to the USA to promote Britain, support the military and raise money for his charities. Tomorrow, he travels to Greenwich, Conn., to play in a polo match to raise money for his African children’s charity, Sentebale.

So far, the prince has been a hit everywhere he has gone since he arrived Thursday, charming, chatting, joking and impressing, engaging enthusiastically in whatever he’s doing, especially if it’s military- or sports-related. He set women squealing on Capitol Hill, joined military families at a White House party, saluted smartly at Arlington National Cemetery and bucked up wounded warriors still recovering at Walter Reed or competing at the Warrior Games in Colorado Springs.

Ever since his boffo tour of the Caribbean and Latin America last spring, when he represented grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Diana’s second son has proved he has not only matured, but he’s a natural at the whole royal thing.

And that day in Las Vegas last year, when he was photographed naked in a hotel room during a private visit before deploying to Afghanistan? Embarrassing but receding in memory.

Contributing: Sabrina Treitz in New York

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Turns out The Douche is dating material.

Eight months after splitting from Will Arnett, Amy Poehler is being linked to one of her Parks and Recreation guest stars, Nick Kroll, who’s played shock jock The Douche and has his own Comedy Central Kroll Show, reports People. A source tells the magazine the coupling is legit.

Poehler, 41, and Kroll, 34, were spied dining together in L.A. in March at Pikey Café and Bar, according to the New York Post, and at a fundraiser a month later.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

And the bride wore… black.

Sixteen years after Sarah Jessica Parker shocked the bridal world by marrying Matthew Broderick in noir, Shenae Grimes has gone the (elegantly) goth route down the aisle, tying the knot in London today with British model Josh Beech, 24, in bi-colored, full-skirted Vera Wang.

“I now pronounce us Mr. and Mrs. Beech! Ahhh!” the 23-year-old posted to Twitter, beneath a photo of the couple in his-and-hers ebony. (The pair announced their engagement in December.) The only color pop: the 90210 star’s red bouquet.

Let’s hope Grimes doesn’t experience the hitch that Parker did getting hitched in black: The Sex and the City star admitted years later that she regretted the daring altar attire.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

There it goes.

After six years of languishing in Las Vegas, the Miss America pageant is returning to its Atlantic City hometown this September, but without the element that it’s arguably most famous for: its eponymous song (you know, “There she is… “).

It’s (kinda) like the Super Bowl without The Star-Spangled Banner.

Indeed, precisely because the song just about defines the show, the widow of the songwriter, Bernie Wayne (who also penned Blue Velvet), sued the pageant last year for using it in 2011 and 2012 without the appropriate license, reports The Press of Atlantic City. The case was settled in December under confidential terms, but a pageant VP confirmed to the paper that “There she is” is no more.

In her complaint, Phyllis Wayne argued that the song, most memorably belted by Bert Parks, is “widely known by Americans as the most famous part of the annual Miss America pageant television show.” Pageant attorneys didn’t agree.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

She rarely talks about him, let alone is seen with him.

But now Gwyneth Paltrow has opened up — a little — about Chris Martin and their mildly mysterious 10-year marriage.

“It’s hard being married. You go through great times, you go through terrible times. We’re the same as any couple,” the Iron Man 3 star says of the Coldplay frontman in the June issue of British Glamour (she graces the cover).

“I asked my dad once, ‘How did you and Mum stay married for 33 years?’ And he said, ‘Well, we never wanted to get divorced at the same time.’ And I think that’s what happens. When two people throw in the towel at the same time, then you break up, but if one person’s saying: ‘Come on, we can do this,’ you carry on. I’ve learned more about myself by being married than anything else. I hate to say, ‘We’ve got it worked out,’ because you never know what’s going to happen, but we laugh, we’re good friends, we like to do the same stuff.

“I’m a very grounded, homey person and Chris is a very mad scientist, genius songwriter,” the Oscar winner continues. “So I never say ‘Where are you? You should be home by now.’ I never place demands on him because I think he’s a really talented man, and he’s putting something good into the world.”

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Another famous Boston area native is speaking up about this extraordinary week.

Amy Poehler, who grew up in Newton, Mass., and graduated from Boston College, yesterday posted a video to her Smart Girls Channel on YouTube in which she answers a question from a 16-year-old, Millie, about how to avoid the negative images and videos rampant on the web.

Poehler, 41, got poignant:

“In light of recent events, I’ve, and I’m sure you have and the rest of the world, if not America, have been looking at photographs that are really hard to take, and I’ve been thinking about what these images do to our brain and to our heart and how we should look at them and when we should look at them.”

Millie’s is a bigger question, the Parks and Recreation actress says: “How can I keep myself informed and connected without exploiting people and harming myself? So I’ve been trying to balance that these days. … It’s been tough, hasn’t it? Doesn’t it feel like we’re just bombarded with stuff now?

“I wonder if we could give our eyes a break and maybe try to see things in a different way, try to see things by reading about them or talking about them or listening,” Poehler adds. “I don’t know. I kind of feel like my eyes need a break, don’t you?”

It’s OK to be “OK with letting some things rest in peace. … This has been a weird week, hasn’t it?”

Her sign off: “I love you, Boston. See you soon.”

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.