Prepare Your Resumes, Because Gucci Is Hiring Again

Also: the Critics Choice Awards, the Met dress code, and Audrey's villa

The Critics Choice Awards, postponed from its original date due to the L.A. wildfires, landed at 7 p.m. ET/PT on this past Friday night — not the sexiest time slot for an awards show that’s already not tremendously high profile, but it provided me a great excuse to curl up on my couch with snacks and thick socks, and hide from the world under the guise of having to work.

Chelsea Handler hosted, beginning the show with a very sincere tribute to the first responders — some of whom were, again, in the audience; I wonder if they all had to do Rock Paper Scissors to decide who got which show — that was so uncharacteristically earnest that she stumbled over it a little. The rest of her shtick was, well, exactly that: the same old Chelsea Is Horny and Drunk act that she has done forever. She chugged a glass of milk a la Babygirl, while Ralph Fiennes urged her on; she cracked that David Alan Grier gives great pap smears, and I don’t think anyone, including him, quite knew what to do with that; she referenced her former relationship with the E! honcho Ted Herbert by saying it was “back when it was cool to sleep with your boss”; and hit Ralph again with a comment about how he makes her want to have sex with all his characters. It’s too stale; as time marches on, the whole approach comes off more and more dated and regressive, and I was retroactively grateful for the female hosts of years past (and Nikki Glaser, from this one) who decided they didn’t need that crutch. I don’t think Chelsea needs it, either.

Here’s a rundown from my notes of what you missed:

• Chelsea did get off some good lines. In covering the age gap between nominees June Squibb and Ariana Grande, she said that “to get nominated, you had to survive either Nickelodeon or World War II. I saw that documentary; Nickelodeon looked harder.” She also said, of the nominees, “Some of you will win, some of you will lose, and some of you will sit in the background questioning your life choices like Cheryl Hines at a senate confirmation hearing.” That would be a much better line if I had ANY faith that Cheryl Hines actually has questioned her life choices.

• Chelsea also made a joke about Ariana Grande’s big year including “finding love with a munchkin,” and when it didn’t land in the room, the director pointedly did NOT cut to a shot of either Ariana or Ethan Slater in that moment. Were they mad, or did someone just mess up? I don’t know, but almost as if to rebound by making a point of getting them in the same frame, the show planted Chelsea between them to introduce one of the next presenters, and I swear Ariana scooted her chair away from Ethan under the guise of wanting a better view up at Chelsea. Kids, we all know you’re a couple at this point. However it started and however it’s going, you can’t pretend it isn’t happening. Like, what if Ari had won? Would they just have high-fived, or chest-bumped? Come on. Own your choices. If freaking Cheryl can…

  

• Conclave won for the best ensemble, which is legit — you cannot argue that Ralph, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini, and Brian F. O’Byrne are a bunch of rubes who don’t know left from right. But my pick for that category was Sing Sing, and Kevin’s was that or Anora, both of which are Conclave’s polar opposite: a cast full of people you’ve never seen before, doing incredible work. To me, that demonstrates the true value of a casting director and the magic of ensemble chemistry, arguably better than The Oppenheimer Effect of, “Oh, hey, that person’s in this too? And THAT person? Wow.”

• Is Demi Moore Going To Win an Oscar, Part II: Well, she won this one; if she snags the SAG, it’s looking pretty damned likely.

• Kathy Bates won for Matlock, which I really appreciated as an acknowledgement that good work doesn’t have to be about the perceived prestige of being on cable or a streamer. Next year, let’s get Elsbeth in the mix.

• This show had great nominees in the TV categories, including some love for network and cable shows. Matlock, Found, Ghosts, Abbott Elementary, St. Denis Medical, What We Do In The Shadows, and Young Sheldon joined streamer shows Agatha All Along, The Bear, Hacks, Somebody, Somewhere, Palm Royale, Shrinking, Nobody Wants This, Only Murders, Slow Horses, Pachinko, The Old Man, The Diplomat, Interview With a Vampire, and of course Shogun and The Bear — and even some love for my beloved Evil. It was just so much more INTERESTING than, say, a hundred nominees from Succession, even if they all did earn it.

