It’s no longer a holiday staple, but most importantly, it’s becoming a neutral and a basic. This skirt is from Naeem Khan, who — luckily for us! — designs a lower-priced line for HSN called Timeless by Naeem Khan, is a prime example.

This Starburst Sequin A-Line skirt has a clearance price of $124.90! Considering Naeem Khan pieces usually cost thousands of dollars, this is a steal.

(Khan has a loyal customer fan base that includes the glorious Michelle Obama and everyone from Elizabeth Hurley to Taylor Swift to Beyonce.)

PHOTOS: Taylor’s Style Evolution

I love the look of this skirt, which is a mix of sequins in either black or in a mix of gold and silver. It’s a bit more relaxed than most sequined skirts. But what’s truly amazing is that it can be worn during the day — with a white shirt or a plain T-shirt and a blazer. Think of it as built-in jewelry: The key is to mix it with something truly basic and classic. There’s your sparkle.

Not to be a total downer, here are a few rules to wearing sequins:

1. Do not overload with more sequins. No jackets, tanks, camisoles or caridgans with extra bling. Big earrings and statement jewelry pieces won’t really work. Remember, this is your jewelry.

2. Do not make all the trends of the season happen at one time. You could end up looking like Christmas in July.

3. Blinging “it” bags should not be worn with this skirt. Aside from looking like a train wreck, the bag might attach to the skirt and you’ll have the sequins fall out.

4. You can wear this to work only if your employer is okay with a more casual, fashion-forward dress code.

Buy it here.

By Sasha Charnin Morrison for UsMagazine.com. To read more of the Recessionista blog, click here.

MOVIES:

Actor: Jean Dujardin,wholesale Soccer jerseys, “The Artist”

Actress: Viola Davis, “The Help”

Supporting actor: Christopher Plummer, “Beginners.”

Supporting actress: Octavia Spencer, “The Help.”

Cast: “The Help”

Stunt ensemble: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.”

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TELEVISION:

Actor in a movie or miniseries: Paul Giamatti, “Too Big to Fail.”

Actress in a movie or miniseries: Kate Winslet, “Mildred Pierce.”

Actor in a drama series: Steve Buscemi, “Boardwalk Empire”

Actress in a drama series: Jessica Lange, “American Horror Story”

Actor in a comedy series: Alec Baldwin, “30 Rock.”

Actress in a comedy series: Betty White, “Hot in Cleveland.”

Drama series cast: “Boardwalk Empire”

Comedy series cast: “Modern Family.”

Stunt ensemble: “Game of Thrones.”

___

Life Achievement: Mary Tyler Moore

Eleven people in a van were killed when a truck crashed into the vehicle in central Henan province, the newspaper said.

Friday was the end of a weeklong holiday marking China’s National Day.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the bus flipped over after crashing into a car in the port city of Tianjin on Friday afternoon, injuring 18 others.

In eastern Anhui province, at least 10 people died and 19 were injured in a 24-vehicle pileup on an expressway as foggy weather reduced visibility, the Beijing News daily said.

Xinhua cited a Tianjin traffic official as saying the bus was speeding and that many passengers were thrown out of the vehicle when it hit the car and rolled over.

BEIJING Three major road accidents in China killed 56 people on the last day of a weeklong holiday, including 35 people who died when a bus collided with a car on a northern expressway, state media reported Saturday.

Online:

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• “In the Land of Blood and Honey”: Metacritic, 56; Movie Review Intelligence, 59.5; Rotten Tomatoes, 45. Average: 53.5.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

• “We Bought a Zoo”: Metacritic, 57; Movie Review Intelligence, 60; Rotten Tomatoes, 58. Average: 58.3.

• “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”: Metacritic, 40; Movie Review Intelligence, 66.3; Rotten Tomatoes, 53. Average: 53.1.

http://www.metacritic.com/

AP Movie Writer David Germain gave it three and a half stars out of four. He wrote: “Its harsh emotional terrain, where cruelty flourishes and compassion suffocates, could have wound up softened and sweetened, yet this was an ideal match of filmmaker and material. Fincher is one of the least sentimental directors in Hollywood. If anything, his `Dragon Tattoo’ is even bleaker than the 2009 Swedish-language hit.”

• “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”: Metacritic, 71; Movie Review Intelligence, 78.2; Rotten Tomatoes, 85. Average: 78.1.

http://moviereviewintelligence.com/

No matter what language it’s in, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” casts a spell over critics.

