The star-studded Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards

The pre-Oscar event rounds continue with the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards, held today in Los Angeles. The honorees include Zinzi Coogler, creative and life partner of Ryan Coogler, and the women of Sinners, as well as Chase Infiniti, Kerry Washington, and LaTanya Richardson Jackson. The event was star-studded to say the least.

Zendaya showed up, continuing to tease us with her non-bridal bridal fashion.

It’s giving “classy Las Vegas elopement”, and if your response is that the embellishment seems a bit gaudy, I said VEGAS elopement, not Nantucket. She looks like she’s a conwoman marrying a man for his fortune in 1986. Though I have a terrible feeling we’re never going to see Zendaya’s actual wedding dress. Which is good for Zendaya’s privacy, but terrible for us, from a style standpoint. She could revolutionize wedding fashion, as Caroline Bessette Kennedy did back in the day! Alas. We shall subsist on crumbs.

Chase Infiniti, meanwhile, wore a MUCH better dress than the one she wore to the Vanities party.

And Wunmi Mosaku showed up with her husband, talent agent Tash Moseley. They’re expecting their second child. She looks so happy, and has all award season. Loving the vibes for and from Wunmi.

On the Handsome Men™️ front, Regé-Jean Page turned up looking summer ready in a white suit.

RJP has a new movie coming out in April, a rom-com called You, Me & Tuscany. When I tell that you I was shocked this is going to real, actual movie theaters and is not a made-for-Netflix monstrosity!

 

Look, RJP had a tough launch given that Bridgerton broke out during the pandemic, and he did what he could to capitalize on that momentum, but then projects like The Gray Man and Dungeons & Dragons didn’t pan out—unfair on D&D’s part, it’s legit good and RJP is GREAT in it—and now he’s not entirely back to square one, like RJP has a fame level now he did not have before Bridgerton, but at the same time…

No. Just no. RJP cannot linger in rom-com hell—neither can Halle Bailey for that matter—so we need to form a circle and light some candles and hire some Etsy witches or whatever and get RJP back on track. Glen Powell! Either make that Butch & Sundance series with RJP or let him go!

What else happened today…

Barry Keoghan Hates His Beatles Hair: Discuss. (Go Fug Yourself)

Katherine Heigl surfaced at a benefit for animal rescue held at Mar-A-Lago. She has released a statement about attending a benefit event at Mar-A-Lago that I do think helps her. I truly do not want to punish the animals but we’re at the make-or-break moment, you’re either drawing a hard line in the sand or you’re not. There’s not really any wiggle room, which the organizers of the event—who regularly host events at Mar-A-Lago, funneling millions of dollars into Trump coffers—know, which is why they specifically held an ANIMAL RESCUE event there. Because animals and kids are supposed to be beyond politics, but, well…not in the world we’re currently living in. (Celebitchy) 

Kayleigh Donaldson writes in defense of Jessie Buckley, who is not an Oscar season villain (that is very clearly Timothee Chalamet, lol). I don’t think Buckley is a villain, I just kinda think she’s slightly less cool now, because she couldn’t make friends with a cat. I kinda think anyone who doesn’t make friends with cats is a little less cool, because I am a cat person. I judge people who aren’t. It’s my prerogative, along with my cat’s, to judge everyone who crosses our paths. (Pajiba)

Three days until the Oscars! My official predictions are up on The Squawk. This year, more than any in recent memory, I just went with my heart because f-ck if I know. I think a bunch of categories are super close and it’s going to be an exciting night! (The Squawk)