Sarah Jessica Parker was one of the decked out guests at last night’s Met Costume Institute Gala, the theme of which was “Punk from chaos to couture.” It was all about how the punk movement had influenced fashion, and few designers really captured that, in my opinion. In the livestream from the red carpet on Vogue.com (which you can watch there, it’s still available, also the Fug Girls liveblogged it!), they interspersed the interviews with pre-taped segments with designers like Ricardo Tisci of Givenchy. The designers kept saying “pink is the color of punk,” which sounded ridiculous to me. Isn’t black the color of punk? It sounded like an excuse to create the same old gowns, although there were notable exceptions.

Out of all of last night’s ladies, I give Sarah Jessica Parker props for really trying to work it, for trying to capture both high fashion and punk in her look. She was in an abstract print Giles Deacon dress paired with custom-made Louboutin velvet plaid shoes and a custom Phillip Treacy headdress. Some may say she looked ridiculous, but given the theme of the night she nailed it. She also looked like she was having a lotof fun. Her date was Hamish Bowles, the International editor of Vogue.

In contrast, here’s Ashley Olsen looking like a yellow ghost in vintage Dior. This is not punk, this is just some bizarre fairy dream. How does this dress even translate to the theme? (We don’t have pics of Mary-Kate, you can see her equally baffling look here.)

Emmy Rossum was in Donna Karan Atelier. This is a lovely princess dress which would be stunning at a big red carpet event, but again it’s not “punk” per se. Maybe they tried to capture that with her updo and heavy makeup. It’s kind of a miss for this event, but for anything else it would be lovely.

Nina Dobrev wore this kind of amazing Monique Lhuillier black lace bustier pantsuit with a tulle skirt and leather underbra. The outfit was very spot-on for the event, and I would have liked to see her punk it up a little with some daring shoes and more risky hair and makeup. It’s a little too “pretty” but still one of my favorites.

Photo credit: WENN.com and FameFlynet

These are photos from the “AOL 2013 Digital Content NewFront” in NY last night. Nicole Richie and Sarah Jessica Parker have new shows premiering online with AOL On. Nicole Richie’s show will be a kind of reality show focusing on her life, and somehow based on her Twitter feed. The one clip I’ve seen, in which Nicole inquires about getting her tramp stamp tattoo removed, makes it seem more down-to-earth and less scripted than your average reality show. It’s called “#CandidlyNicole,” and you can see a clip here.

Nicole premiered a new hairstyle and color at last night’s event. It’s um, not cute on her and reminds me of hair I had in first grade when mushroom cuts were all the rage. The last time we saw her she didn’t have bangs and was sporting a very flattering collar-length blunt cut. Maybe those bangs are clip-in though, but the fancy kind that a stylist puts in. They do look a little fake to me, so I’m hoping Nicole can pop them off and go back to normal.

In terms of Nicole’s dress, I don’t have an ID on it but it’s very “Dynasty” with the shoulder pads, long sleeves with buttons and high neckline. The whole look is 70s, which is her vibe lately.

Also there was Sarah Jessica Parker, also in white but in a very cute, flattering white cap sleeve v-neck dress with a hemline just above the knee. I love that gold necklace and her hair and makeup are very well done. She looks great here! Have you noticed that she has her hands in her pockets in just about every photo? Maybe that story about her wanting to get some work done on her hands is accurate.

SJP has a new show called “City.Ballet,” a “docuseries” about the New York City Ballet. She explained to E! that she hopes the show will help promote the ballet to tourists. She also told E! that she doesn’t do phone calls anymore and just focuses on e-mail, which is what a lot of people do. But SJP also claimed that she doesn’t own a cell phone, then talked about checking her Blackberry. It was confusing to me. She said:

“I don’t because I don’t like being behind in both phone calls and emails. So I chose emails because when you’re on a set you can carefully and sneakily check a BlackBerry, but you can’t return a phone call. Hearing ‘Your voicemail is full’ is horrifying to me.”

So maybe she means she doesn’t do phone calls, but the title and lead up claimed she didn’t own a cell phone. Isn’t a Blackberry a cell phone? No I get it, she doesn’t like taking calls anymore, but it’s not like she’s not accessible.

Oh did you see these new photos of SJP and Matthew Broderick out a couple of days ago holding hands? That’s rare, so I thought I might include them. Maybe things are picking up for these two.

