She didn't even buy a dress...

...but Meryl Streep was still queen of the ball and the Queen of Hollywood as she won a SAG award for Best Actress tonight.
She not only delivered one of her brilliantly entertaining speeches (even Angelina Jolie was laughing!), but she once again took a fascinating political stand by reminding the power of actresses on film! She referred to her fellow nominees, and those who weren't nominated, as "the girls" and that if you ask me is precisely the kind of attitude women in the acting business should have!
Meryl not only gave yet another of her incredible performances in "Doubt" (even if I wanted to love the movie not just enjoy it) but she also established her position as a superstar with "Mamma Mia!" (where she was fabulous and worth the price of the entry).
Those who have been complaining about "The Dark Knight" issues have failed to see that it was Meryl who was the actual movie hero this year who single handedly gained box office platinum and universal critics' praise.
Anyways enough about my love for the greatest living actress. The show was alright, I still dislike how comedy gets to be awarded first always as if it didn't matter, but I'm alright with that. I was OK with Kate's win and actually now thank her for spoiling both Actress races at the Oscars for us.
Because of her winning in the "wrong" category for "The Reader" now it's almost impossible to know who will get the Oscar! Will people love her more than Meryl, will Meryl gain from the Weinstein mess or will they split votes and have Anne Hathaway win?
The show was alright, the Heath win was expected, Penn's win was lovely (It had totally slipped my mind that he hadn't won for "Mystic River" here even if I was conscious Johnny Depp had won that year...) and I won't complain ever about Kate and Meryl.
Now that egregious win for "Slumdog Millionaire" was ridiculous! And judging from the look she gave Meryl agreed with me. What's ridiculous isn't that they won, but that it was the people there who voted for them! How the hell can they vote for a cast of amateurs who just sit around and do cute things? This ensemble award should've gone to the editor, G-d knows he was the one who put together their "performances".
If there is something I appreciate from SAG is their time economy, their awards mostly go straight to the point (although I'd be glad if someone explains that "Trailblazers" montage to me), I also loved the wins for "30 Rock" even if they've been on a streak, honestly does any other comedy on TV deserve it more? They're brilliant!
Now on to the fashion...huge improvement from what the actors wore last year where the French seemed to be the only one who looked for stylists.
This year, other than Meryl (but she made a joke about it so she doesn't count), Teri Hatcher's toliet paper gown and Emily Blunt's weird wet hairdo and huge arms (I love her but she looked like a fugitive from an Esther Williams picture) they all made a great effort and looked splendid.
I just loved Kristin Scott Thomas' "whatever" look, I watched with my dad and even after he said he loved the idea of an unintentional boob flash by the low cleavaged starlets he was astounded by Thomas and summed up her style in the only word you need to describe it: class.
Her low key smoking, sexy, messy hair and long jewelry did more justice to fashion than that corny clip from Shirley MacLaine's Chanel biopic.
Now on to some of my faves, observations and random notes.

I love Penélope Cruz, not a surprise for those who read my blog I know, but is it me or is she a bit meh lately? It doesn't seem like she is trying, something in her hair and face (at the Globes and here since she's looked stunning in the critics' awards) isn't as "effortless" as it's lazy.
I love the natural look as much as the next person, but natural for me was that gorgeous color she had at the 07 Oscars, this freshly washed face approach is just lazy.
Maybe with Kate out of the race as incentive she'll bump out of this rut in time for BAFTA and Oscar.

Gorgeous, but she looked hip-pier than usual.

While she's always doing this kind of huge dresses that look good on her, this was the first time I loved Christina Applegate's look. The color, the hair, the dress style and that necklace!

If I'm not wrong Diane Lane had worn almost this same Azzaro to the Oscars a few years ago.
Anne looked just ok in it which is why...

...until I find a picture of Kristin Scott Thomas (even if I also just loved Laura Linney and Marisa Tomei), Diane Lane is getting my "Best Dressed" vote of the night. The color was hot, the dress fits her perfectly and looking better than women half her age she just made anyone drool whenever she appeared on screen.
Just wow.

