The Good:

Was Michelle Obama's Jason Wu (which I've already heard called "bridal" and "toga-like") the gown of our dreams? Maybe not, but she looked stunning. Here, at the Western Ball.


How gorgeously festive is Jill Biden at the Commander in Chief's Ball?


Kerry Washington - at the Creative Coalition Ball at the Harman Center- heats things up a few degrees!


Love, love, love how much fun Marisa Tomei - at CC - is having with this!


Speaking of retro! Beyonce was Etta James-glam at the Neighborhood Ball!


Anne Hathaway (at Creative Coalition)does classic glam like a pro.


Amy Brenneman (at the Inaugural Purple Ball at the Fairmont Hotel) is a brave woman in 30's-style silk!


Heather Graham's CC gown is subdued, but undeniably elegant.


Alfre Woodard (at the Harman) is absolutely pristine.


I love the boldness of Susan Sarandon (at CC) doing menswear!


At Creative Coalition: Kim Raver rocks the ethereal trend to good affect!


The Bad:
Danielle Bisutti's Purple Ball gown is like "Poison" perfume in dress form. If that's what you're going for...!


Rachael Leigh Cook's CC gown has about ten too many tiers.


Another ruffly choice: Ashley Judd's PB pick reminds me of the toilet paper gowns I used to make my dolls!


Loving Shani Rigsbee's squash-like color choice for the PB, but why so tight?


I like plenty about Kate Walsh's CC dress...but what's with the belt notches?!


[Images via Getty]

The Good:
Delta Goodrem: Yet another example of the right way to wear white. Bridal designers, take note.
Adrien Brody looks sweet and tame with Elsa Pataky on his arm.
Despite the fact that I really should know better, I do love Alan Cumming.
Ashlee Simpson doesn't look preggers to me.
I don't know who Gisele Mercedes is, but I like her look.

The Bad:
And in the category of "C'mon, you could've done better" we have Cheryl "Salt" James, sporting Lohan-esque leggings...
...and Kim Raver, whose dress is both a little Juniors and a little dowdy.
I can't explain what it is that doesn't sit right with me about Katie Lee Joel, other than the fact that every night she crawls into bed with Billy Joel and lets him lie on top of her.

The Ugly:
Jaslene Gonzalez shall forever be a pox upon Tyra Banks. This woman is so not America's Next Top Model.

[Images via FilmMagic.]

The Good: They call Emmy Rossum mellow yellow? Maybe this could be the new alternate color for bridal: I'm newly inspired. Kim Raver also wears something that would be a prettier wedding dress than anything I've seen in this week's bridal shows. Sometimes I wonder if Georgina Chapman is the only fashion designer who actually knows how to dress herself. I'm all about the Morticia Addams look on Hana Soukupova. Hell has frozen over: I like what Tinsley Mortimer is wearing. Yay for pretty Virginia Madsen and her pretty dress.

The Bad: Eva Amurri, why must you hide what God gave you? Jennifer Missoni shows how young women Miley Cyrus' age should dress. (Of course, Missoni's 23, not 15.) Joy Bryant channels Miss Scarlett and wears the drapes. Kate Lee Joel dresses like Miss Haversham would've before she entered her later years. I like that she tried out something different, but something about Leighton Meester's look just isn't working. Also, does anyone else think Meester looks totally different in her real life (or, er, at least on the red carpet) than she does on Gossip Girl? Marghertia Missoni's whole look is 10% overdesigned.

The Ugly: Most of the time, I hang my head in shame for loving Mary-Kate Olsen's look. Today is not one of those days. It's Medusa! Oh sorry: It's just Rachel Zoe.

[Images via Getty.]

Variety

"Lipstick Jungle" is the superior product of this winter's "career-woman pals try having it all" dramedies, but that's not an especially esteemed sorority. Like ABC's "Mafia," it's all fairly surface-oriented stuff — grappling with ruthless bosses (who, in Sands' case, always seem to know the gossip first), fending off ambitious underlings and solving other problems particular to the filthy rich, like getting kids into a prestigious private school or having the former nanny pen a tell-all book.

"Lipstick Jungle" is plodding and heavy-handed. "Cashmere Mafia" isn't much better, but it at least has a slightly lighter touch...This pilot opens with a montage of fancy footwear: four-inch pumps, leopard-print wedge boots, silver slippers. Those who love by the shoe, die by the shoe. "Lipstick Jungle" is a wooden clog of a melodrama squeezed into a flimsy, satin and marabou mule.

"Lipstick Jungle" is to "Sex and the City" what New Coke was to Coca-Cola — a brand extension best forgotten. Whereas "Sex and the City" minted a genuine, shiny, new modern heroine — the sexually active, sexually explicit but still romantic good girl — "Lipstick Jungle" is content to play dress-up with a bunch of frayed-at-the-edges paper dolls. Here's Wendy Healy (Brooke Shields), the nicest movie executive you'll ever meet (she doesn't even swear), dutifully struggling to fill her roles as deal maker, mommy, wife and BFF. Needless to say, she's on the phone a lot.

Not for a second will you believe Shields as a movie mogul, not when she fights to cast a "Galileo" film or when she tangles with a director who added a gay twist to her summer romantic comedy. Shields fares better when the stories veer to her guilt about being the family breadwinner.

It's nearly a certainty that someone will call "Lipstick Jungle," NBC's new drama series about sensual and successful women, a "guilty pleasure," but it's really more of a guilty horror. You feel you're not watching a show so much as flipping through a catalogue of gaudy and pricey luxuries — glittery junk that nobody needs — and being expected to drool on cue.

Just imagine the anti-Hillary forces condemning these two network shows about type-A female personalities, as if they had anything to do with serious achievers. The assertive-to-the point-of-aggressive woman is getting special scrutiny this year. Whether they're sparring over a lover, a promotion or a condo, women can be sharks. At least that's the vision of successful cosmopolitan women offered by a certain strain of TV series suddenly in abundance. Don't bother to call it post-feminist or third-wave feminist, just call it tacky soap opera.

Lipstick Jungle Review [Variety]
Shoe-Savvy Friends Against the City [New York Times]
Lipstick Jungle Review [Los Angeles Times]
Glossy 'Lipstick Jungle' Smacks Of 'Sex' [Boston Herald]
'Lipstick Jungle': NBC's Thick Application of Gloss [Washington Post]
'Lipstick' Is Just Another Shade Of Tacky [Seattle Post Intelligencer]

Earlier: Could Lipstick Jungle Be A Show You Actually Watch?
Critics Say Cashmere Mafia Has Polyester Quality

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