Forest rules as Actor and Color: Passion for Fashion, Lust for Oscar
By Sarah Ingersoll & P.J. Stratton

 

Forest Whitaker

While (Forest) Green was the Oscar theme this year, hues from the end of the rainbow colored the red carpet with lavender, blue, and plum. Reese Witherspoon wore a purple Mae West dress and Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jodie Foster were sweet in royal blue. Tipper Gore, wearing a purple Bill Blass gown, appeared with her husband and said about “An Inconvenient Truth,” “It’s wonderful that the creative team was able to make a movie in which people can understand the environmental crisis and what they can do.”

Cheering their friend, Forest Whitaker, on his win were John Travolta in Armani and Kelly Preston in a Dolce and Gabbana leopard halter dress, Judith Ripley earrings and jewels. “We hoping our friend, Forest Whitaker will walk away with the award tonight.”

They got their wish.

Almost all of the dresses were about straps — tapered, diagonal, criss-cross, even falling off the shoulder. Most notable were Nicole Kidman’s over-the-shoulder red gown, Celine Dion’s bottled green sheaf, and Kate Winslet’s one-shouldered pale green dress.

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Dominating the look, however was “old Hollywood glamour” as Beyonce Knowles put it. Gwyneth Paltrow wore a 1930’s dress in tangerine. Cate Blanchett wore a short bob with her flapper- style metallic dress. Jewelry was built into the dresses and beads were back, art nouveau style. This look was seen on Eddie Muprhy companion Tracey Edmonds and most notably on Helen Mirren, who looked regal in a beige diamond encrusted bodice with flowing skirt. “I never expected this to happen to me — a girl from Essex.” Mirren has had a busy year in films and TV this year. “I can’t imagine the Queen [Elizabeth] has not seen [the film], but I don’t know officially that she’s seen it and I’ll never know that.”

Oscar winner Rachel Weisz, from “The Constant Gardner,” followed suit in a gold Vera Wang encrusted with jewels in the hem and Cartier vintage jewelry. On balancing work and motherhood, she said “There are millions of working moms in the world and they’ve managed to do it, so I’m just now joining that club. I’m now part of the working mom club. It’s difficult, but women have done it before.”

Jennifer Hudson conveyed, “I feel good and excited to be here. The last time I was at the Kodak Theater was for American Idol and now I’m back for the Oscars”. “I can’t believe I’m actually here and this is actually happening”. On the subject of losing weight, Hudson said: “You’ve got to work for it. I’m a firm believer, if its not worth working hard for, its not worth it at all.”

Beautiful French film actress, Catherine Deneuve, arrived to present a special 50th birthday homage to foreign films. Wearing a black Jean Paul Gaultier dress adorned with a heart and sword and matching earrings, she admitted she’s broken a few hearts along the way.