Reese Witherspoon left many people shell-shocked when she was spotted carrying a reptile handbag. The Legally Blonde star's python-skin purse has been legally banned from being sold in California since 1970.

PETA immediately rushed Reese the video exposé that her Walk the Line co-star Joaquin Phoenix narrated, showing how reptiles used for clothing and accessories have their heads nailed to trees, are often skinned alive, and can languish for days before dying. Reese's camp instantly responded to us, saying that Reese was dismayed to learn that the bag was made of real snakeskin and promised never to carry it again.

Reese said that she was grateful for the information we had sent her, and we were so appreciative that she bagged the bag that we sent her flowers as a thank-you. It's good timing, too: Her upcoming movie This Means War co-stars Laura Vandervoort, who just shot a naked exotic-skins ad for PETA, so now those two can slink down the red carpet together rocking mock croc and fake snake. For a chance to win your own stylin' faux-snakeskin bag from Urban Expressions, click here!

Written by Michelle Sherrow

Toronto Fashion Week is all about the clothes, but one star was there in the flesh—hers. With her naked body painted to resemble a lizard's skin, Laura Vandervoort, of Smallville and V fame, stars in a new ad for PETA (shot by photographer Nick Saglimbeni) that she unveiled at Toronto Fashion Week while asking her fellow Canadians to shed exotic skins from their wardrobes.

Laura first appeared as a reptile in V, but this time around, she reprised her role as a lithe lizard to help protect the animals from being killed for their skins. "Three or four alligators have to die for one purse," she said in an exclusive interview from the photo shoot. "They nail the snake's head to a tree while it is still alive and peel its skin off. Because they are cold-blooded creatures, they take that much longer to die, so they suffer that much longer. … [Y]ou wouldn't skin your dog to wear to an event, to go out on a date, just for a status symbol. So please, have some compassion for animals."

To see behind-the-scenes video footage from Laura's photo shoot and enter to win a faux-snakeskin bag, check out her full PETA feature.

Written by Michelle Sherrow