Reem Acra has certainly seen her profile raised lately. With celebrities such as Eva Longoria wearing one of her gorgeous gowns at the Golden Globes), Acra has seen a huge boost in popularity.
Ms. Acra has designed several gowns especially for the Oscars, and she plans to spend a week in Los Angeles later this month so that she can do fittings herself. Though she doesn't know for sure if the gowns will be worn, "this year, I think that I personally need to be there," she says.
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The designer's Feb. 15 fashion-week presentation, to be held in her New York showroom this season, is a coveted ticket. She has room for only 400 guests, down from 1,000 last season, when she staged a runway show at the official fashion-week venue at Bryant Park. Ms. Acra estimates she will cut her costs in half by doing a smaller presentation. This time, in addition to the gowns and cocktail dresses she usually shows, she plans to display day dresses that she has been adding to her line.
Jill Biden also wore a red Reem Acra gown to the Inaugural Balls and she looked fabulous.
Jennifer Lopez Says Wedding Ring Didn't Go With Her Dress
Actress and singer Jennifer Lopez did not wear her wedding ring to the Golden Globes Sunday night. However, she did attend the awards with her husband Marc Anthony. The New York Daily News says Jennifer Lopzes dismissed divorce rumors in a new In Touch Weekly interview. In the interview, JLo explained that the reason she sometimes doesn't wear her wedding ring is that it clashes with her outfit.
"Every time I'm not wearing my ring, people think I'm getting divorced," says Lopez, who doffed her diamond for the Golden Globes.
"That's crazy! It just didn't go with the dress."
In Touch has a very brief preview of the interview here. Ring or no ring we still thought Jennifer Lopez looked fabulous at the Golden Globes in her low cut Marchesa gown.
Eva Longoria looked stunning on the red carpet in a red satin, fishtail ballgown with scalloped neckline by Reem Acra. Eva wore her hair pulled back in a chignon, and accessorized with stunning Verdura diamond earrings and a clutch by
Daniel Swarovski.
Amy Adams looked sophisticated and elegant on the red carpet at the Golden Globes Sunday. She wore a black Oscar de la Renta gown with a sequined, sweeping overskirt and a fitted bodice with a sweetheart neckline. Amy accessorized with gorgeous, oversized Lorraine Schwartz earrings and a statement ring. We loved her look.
E! had the best red carpet interviews at the Golden Globes, hands down. The Megan Fox Meltdown was our favorite interview, by far. In this totally bizarre and awkward interview, Megan informs us in rapid succession that 1) she's a tranny; 2) she's so nervous she's going to vomit; 3) boyfriend Brian Austin Green doesn't care about the Golden Globes and refused to come as her date (note, she's furious about this); 4) she wants Salma Hayek's boobs and 5) she has a 22" waist and has been starving herself for a month before this event. It's oversharing in a truly spectacular fashion. Oh, and her lovely gown is by Ralph Lauren (not that she managed to get that in during her rant). Take a look:
Sasha Baron Cohen Seeks to Offend at the Golden Globes
Always looking to offend in the name of humor, Sasha Baron Cohen didn't amuse several of the actresses in the Golden Globes audience last night. He ripped into the room for using Botox and plastic surgery, attacked Victoria Beckham for not eating enough and then took a swipe at Madonna and Guy Ritchie. The cameraman then zoomed in to see the stars' reactions: Salma Hayek and Sandra Bullock were not amused. Neither were Brad and Angie. Take a look:
Tina Fey Strikes Back at Internet Critics in Globes Acceptance Speech
Tina Fey won a Golden Glob for "Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series-Musical or Comedy" for 30 Rock. In her hilarious acceptance speech, Tina shares her fondness for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and takes on her Internet critics.
