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Before They Had Stylists: A Look Back At Stars' First Time On A Red Carpet
Posted by Seth at 4:00 AM on June 21, 2008
Like the heady mix of pride and elation that fills you as you witness your own flesh-and-blood pulling themselves up by their lonesomes to take their first wobbly steps across the living room floor, witnessing some of your favourite stars' first times on the red carpet—as compiled in this Us Weekly gallery—is an experience worth savoring. Pictured above, writer's room taskmistress Katherine Heigl presents herself to the world at the 2000 premiere for The Beach in an ensemble that makes several endearing first-timer mistakes: 1. At this early point in your career, showing anything more than 3/4 inch of leg runs the risk of making you look trampy. 2. Flashbulbs' x-ray effect often reveal more about your foundation garments than you'd like to the world to know. Always match your bra to your dark-chocolate turtleneck, lest you want the world to mistakenly assume you're a Mormon. 3. The movie's about a tropical Eden in Thailand, not what happens when your trying-to-be-hip mum is convinced by a Barneys saleswoman that "Fall is all about the Annie Oakley look." Dress theme-appropriately.
More red carpet toddlers after the jump!
Gwyneth Paltrow attends the 1991 premiere of The Prince of Tides, a shooting star followed by a trail of cometary dust streaking the front of mum Blythe Danner's cocktail dress. While she would later adopt a more demure signature style, she has recently returned to the more daring, crotch-baring looks that defined her splashy arrival on the scene.
Julia Roberts and Jon Voight arrive at the 1985 Fool for Love premiere in New York, back when Julia was still flirting with a bad-girl image, and all the Parliament-huffing, older-man-bedding, and Siegfried and Roy Collection™ satin-shirt-wearing rebelliousness that implies.
Most powerful presence in the celebrity universe Oprah Winfrey had not yet refined her public persona when she attended an Oscars luncheon in 1986. After being quietly pulled aside by an Academy official and told the life-sized statuettes were not there for crotch-level mugging, she quickly absorbed the note and has since become associated with Academy Awards elegance and restraint the world over.
[Photo Credits: Wireimage]
- My First Time on the Red Carpet! [Us Weekly]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Stephanies
Posted 4:51 AM 21/6/08
Gwyneth's expression is the very definition of 'smug'. I'm getting Breakfast Club flashbacks from Julia Roberts.
I don't even know what to say about Heigl, except I'd like to meet the person who thought the bag was a good idea.
Stephanies
kookla
Posted 4:46 AM 21/6/08
@NoWireHangers: A coworker bought me that DVD a couple of years ago as an Xmas gift. I'm still waiting for one of Oprah's minions to knock on my door and shove a suitcase full of money at me to get it back!
kookla
Wendy_Kroy
Posted 4:44 AM 21/6/08
I'm pretty sure Chloe Sevigny has worn a version of Gwynnie's outfit to a red carpet event in the past year. Or she will soon.
Wendy_Kroy
Benovite
Posted 4:44 AM 21/6/08
The continued continuity of poor fashion decisions is proof that Katherine Heigl doesn't believe in stylists.
Which is fine if you have any amount of good taste.
Benovite
mothrafairy
Posted 4:43 AM 21/6/08
Gwyneth: Smug. Knows It's All In-The-Bag. Preordained. Doesn't Care Much One Way or the Other. Basically, the Same.
Julia: I once heard she briefly understudied the Jo Polniaczek character on 'Facts of Life'. This is revealing.
Oprah: The Ego had not yet tackled, smothered, and utterly dismembered the Neediness. And you can sense she only smells like maybe $5-10 million in that photo, not a frosty 2 Bill.
Heigl: So fresh, so fit, so earnest, so straight-off-the-couch.
mothrafairy
NoWireHangers
Posted 4:43 AM 21/6/08
@kookla: You clearly have yet to enjoy the Oprah 20th Anniversary Collection DVD.
I LOVE fat, young, innocent, naive Oprah. Her face is so round and pure. My heart skips a beat every time.
