Beauty Break: Random Oscar Night Gowns You Might Not Have Seen

Because they weren't on the stage but at after parties. Many beauties after the jump...

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Dressmaker Dressmaker Catch me A Catch

JA from MNPP here - have you guys heard about The Dressmaker? It's the new movie from Jocelyn Moorhouse (How To Make An American Quilt, Proof), which she adapted from a 2000 novel by Rosalie Ham, and it's about a woman who returns to her small hometown after being accused or murder; there she sets out to 1) make amends with her eccentric mother, and 2) show the town's ladies the power of excellent haute couture, and 3) get revenge on the people who wrong her, and 4) falls in love with Liam Hemsworth. Okay I am getting a little ahead of myself there with the Hemsworth thing since I haven't mentioned any of the rest of the casting, which is the real meat and potatoes...

... since the stylish accused-murderess is being played by Kate Winslet and her eccentric mother is being played by Judy Davis. Excuse me I'm sorry you're supposed to always type that in caps - her eccentric mother is being played by JUDY DAVIS. Kate Winslet and Judy Davis as mother and daughter! Revenge and high fashion! Liam Hemsworth as beefcake on a platter! All of these thing deserve exclamation points, you see.

And so do the other two names attached to the film - Isla Fisher (who has gone criminally under-used if you ask me; I can't even tell you how many times I quote her Bachelorette performance) and Elizabeth Debicki (who was easily the best thing in The Great Gatsby). This is a great big pile-up of awesomeness, that's what this is. Oh and a random aside I learned while writing this story up that goes on the awesome heap - did you know that Jocelyn Moorhouse is married to Muriel's Wedding director PJ Hogan? I did not know that until right now, and any connection I can make back to Muriel's Wedding is a cause célèbre above and beyond all else.

"Did you just call us prostitutes?"

Bouncer: All right, down the street."

Regan: Did you just call us prostitutes?"

Katie: Did you just call us prostitutes?"

Red Carpet Convo: The Great Cannesby

Because we aren't in Cannes, we're gazing at the gowns and only dreaming of the films -- I personally don't like to read too many reviews months before seeing the pictures -- for this edition, which was actually recorded a couple nights ago, I have Jose with me. He's been tracking Nicole Kidman's every move but he's stepping away from the Australian Icon (okay, being dragged away. He really dug his heels in) and joining me to talk other beauties...

NATHANIEL: Hey, Jose. Welcome back to Red Carpet Convos and thanks for taking up the Kidman-Watch. She was absentia today in Cannes (at least to the paparazzi) so it's going to take 11 women to replace her.

JOSE: No one replaces Nic *sobs*

NATHANIEL: Eleven beauties, Jose. Let's start with the ladies who came out for The Great Gatsby but weren't in it.

Bai Ling, Juli, Rooney, Fan Bingbing, and Moneypenny

I'm cheating a little bit to include her as, as far as I can tell, she wasn't at the actual premiere but at some sort of afterparty. [lots more after the jump]

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Review: "The Great Gatsby"

This review originally appeared in my column at Towleroad

"Gatsby. What Gatsby?"

Daisy asks with a rush of girlish 'it can't be!' alarm, her nerves far overpowering the tiny glimmer of hope you think you hear in her voice. Which is as sensible a reaction as anyone could have when hearing about the arrival of another Jay Gatsby in movie theaters. You don't mean THE GREAT GATSBY, do you?

The F Scott Fitzgerald classic is a tough book to crack for filmmakers, its power so tied to its gorgeous (slim) prose, its subtle and cynical evocations and condemnations of American wealth and unspoken caste system. Further complicating adaptations is that the story is subjectively narrated. It's all told by Nick Carraway and his is, despite blood ties to the wealthy, an outsider's point of view. It's an easy book to love but a difficult one to adapt. But Hollywood keeps trying once every thirty years or so. 

The story, if you are unfamiliar (though you won't want to admit that out loud) follows the attempts of the elusive mysterious extremely wealthy Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) to win back his lost love Daisy (Carey Mulligan) who he abandoned many years earlier while penniless to seek his fortune. More...

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