By the way, those message board posters really exist: they post on the L.A. Times' Red Envelope blog, which just makes her comments even funnier. Here's the text of her acceptance speech:
"I want to say thank you to the Hollywood
Foreign Press. I'll always love the Hollywood Foreign Press and have all the Hollywood Foreign Press action figures. Thank you, Will Arnett, for that joke. But I want you to really know how lucky I am to have the year I've had this year and, if you ever start to feel too good about yourself, they have this thing called the Internet! You can find a lot of people there who don't like you! I'd like to address some of them now! BabsonLacrosse, you can suck it. DianeFan, you can suck it. Cougar Letter, you can really suck it 'cause you've been after me all year. And to my husband, Jeff, I love you. Thank you very much!"
Miley Cyrus was nominated for a Golden Globe for her song "I thought I'd Lost You" for the animated film Bolt. She didn't win -- Bruce Springsteen did -- but she did look lovely and age-appropriate in her Marchesa gown. Miley accessorized with Neil Lane earrings and bracelet.
Although she didn't win Best Actress for Rachel Getting Married, Anne still shined on the red carpet in her dark blue, Armani Prive silk gazar gown which was embroidered with Swarovski crystals. Anne accessorized with gorgeous sapphire and diamond earrings by Van Cleef and Arpels.
Drew Barrymore really surprised us with her Marilyn Monroe-inspired ensemble. We think she looked amazing. We love how her stylist took Marilyn's iconic hairdo, then loosened it up a bit to make it more modern. If it had been too helmety, it wouldn't have worked. The ice blue silk Dior Haute Couture gown was made especially for Drew by fashion genius John Galliano. Drew carried a Roger Vivier clutch and wore Lorraine Schwartz jewels.
Golden Globes Fashion:Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt looked gorgeous as they walked the red carpet last night for the 2009 Golden Globes. Angelina wore an Atelier Versace gown, with Neil Lane jewelery and Jimmy Choo shoes. Apparently the Stuart Weitzman oyster colored peep toe heels didn't make the final cut. The draping of the gown already has observers on baby bump alert, but we think she just liked the line of the top: we've seen her wear this style before. It's very unusual for Angelina to wear something beaded and sparkly: we like it.
Brad's tuxedo is by Tom Ford and his moustache is courtesy of Quentin Tarantino and the in-production, annoyingly-spelled, film Inglorious Basterds.
It was a big night for Slumdog Millionaire. The film won four awards including Best Picture and Best Director. Heath Ledger won Best Supporting Actor for his terrific performance in the The Dark Knight. Kate Winslet won Best Supporting Actress proving that the glitch on the HFPA's website was not an accurate predictor. HBO's John Adams series swept up four awards in the television categories and 30 Rock triumphed with three awards including Golden Globes for the show's stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin. Here's a complete list of the Golden Globes winners.
Movies:
Best Motion Picture - Drama: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director: Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Best Performance by an Actress - Drama: Kate Winslet - Revolutionary Road
Best Performance by an Actor - Drama: Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler
Best Musical Or Comedy: Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best Performance by an Actress - Musical or Comedy: Sally Hawkins - Happy-Go-Lucky
Best Performance by an Actor - Musical Or Comedy: Colin Farrell - In Bruges
Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role: Kate Winslet - The Reader
Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role: Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Best Animated Feature Film: Wall-E (Disney/Pixar)
Best Foreign Language Film: Waltz With Bashir (Israel)
Best Screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire, written by Simon Beaufoy
Best Original Score: "Slumdog Millionaire," composed by A. R. Rahman
Best Original Song: "The Wrestler" by Bruce Springsteen
Television:
Best Television Series - Drama: Mad Men (AMC)
Best Performance by an Actress - Drama: Anna Paquin - True Blood (HBO)
Best Performance by an Actor - Drama: Gabriel Byrne - In Treatment (HBO)
Best Television Series - Musical Or Comedy: 30 Rock (NBC)
Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy: Tina Fey - 30 Rock (NBC)
Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy: Alec Baldwin - 30 Rock (NBC)
Best Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made for Television: John Adams (HBO)
Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television: Laura Linney - John Adams (HBO)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television: Paul Giamatti - John Adams (HBO)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television: Laura Dern - Recount (HBO)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television: Tom Wilkinson - John Adams (HBO)
Designers in Fierce Competition For Red Carpet Recognition
This awards season, designers are stepping up
their efforts to convince stylists to dress celebrities in their fashions. For the Golden Globes tomorrow night, the competition has been fierce to land a major celeb to wear a designer's gown, jewelry, handbag or shoes on the red carpet. With the recession in full swing, designers are feeling the urgency to get their creations worn by a major star.
