Emmy Dresses 2014

My 2nd favorite award show of the year has come and gone, but not without that great deja-vu feeling you can only get from seeing the same dumb, undeserving shit win the same award year after year (no, I’m not bitter that Modern Family won, AGAIN, beating out 5 other excellent and more deserving comedies)!  And lest we forget, not without some beautiful dresses. A TON of RED on that carpet of the same name this year, which is to be expected for Fall, but also a ton of white and several halters? The 90’s really are back, huh? Here are some of my favorites! (HINT: My top two picks are two gorgeous Julias, and not some of the young twits who get invited to these things… Like a fine wine, these two are getting better with age!)

JLD FTW

1. Julia Louis Dreyfus in Carolina Herrera – Are you kidding me? How can she look (AND BE) this amazing all the time? I’ve mentioned before how much I love her and basically everything she does, not to mention she has played debate-ably two of the absolute best comedic roles written for a woman in the past 20 years. BUT SHE ALWAYS LOOKS FABULOUS TOO. I mean it’s insane, but I can’t think of a better person to have such talent, beauty and style – she seems like such a kind, genuine and hilarious person IRL (and if the opposite is true I refuse to believe it). One of the ladies in red (and the best IMO), she worked it on the carpet and all through the ceremony (CAN WE TALK ABOUT THAT KISS? i’ll get to that later).

If this Elie Saab is wrong, I DON’T WANT TO BE RIGHT.

2. Julia Roberts in Elie Saab – TRULY, truly can’t get over the negative reviews when it comes to this dress. I want to say “Are you kidding??” for this pick, for a completely different reason. Not only does she look amazing even outside of the dress, that dress itself IS SICK! Who gives a shit about the hemline, are we all suddenly our grandmothers? Since when does a short hem automatically mean bad dress? I mean she looked millions of times better than some of the ladies wearing the traditional ball gown! (*ahem* Sarah Silverman, January Jones, *ahem*). And I’m sorry, but the pearl and stone embroidery in the midnight blue made up for anything anyone could say about it not being quite dressy or formal enough. This dress is badass, and looks exquisite on her – that neckline, those legs!

Janis? Is that you?

3. Lizzy Caplan in Donna Karan Atelier – UH… Can we reflect how far Janis Ian has come?? The cut outs, the open back – just CHIC as hell and so sexy! As Huffpo noted – this dress makes it hard to believe she ever played this 4. Carrie Brownstein in Halston Heritage – I am usually anti-one shoulder dresses, and black is chic but sorta boring. However, this dress is beautiful and looks incredible on her! When I saw her post a pic on Instagram I literally said “Holy s—” out loud to myself. Especially since we’re used to seeing her in such not-formalwear (if you watch and adore Portlandia like I do) this was a wonderful surprise.

Halle Berry WOW-ing in Elie Saab

5. Halle Berry in Elie Saab – LOVE it. Love the mauve, I love the cut, the halter the waist… When she came on stage I actually said “WOW.” She looked incredible and this dress is just gorgeous. Elie Saab was killing the red carpet last night. HONORABLE MENTIONS Lena Dunham in Giambattista Valli – This skirt is incredible, and like a cotton candy dream. Not that that necessarily makes attractive formalwear, but this is an beautiful creation and suited to her personality. My only issue is the top. I don’t really understand that choice, as it seems like there has to have been a better, and certainly more flattering top combination for this skirt. And I know this is another one that the critics have torn apart (as are most of Lena’s dress picks), but the only reason she doesn’t look great in all the pictures is her posture! She always seems to be slumping, and doesn’t seem to have that actress-red-carpet-strut down. If she was standing up straight, and had changed that top with something that looked a little smoother, this would have been a top pick of the night. What were some of your favorites?? Let me know! Thanks for reading!

Emmy Noms 2014!!

I may have mentioned this before but I LOVE TV. In the past few years, TV shows have surpassed movies for me in terms of what is most entertaining and worth spending my time watching. I love all award shows as I know I’ve talked about, but I especially love the (Primetime) Emmy’s. And the fact that they aren’t the same time of year as the other major award shows is like a big mid-year bonus!

Apparently there were tons of gripes and jeers from various press outlets on this year’s nominations and snubs, but I’ll recap my own thoughts on the matter.

