Reaching for the red carpet

For 364 days of the year, I have no idea why anyone admires movie stars. To me, they just seem like a bunch of spoiled children who are more attractive than the rest of us (or can just afford better plastic surgery, not to mention world-famous stylists and makeup artists) and flit around causing trouble for themselves and others, which bored people then read about in tabloid magazines. Oh, and sometimes they act in movies. And in even rarer instances, they do a decent job.

But then there are the Oscars, and on that one day, I start to see why anyone cares about Catherine Zeta-Jones. Because she, along with all the other movie stars, exudes a sense of glamour and of beauty so far removed from my daily routine that I finally understand why people aspire to be them ... or at least be more like them.

The red carpet at the Academy Awards is the best kind of escape from reality. It allows us to imagine ourselves in a world where Zac Posen and Valentino throw clothes at us to wear, a world where we would have an occasion to wear such outfits and look gorgeous in them. It is, in every sense, a return to glamour and sophistication, two concepts that I often find hard to define today in cramped dorm rooms and shared bathrooms.

Sure, the moment an actress turns her back after talking to a TV show host on the red carpet, he will flash his white teeth at the audience with a smirk and tear apart her outfit down to the bobby pins in her hair. But before she sees the show, or reads about herself in the "What Was She Thinking?" section of magazines, that actress believes herself to be absolutely beautiful, the envy of every woman and every little girl in America. And for those 30 seconds, she is.

Though the writers' strike put a damper on the fun of the Golden Globes (unsurprisingly, watching the hosts of an entertainment show announce the winners isn't quite the same), the Screen Actors Guild Awards and other awards shows have still rolled out the red carpet and attracted the stars and the paparazzi. So far this year, the actresses that have really personified glamour for me have been Penelope Cruz, who has floated around numerous award ceremonies and premieres in her L'Wren Scott and Oscar de la Renta ensembles, and Ellen Pompeo, who showed up at the SAG awards looking like a modern goddess in a stunning silver Nina Ricci. I know that it will be easy enough for me and everyone else I know to emulate their style, or at least pick up on the major trends on the red carpet, as all of the department store-brand designers will be pulling their inspiration from what the movie stars wore to award ceremonies.