For the first time ever, Stuart Weitzman has offered to make custom shoes for celebrities walking the red carpet. Angelina Jolie's team has requested two pairs of peep-toe heels to match a gown she may wear tomorrow: one pair is sand colored, the other oyster-colored. But the shoes are just the beginning.
As sales of designer goods have plummeted over the past several months, Hollywood's awards season has become all the more important to fashion designers and accessories labels who are trying to get people to spend once again. The competition to dress celebrities is fiercer than ever also because fashion labels feel they are less able to count on getting their message to shoppers via their traditional mode of print marketing, as sales of fashion and other magazines have dropped within the past year. Awards shows and the parties around them offer millions of dollars in free advertising for designers.
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For the first time, Judith Ripka designed a line of 20 jewelry pieces just for awards season, in the hopes that the one-of-a-kind looks will convince stylists to use them in red-carpet ensembles.
New York-based Paul Wilmot Communications, which represents red-carpet favorites Oscar de la Renta and Monique Lhuillier among others, is flying out 50% more evening gowns and cocktail dresses to Los Angeles this year in order to lobby celebrity stylists to put them on their clients, Mr. Wilmot said. The public relations firm, which used to make a big push mainly for the Academy Awards by sending four staffers to L.A. two weeks ahead of the event, said that this year, they will send eight staff members four to five weeks before the Oscars in order to reach out to stylists for events such as the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Jan. 25.
Top stylists say they are getting calls not just from the designers' publicists, but from top designers themselves. No doubt Rachel Zoe has been absolutely inundated with requests. We do hope that Bravo is filming every second of this week.
Lucky top female nominees in the Best Actress Drama and Best Actress Comedy categories at the 2009 Golden Globes were presented with these gorgeous L'Oreal Paris "good luck charm" mirrored compacts designed by Carelle. The compacts, valued at $3650 each, are embedded with colorful gemstones that were chosen for their "special meanings and powers." We mentioned yesterday that these compacts were in HBO's Luxury Lounge gifting suite.
The compact, entitled "Harmony," is a combination of lemon citrine and pale green quartz stones set in sterling silver plated in 18K yellow gold with diamond details in honor of the Golden Globes. L'Oreal Paris says the compact "evokes a calming, balanced aura with yellow citrines that symbolize optimism, positive energy and enhanced creativity." L'Oreal Paris also says the yellow is a perfect compliment to green because it represents harmony and "attracts success".
One of the compacts is also being auctioned on eBay (see here) with all proceeds benefiting the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. The auction has an opening bid of $500 and will run from January 11th through January 18th.
Variety says the economy is a drag on swag. They mention that some manufacturers are concerned about the image of a celebrity holding or wearing a free product they got at a gift suite. The Variety story mentions a couple gift suites that are letting celebrities donate to charities instead. HBO's Golden Globe Luxury Lounge is featured in the clip below and they appear to have plenty of swag. HBO's Luxury Lounge gift suite features styling products form L'Oreal, jeans from Cohesive Apparel and a $3,650 compact made out of "lemon citrine and pale green quartz stones set in 18K yellow gold with diamond details." Britt Johnson, CEO of Mediaplacement, runs HBO's Luxury Lounge. Johnson told Variety that the "cost of giving out product at a suite is still less expensive than paying for one celebrity appearance fee. This way vendors will meet over 100 celebrities and get photos with them and their products."
This awards season, designers are 