Photo credit: FameFlynet

Sarah Jessica Parker is 48 years old. Does that startle you? If you were a Sex & the City fan, it probably does. For SATC, Sarah Jessica is the perpetual girlish 30-something, wearing tutus and visible bras with evening gowns. But she’s 48 now, and I have some doubts about how naturally she’s aging. Like, if I’m just going by what she says in interviews, I’d say she’s not very superficial, and that she’s not doing much to herself. But her appearances over the past year seem to indicate (to me at least) that SJP is hitting the Botox and fillers. She’s not completely frozen, but there’s some Kidman happening there.

But here’s something I rarely consider: should Sarah Jessica (or anyone, for that matter) be concerned about how her hands look? I’m including some shots where you can really see her hands… I mean, she’s not a hand model or anything, but what can you really do about it? According to Star Magazine’s expert, there are some options.

Sarah Jessica Parker “didn’t realize how bad her hands were until a friend pointed them out,” states an insider. “She’s been freaking out ever since and looking into procedures to make them look younger and less veiny. She even stopped having her nails done so less attention would be drawn to her hands.”

Plastic surgeon Dr. Anthony Youn tells Star that Sarah Jessica’s hands do look old for her age (she’s 48).

“As we get older, our hands thin, causing the veins to bulge and become very visible,” explains the doc, adding that while a hand-lift doesn’t yet exist, SJP’s best option is in a syringe.

“Fat injections or fillers like Sculptra and Juvederm can smooth them out,” he suggest. “Or laser treatments like IPL are great.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition]

Seriously, you can get FAT INJECTED into your hands?!!? Why would you even want to? And if you did, wouldn’t you have to worry about the dreaded hand cellulite? Would your hands look lumpy? Will someone whisper, “Oh, look at Sarah Jessica… I heard she got finger implants to make her hands look plumper”? As for the fillers… again, we’re talking about your hands!! And I wouldn’t want lasers anywhere near my hands. But I guess if Brandi Glanville is doing it, SJP could too? To her credit, I really just don’t believe that SJP is THIS vain.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.

Quick question: apart from some brief period in the mid to late 80s when Desperately Seeking Susan was still de rigueur, have you ever worn socks with heels that weren’t booties? I’m not talking about knee high hose, tights, socks that could pass as hose under slacks, or thin socks on laundry day when you needed to dress up and forgot about it, I’m talking legit socks with pumps. You’ve never done that, right? Only Sarah Jessica Parker is trying to make it happen – allegedly! She’s said to be designing socks to be worn with heels. Since she is the next Rob Kardashian.

The 47 year-old “Sex and the City” star started a trend when she wore the quirky combo on the hit HBO show back in the 90s. Now she’s determined to revive the fad with her own line of stylish socks, but pals predict it will be a bust.

“Sarah might have been one of the most imitated and admired style icons 10 years ago, but that’s not the case anymore,” an insider tells The Enquirer.

“And this socks-with-heels obsession will only damage what fashion credibility she has left…”

“Now she wants to make one more push to see if she can turn it into a craze,” said the source.

“She’s already designing her own line of socks, and she’s even got her 3-year-old twin girls Tabitha and Loretta helping. It’s great for mommy-daughter bonding, but Sarah really needs to put this sock business to rest.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, April 8, 2013]

I didn’t think this was a trend at all, but I went to google it and one of the suggested search phrases was “socks with heels trend.” That lead me to an article in Elle from last November: “Shop the Trend: Socks With Heels.” The trend was from the runway and apart from some pumps with lacy socks (from Dolce & Gabbana) all of the shoes were clunky heels, wedges or booties, so I can see how this might look cute if you had the right shoe for it. I doubt that people would buy socks specifically designed to wear with heels though, it’s just too small a market.

Let’s face it, judging from Sarah Jessica Parker’s interpretation of this trend this isn’t going to catch on. Those are some fug sandals with socks. Her character on SATC may have been a fashionista, but the real SJP is not. I have to say her daughters are adorable though! They’re growing up so fast.

Whoops!

