Wandering tipster Faith Chang has just spotted model Hilary Rhoda engulfed in machine-made fog on Low steps. She's wearing Christian Louboutin stilettos and leopard-print St. John's knitwear. Two other models, a bevy of photographers, and a couple of catty interns with bad highlights are also present. Rhoda, the current face of Estee Lauder, reportedly looms a good few inches taller than the beta-models at her sides. Run quick and get a look at her famous bushy eyebrows...in person!

Meta-photos of the photo shoot after the jump!

Bwog is currently livebwogging from the Low Steps, where we (like many of you) stumbled upon a rock concert. The music was loud (and catchy) as Bwog yelled around in vain trying to figure out what the concert was for. We first ran into Jeffrey Rodriguez, SEAS '10, of the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship who explained that the concert (which is called Praise on the Steps for Jesus) was to kick off Jesus Week. Bwog screamed a couple clarifying questions, but Rodriguez ran off to enjoy the show. Dejected, we resigned ourselves to Googling. Luckily, Jonathan Walton, CC 08, sat down next to us on the steps and began typing on Bwog's laptop. "Jesus Week is traditionally the week before Easter at Columbia University but because of Spring break this year we decided to have it later in the year. Each year the Christian fellowships come together to worship and reach out to campus through events and service," he wrote in our open Word document. "Thank you!" Bwog yelled. Walton smiled and ran off.

The participating Christian fellowships include Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, Korean Campus Crusade for Christ, Campus Crusade for Christ, Remnant Christian Fellowship, and Kompass Christian Koinonia. "Are you ready to love God?!" the lead singer yelled to the crowd. The crowd replied affirmatively, enthusiastically.

- JNW

For those who missed all the fuss, around 11 PM a bunch of kids gathered by the steps for "Fort Nite," where they revisted childhood and created a party out of linens and other miscellaneous materials. A little bit after 1 AM however, Columbia security showed up to shut the show down, claiming that the sheets were creating an obstruction, the lights were a fire hazard, and that students should have alerted the university before throwing the event.

In keeping with the previous post about contradictory groups occupying space on Low Plaza, Bwog has recently been alerted to even more wacky goings-on near the steps.

A cotillion of men (and a few women) in motley uniforms and conversing in broken English, lined up on the steps to take a group picture, leaving as quickly as them came. Who were they? A "photojournalist" in tow wearing a black uniform was more than happy to explain: Columbians are in the company of the current class of the Interamerican Defense College, a US government institution run under the auspices of the Organization of American States. The class, made up of representatives from Latin American militaries who come to the US to learn about administrating armies the American Way, has representatives from seventeen countries—although Venezuela has recently opted out. Illustrious graduate: Michele Bachelet, president of Chile.

Also, tipster David Iscoe writes in:

There are some crazy vegans from EarthCo (The Earth Company! Specializing in selling earth!) giving out free Vegan food on the steps of Low Library in efforts to convince us that vegan food is free and thus veganism, while not so delicious, is economical.

Plus the Columbia School and a Hillel Booth. Could we get more pluralistic?

Today is the first workday of Queer Awareness Month, and the works are certainly in progress. Alma is bracketed by a floating balloon-rainbow and several students are seated at a table in front of her, handing out treats. Skip along to Low Plaza to get free Skittles (Taste the Rainbow) and condoms from our campus queer organisations. Make sure to get a picture of you and your sweetie, or you and your friends, or you and your prospective future whatever, under their rainbow of balloons.

Word has it that the university administration has already mishandled this event. Though QuAM is sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs, it seems nobody ever told security and groundskeeping, and also, strangely, the Department of Art History. This morning, as the Queer Alliance folks floated their rainbow and anchored it, they were accosted by an angry official who first demanded an explanation, and then began screaming for "Papers, acht, you need papers! We cannot proceed without papers!" Something like that.

He and his pals gave up after he was asked whether he had "anything better to do than hassle some homos." Various bystanders mocked him as he left, sheepish. But within minutes, as an intrepid flag-waver was preparing to affix the rainbow standard to Alma's scepter, a cold-bosomed curatress from Art History reprimanded him, declaring that no flag other than the black drape of National AIDS Day was to be affixed to Alma's person. The standard was not raised.

Sorry to disappoint. That vision in pink you may have seen preening on Low Steps is actually Laura Belle Bundy, playing Elle Woods in the upcoming Broadway musical Legally Blonde, which debuts at the Palace Theater in April. She and her coterie of publicists, camera people, and small dog held their publicity shoot on Low Steps because, as overheard by a frequent Bwog tipster, "I know it takes place at Harvard Law School, but this is the closest we could do."

Bwog is unsure of whether or not to be offended. Elle wouldn't have gotten into Columbia anyway.