NoWireHangers
SanFranBetsu
Posted 4:34 AM 21/6/08
I am now convinced that Heigle is FLDS.
SanFranBetsu
kookla
Posted 4:32 AM 21/6/08
I'm surprised Oprah hasn't bought up all photos of her from the 80s and 90s.
kookla
NefariousNewt
Posted 4:28 AM 21/6/08
Funny, but I don't think Gwyneth has changed all that much... except for the hair.
NefariousNewt
DorothyZbornak
Posted 4:19 AM 21/6/08
@heidiho: For real.
And that picture of Oprah is so something I'd do. In fact, I have pictures of me posing just like that with things much less important than a giant Oscar. This is why I'm not famous.
DorothyZbornak
hughman
Posted 4:17 AM 21/6/08
gotta love oprah's handy purse, not yet stuffed with $100 bills.
hughman
heidiho
Posted 4:10 AM 21/6/08
Whoa, wait. Julia Roberts was fucking Angelina Jolie's dad? I think there's some sort of really screwed up six degrees thing happening, but I'm too skeeved to figure it out right now.
heidiho
SomnambulantHobbit
Posted 4:09 AM 21/6/08
To be fair, everyone in the 80's looked absolutely cracked out.
SomnambulantHobbit
TurdBlossom
Posted 5:22 AM 21/6/08
Blythe Danner looks like the mother of a Solid Gold Dancer.
TurdBlossom
kookla
Posted 5:22 AM 21/6/08
@Molly McAleer: I still haven't broken the seal on mine. I'm scared that I will long for the humble Oprah.
kookla
mordecai1908
Posted 4:58 AM 21/6/08
Since Gwyneth appears to be wearing shorts with her mom in the 1991 picture, I wouldn't necessarily call that outfit "crotch-baring". Unfortunate, yes - trampy, no. Actually, trampy may have improved that early look.
mordecai1908
Molly McAleer
Posted 4:57 AM 21/6/08
@NoWireHangers: I got it for Christmas the year it came out. That day, my mother and I watched 15 straight hours of Oprah.
What a rollercoaster that woman has taken us on.
Molly McAleer
DukeLaCrosse
Posted 4:55 AM 21/6/08
I am loving Roberts' fe-mullet.
And I still want to punch Paltrow in the face.
DukeLaCrosse
Fama Est
Posted 5:44 AM 21/6/08
Dunst and Barrymore's outfits look surprisingly sensible and normal. Maybe the red carpet is like the converse of real life: Children come off looking sane and adults come off looking like they're wearing read cowgirl hats.
Fama Est
Little Mintz Sunshine
Posted 5:32 AM 21/6/08
I have a feeling Joshua was in that bag...
And is there a day that goes by that Kiefer does not say to himselff "Whew, boy. You really dodged a bullet..."?
Little Mintz Sunshine
BoHan
Posted 5:27 AM 21/6/08
Per Popbitch, Gwen has apparently taken to referring to non-famous people as "Pedestrians."
BoHan
EuroDad
Posted 6:34 AM 21/6/08
i'm just afraid that the rumor about Oprah is true, everything she touches DOES turn to gold, and that used to be Steve Martin
EuroDad
NotReadyForPrimeTime
Posted 6:31 AM 21/6/08
Katie Holmes looks awful, but at least she looks alive.
NotReadyForPrimeTime
NotReadyForPrimeTime
Posted 6:31 AM 21/6/08
I'm disappointed that Renee Zellweger was not included. I seem to recollect her wearing some odd plaid thing on a red carpet once which reminded me of my mother's square-dance dress.
NotReadyForPrimeTime
Whiteboyfunfark
Posted 7:44 AM 21/6/08
Jessica Simpson looks like Cher as Laverne. Without the class, of course.
[www.fotolog.com]
Whiteboyfunfark
Desk_hack
Posted 8:05 AM 21/6/08
Wow. Annie Get Your Fashion.
Desk_hack