Now Teri Hatcher is always a great dresser, but I don't know what was wrong with the "Housewives" at SAG, both Eva Longoria Parker and Teri had these ill fitting short looking hairdos that aged them terribly and they both attracted attention to their ruffly, overdone dresses.
I didn't see Marcia Cross or Felicity Huffman, I'm guessing they weren't there but I can only imagine what Bree would've thought of Hatcher's dress which looks like it was being attacked by angry napkins.

Nights in Rodanthe **

Director: George C. Wolfe
Cast: Richard Gere, Diane Lane
Viola Davis, Christopher Meloni, James Franco, Scott Glenn

Apparently single, middle aged, obscenely beautiful people find hurricanes to be the ultimate aphrodisiac. Or so thinks Nicholas Sparks, whose books lead to sappy film adaptations that make people swoon over the fact that they're so utterly corny.
Lane plays Adrienne Willis, who is separated from her husband (Meloni) and must endure the wrath of he teenage daughter (Mae Whitman) who blames her for her unhappiness.
One weekend she offers to look after her best friend Jean's (Davis playing the sassy, token best friend) seaside inn (a beautiful, if unstable looking dream house), located in the title town, where she is told there will only be one guest (in what must one of the dumbest economic strategies ever, but all's well in the name of potential love...).
The lodger is Dr. Paul Flanner (Gere) who has come to Rodanthe to make peace about an issue that has left him emotionally stuck. After his stay there he plans to visit his son (Franco) who works as a doctor in an Ecuador jungle.
This leaves them with a weekend to live up to the passionate affair audiences buy their movie ticket for and with an imminent hurricane that will leave them trapped there alone, somehow they deliver this.
It's rare for a film to rely on two mature film stars to work this kind of magic and because of this the film seems braver than what it is. Gere and Lane, who aren't as popular as say Hanks and Ryan or Hepburn and Tracy, make you feel as if this, their third onscreen reunion, is some sort of event that can't be missed.
She works her sensual charm to new levels of MILF-ness (with the necessary crying scenes now and then to remind us she's a serious actress) and Gere who becomes more subtle by the decade brings a barely there warmth to Paul that makes him irresistible.
The plot is as contrived as they make them (sunsets and wild ponies everywhere should sue for exploitation) and if you know Sparks, you know how this will end.
The surprise coming out of the cinema though is that this extreme corniness works! And you will find a tear or two falling down your cheek.
But as if with the emotions in this film you will find yourself wondering if they're CGI as well.

Untraceable *

Director: Gregory Hoblit

Cast: Diane Lane

Colin Hanks, Billy Burke, Joseph Cross, Mary Beth Hurt

What happened to the time when an old fashioned movie psychopath was just that?

Now, if they don't have some sort of terrorist trauma or a bizarre, unknown until then, illness they are plotting some sort of over the top, ridiculous revenge that honestly doesn't need all the fuzz.

Regardless of the reason the filmmakers choose, we rarely have to deal with that much more creepy realization that comes with not knowing why people act how they do.

Early in this film we discover the reasons why a young man is kidnapping people and then torturing them to death, while he streams the video online.

He has a website named killwithme.com in which as the number of viewers rise, the victim dies faster.

Not to try to make some deeper sociological remark about this, but in a way isn't this what goes on all the time in shows like "American Idol"?

Anyways, the always fascinating, Diane Lane plays Jennifer Marsh, an FBI cybercrime agent who gets assigned to the case along with a local detective (Burke) and her own tech guy (Hanks).

From this, the film evolves into a very by the number thriller that showcases elaborate action scenes while trying to deliver an intelligent message.

But it's in its message where it crashes, because instead of turning out a Hanekean essay on the acceptance of violence, it actually loves the gore and sickness it condemns.

And not only that, but it doesn't even bother to live up to trashy entries of its genre.

People have always loved unjustified violence, maybe because the distance of watching it is enough to satisfy the morbid desire to experience it.

"Untraceable" seems to have forgotten that what it shows is child's play compared to the things we can find for free online or out in the streets.