Photos are from February and March, 2013. Credit: WENN.com

First of all, this is one of the best Sarah Jessica Parker pictorials I’ve seen in a while. I think SJP must be a difficult subject to style and photograph these days – judging from so many of her red carpet appearances, it seems like she’s having problems styling herself too. But this shoot for Net-a-Porter’s digital fashion magazine is pretty good! The interview is pretty interesting too – SJP talks about her foot issues, Hillary Clinton and a lot more – go here to read the full piece, and here are some highlights:

Her history with heels: “For ten or so years, I literally ran in heels. I worked 18-hour days and never took them off. I wore beautiful shoes, some better made than others, and never complained. But then I did I Don’t Know How She Does It, and I was very thoughtful about my whole wardrobe and said you know, [Kate Reddy] could not afford really good shoes, she would go to Nine West or Aldo. So I got shoes from there and the bottom of the shoes aren’t leather, they are plastic, so I slipped a couple times, twisted my ankle. I went to a foot doctor and he said, ‘Your foot does things it shouldn’t be able to do. That bone there… You’ve created that bone. It doesn’t belong there.’ The moral of the story is, the chickens are coming home to roost. It’s sad, because my feet took me all over the world, but eventually they were like, ‘You know what, we are really tired, can you just stop – and don’t put cheap shoes on us?’”

Tabitha and Marion (3 years old) fight over clothes: “Oh my God… I don’t know what happens in other homes, but in mine, it’s very, very different and much harder. I probably deserve it – I should have to deal with girls. The emotions run so much higher. The arguing about clothes? I am stunned. We have a whole fashion system to try and override the fighting.”

SJP’s closet: “I wear seven percent of what’s in my closet. I have more pants, more jeans and more corduroys than I ever imagined I’d own in my life. I have dresses I keep, and I go, ‘Better not throw that out because I’m gonna have an occasion’. But the occasion never presents itself and this weekend I am cleaning it all out. I said to my husband, ‘It’s going to be an echo chamber in there.’”

She has manners: “Even if there’s someone I don’t like, I can’t bear to bitch about them. And I can’t stand the proliferation of reality shows where women are mean to each other. I can’t believe the way they talk to each other, the names they call each other.”

She hopes Hillary Clinton will run for president again: The women she looks up to are “cultured, very curious. They see everything, they read everything, they’re very interested in the world.” Right now, she has high hopes of seeing America’s first female President. “I’m a huge fan of Hillary Clinton. Her curiosity is so compelling to me, her desire to listen and learn and travel. Personally, and I mean this with all sincerity, I will be very, very sad if she doesn’t choose to run. I think she has so much to offer and is equipped to do it well, to be thoughtful, reasonable, strong, authoritative, empathetic. The conventionally female parts of her can partner well with the parts of her that are considered not as female to make a great leader.”

[From Net-a-Porter Magazine]

I’ve known women who have such horrible foot problems because they practically lived in heels for decades. I never understood that – but maybe I just wasn’t made that way. I hate walking in heels (3 inches or higher) and I rarely do. I’ve always had a strange admiration for women who are like, “Oh, these 4-inch heels are so comfortable!” HOW? As for SJP’s comments about Hillary Clinton… well, it will certainly be interesting if Hillary runs. At this moment, I’m not sure she even knows if she’ll run.

Photos courtesy of Net-a-Porter.

Helen Mirren is THE QUEEN of all she surveys. Even if she went home a loser (Helen lost the BAFTA to Emmanuelle Riva), Helen wins at life. Helen debuted some cotton-candy-pink hair which made me double-take. Instead of looking like a little old lady, Helen kind of rocks the pink hair in a punk rock way, though. I love her. She looks amazing. Helen wore Nicholas Oakwell Spring 2013 Couture – it’s actually a lovely gown.

More photos from the BAFTAs… WHY is it a thing these days to wear full-length gowns that are somehow see-through? Can I blame Rachel Weisz’s awful Golden Globes dress? Ugh. Anyway, this is Thandie Newton in Louis Vuitton. I’m not saying I would have liked it if the skirt was lined, I’m just saying that I wouldn’t have thought it was THIS TRASHY. Thandie is too classy for this gown.

Sarah Jessica Parker in an Elie Saab jumpsuit thing. Can I just say? I love this. I love everything about this look. She looks sleek and fashion-forward AND comfortable. Love her styling, and love her for wearing pants to the BAFTAs! One of my favorite looks of the evening.

