Paula Abdul's Grammy Fashion Miss

Words fail me. For once. OK. 'Hot mess' comes to mind. Oh Paula, Paula, Paula.....

The Critics Choose and the Earrings Shine

The Critics' Choice Awards was full of surprises last night. Slum Dog Millionaire stole the show with three big wins, and there was a tie in the Best Actress category between Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. A tie? It seems awards shows can’t let The Meryl be in a movie without handing her a trophy (if she wins a Globe for the dreadful, Mamma Mia, I’m moving to Canada). Perhaps the biggest surprise was a scowling Angelina Jolie who couldn’t hide her disdain during Anne Hathaway’s rambling acceptance speech. Meow!









The jewelry fashion was all about the ears, as many A-listers chose the no necklace look with strapless, classic gowns. Kate Beckinsale can do no wrong in a chocolate frock with dream catcher gemstone earrings; Marisa Tomei’s fan dress was a little much, but her clover-shaped earrings made the ensemble work; and Slumdog Millionaire beauty, Freida Pinto, wore maharajah-shaped earrings with her heavenly white cap-sleeved dress. Do I see a Slumdog earring trend emerging?










I think I am officially over the metallic dress/no jewelry look that both Eva Longoria and Evan Rachel Wood sported. Yet most celebs opted for the less-is-more jewelry statement that the New York Times recently reported we will most likely see on the upcoming Award Show red carpets this year.

















While the gawker-dreamer in us wants the stars to go all out with the ice no matter what the DOW is doing, there are upsides to restraint. We mere mortals can find more and more celebrity red carpet jewelry looks for our own jewelry boxes. Jai Ho!

A similar look to Angelina Jolie’s pearl-button earrings can be found on Jewelry.com for over $200 off the original price. She can keep the scowl.












And these Penelope-inspired diamond drops could make any night on the town an award-winning affair.












Viola Davis dazzled in classic pearl-drop earrings, suitable for almost any occasion. Try these on for size for just over $100.

Dolce & Gabbana Make Diamonds & Pearls

Prince isn’t the only icon to sing the praises of Diamonds and Pearls, now the famous fashion duo, Dolce & Gabbana, are getting in on the act.

To celebrate over two decades of their successful partnership, the tony twosome is launching a new book appropriately titled, Diamonds & Pearls, which Domenico Dolce describes as “an invitation to the public into our own personal world: one of luxury, intense pleasure and seduction, but also a dreamlike world featuring grotesque and ambiguous situations that verge on the paradoxical”.

Fashion designers love their paradoxical adjectives, don’t they just?

The book is a collaboration with the Austrian photographer Guenter Parth, whom they chose because he specializes in still-life images. The fashion that graces the pages was personally selected by D & G to highlight jewelry of all kinds – from gemstones to diamonds, gold leaves to pearls.

And in a bizarre turn, the clothes are not worn by models but by what the pair call three “real dolls”, or lifelike mannequins made to bear a striking resemblance to real women and built following specifications for their “ideal woman”.

“The three dolls symbolize the perfect woman: we deliberately chose not to take any top model as an aesthetic reference when we made them,” Gabbana explains to The National Newspaper.

I’m not sure that their ultimate muse, Madonna, would approve of replacing flesh and blood with mannequins that are three hairs shy of a blow-up doll in couture, but I suppose anything goes in the name of art.

The book retails for $270 and is available in select D & G boutiques worldwide. All proceeds benefit children's charity, Butterfly Onlus Foundation.