A little tired from watching the Oscars last night? Well, you’re not alone, I’m sure, as many wandered in bleary eyed from watching another over long Oscar telecast. If you had checked out your copy of Entertainment Weekly from the library, then chances are you did very well in your Oscar pool. They pretty much predicted every race correctly. If you came to the library to read The Boston Globe yesterday, and listened to their prediction that Slumdog Millionaire was going to clean up, then chances are you won your Oscar Pool.
As a librarian, it was very gratifying to see movies based on books do so well. Slumdog Millionaire, winner of Best Picture, is actually based on the book Q&A by Vikas Swarup, (although the publisher is now publishing it under the title Slumdog Millionaire.) Best actress winner, Kate Winslet’s movie The Reader is based on a book of the same name by Bernhard Schlink.

Everyone knows, however, that the most fun is to be had when critiquing all of the fashion on the red carpet. This year, my esteemed colleague, Marialice, and I decided to channel our inner Joan and Melissa Rivers and give our thoughts on the best (and worst) of the fashion. Were we on the same wave length? We’ll find out:

My favorites:
1) Penelope Cruz: I think this woman would look beautiful even if she wore a paper bag to the Oscars, but she looked lovely in this dress. The embroidery is just enough, and her necklace doesn’t take away from the dress. Despite being strapless, it was also very modest, and in my opinion, age appropriate. This was my favorite look of the evening.
2) Natalie Portman: I’m sure some people were turned off by the rhinestones or beading in the front, and the sash in front was a little odd, I suppose. However, I love the color and I thought the dress really worked on her. She also carried off the strapless look in an elegant way.
3) Heath Ledger’s sister, Kate: I don’t know if it’s bad to mention her dress, but she looked stunning, and what an emotional moment when she referenced her late brother’s daughter.
4) Frieda Pinto: I know that Marialice doesn’t care for the one shoulder look on dresses, but I thought Pinto carried it off extremely well. In a night of black and white dresses, this royal blue sequined number really stood out. I liked her hair, as well.
5) The men: I have to say all of the guys looked very good in their low key tuxedos. (Does Will Smith ever look bad in a tuxedo?) James Franco did look especially good mainly because he was on stage seconds after we saw him in character from Pineapple Express. The only negative I have to say about the men was I really did not care for the leather looking tuxedo jacket that Bill Maher was wearing.

My Least Favorite:
1) Jessica Biel: Jessica Biel was this year’s random celebrity who got to preside over the Technology awards. I’m sure she’s a lovely person, but I did not like that dress. It had a lot of potential and it was such a nice shade of white, but that thing (whatever it was) in the front was so distracting. Her hair was messy, too. She pulled off her out of the ordinary dress at the Science and Technology awards much better, I thought. I guess it would have been a faux pas if she had worn that, again.
2) Jennifer Aniston: I actually didn’t have an issue with her dress, but her hair was too messy.
3) Sarah Jessica Parker: I thought that she was not wearing that in a flattering way at all. Even Carrie Bradshaw makes mistakes. (Actually, I thought Carrie Bradshaw made mistakes a lot!)
4) Amanda Seyfried: The color was pretty, but that bow just takes away from the dress. This isn’t quite as bad as Jessica Biel’s, but I didn’t love it. However, I do appreciate that Seyfriend was wearing two straps, unlike most other other women.
5) Sophia Loren: This really pains me to say this. I love Sophia Loren. I owned a dress in college that I named Sophia Loren because it reminded me of a dress she wore in one of her movies. However, I did not love Sophia in this dress. But, you know what? She’s Sophia Loren and as far I’m concerned, she can do whatever she wants.

Okay, over to Marialice for her take on last night’s fashions.

posted by Laura
Read part two