The Results Are In

With Anne Hathaway and James Franco hosting the Oscars this year, expectations were high. As they came on stage we were told that this was supposed to be the ‘hip and cool’ Oscars. I’m sorry Anne Hathaway but when you say that about something you’re doing, it immediately becomes the opposite. I wasn’t impressed with their hosting efforts. It was awkward from start to finish. I mostly blame Franco, which is hard for me to say because I’m a fan of his. He just didn’t seem quite with it and Anne tried really hard to compensate by being extra goofy. Anne got a chance to shine when she did a little musical number but that was it. Anne, you’re at the Academy Awards. Don’t do a shimmy to show off the tassels on your dress, don’t reference drinking games and don’t get changed into loads of ugly dresses. Anyway, the Academy Awards are about movies and the people who make them.

The winners of the big categories are as follows:

Best Supporting Actor

Christian Bale, The Fighter

Best Supporting Actress

Melissa Leo, The Fighter

Best Actor

Colin Firth, The King's Speech

Best Actress

Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Best Picture

The King's Speech

All in all I think the winners were deserved. I’m especially happy about ‘The King’s Speech’ winning Best because it shows how invaluable the now defunct UK Film Council is/was. If the producers had waited another year I doubt we would have seen Colin Firth up on stage last night.

Highlights:

-Colin Firth and Christian Bale’s acceptance speeches. Their eyes got a bit sweaty. Aww…

-Kirk Douglas being a legend

-Florence Welch singing

-Mellissa Leo saying the F swear. She’s the first person to use it an Oscars acceptance speech.

-Halle Berry in Marchesa. Stunning.

Lowlights:

-James Franco. Great actor, bad bad Oscar host

-Nicole Kidman wearing a Dior monstrosity. I’ll dream about it tonight and wake up in a cold sweat.

-Natalie Portman saying that ‘her love’ had given her the best role of her life. Really? Is she sure it wasn’t her role in ‘Leon’? That was pretty good.

-Gwyneth Paltrow ‘singing’

-No nomination for the brilliant ‘Waiting for Superman’ documentary. The PS 22 kids singing at the end of the show just served to make the omission glaringly obvious.

Until next year…

The Results Are In

The Good Designer, the Bad Behavior and the Ugly Bag

Over the weekend John Galliano’s mouth got him into a spot of trouble. Well, a lot of trouble. Galliano was arrested on Thursday night after getting into an altercation with a couple seated near him at a Paris nightspot. Galliano (allegedly) used a racially charged language towards the couple in question and made scathing remarks about the woman’s boots and handbag. The House of Dior reacted by suspending the designer while the incident is being investigated. The couple have decided to press charges and Galliano in turn has filed a defamation suit.

Photograph: Benoit Tessier/Reuters

The fashion community is divided with some saying that he was on his own time when the incident happened and others saying that his actions, regardless of where or when they take place reflect on the Dior brand. Regardless of whether or not the couple in question were provoking him, it’s totally inexcusable to use racist slurs.

As for the future of the House of Dior without Galliano? We’ll have to wait and see. With a show scheduled for this Friday, the design team must be scrambling to ensure that everything goes off without a hitch. The fact is, until the investigation is concluded, all we can do is speculate. If the allegations are true, I agree with Franca Sozzani, editor of Italian Vogue who says this is a problem that goes beyond fashion. Galliano is an extremely influential figure in a highly coveted position. This isn’t the type of behavior we want young people to look up to and certainly not what we expect from someone who heads a brand like Dior.

At least he’s still designing Kate Moss’ wedding dress. She knows all about personal scandals and rehabilitating her public image. Maybe she can give some tips…

The Good Designer, the Bad Behavior and the Ugly Bag

Under the Influence?

