Menu

Emmys 2011: Red Carpet Rundown

, , ,

amypoehler
So, the Emmys happened! I didn’t watch (there’s no point, plus since Cate Blanchett lost the Oscar to Gwyneth Paltrow there’s no justice etc.), but I hear that overall, things went well. Plus, Downton Abbey won some things! That’s great news! That damn show and what it does to my blood pressure is something we shall speak of another time. Or, if you follow my Tumblr, I have already spoken of it multiple times and we’re all set. (From left: Elizabeth McGovern in a lovely dress, Joanne Froggatt in one of those dresses that you know makes you feel like a princess right until the photos roll in and you realize your costars are Amazons and you have made a mistake about proportions, and Michelle Dockery, who is wearing a really great dress to which someone has inexplicably added one of those cutouts the vampire queens always have in their armor so the hero can get the stake through it.) Thank the ladies of Downton Abbey, who are demonstrating several of the red carpet trends… Read more »

Miss Universe 2011

, , ,

missuniverseromania
Miss Universe! Yes, it’s that time again, when hopeful young ladies gather from all around the world to grin their beautiful hostage grins into the camera, and to be dressed like fools in “National Dress” by horrible pageant planners secretly trying to test what young ladies are willing to wear on camera. That answer came back: Practically anything. I have tried to look at this and understand what happened. In the past, this category has been spectacularly awesome (Thailand!) or hilariously fun (the national costume of Iceland is dignity!). This year is what I can only term a Hot Mess, with Intermittent Laughter. This year also seems to be the year that the always-fantastical undercurrent of this whole glittery mess went from subtext to text: Tanzania, auditioning for a role in the inevitable Metropolis remake, and/or putting mortal fear into her enemy contestants. Either way, SUCCESS. However, she had some serious competition in the Science Fiction and Fantasy category. Under this cut, a bajillion pictures.… Read more »

Red Carpet Rundown: The Metropolitan Museum Costume Institute Gala

, ,

ricci1
So last night, after returning from grocery shopping for Friday’s launch party (more on this later!), I watched the Met’s Costume Institute Gala red carpet. This is probably my favorite gown-y event of the year, mostly because I’ve worked it twice, so I get to look at pictures and smile, knowing that for every celebrity posing smoothly on the red carpet there are two people running flat-out through the Temple of Dendur screaming “I NEED THAT FOLIAGE” into a walkie-talkie. This year is an especially good year for the Gala, because it’s celebrating Alexander McQueen, a designer I admire so much I wrote an article about him for Weird Tales (more on that soon!). He was a true artist, and I looked forward to seeing how celebrities would dress to celebrate that. Turns out they did it by wearing the dullest prom dresses they could find. I don’t have the energy to review the whole thing (on Kerry Washington: plain, vaguely-unflattering dress. On Maggie Q: fussy, vaguely-unflattering dress. On Lea Michele: red, vaguely-unflattering dress. On… Read more »

“Mechanique” Launch Party!

Mechanique‘s release date is only a few weeks away! I’m excited, and have been thinking of possible launch parties that would be both vaguely thematically relevant and actually involve being outside my apartment. (In order to be relevant to my usual interests, I will have to write a book called “Uneventful Weekend: A Story of the Snarky Pajama Party Academy.”) In the end, I decided there was only one way to do this right. So, I’m throwing a circus. On Friday, May 6, from 7-10pm, everyone should come to the House of Yes in Brooklyn for snacks, cheap drinks, and some awesome aerial performances. My book will also be available, hopefully at a discount off the cover price for those inclined to buy, but come on – it’s a warehouse circus. You know it’s going to be good. (It will probably be better lit than this, ideally dimmed to somewhere just between Hipstamatic and Able to Safely Maneuver.) Hope to see you there!… Read more »

The Catherine Cookson Experience: “The Wingless Bird”

, , ,

vlcsnap-14680382
I fell off the wagon about these in a major way, didn’t I? And in the home stretch! Shame on me. For those who are new since my last one (welcome!), a bit about the Catherine Cookson Experience. Catherine Cookson, author of historical potboilers, enjoyed a magnificent heyday between about 1995 and 1997, in which the BBC went NUTS for her and filmed approximately eight hundred of her books in an attempt to employ every actor from Great Britain, Scotland, and Ireland it could get its hands on, and also to use up a lot of sawed-off basketballs they needed to use to simulate pregnancy. More than a year ago, in a fit of good judgment, I embarked on a quest to watch every Catherine Cookson movie ever filmed. As it turns out, that is very difficult, partly because there are so many of them, and partly because some of them are just the worst ever and involve a lot of asshole dads and/or men getting romantically interested in a girl he met when she… Read more »

Oscars 2011 Red Carpet Rundown!

, , ,

cate
You guys, Hollywood Prom happened last night! Apparently, it happened to be terrible. I was not watching last night, but because of the miracle of the internet I was updated on the important things, thanks to Twitter and Facebook in general and, during a particular point, no fewer than five people contacting me simultaneously to tell me that Melissa Leo was imploding like a bad soufflé. (More on this later.) However, the red carpet was not all bad. I have put together a (truly enormous) post of the highlights, for better or worse. And the winners are…… Read more »
«‹ 23 24 25 26 ›»