• Having said that, the Critics Choice Awards once again — I think they have done this before — made the UTTERLY PERPLEXING choice of having the best Supporting Actor/Actress nominees for television accept their awards at the same time. Michael Urie and Hannah Einbinder, your comedy winners, got up there and chirped divergent speeches into the mic at the same time, which was a funny way to handle it — they each got a second to themselves eventually — but it was such a strange decision to compress those categories like that, and for what? So the show could still run ten minutes long? Why not take out Best Talk Show and Best Comedy Special, and maybe Best Song, let the actors have their moments, show CLIPS FOR ALL THE NOMINEES, and trim your monologue to make room?

• While we’re here, it’s egregious that Best Younger Performer wasn’t handed out on camera. That category’s nominees, newer to the business, could actually use the exposure more than almost anyone else. Maisy Stella won for My Old Ass, and all she got to do was wave from her seat. Congratulations to her, Alyla Browne of Furiosa, Elliot Heffernan of Blitz, Alisha Weir of Abigail, and Zoe Ziegler of Janet Planet. If I ran the show, your clips and faces would have been all over it.

• My notes read, at one point, “Angelina looks SO zoned out, always.” That about covers it.

• Zoe Saldaña (Best Supporting) and Jacques Audiard (Best Foreign Language Film) both won, and made absolutely no mention of the words “Karla Sofía Gascón.” Zoe did say, “I hope we can all be curious and open hearted toward each other… our world is too big and too beautiful to be any other way.” Which I personally prefer to interpret as, “Pack your racist, ableist bullshit and go home,” even if that’s not actually what she meant.

• A lot of the nominees weren’t present, but a couple of winners were shocked. Moeka Hoshi of Shogun was trembling and sobbing. “Hi, I’m Moeka Hoshi, I came from Japan. Nice to meet you,” she wept at the mic. Naturally, when Adrien Brody came up for The Brutalist, he tried to riff on that for his own self, but it was a miss for me. Don’t make her moment about you, dude.

• Cristin Milioti also had a great reaction to winning for The Penguin — namely, she said, or mouthed, “HOLY SHIT,” really clearly, and seemed completely flustered and flummoxed. Relatable.

• Speaking of The Brutalist, so lauded out of the gate by the Golden Globes, I wonder if the shine is off: Brody was its only winner on this night, and Anora took home Best Picture — right before Sean Baker won Best Director from his guild, and the producing team got the honors from theirs. Best Director here went to Jon M. Chu, who wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar (correctly, in my opinion, although he seems personally lovely), so that race is still open, but Anora suddenly seems to have a burst of heat.

• At last, Challengers wins one for its score! That music was sincerely its own character in the movie. Tennis is really missing out on a chance to play it during all its majors. Imagine that Sabalenka-Keys Aussie Open final if every point had that soundtrack underneath it. Somebody please drop that on YouTube.

— Heather

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Maybe They’ll Hire Mugatu

The major label creative director merry-go-round keeps turning. This time, Gucci’s Sabato De Sarno is out after only two years – before I even totally absorbed his name, to be honest. Per GQ:

Gucci sales tumbled 25% in the third quarter of 2024, adding to a 21% downturn in the first nine months of the year. In the face of an industry-wide luxury spending slowdown, De Sarno’s polished daywear simply didn’t break through, and parent company Kering could no longer afford to be patient as the group’s biggest house dragged down the company’s numbers.”

Big yikes. The New York Times goes on to note:

“10 new designers will make their debuts at familiar fashion houses this year, including Calvin Klein, Chanel, Tom Ford, Givenchy and Bottega Veneta, another Kering brand. Fendi has yet to name a new creative director, while speculation continues to roil the fashion world (which loves nothing more than a bit of gossip on the front row) that Dior is about to change its creative team.

The Gucci announcement will further fuel the guessing games, which have already focused on Hedi Slimane, the former designer of Celine.”

SNOOZE. I’m sure there’s a ton of reasons why people aren’t dropping quite as much cash on luxury goods at the moment – general political upheaval presumably being the primary one. It makes sense that folks might not want to really ball out if they’re worried their portfolio might be about to take a big dip. But it also seems to me, a person who is never going to drop a ton of cash on new luxury goods due to not having the kind of discretionary income that would make that sensible, that maybe the rich people who do — or even the not-so-rich people who are simply spendy! – are also likely BORED of the same old people just rotating through the same old labels. It’s always the same five designers up for the same five jobs and they’re all just playing musical chairs. I cannot imagine anyone finds this exciting or inspiring. Slimane for Gucci feels like someone at Kering just spun a wheel and went with whatever white guy it landed on. (Especially since Slimane and Kering were recently at legal odds!) Can we please get some new blood somewhere for once¹?

