This week, supermodel Natalia Vodianova prompted fears for her marriage by going out with hairy legs, while another model, Naomi Campbell, quashed rumors that she planned to marry in an Ancient Egyptian temple.
Vodianova, a fresh-faced mother of three, caused a sensation at a recent awards ceremony by turning up with noticeably hairy legs under her clingy gold dress.
The model, who poses in a current Louis Vuitton campaign, is married to British aristocrat Justin Portman. The Russian tabloids are obsessed with the state of her marriage and pick over every detail that might provide a clue.
The British press was first to report on Vodianova's legs at a party in London. The Daily Mail upbraided her with a line straight out of the 1950s: "Every woman knows that if you're going to go stocking-free, then your legs must be silky smooth."
The Russian press went further on the dire consequences of such carelessness.
"The model is not making love with her husband, Lord Justin Portman," the Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid intoned. (Portman in fact isn't a lord but does have the "honourable" title.) She has let herself go, it concluded. "She does not want to look attractive in every way for the father of her children."
When actress Julia Roberts flashed hairy underarms at the "Notting Hill" premiere, it showed that she was big enough not to need to conform. In Russia, though, it's pretty unimaginable for any female star to go out like that unless she was stumbling from her SUV to the beauty salon.
Never satisfied with people staying married or single, the tabloids had another shot at Naomi Campbell who has reportedly been on the point of marrying Russian property developer Vladislav Doronin for the last couple of years.
Egyptian newspapers reported that the couple was to marry in December in a 14th-century-B.C. temple dedicated to the god of the Sun, citing a "tourist authority source."
Moskovsky Komsomolets said it rang Luxor's tourist board, where they were told that the couple was simply planning a cocktail party in what seems a fairly inappropriate location.
It's a strange story because no one seems to really know whether Doronin has divorced his first wife. The Life.ru web site quoted a "friend" of the couple as saying he is still married.
When the couple appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show in May, Doronin said he had not lived with his wife for more than 10 years and Winfrey drawled: "Y'all don't get divorces in Russia?"
If Naomi fancies a romantic wedding location closer to home, she could do worse than a castle in the Moscow region with its own replica of the Roman Colosseum.
Maxim Galkin, 34, the former host of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" revealed to Komsomolskaya Pravda that he is building the classical folly at his castle.
In an unlikely scenario, Galkin is rumored to be the lover of pop diva Alla Pugachyova, a woman nearly twice his age. He has been living with her while his castle is being built, and Pugachyova has fueled speculation by visiting the construction site.
The new folly "came to me in a dream," Galkin said.
When building the castles of their dreams, Russians tend not to be tied down by one architectural style.
Galkin's castle has a tall, pointy tower and turrets, along with stained glass and gargoyles, and has been nicknamed Disneyland by journalists.
He said his folly would add Roman and Greek influences.
"From the outside it looks like a quarter of the Roman Colosseum, and from inside it looks like a Greek amphitheater," he told Komsomolskaya Pravda.
The long-running project has provided plenty of entertainment over the years, not least because the castle stands in a village called Gryaz (Mud).