Also opening over the Christmas weekend is “War Horse,” Steven Spielberg’s old-fashioned historical epic about a boy (Jeremy Irvine) and his magical horse, who are separated during World War I. AP Movie Critic Christy Lemire gave the film two stars out of four, saying: “`War Horse’ features a strong cast and the sort of impeccable production values you would expect from Spielberg. … And yet it’s overlong, painfully earnest and sometimes even hokey.”

David Fincher’s English-language version of the Stieg Larsson novel, about a disgraced journalist (Daniel Craig) and a disturbed hacker (Rooney Mara) who team up to solve a decades-old killing, is debuting to strong reviews. It follows the popular Swedish film adaptation that came out two years ago.

• “The Adventures of Tintin”: Metacritic, 67; Movie Review Intelligence, 67.9; Rotten Tomatoes, 75. Average: 70.

• “War Horse”: Metacritic, 73; Movie Review Intelligence: 77.7; Rotten Tomatoes, 76. Average: 75.6.

Now let’s see how bad the new year may turn out for Veeco and also check if the company has some fuel in its tank to deliver a surprise in 2012.

A year to forget
First, let’s do a background check on Veeco. The company has been compounding its revenue at the rate of 20% annually over the last five years. Also, its revenue growth so far this year comes in just above that mark — at 25% — when compared with the same period a year ago. However, a number of factors squeezed the company’s margins badly and led to a more than one-third drop in earnings this year. Let’s see what went wrong.

Veeco manufactures and sells LEDs, solar panels, and hard-disk drives. In 2011, it saw all its product lines take a hit due to global economic uncertainties. Moreover, the management revealed in the third-quarter earnings release that bookings for Veeco’s products have halved from 2010, which doesn’t bode well for it in the coming year. The company’s revenue growth has already slowed this year, and it won’t come as a surprise if the top line ceases to grow next year.

Industry blues
Established players in the industry such as Cree and Aixtron have had a bad time this year, and it seems everyone’s woes are likely to go into the new year as well. The weakness in the solar industry coupled with uncertainty in the LED market make the coming year look even more tenuous. Throw in the uncertain future of hard drives as the world moves toward the mobile computing platform, and we see Veeco facing some more headwinds.

The Foolish takeaway
With the way the industry is shaping up at the moment and the possibility of an awful year looming large over Veeco’s head, it seems the company’s woes are set to continue.

Fool contributor Harsh Chauhan doesn’t own any shares in the companies mentioned above. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The fantasy movie is told from the viewpoint of Beauty’s apple-bearing fairy godmother, played by Angelina Jolie. It is being touted as a post-modern take on the classic fairy tale.

It will mark Stromberg’s directing debut.

“Maleficent” is written by Linda Woolverton,wholesale Ed hardy jeans, who also wrote the script for Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” and co-wrote the script for “The Lion King.” Don Hahn, Joe Roth and Richard D. Zanuck produce.

The “Maleficent” news comes following the announcement that Disney had tapped another first-time director, Brian Beletic, for a Matterhorn-ride-inspired movie referred to as the “Untitled Explorers Project.”

Jan. 9: Author Judith Krantz is 84. Singer Joan Baez is 71. Guitarist Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin is 68. Singer Buster Poindexter is 62. Singer Crystal Gayle is 61. Guitarist Eric Erlandson (Hole) is 49. Actress Joely Richardson is 47. Guitarist Carl Bell of Fuel is 45. Singer Steve Harwell of Smash Mouth is 45. Singer Dave Matthews of the Dave Matthews Band is 45. Singer A.J. McLean of the Backstreet Boys is 34. Guitarist Drew Brown of OneRepublic is 28. Singer Paolo Nutini is 25.

Jan. 10: Singer Scott McKenzie is 73. Singer Rod Stewart is 67. Singer-keyboardist Donald Fagen of Steely Dan is 64. Actor William Sanderson (”Deadwood,” “Newhart”) is 64. Singer Pat Benatar is 59. Guitarist Michael Schenker (Scorpions) is 57. Singer Shawn Colvin is 56. Singer-guitarist Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets is 53. Singer Brad Roberts of Crash Test Dummies is 48. Actress Trini Alvarado is 45. Guitarist Matt Roberts of 3 Doors Down is 34. Singer Brent Smith of Shinedown is 34. Rapper Chris Smith of Kris Kross is 33.

