Emmys 2008 Dresses And Makeup Highlights

As always, watching the Red Carpet Shoe makes me wish the entire E! team would be fired and replaced. Preferably by mimes. But we're not here to discuss Giuliana Rancic and her vocabulary, are we?

It's always a bit weird: The stars are in full evening wear, all blinged and hair-sprayed out, but since the red carper arrivals are happening at 3-5 PM L.A. time, we see them in harsh daylight and it's probably a bit too hot for them to really feel comfortable. Sometimes it shows:


A more streamlined yellow dress was the one Mariska Hargitay was wearing. I love her, just not sure about the Sarah Palin hair:


Colorful dresses tend to steal the show and seem somehow more right at that time of the afternoon. There were several light aqua/sea foam colored dresses, as you can see on Jenna Fischer (Gustavo Cadile), Christina Applegate (Reem Acra) and Cynthia Nixon (Calvin Klein):




I like Brooke Shields too much to question the 80s glam of her dress (Badgley Mischka ):


Eva Longoria Parker was the most visible star who went with a short dress (Marchesa). Usually I dislike big bows on short women, but here it works, somehow:


I usually wait with the makeup recap until the day after, but since we're speaking of Eva I must comment on this so two years ago look, especially since I didn't like it in 2006, either. Too much black around the eyes, lips that are at least a shade too pale than healthy and the too-peachy blush that should have been named after J. Lo. I wish Eva would hire a new makeup artist, preferably of the Bobbi Brown school of thought.




Now, let's look at some black dresses, because you can't get more Hollywood than that. Debra Messing is gorgeous, but the dress (Monique Lhuillier), while pretty, seems a bit too much. It's a lot of goth drama for a hot L.A. night. And Kate Walsh is pulling off something most of us wouldn't (and shouldn't) attempt: horizontal stripes.

The next one isn't actually black, though it looked so in most photos and when I saw her briefly during the arrivals (I'm another one of those who didn't even consider watching the actual ceremony). I think Hayden Panetierre got it right with her midnight blue dress. Not many 18 year olds can look as polished and glamorous as this:


My favorite dress of the night- Heidi Klum in Armani Prive:


Next: The hair and makeup.


Photos: Faded Youth Blog, Just Jared