Bam! Pow! Society Superheroes Conquer The Big Swollen Ball
MORE
The Transom
To the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Costume Institute Gala on Monday, May 5, themed “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy,” Gossip Girl star Blake Lively wore black gloves and a snug black Ralph Lauren gown involving feathers. She said that her favorite superhero was “Spider-Man. Cause he’s awesome! He gets to swing around, and, I don’t know....” Accompanied by her onscreen (and rumored offscreen) boyfriend, actor Penn Badgley, Ms. Lively had come straight from a photo shoot and had done her hair in the car. “I have no idea what I look like,” she said, adding: “I’ve always seen pictures growing up, being a teenager, and thought, ‘I’d love to go to that, a night just to dress up in ball gowns.’ And here I am!”
Here everyone was, at least in fashion and showbiz and society circles. Oh, to have the superpower of invisibility and be able to flit up the stairs and into the great halls beyond!
Vogue editor and hostess Anna Wintour was the first to arrive, at 6:33 p.m., wearing a Chanel gown adorned with what appeared to be seahorse tails and accompanied by daughter Bee Shaffer, who required two men, including the formidable Vogue editor at large André Leon Talley, to carry the train of her voluminous blue Nina Ricci dress up the stairs.
The commotion on the red carpet reached a high pitch—desperate shrieks! Blinding flashes!—when the evening’s two celebrity hosts, actors George Clooney and Julia Roberts, arrived with its underwriter and honorary chair, designer Giorgio Armani. Mr. Clooney’s girlfriend, former cocktail waitress Sarah Larson, smiled gamely while he bounced between television crews lining both sides of the carpet. Ms. Roberts, meanwhile, clung tightly to Mr. Armani and gazed around with a tight smile.
Fashion heiress Margherita Missoni arrived with actress Mischa Barton. (The red carpet reunited several Robins and Batgirls of teen dramas past, including Ms. Barton and Rachel Bilson [The O.C.] and Joshua Jackson and Katie Holmes [Dawson’s Creek].) Ms. Missoni wore an “old Bulgari necklace from the ’80s,” she said in a breathy voice. “I actually was going to wear another dress, and when they brought this necklace in I changed my whole outfit.”
Supermodel Gisele Bündchen momentarily stopped traffic in a fabric-challenged nude Versace gown with visible side-boob. Jesus!
Spice Girl and perfume entrepreneur Victoria Beckham, meanwhile, wore an uncharacteristically modest vintage Armani white coat; she introduced herself and her soccer-playing husband David to mogul Harvey Weinstein before the duo posed with singer couple Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez, who ran her hand suggestively down her husband’s buttocks.
More celebs! Beyoncé Knowles, Christina Ricci, Fergie, Kimora Lee Simmons and Djimon Hounsou, Eva Longoria, Sarah Silverman, Matt Dillon, Marc Jacobs, and Diane Kruger arrived. Also Scarlett Johansson, wearing a big rock, flanked by designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. The Olsen twins wore Diane Von Furstenberg and messy hair and ran up the stairs as if trying not to be noticed (whatever). Sex and the City hunk Jason Lewis said he was going deaf. Model Christy Turlington said she’d lost her voice.
Designer Phillip Lim came with teenage model-of-the-moment Chanel Iman, who was wearing a mustard-colored dress that matched her escort’s bow tie. “I’ve been here last year, and this is her first time here, so she’s the newbie,” he said, motioning to Ms. Iman. “And I’m like, you know, ‘Brace yourself.’” He looked around him. “Insane. On the inside it gets better, but this is pretty … it’s a lot of pressure.” His favorite superhero? Wonder Woman “Her empathy, her sympathy, her power, her invisible jet …”
Tennis player Venus Williams, wearing Carolina Herrera, agreed. “Because she’s Amazonian, she’s tall …” Ms. Williams said, sticking close to Mr. Leon Talley.
“We were talking about the superheroes theme, and how good it is for the Met,” said Jimmy Choo founder Tamara Mellon, in plunging Halston dress, with boyfriend Christian Slater. “It’s going to speak to a wider audience. A lot of kids will want to come see it,” she said.
Media magnate Rupert Murdoch escorted wife Wendi up the red carpet. Had Mr. Murdoch done anything superheroic today? “Nothing really, nothing very heroic today. Just went to work,” he said with a smile. Hey, that’s enough!
Inside, guests walked by “giant statues of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman,” reported one attendee, as they lined up to greet Ms. Wintour and the other hosts. “The line took forever,” said this guest. “[Ron] Perelman was walking up and down the line. These billionaires are not used to waiting in lines.” The only one exempt was Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who “went straight to George and Anna.”
The mayor was observed deep in conversation with quarterback Eli Manning before dinner started. Then he ascended the stage—a re-creation of planet Krypton—to introduce Mr. Manning as “our city’s greatest hero.”
A rumor had been circulating that Amy Winehouse was scheduled to perform but couldn’t get into the country. Another rumor, also false, was that Beyoncé was going to leap onstage. Instead, Mr. Manning rather anticlimactically introduced the cast of the musical Hair.
After the caviar pasta and steak salad were served, Mr. Clooney was observed waiting by the restrooms for Ms. Larson. “He was chatting up everyone who walked by,” said the guest. “He was being Mr. Garrulous Chatty. When J. Lo and Marc Anthony walked by, she said hi, and [Mr. Clooney] said, ‘Wait, no more pictures of the babies?’ And she said, ‘Wait, let me show you some.’ And she motioned jokingly toward her purse. Then he said, ‘Kids are all over the place. Babies, you can’t escape ’em.’”
But it was Ms. Bündchen and her boyfriend, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who stole the sartorial show. “They were like the picture of human beauty,” said our informant, surmising that they caused “multiple older women to shove their hands into their handbags in search of another diet pill. They stayed seated and people were gawking at them. They were kind of all over each other, even during dinner.”
As the evening drew to a close, seemingly the entire crowd stood riveted as the golden couple nuzzled, waiting for their limousine.
Copyright © 2008 The New York Observer. All rights reserved.