Jan. 11: Actor Rod Taylor is 82. Actor Felix Silla (Cousin Itt on “The Addams Family,” “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century”) is 75. Country singer Naomi Judd is 66. Guitarist Vicki Peterson of The Bangles is 54. Actress Kim Coles (”Living Single”) is 50. Keyboardist Jim Bryson of MercyMe is 44. Guitarist Tom Dumont of No Doubt is 44. Singer Maxee Maxwell of Brownstone is 43. Singer Mary J. Blige is 41. Musician Tom Rowlands of The Chemical Brothers is 41. Actress Amanda Peet is 40.

Jan. 12: Country singer Ray Price is 86. Singer Glenn Yarbrough is 82. Country singer William Lee Golden of the Oak Ridge Boys is 73. Trumpeter Cynthia Robinson of Sly and the Family Stone is 68. Singer-keyboardist George Duke is 66. Actor Anthony Andrews is 64. Actress Kirstie Alley is 61. Country singer Ricky Van Shelton is 60. Radio personality Howard Stern is 58. Drummer Tom Ardolino of NRBQ is 55. News correspondent Christiane Amanpour is 54. Keyboardist Charlie Gillingham of Counting Crows is 52. Actor Oliver Platt is 52. Rapper TBird of B-Rock and the Bizz is 45. Model Vendela is 45. Actress Farrah Forke (”Wings”) is 44. Singer Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine is 42. Rapper Raekwon of Wu Tang Clan is 42. Singer Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay is 39. Bassist Matt Wong of Reel Big Fish is 39. Singer Melanie Chisholm (Sporty Spice) of the Spice Girls is 38. Singer Amerie is 31. Actress Naya Rivera (”Glee”) is 25.

Jan. 13: Actress Frances Sternhagen is 82. Comedian Rip Taylor is 78. Actor Billy Gray (”Father Knows Best”) is 74. Actor Richard Moll (”Night Court”) is 69. Guitarist Trevor Rabin of Yes is 58. Drummer Fred White of Earth, Wind and Fire is 57. Actor Kevin Anderson (”Nothing Sacred”) is 52. Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfuss is 51. Singer Graham “Suggs” McPherson of Madness is 51. Country singer Trace Adkins is 50. Actress Penelope Ann Miller is 48. Actor Patrick Dempsey is 46. Actress Traci Bingham (”Baywatch”) is 44. Actress Nicole Eggert (”Baywatch,Discount Burberry wholesale,” “Charles in Charge”) is 40. Actor Orlando Bloom is 35.

Jan. 14: Blues singer Clarence Carter is 76. Singer-songwriter Allen Toussaint is 74. Singer Jack Jones is 74. Actress Faye Dunaway is 71. Actress Holland Taylor is 69. Singer-producer T Bone Burnett is 64. Actor Carl Weathers is 64. Singer Geoff Tate of Queensryche is 53. Rapper Slick Rick is 47. Actor-producer Dan Schneider (”Head of the Class”) is 46. Actress Emily Watson is 45. Actor-comedian Tom Rhodes (”Mr. Rhodes”) is 45. Guitarist Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society) is 45. Rapper LL Cool J is 44. Actor Jason Bateman is 43. Musician Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters (and Nirvana) is 43. Singer-guitarist Caleb Followill of Kings of Leon is 30.

Geithner will meet with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan on Tuesday and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday.

He will travel to Japan on Thursday to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Finance Minister Jun Azumi.

Geithner’s trip is the latest step in an accelerating U.S. effort to reduce Iran’s oil revenue and try to force the country to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program. At the same time, the Obama administration wants to avoid a spike in crude prices that could threaten the global economy.

The Treasury Department said Geithner would “discuss our continued coordination with international partners in the region to increase pressure on the government of Iran, including financial measures targeting the central bank of Iran.”

President Barack Obama on Saturday signed into law new sanctions against financial institutions dealing with Iran’s central bank, the main conduit for the country’s oil revenues.

China, the No. 1 customer for Iran’s oil, is unlikely to be swayed by the new U.S. law, analysts have said. China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday restated Beijing’s opposition to the U.S.-led push for unilateral sanctions on Iran.