We’ve all been seated next to people who talk during the movie or in front of someone who just won’t stop kicking the back of your seat. The most you’ll do is maybe give them a nasty look coupled with a loud sigh. I find this usually works but if it doesn’t you just come to accept that it’s part and parcel of being in a public space and you put up with it. Well 43 year old Latvian man decided to speak up and complain about how loudly a fellow audience member was eating his popcorn during a screening of ‘Black Swan’. The 27 year old Police Academy graduate was offended by the complaint directed towards him and, after a short argument, proceeded to shoot and kill the older man.

While this case is obviously extreme it does raise some questions. For example, would this have happened if they had been watching a romantic comedy instead of a psychological thriller? It’s not uncommon for people who might already be suffering from some kind of mental disturbance to be inspired to act violently by watching a movie, a TV show or listening to a song. Perhaps the most famous example is Charles Manson, the notorious serial killer, who said the inspiration behind his killing spree was the White Album by the Beatles.

Also, should there be security checks at cinemas? It would be interesting to know if the staff is instructed to check for weapons or if they receive special training in conflict resolution. The lights had been turned on when the incident happened so you’d think that an observant usher with the proper training could have prevented the situation from escalating and having such a tragic outcome.

Via guardian.co.uk

Under the Influence?

Be Passionate

Whether it’s something you want to do or someone you want to be with, the hardest thing to do is to put yourself out there in spite of your fears. Let today remind you to let go, be brave and be glad you did it whatever the outcome.

While we're on the topic of passion and in honour of New York Fashion week, here is a truly inspirational documentary. ‘Dressed’ follows Nary Manivong, a designer who has overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to become a recognised figure in the do or die world of the New York fashion industry. Whether or not he makes it, it's nice to see someone chasing their dream in a world full of sceptics and naysayers.

What is your excuse? Go and do that thing that you've been wanting to do but telling yourself you can't. Living in fear is not living.

Be Passionate

Wasted Talent

In ‘A Bronx Tale’ (great movie) Robert De Niro’s character tells his son ‘the saddest thing in life is wasted talent’. That line kept going around in my head during the hour or so that The Amy Winehouse concert lasted on Friday.

In short, it was shambolic. This wasn’t the Amy we had fallen in love with back in 2006. Gone was the striking girl from North London with a knock out voice and attitude to match. This was a troubled figure, a product of an industry and a management team more interested in profits than her personal wellbeing.

Yes, perhaps it was misguided to go and see Amy Winehouse but she had done so well on her Brazil tour last month that we were all hoping for the good streak to continue. Thomas Ovesen , COO of Done Events, responded to criticism of the event by saying ‘That’s how she does it, that’s her live performance style’. Really? Her ‘live performance style’ consisted of warbling the odd note, falling over, picking her nails, scratching her arms and rolling her eyes. It’s disturbing if he actually believes that and if not, he’s being extremely condescending to the thousands of concert goers who paid for something they didn’t get.

They say you have to live the blues before you can sing about it. I hope she manages to get the help she needs and outlive her demons.

Image courtesy of Gulf News

Wasted Talent

Photo Stop!

There's nothhing wrong with using airbrushing and Photoshop to ‘enhance’ images. In most cases it’s used for making little adjustments or creatively adding elements and scenery that aren’t achievable in a studio setting. It’s a great tool but, as is the case with most things, when in the wrong hands it can lead to disaster! Ok, maybe not disaster but Photoshop is regularly used to produce some pretty startling images which are then accepted as an ideal of what women should look like. The high fashion magazines do it all the time but it was still quite shocking to see a one-armed Marissa Miller on the Victoria’s Secret website. She’d fallen victim to an overeager art director who’d obviously decided that she’d look hotter without the additional appendage.

I’m not saying don’t use it but there has to be a line, a limit, a voice of reason saying ‘umm no, this lady has two arms and a rib cage and a waist that is proportional to the rest of her body’. If images of gorgeous models aren’t fit to be seen without being severely tampered with, then what hope is there for the rest of us. Ugh!

Via Mail Online

Photo Stop!