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The film awards season was hot stuff this year with some truly excellent films in contention. I think we now all know that our very own SLUMDOG swept the board, our very own KATE WINSLET picked up a few classy awards and our very own STEVE MCQUEEN, director of the gut wrenching HUNGER, really annoyed the IRA!
On the fashion front, the BAFTA Film Awards are the UK's biggest event with the longest red carpet in the world and this year's frox reflected the credit crunch. There was a sea of elegant and in some cases demure and / or austere black dresses, as worn by KATE WINSLET, MERYL STREEP, PENELOPE CRUZ, KYLIE MINOGUE, HAYLEY ATTWELL and GEMMA ARTERTON who were all playing it safe in these straitened times. ANGELINA JOLIE, EMILY WATSON, MARION COTILLARD and THANDIE NEWTON went for black with a touch of colour, AMY ADAMS sported midnight blue and silver was represented by EMILY MORTIMER and MARISA TOMEI.
The only splashes of real colour were provided by FREIDA PINTO who was pretty in pale pink chiffon, as befits a young gel and SHARON STONE in a sleek flame coloured sheath, as befits a femme fatale.
After being well MYSTIC TANNED at the trendy TANNING SHOP in Kensington (020 7938 1932) I myself went for an absolutely stunning silver sequinned and silk chiffon dress by my New Favourite Shop, DOLY (98 New Bond Street, W.1. / 020 7408 0010 / www.dolylondon.com) and here it is:
SALLY in DOLY dress. C.r.: ROWENA CHOWDREY.
The beauty of this amazing dress is that it has, like many of DOLY's gorg hand finished evening dresses, a built in leotard and underwired bra so you don't need to wear anything underneath it and it fits really sleekly to the body.
DOLY is a truly great find and I am happy to say I am now going to be their Ambassador. DOLY FASHION HOUSE was established in 2004 and specialises in couture evening and cocktail wear as well as made to measure evening gowns. So all of their magnificent creations, designed by a whole team of talented and experienced designers, are perfect for parties and red carpet wear.
DOLY's clients include CHERYL COLE, NANCY DELL'OLIO, NATASHA KEMPLINSKY, KATIE PRICE, NATASHA BEDINGFIELD and CARLY ZUCKER.
Highly recommended.
The DOLY dress made me feel the business on the red carpet and won me loads of accolades, including a LIBERTY STYLE ICON AWARD and the Net title 'hottest at the BAFTAS'. Even the fabulous MONACO based designer ISOBEL KRISTENSEN admired it and she is a huge talent in the fashion world herself.
So thanks a lot, DOLY!
The Film Awards was a best ever event this year and tickets were at a premium with BAFTA having to clamp down on THE BUTTON CLUB for allegedly trying to sell black market tickets! The awards ceremony went smoothly with JONATHAN ROSS trying super hard, the dinner was delicious and I was kissed – twice – by Best Actor MICKEY ROURKE, amongst loads of other gorg guys. That's what I call a good evening!
You've seen all of the BAFTA outside pix - now here are some inside ones taken at the GROSVENOR HOUSE dinner and after parties.
SHARON STONE with UK stylist and personal shopper, NATALIE ROBINSON. C.r.: STYLE ICON.
FREIDA PINTO with NATALIE ROBINSON. C.r.: STYLE ICON.
SAL with LISA VOICE and DANIEL CRAIG. C.r.: LEEE JOHN.
SAL, LISA VOICE, KENTEAS BRINE and STEVE MCQUEEN with his BAFTA. C.r.: LEEE
LISA VOICE with DEV PATEL. C.r.: LEEE JOHN.
DEV PATEL with Brit actress VALERIE LEON. C.r.: GABOR SCOTT.
Btw VALERIE LEON, a BOND, CARRY ON, HAMMER HORROR and HAI KARATE girl, is giving a talk about her life and times in the golden age of Brit film and television on Thursday, March 19th at THE MALTINGS ART THEATRE, The Maltings, St. Albans, Herts. The ever glam icon will be illustrating her talk with clips from her films and tickets are just £10 from: 01727 844 222.
See you there for an illuminating evening with one of British film's most fun gals, film fans!
Getting on to beauty, my BEAUTY TREATMENT OF THE MONTH for March is Micropigmentation, or Semi Permanent Make – Up, with the great DAWN CRAGG, the first and best of the beauty 'tattooists'.
I actually tried this amazing treatment myself, having my lips 'tattooed' by DAWN to give a natural outline which defines the lips, improves the shape and makes them look fuller and plumper. The treatment took less than an hour, was pain free and now my lips have a beautiful natural outline and I can get away with just a lick of vaseline on them, rather than spending hours outlining and colouring them. Semi Permanent Make – Up is a brill idea if you are a get up and go sort of person or sporty, for instance. DAWN can outline your eyes and brows as well as your mouth so you will look perfect first thing in the morning and when skiing, swimming, dancing, sweating, etc!