In addition to the U.S. effort to tighten the financial screws, Iran faces the prospect of an outright European Union embargo on its oil. EU diplomats said on Wednesday that a preliminary agreement to ban imports of Iranian crude had been reached, and oil prices rose on the news.

Iran has warned it could choke off crude shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a transit point for 40 percent of the world’s oil, if sanctions were imposed. Many market participants, however, say the chance Iran will follow through with its threat is remote, and security analysts question whether it has the capability to shut the Strait.

A U.S. Treasury official said the Obama administration supported the EU proposal, adding that a phased-in effort to curtail use of Iranian crude could cut Tehran’s revenues without disrupting oil markets.

During his trip to Asia, Geithner also will discuss policies to promote global economic growth and efforts to support a level playing field for global trade, the Treasury said.

The United States contends an undervalued yuan currency has given China a competitive trade edge,Cheap Ed hardy bags, but the Obama administration, in a semi-annual report on currency practices last week, declined to name China a currency manipulator.

In the report, it said a faster appreciation of the Chinese yuan was needed. It also chided Japan for stepping into the currency market to stem the yen’s rise.

(Editing by Tim Ahmann and Andrea Ricci)

Officials from the Yong Long factory in the southern manufacturing city of Dongguan appeared to have fled when government regulators entered the premises on Wednesday, a local government spokesperson said.

Nobody from the factory was immediately available to comment on Thursday.

Officials were investigating media reports the factory had mixed cottonseed oil and flavor-enhanced soybean oil and marketed it as peanut oil,wholesale Ed hardy jeans, according to a statement from the government of Zhongtang, a town in Dongguan.

Yong Long factory produces about four tons of cooking oil daily, supplying Pearl River Delta cities including Dongguan, Foshan, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported on Thursday, citing documents found at the factory.

The newspaper said the factory sold to Chinese food brands such as Master Kong, a household name in the instant noodle industry. It said the adulterated oil could possibly harm human reproductive cells but gave no other details.

China has struggled to rein in widespread health safety violations in its vast food processing sector. There have been several scandals involving cooking oil safety in recent years.

Police arrested 52 people at the end of last year in the southern province of Jiangxi for selling more than 2,000 tons of cooking oil dredged up from restaurant gutters.

Since July 2011, Chinese courts have sentenced at least a dozen people to jail, including one person who received a suspended death sentence, for their roles in producing or selling pork tainted with toxic chemicals.

In 2008, at least six children died and nearly 300,000 fell ill from drinking milk laced with melamine powder, an industrial compound added to milk to give misleadingly high results in protein tests.

Here’s a look at how Romney’s finances and wealth stack up to presidents of the past.

Romney’s Income

Romney started his path to riches when he became vice president of Bain & Co. in 1978. CNN reported he earned and MBA at Harvard and then latched on with Boston Consulting Group before going up the corporate ladder.

Six years after learning the ins and outs of the investment industry,wholesale Ralph Lauren Jackets, Romney started his own company in 1984 called Bain Capital. The company is a private equity company spun off from the Bain Company. Romney spent 15 years at Bain Capital. When he had political ambitions in Massachusetts, Romney quit his job but was able to put a lot of his wealth into investments as he retired from a private sector job.

His net worth in in 2007 was calculated at $202 million. He makes cash when he sells stock. The Boston Globe reported in August that the presidential candidate was going to bulldoze his $12 million beachfront mansion in La Jolla, Calif., and replace it with an 11,000 square-foot home that is nearly quadruple in size from the older one.

Past Presidents

In terms of past presidents who have actually held office, Romney’s wealth pales in comparison to some famous names. The Atlantic Monthly reported on the wealth of presidents in May 2010. Romney’s wealth nearly exceeds all of the previous nine presidents combined, including Barack Obama. John F. Kennedy’s family estate was valued at $1 billion in today’s dollars, the last president to be worth more than Romney’s $202 million figure.

George Washington, based upon his family’s land ownership and wealth accumulation, was worth around $525 million. Thomas Jefferson, despite his opulent mansion at Monticello, was worth around only $212 million. Abraham Lincoln owned less than $1 million in assets with his home in Illinois.

Should Romney be elected president, his personal assets will be on the side of one of the wealthiest presidents to hold office in United States history.

William Browning is a research librarian specializing in U.S. politics. Born in St. Louis, Browning is active in local politics and served as a campaign volunteer for President Barack Obama and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill.