Country-music’s new pop-singer Jessica Simpson tries hard to look the part on the new issue of Elle magazine, wearing a plaid shirt, fitted blue jeans, and huge belt buckle, which hits newsstands August 11.

On whether or not she was ever physically abused:

“I don’t want to talk about it, but I have definitely experienced abuse in a way that I would tell people to take their heart and run.”

From her song ‘Remember That’:

It doesn’t matter how he hurts you

With his hands or with his words

You don’t deserve it

It ain’t worth it

Take your heart and run.

On the period of her life following her 2005 split from ex-husband Nick Lachey:

“I was going through a lot of pain. I didn’t try anything to change my life other than dating different types of guys and conforming to their worlds. I thought I had to be artsier, more intellectual.”

On her new boyfriend, Tony Romo:

“Most of the guys I dated were captivated by my heart, but they had different ways of trying to get to me. Tony understands me. He appreciates my talent. He’s the first person I’ve spiritually connected with.”

“It’s the cutest thing.” “He’ll say , ‘Jessica, 75% of the comments about your new single are favorable.’

Jessica’s new album “Do You Know” will be available September 9.

Check out her music video for the new single, “Come On Over,” from her upcoming country album:

Mary-Kate Olsen is in the new issue of Elle magazine talking about movies, fashion, and her crazy life.

Here is a piece of the interview. For video and the rest of the interview, click here.

On Mary-Kate’s up bringing:

“I grew up going to regular school and still have friends from that time in my life,” Mary-Kate says of her years at Campbell Hall. “And as crazy and hardworking as my life has been, my parents knew how important it was to have a normal life as well. I grew up in a big family. And although I was always surrounded by a lot of adults [in show business], my big hobby was horseback riding, so I was surrounded by all my horseback riding friends, too. I was surrounded by people who cared about me and loved me.”

Do profit motives complicate or even cause sibling rivalry?

“We don’t agree all the time. The way we go about business or designing or making a decision is that we come at it from two completely different angles that at the end of the day, even when we don’t think we’re agreeing with each other, we are agreeing. We’re just getting there in different ways. Unless you’re a twin, you honestly can’t know how close twins can be. There’s such a strength, but that also makes it…”

“When there’s that much love there’s…well, there’s the opposite of everything, but it stems from love, and it stems from passion. We’re driven people. I do know I can’t work in an office. Ashley, on the other hand, loves going to an office.”

About being rich:

“No, But it’s nobody’s business if I am or I’m not. I mean, if you want to have a discussion about fame and what does it really mean to be famous these days, what’s celebrity anymore, what’s media? That’s different.”

About being a celebrity:

“It’s weird to be called a celebrity or talk about it. I don’t talk about being a celebrity in my business meetings. I don’t talk about it with my friends. It’s not a part of my life. It’s a media perception of who I am. It’s very weird. I mean, if I see a paparazzi shot of me walking that’s in a magazine or something at some event, it’s as if I see it from an outsider’s point of view. There’s like a character, almost, and then there’s me.”

In the new issue of Elle magazine, the smart, beautiful, and talented, Natalie Portman opens up to the magazine about up coming movie projects, women, ambition, and her own M.O.

Here is part of the interview:

On a party she went to in Hollywood the night before the interview:

“They had a psychic, and he told me my whole life will change when I’m 34 and that I should stay away from water.”

On growing up in Jericho, Long Island:

“[I was] different from the other kids: I was more ambitious. I knew what I liked and what I wanted, and I worked really hard to get it.”

On a few of her political stances:
“A lot of the stuff people say about her, I hear it and my stomach falls because it’s so sexist. You ask people why they don’t like her and it’s because her husband cheated on her! That was obviously not her choice. She’s so much more polished and experienced than anyone else. Last night, a friend, a social worker in L.A. who works with underprivileged kids, was saying how these girls who have never been interested in politics before are so excited that a woman might be president. I mean, look how many women are in government…Hillary’s one of, what, [a handful of] female senators?… I also like Obama. I even like McCain. I disagree with his war stance—which is a really big deal—but I think he’s a very moral person. I met him and Hillary on the same day, actually, when I went to Washington with Finca [a nonprofit that gives loans to businesswomen in developing countries]. Hillary was by far the smartest person I met that day. Just totally focused, and knew more about the issues than anyone else, and was so able to go from one thing to the other.”

Check out the rest of Natalie’s interview here: http://www.elle.com/coverstory/13727/natalie-portman-elle-april-2008.html