Here’s what kills me about awards shows – the stars actually get to be responsible for their own appearances. They spend their workdays being manicured and groomed within an inch of their lives – I have seen wardrobe people adjust actresses’ camel toes – but on a big night like this, they indulge their own tastes, and I just picture the costume designers of the shows at home, watching the carpet, and screaming as their carefully constructed image is decimated in seconds.
So given that, I cannot know whether the crazy-assed loop-de-loop multi-ponytail Connie Britton had going on was somehow in service of Nashville, or whether that’s…who Connie is when she’s on her own and getting fancy? The silver dress was exactly on-point for showing off how hot she still is, and the smile and the makeup were good, and then that hair was just so very much of another time and place. But maybe it was inspired by her character Rayna James?
Hayden Panetierre’s tulle and brocade monstrosity might not have been so out of line with her sassy-assed character but of course, as always, her dresses are about 25 years too old for her and, Lainey would have me add, it was Marchesa.
But I still think Nashville came out on top, because the degree of…tolerance…with which Connie treated Hayden on the carpet and later on the show is both quite in-character for the show, and more importantly, my new favourite thing. When Giuliana Rancic breathlessly told Connie that Hayden had been acting since she was 11 months old, and Connie gave the “Oh, I know” that really means “I have heard that particular factoid approximately eight times in the last shooting block, and by the way thanks for being so damned specific about it, because it really matters that you say 11 months instead of a year”, I was gleeful. When they were onstage presenting, it was almost as bad.
Every time Hayden natters, Connie seems to take a breath, reset her jaw, and then begin speaking to the grown-ups again, and it makes me giggle so much, I can’t even tell you. I am so excited for how this manifests itself onscreen that I could even believe it was on purpose – but then I look at the faces on each of them and go…no, this is just a natural reaction to one another. This is conjecture, but you know I’m right. Right?
