GLOBAL WARMING
When Hollywood’s biggest glamour girl downplays it, and one of its most serious actresses glams it up, you know they’re trying to tell us something. Award shows, like Sunday’s Golden Globes in Los Angeles, have become yet another forum for actors to attempt image changes.
Sharon Stone, winner for best actress in a drama, eschewed makeup and hairdresser and donned a black and white Vera Wang column. Jodie Foster left her boyish Armani look at home and wore a silver Donna Karan ballgown and big hair.
Many actresses played against type. The movies’ bad girls — Stone, Nicole Kidman and Melanie Griffith — dressed like ladies, while a lot of good girls — Foster, Holly Hunter, Patricia Arquette, Susan Sarandon and Sandra Bullock — went “Baywatch” babe.
As usual, Armani was the shoo-in, dressing divas from Sally Field, in tomato red silk, to Emma Thompson, in the simplest black sheath, to Annette Bening, in a dark blue column, to Alicia Silverstone, in a velvet tuxedo coat, to Faye Dunaway, in her strapless black tube.
Calvin Klein put Arquette in a skin-tight white column, Bullock in sireny black silk, Elisabeth Shue in a yellow sliver, Jennifer Aniston in a cream sliver and Gwyneth Paltrow in ultra-ladylike black and white.
Badgley Mischka had a strong showing too, outfitting Leah Thompson, Teri Hatcher, Kelly Preston and Courteney Cox in shimmery tubes and Jessica Lange in slim black velvet. Pamela Dennis’s ladies were full-on, slim but sexy: Holly Hunter’s low-cut gown had a sequined bodice, and Jamie Lee Curtis’s dark blue one was high on cleavage. Sarandon busted out of Richard Tyler’s midnight blue strapless, while Kidman was demure in Isaac Mizrahi’s strapless, ice blue, beaded sheath.
There were only a few real fashion don’ts. Mira Sorvino’s taking her “Mighty Aphrodite” role too literally: Her cream Armani bombshell gown was a size too small, her hair a shade too white. Fran Drescher’s Herve Leger bandage dress flattered her tiny frame, but the giant fresh flower crown sewn into her hair made her look like Carmen Miranda. Kate Winslett took the all-Gucci look to heart: blue jacket, bell bottoms, bag and logo sandals.
“Even my fingers and toes are Gucci blue,” she giggled.
Prior to winning best actor, Nicolas Cage was so nervous, he couldn’t remember what he had on.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized, shaking, when his wife, Patricia Arquette, chimed in, “It’s Hugo Boss.”