DAWN also specialises in 'tattoing' mens' scalps, so that, when shaven, it looks as if a guy has a full head of hair but has shaved it. Damn crafty! And without the pain, surgery and thousands of pounds' worth of expense associated with actual hair transplants. Totally brill - well done, DAWN – you are a boon to balding gents everywhere.
DAWN's other big speciality at the moment is 'tattooing' ladies' aureole. Apparently when the luscious NAOMI CAMPBELL went topless, all the gals immediately wanted to have super dark nips like her! Well, laydeez, now you can – with DAWN. The talented MS CRAGG says that surprisingly the aureole are NOT painful to tattoo, as they respond well to the anaesthetic cream she uses for all her SPMU so that you don't feel a thing – thank goodness, cos I am a real wimp!
So get booking, peeps, for lips, nips and whatever else you want outlined by DAWN at:
07875 49 81 49 / dawn_cragg@hotmail.co.uk
DAWN has lots of celebs and socialites amongst her clientele and one of her keenest fans is DENISE PIDGLEY, former best friend of HEATHER MILLS MCCARTNEY and here is the lady herself with former CORONATION STREET star, CHRIS QUINTEN.
DENISE PIDGLEY and CHRIS QUINTEN. C.r.: GABOR SCOTT.
My BEST PRODUCTS this month are:
MINERS' Absolutely Flawless Complete Base Foundation, with a velvety smooth formula which evens out your complexion, giving a flawless matte finish. The miraculous thing about this totally innovative foundation is that it actually adapts to your own personal skin tone, leaving you with the perfect colour. So there are only 3 shades to choose from – light, medium and dark – which makes your beauty shopping so much quicker and simpler. My staff and I eagerly tried these easy to apply little tubes and found that they suited all of us, from pale redhead DEBBIE to black skinned TONI. Absolutely brill – congrats, MINERS!
Stockists: www.miners.co.uk
and quality pharmacies.
IS CLINICAL Innovative Skincare's amazing new nourishing prods:
Super Serum Advance and Eye Advance.
My trialler POPPY said "I used the Super Serum on my face and Eye Advance around my eyes for 3 weeks only and have already spotted a difference. My skin feels softer and looks radiant all of a sudden. And the products don't smell horrid like some clinical ones do. Really good. I would definitely buy these products regularly."
www.isclinical.com
For the guys, ULTRA Man's Age Defence 3 in 1 Shaving Cream is a great idea. The cream helps to rejuvenate the male 'fizzogg' and protects against the elements.
My trialler REZA was thrilled with this cream and said " I had grown a very prickly beard and was frightened of shaving it off because I thought it would hurt. But the cream made it easy and pain free and my skin felt really smooth afterwards. You do not use it with water and so it is easy to apply and non – drying to the skin. You just follow the directions on the pack. I am now using it every day twice a day with no nasty shaving rash like before and have gone clean shaven again thanks to this miracle product. I think my skin is looking younger too. Perhaps my lovely new soft skin might bring my wife back to me now."
Awwww – good luck, newly baby faced REZA!
Stockists: 08700 66 41 22 / www.ultra.com
Also for men (well, mainly!) is the SNOREEZE range of products which really do work, trust me. The SNOREEZE range comprises:
Throat Spray, Nasal Spray, Oral Strips and Nasal Strips – so something for everyone there, whichever method you prefer to use to give your partner a decent night's sleep at last!
I tried these excellent products on a certain member of my family who shall remain nameless and they were all easy to use and worked a treat. Wedded bliss is back – at least at night!
Basically the sprays and strips clear your airways, relieving colds and allergies, as well as stopping that dreadful snoring business. Excellent.
Stockists: most good pharmacies and health stores and www.snoreeze.com
BOOK NEWS:
There are some excellent self – help books around at the moment:
Delightful TV doctor, DR HILARY JONES has teamed up with memory expert ROB EASTAWAY to write IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY TODAY (ICON BOOKS, £8.99).
This is a really useful and practical memory tool which covers learning by rote, mnemonics, memory food, systematic retrieval and just about everything you need to train or retrain your memory and get it working better for you. I reckon this book could seriously help kids studying for their exams, actors learning their lines and menopausal women who walk into rooms and can't remember what they are looking for! Whether or not it will help me to make a fortune on the blackjack tables at the RITZ CASINO remains to be seen but I will certainly give it a whirl – watch this space, gamblers everywhere!
During the current recession it may become handy (excuse the pun!) to learn a bit of DIY and save yourself some dosh on carpenters, plumbers, electricians and other experts. (Apologies to all the carpenters, plumbers and electricians out there – nothing personal – needs must and all that........) So I recommend purchasing DIY – KNOW – HOW WITH SHOW – HOW, 2nd edition by JULIAN CASSELL and PETER PARHAM (DORLING KINDERSLEY, £25.00). This beautifully presented book with easy to follow instructions and clear colour photos will teach you how to do everything from bricklaying to floor laying to door fitting, not to mention all of the plumbing and electrical tasks. Basically this book can save you a fortune and now's the time to get going on these home tasks, especially if, God forbid, you have lost your job and have time on your hands. It's a gigantic tome and also makes a great present.