Hayley Atwell in Antonio Berardi. Ugh. Fug disaster.

Gemma Arterton in a striped Celia Kritharioti Haute Couture 2013 gown. I’ve developed a strange affection for Gemma (I think she’s gorgeous), and while this wasn’t my least favorite gown, it wasn’t the best either. I just don’t think she should try so hard, you know? Why go with stripes? Why not go with something that suits her lovely figure?

Elizabeth Olsen in Chanel Couture. This looks like a child’s art project – like, tissue paper on mesh or something. It’s just awful. I do not give her any points for being unique or for wearing Chanel. This is terrible.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and Pacific Coast News.

Here are some more photos from last night’s NYC amfAR gala, the same event where Lindsay Lohan’s “crack attack” dominated. It was difficult to see past LL’s face, but I’ve managed to pull some of more interesting fashion photos for you. I guess Sarah Jessica Parker was the biggest “star” of the event, although I think she was one of the worst-dressed. SJP wore Maison Martin Margiela Couture which just looks like a shapeless sack with some cheap-looking ribbon details. If this came in black or grey, Angelina Jolie would be all over it.

Crystal Renn in Zac Posen. Um… er… well… at least her hair is dark again?

Heidi Klum in Michael Kors – this is one of her best looks in a while, right? Heidi usually goes full-on drag queen with her hair, makeup and fashion, but she looks amazing when she keeps it simple and minimalist. Still, her eye makeup is too dark and the necklace is overkill.

Doutzen Kroes. I love her, but I’m not sure about this color. Eh.

Alexa Chung in Chanel. Rough. Hate it. Don’t understand why she’s a thing.

Chloe Sevigny in Proenza Schouler. I mean… she looks like hell. But in her mind, she looks awesome and isn’t that what counts? Also: HER HAIR. Good lord.

Ashely Greene in Giambattista Valli Resort 201. The total look is okay but boring. I feel like she might have gotten a boob job?

Emilia Clarke (GOT’s Khaleesi!) in Zac Posen. This was one of my favorite looks of the night!

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.

Murphy and his new girlfriend

Forbes has released their list of most overpaid actors, calculated based on the cost of the celebrity’s salary in their last three films compared to how well those movies performed at the box office. The top (under)performers were Eddie Murphy and Katherine Heigl, unsurprisingly. What is surprising are the following actors, at least based on their reputations. The number three slot is occupied by none other than Reese Witherspoon, who had the recent bombs How Do You Know and This Means War. Number four is poor Sandra Bullock, weighed down by All About Steve and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Number five is Jack Black. I guess he had a movie in 2011 called The Big Year in 2011 that cost $41 million and only brought in $7 something million. I don’t remember ever hearing about that film, they must not have promoted it at all. Then in number six we have my favorite whack job, Nicolas Cage. He should occupy a higher spot, but he’s in there and that’s something. Here’s the full list:

1. Eddie Murphy: Returns $2.30 for every $1 paid.
2. Katherine Heigl: Returns $3.40 for every $1 paid.
3. Reese Witherspoon: Returns $3.90 for every $1 paid.
4. Sandra Bullock: Returns $5 for every $1 paid.
5. Jack Black: Returns $5.20 for every $1 paid.
6. Nicolas Cage: Returns $6 for every $1 paid.
7. Adam Sandler: Returns $6.30 for every $1 paid.
8. Denzel Washington: Returns $6.30 for every $1 paid.
9. Ben Stiller: Returns $6.50 for every $1 paid.
10. Sarah Jessica Parker: Returns $7 for every $1 paid.

[From Forbes]

A $5 return sounds decent to me, but this isn’t calculating the other massive production costs, or the cost of the other actor’s salaries. I guess we should rejoice that there will be less crappy movies starring Eddie Murphy, Katherine Heigl, or Adam Sandler. Still, there are actors on there that I love like Denzel and Sandra Bullock. I don’t want their careers to suffer because they made some lousy choices over the past couple years, but it’s not like this list is going to change that. We already voted at the box office and the damage is done.

Also, it’s not like these celebrities aren’t feeling the pinch, very relatively speaking. Both Katherine Heigl and Reese Witherspoon are currently selling their homes, and Eddie Murphy recently joked that he’s retired.