First of all, can we please acknowledge Mindy Kaling? For anyone who saw the Emmy nom announcements as they cut in to whatever ridiculous thing Lara Spencer was talking about on Good Morning America, you know that Mindy Kaling and Carson Daly were the ones bringing us the big news. And Mindy, read both categories that snubbed her and her show – best actress in a comedy and best comedy series. THEY COULDN’T HAVE WORKED THAT OUT BETTER?? I mean she wasn’t visibly angry or anything, but what poise in acting like she was not phased.

Second, I’m going to make a controversial statement – Orange is the New Black isn’t that good. DON’T GET ME WRONG, it’s entertaining enough, and the plethora of characters and personalities brings so much material and interesting plot lines to the table for the viewer. However, it’s just not THAT good. Taylor Schilling as Piper is so boring and sad to me, I almost stopped watching the show. It just felt like most of the first season was spent watching her staring in to the camera with dead eyes, or looking half asleep, or looking fake angry, or just generally STARING. I prayed for times when she wasn’t on screen but those are few and far between. I love all of the other characters around her (except Pensultucky, who as a character has passed just being the antagonist, and instead becomes comical in how irritating she is. It’s just TOO much). I haven’t watched a ton of the second season, but I know that I was not in any way chomping at the bit to see what happens next at the end of the first (like I was with House of Cards). At the end of the first season, I just couldn’t get over the deep hole of shit that Piper had dug for herself, so much that I just stopped caring. If they could make the show with her as a minor character, it would be great. But I feel like it gets all of this support and all of this praise because it’s another product of Netflix, when that alone does not make it good. I mean, certainly not House of Cards good, anyway.

Also, why does this continue to be categorized as a comedy? I understand that there is not a “dramedy” category and it has comedic elements. But Taylor Schilling is in no way a comedic actress in this show, and the show itself is not consistently funny enough to be calling a comedy. For god’s sake its an hour format! Are there any other hour long comedies? No, because they don’t exist and this shouldn’t either. This show should be listed for sure in dramas, and Piper above all is much more drama character than she is comedy character. And again, the fact the Mindy was snubbed for this category but Taylor Schilling gets nominated just makes no sense. Great for Kate Mulgrew though, Red is awesome and she really owns that character, so good for her! But, why are the other very central characters like Nicky, Sofia, nominated as “guest actors in a comedy” ? I mean the way these nominations are organized is just all over the place.

MOVING ON…

Why is anyone up in arms about Brooklyn Nine-Nine not getting more nominations? The fact that it won any Golden Globes had to be a fluke, or an attempt at Fox trying to boost it’s ratings. I’ve loved and adored Andy Samberg since his pre-SNL Lonely Island days and I can still quote all of their very early videos to you right now, but I do not think he really deserved that Globe for a show that at that point in time had JUST started 4 months before. And then for the whole cast to win, it was even more bizarre. We hadn’t even seen them really BE a cast for a whole season yet! So it seems like the fact that BK99 didn’t get that much attention from the Emmy voters is what actually makes more sense. Again, don’t get me wrong, I like the show and it’s funny and all. But Andy is basically playing himself and every other character he’s been, not really breaking any molds, and the first season felt like it still needed a little bit of tweaking and improvements before being given nominations. IMHO, anyway.

I normally love Girls, and Lena Dunham, but this past season was painful. I mean it took me a month after it aired to watch the finale, so when a big fan of the show feels that way it’s saying something. I understand that after Charlie up and left when they were about to start shooting the third season, that probably threw a few wrenches in to things. But this past season was pretty solely about Hannah and her self-centered idiocy. There were very few actual girlS, in the show Girls. It was mostly “Girl,” and it was torturous, with the exception of the Beach House episode which reached practically unheard of levels of perfection (that episode made me cry and laugh and cry again and so beautifully and wonderfully portrayed the experiences of young women and our relationships. It was just simply flawless in every way). But I do think Adam Driver really deserved some props finally and I am glad he got them. However, why no supporting guest actor whatever to Andrew Rannels?? Or Gaby Hoffman as Caroline? And why no mention whatsoever of Zosia Mamet? She was beyond a scene-stealer this season, I was basically only watching the show in the hopes that either of the three of them would have a larger part.

Instead, Joan Cusak who’s been on Shameless as a very central character for four full seasons, is given a “Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series” nomination? IT MAKES NO SENSE, and on top of that that show is DEFINITELY a drama.

Other random thoughts – So happy for Anna Chlumsky in VEEP, Reg E. Cathey as Freddy in House Of Cards, and Silicon Valley!!

What did you guys think? Favorites or mad about what was left out? I could clearly go on all day.

Thanks for reading!