Another DK self – help book which might prove more interesting to the laydeez, is SEXTASY by sex expert TRACEY COX (DORLING KINDERSLEY, £14.99). SEXTASY is also beautifully presented, with tasteful pix, nice looking models and some hot pink pages so would also make a nice pressie if you know the recipient well enough! My reader for SEXTASY is a working girl and she said " I thought I knew it all but this book gives food for thought and new ideas, as well as covering all the bases regarding oral, anal, G spots, impotence and stuff. I mean who would have thought that lesbians get more sexual satisfaction than straights?" Who indeed? The mind boggles!
But it will boggle even more now we have arrived at the works of fiction for this month.
My new fave celeb author, the divine ROBIN ANDERSON has done it again with his latest page turning bonkbuster thriller, SEBASTIAN AND SELINE (ATHENA PRESS, £11.99) about an over sexed and murderous pair of identical twins who dress up as each other and cause murder and mayhem wherever they go. The action (correct word here!) takes us from South Africa to Rome, London and South America and back again while the twins get up to all sorts of sexy shenanigans and get up all sorts of sexy partners! As a bonkbuster the tale is deliciously shocking and as a thriller it's completely satisfying after the amoral pair take us through more twists and turns than The Grand Corniche!
ROBIN's publishers ATHENA PRESS launched the outrageous SEBASTIAN AND SELINE at LA GALLERIA on Pall Mall and celeb guests included fellow writers RICHARD COMPTON MILLER and LADY HENRIETTA ROUS and LADETTE TO LADY etiquette expert LIZ BREWER (etiquette? SEBASTIAN AND SELINE? Never – they reckon the rules are there to be broken!)
I chatted to one of ROBIN's delightful ATHENA PRESS publishers, MARK SYKES whom I have known since I was 17 and asked him if the author's extraordinary books were the fruit of an exceptionally vivid imagination or of autobiographical experience. MARK reckoned about 60 – 40 %, making the handsome ROBIN a prime candidate for a tell - all autobiog one of these days! In the meantime he's having too much fun writing his amazing bonkbusters and I reckon that SEBASTIAN AND SELINE, like ROBIN's previous bonkbuster thriller RED SNAPPER would make quite a film.
Here is the lovely ROBIN with me at a recent talk I gave at BROMPTON LIBRARY. My colourful and easy to wear wrap - around dress is by SPLERIN (www.splerin.com) and ROBIN is sporting ARMANI of course!
SAL with ROBIN ANDERSON. C.r.: EVVA..
On a gentler note, the great and prolific JULIAN FANE's latest book, THE POOR RICH (BOOK GUILD PUBLISHING, £16.99) is the funny but sad story of a family of fairly hard up characters who inherit fabulous wealth and don't know how to deal with it. The 'Yockenthwaites' are basically farmers and the huge fortune the heirs inherit does their rural brains in! Strangely enough the women in the family are all much more interested in the money than their husbands - hmmn! THE POOR RICH is actually a black comedy with a bit of social commentary thrown in. It's certainly thought provoking and, as with all JULIAN FANE's books, beautifully written.
And now for something completely different..................ONLINE FISHING TV has just launched on the Net and it's great. I only watched it because my hubby is a keen angler and now I am completely hooked, excuse the pun! The channel offers all the usual types of fishing - trout, salmon, carp, fly, river, sea, etc - and the presenter takes you through the techniques step by step – or should I say splash by splash?
What I, as the mum of a goldfish owner, liked was the fact that he takes the fish off the hooks and gently puts them back in the river!
Keen anglers can learn more about technique and new would - be fishermen and women can see it all demonstrated before unleashing their rods on an unsuspecting river. There are all sorts of fishing programmes on the channel and you can sit and watch them online at your leisure, without having to fight over the TV.
The monthly subscription is very cheap and makes a good present for the men in your life. I always think my hubby is pretty safe when he's 'gone fishing' as I haven't seen many gals out there in waders – however I hear more and more ladies are taking to fishing so perhaps we should keep up, fellow fishing widows!
Check it out: www.onlinefishing.tv
Celebs who fancy fishing allegedly include ROGER DALTRY, CHRIS TARRANT, BOBBY DAVRO and KENNY LYNCH and here are the latter delightful pair with me at a recent charity do in aid of THE CELBRITIES GUILD OF G.B. which we all support. My stunning pink coatdress, btw, is by LOVE AND LILLY.
SAL with BOBBY DAVRO and KENNY LYNCH. C.r.: EDWARD LLOYD / OK! MAGAZINE.
Thank you for reading my page. Please contact me at:
Sally@hotgossip.co.uk
And check out my personal website - which now includes videos = yay! – at:
www.sallyfarmiloe.com
SENSUAL PLEASURES AND THE ART OF MORPHING INTO A HEALTH GODDESS (£16.99) is available from the following outlets:
Delancey Press - orders@centralbooks.com or 0845 4589911
ISBN: 0780953911998
LOO TIME VIDEO available from:
farminghamprods@aol.com and:
http://www.121music.com/pages/video_01/home.html
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