Photo credit: WENN.com and PRPhotos

These are some photos of a very low-key-looking Sarah Jessica Parker, out and about in NYC a few days ago. Yes, I said low-key. This is HER low-key. My version of low-key is sweatpants and slippers that double as outdoor shoes (for real). SJP’s version of low-key is printed skinny jeans, a loud, polka-dotted puffy jacket and what I’m assuming are $2000 boots and $500 sunglasses. Still, don’t call SJP a “fashion icon”. In a recent interview with People Mag, SJP admitted (?) that she never “identified” with Carrie Bradshaw’s label-consciousness.

Sex and the City‘s Carrie Bradshaw is considered a fashion icon to many women, but the woman who played her says she doesn’t identify.

“It’s not an identity that I … connect to. I’m grateful if anyone says anything kind, and if they say something less kind, I take that as a part of anyone talking about you at all,” Sarah Jessica Parker told PEOPLE on Wednesday night at the Barneys New York and Walt Disney Company ‘Electric Holiday’ launch. “It’s not how I think of myself and I think it’s probably the healthier approach.”

Don’t get her wrong — the actress still appreciates a good outfit. “I love beautiful things,” she said, “and I’m privileged to borrow a beautiful dress. I feel really lucky and I genuinely enjoy it. I feel like [fashion] has a proper place in my life.”

But let’s just say you won’t catch her in a tutu at the grocery store. “It’s just not a reality — not when you have three kids and you go to the market and there are hungry people at home. You have a limited time to do it. There’s just no time to let vanity enter into that,” she said.

While picking the right dress was a priority for Wednesday night’s event (Parker, who hosted, wore L’Wren Scott), the star said the main goal of the evening was helping superstorm Sandy victims. Select Barneys stores and Barneys.com are donating 25 percent of sales from the Electric Holiday product collection to the American Red Cross for relief efforts.

“Everybody’s in serious need and this is going to go on for a while,” Parker said. “I’ve been giving back in a way that I feel I can and should and it’s not going to end in the next week. There’s still going to be a lot of opportunity in the future to see how people are doing and what they need.”

[From People]

Good on her for the Hurricane Sandy benefit and all of that – even though I have my issues with SJP, I have to admit that she does a lot of excellent work with New York charities and she has a long history of giving back to the community. As for the stuff about fashion… I’m of two minds. One side, I do believe her when she talks about what a “privilege” it is to borrow clothes, and I think she really does get a child-like glee from playing dress-up. On the other side, SJP LOVES fashion. She flat-out loves it. She loves creating big fashion moments and she loves working with designers and she loves clothes, and she has a long history with all of that too. So I don’t understand why she’s trying to suddenly rebrand herself as somehow too down-to-earth to enjoy fashion. What’s the deal?

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, WENN.

I haven’t seen new photos of Renee Zellweger or heard ANY gossip about her in months. The last photos we have of her are from the Met Gala in May. But she appeared like a wood sprite last night in NYC for the 29th Annual Fashion Group International Night Of Stars. Renee wore her favorite designer, Carolina Herrera. Much like Halle Berry, Renee’s style is kind of stuck in the same place it was a decade ago. It’s not such a bad thing – she knows what looks good on her, she knows her body. I will say this… Renee’s face looks really good. I’m sure she’s Botoxing, but she’s not overdoing it from what I can see. She looks oddly less squinty too…?

Renee is 43 years old right now… and am I the only one who kind of misses her in movies? For a while there, she was doing really great work. She doesn’t have anything coming out this year. Or next year. Allegedly, she’s going to be doing a third Bridget Jones film (Bridget Jones’s Baby) at some point. Sigh… so she’s probably at this event just because she felt like having a night out. What’s going on with you, Renee?

More photos from the event… Sarah Jessica Parker in L’Wren Scott, with horizontal stripes. She had the jacket on for street photos and she took the jacket off for the carpet photos. I like the look better with the jacket, although I do like the structure of everything overall – L’Wren Scott is a great designer. And her makeup is a mess.

And here’s Viola Davis and her husband. V looks good in this black-and-white Max Mara dress! I like when she goes without her wig, but I do have a question: this is a tint, right? She’s getting her natural hair tinted or dyed? Because I don’t like the shade she’s using – I think she should go darker.

Photos courtesy of WENN.