Dispatches from our Chicagoan in Hollywood, Liz Crokin

It’s almost impossible to get Leandra Medine, founder of hit fashion blog Man Repeller, to be serious. In an interview about her new capsule collection, a whimsical line of dresses and separates designed in conjunction with designer Chelsey Santry of West Coast-based line PJK, the blogger answers nearly every question with playful sarcasm. When asked where the two met, she deadpans, “On Craigslist, in the Random Encounters section.” Both women — who were set up by their respective agents because of their sartorial similarities — erupt into laughter.

Restaurateur Donnie Madia dishes on his family-centered Sunday in Chicago

If you happened to be in Colorado in January, you may have seen a bikini-clad Natalie Bergman running through the snow. On tour with Wild Belle, the band she leads with her older brother Elliot, Natalie was bored — so she invented a game. “It was 18 degrees below zero, and we were sitting in the hot tub,” she says. “I decided we each had to race across our friend’s lawn in our bathing suits, shake the snow off of an Aspen tree and run back.” Elliot nods. “Then we tried to see who could stay in the snow the longest making snow angels,” he adds. “Our family is really competitive.”

The season 16 cast of “Dancing with the Stars” has been revealed, and though the show hasn’t even premiered, there’s lots of drama unfolding behind the scenes. Andy Dick, who last appeared on “Celebrity Rehab,” is already causing problems. “He’s very difficult to work with,” an inside source says. “He is not cooperating with his dance partner, and the problems with him seem to be escalating.” But the source says that he does have dance experience, which could give the troubled star an upper hand in the competition.

Chicago is about to receive fashion royalty. On March 16-17, Christos Garkinos and Cameron Silver, stars of Bravo’s new reality show, “Dukes of Melrose” and the duo behind Los Angeles-based shop Decades, are throwing their annual trunk show at space519. At this year’s event, they’ll display huge selections of Prada and Chanel (including a brand-new spread of Chanel handbags) as well as men’s items for the very first time — and Garkinos is thrilled. “We came across this great $10 million collection,” he says. “It has Gucci and Zegna and furs and everything. I love seeing men wear fur in Chicago.”

If Mario Tricoci let his coif go wild, he could pass for a mad scientist — and it would be a fairly apt description. The expert stylist and founder of Mario Tricoci Salons & Day Spas likes to take hair care and boil it down to its chemical components, determined to find the holy grail of the industry: hair rejuvenation. “People want to have thicker hair without surgery,” Tricoci says. “There’s two products we’ve come across that do this.” As of this month, he’ll stock at-home regimens of both DS Laboratories and Nioxin shampoos at his thriving salon’s 16 Illinois locations. DS Labs shampoo is designed to restore hair lost within the last ten years, while Nioxin focuses on thickening existing hair.

At 24, Jonathan Toews has already accomplished most things that other athletes only dream of doing. He won a Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks and was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP. He scored a gold medal as part of team Canada. He’s an all-star and has been captain of the Hawks since he was 20 years old, making him one of the youngest captains in NHL history.

Oscar weekend in L.A. is truly amazing. Whether it’s Hugh Jackman hitting the treadmill at Equinox Beverly Hills or Joan Rivers catching up with friends at the famed Polo Lounge, the stars are out and about and loving the attention. I caught a glimpse of Jennifer Hudson and Robert De Niro at a cocktail party, and Kendra Wilkinson dancing up a storm at the OK! magazine event. But nothing compares to my encounter with “Mr. Big.” I’ve been writing columns for almost as long as I’ve been a fan of “Sex and the City,” but I’ve never run into Chris Noth. I spotted him as I left the QVC Oscar party at the Four Seasons Hotel, and he graciously took a photo with me even though he said he’d turned down every girl who’d asked him all night. (Pinch me now!) “Let’s just pretend like we’re talking,” Chris said with killer charm.

Virginie Courtin-Clarins, the chic French granddaughter of Clarins skincare founder Jacques Courtin-Clarins, first caught America’s eye while sitting front row at New York Fashion Week in 2011. Her innate sense of style made an immediate impression on Anna Wintour, who promptly placed her in the pages of Vogue, and on the horde of bloggers who declared her fashion’s next “It Girl.”