Thus: Amy Adams, Kate Winslet, Maggie Gyllenhaal top it for me.
It all comes down to personal taste, so I don't expect others to wholeheartedly agree. It's possible that these were the only two black gowns from last night. Beige was everywhere and became a total downer in its ubiquity; black seemed classic and refreshing. Go figure. As for adventurous, I found Maggie G.'s to hit the nail on the head. An interesting shoulder without being a big red bow (á la Nicole Kidman at the Oscars a while back) and a fun pattern without being over-the-top. I liked it, others won't...and that's fine with me.
The bottom consists of Renée Zellweger, Cameron Diaz, and Debra Messing. While I feel it's self-explanatory, I will briefly air my grievances.
Grievance #1: Hair. Ladies, what is up?! Renée, ringlets are supposed to be romantic and soft, not stiff and haywired. And in the opposite direction was Cameron, who popularized this messy beach 'do in the 90s and has stuck by it ever since. Loyalty is one thing, a rut is another. Brigitte Bardot managed to evolve her beach hair, so it can be done. Then there is Debra. All those jokes about how horsey her face is (they did that joke on Will & Grace, right?) and here she adds fuel to the fire. A different angle shows just how mane-gy her hair was.
(As an aside: I'm giving Drew a pass this time because she was at least livin' it up, as she does crazy well.)
Grievance #2: Taffeta. Cut with caution, ruch with extreme caution, wear only with protection and a certificate course.
Grievance #3: Stand up straight and smile, Renée! Stop sticking your bum out and posing with your lips pursed. Just because you have on Carolina Herrera and don't show your teeth doesn't mean you have class or style. It shows you are frightened. And if we smell fear, we will devour you. With Cameron, we just want her to move on from this haute-couture-even-if-it-doesn't-work-for-me-and-my-beachy-hair-decade-long-phase look. And Debra made a misstep, but usually looks stellar; at least she's beaming - with a smile that nice, sometimes you just overlook the rest.
But, Renée, you are very quickly falling out of our good graces. You have made your point that you, Renée Zellweger, are not in fact Bridget Jones--the chubby, oft-erring bunny we all wanted you to be. But you have altered and frozen everything about you that we also have forgotten that you were Gina rocking out in Empire Records. Or Chris O'Donnell's one-true-love in The Bachelor. Hell, even the Jerry Maguire you-complete-me girl is gone. I'm skeptical that New In Town will bring back the love, so why don't you do it first by banning the Botox and flashing those pearly whites. Real love you don't earn, but this isn't real love.