My recommendation:

— Jessica

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Have An Extra $33 Million Burning a Hole in Your Pocket?

PSA: Audrey Hepburn’s former Swiss villa is on the market. Any buyer will have to meet Swiss residency requirements, but it will probably be worth it, because the property is so pretty. (Also, living in Switzerland might be nice?) It’s got five entrances! (I never thought about how many entrances anywhere I lived might have.) There’s an elevator! An indoor pool! A large garden! A huge finished attic! Once again no photos of bathrooms but I feel confident that anywhere Audrey Hepburn lived has a nice bathtub or two — or at the very least has bathrooms that are not, like, medieval holes in a plank of wood or something. Plus, you’d get the the delightful ability to say things like, “would you like to visit us in Switzerland sometime this summer? We’re kicking around Audrey Hepburn’s old place now.” Also, I assume good fondue in the neighborhood! I’m sold.

— Jessica

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Stylists Everywhere Breathe a Sigh of Relief

The folks at the Met Gala have revealed the dress code for this year’s party. As a reminder, the theme is “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” but the theme and the dress code are not always the same, the better to confuse the attendees. Per Vogue, the gala’s dress code is “Tailored For You.” To wit:

“Tailored for You can be interpreted in a myriad of ways, but it mostly means embracing looks reflective of one’s personal style. We can surely expect inspired takes on suiting—from versions of the zoot silhouette popularized by jazz musicians in the 1940s to the bold, colorful styles worn by Congolese sapeurs—though other menswear staples, such as hats, ties, canes, brooches, and pocket squares, are likely to have a strong showing too.”

Honestly, this is a very vague theme that is very generous in terms of allowing celebrities to show up wearing something appropriate that won’t get them cancelled or yelled at online for not adhering to it. Generally, specificity reigns in creative endeavors but throwing a wide net here is going to be for the best for everyone’s blood pressure, I suspect. Congratulations to Louis Vuitton for finally being able to send any old thing from the runway show and have it work, on the technically that it has, indeed, been tailored.

Vogue also expanded on guests we can expect to attend by releasing the names of the folks on the “host committee,” which is different from the event co-chairs. Said committee includes André 3000, Simone Biles and her husband Jonathan Owens, Doechii, Ayo Edebiri, Regina King, Spike Lee, Audra McDonald (AUDRA!!!), Janelle Monáe, current Vogue cover model Angel Reese, Sha’Carri Richardson, Tyla, and Usher. (Plus other artistic and creative luminaries like artist Kara Walker, designer Dapper Dan, and writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.) I assume the term “committee” is an honorary one², and none of these people have to attend any meetings — although if they did, I would like said meetings to be live-streamed. Can you imagine Simone Biles and Spike Lee getting snippy with each other over, say, the color of the cocktail napkins, or Janelle Monáe storming out in a huff after Anna Wintour refuses to consider her suggestions for the passed apps? I’d like to see this. But instead I will simply accept getting to eyeball and enjoy whatever they choose to wear.

– Jessica

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ICYMI…

We Found an Italian Villa

Jessica Is Enraged By a Cookbook

The Bests, Worsts, Mosts, and Leasts of the 2025 Grammy Awards

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Last Call

— This was fun! Town & Country talked to the person behind Art But Make It Sports about how he gets ready for a big event like the Super Bowl. — J

— Surprise! Apparently Part Two of Kevin Costner’s Horizon epic is actually great. I’m not really that surprised by this; Costner is not a bad director and, if nothing else, I do respect an artist who indulges their own weird visions. It does sound more and more like this should have been a limited series, though. What if, at the end of it all, I turn out to be a Costner mega-fan?!!?— J

—Sometimes People really gets it, such as this headline and piece: Just 12 Photos of Jalen hurts Showing Off That Megawatt Smile. — H

— And, finally: Another Severance bundle coming tomorrow! I wish I had just recapped it, at this point. There’s a lot to dissect. Just… luckily not whatever that dead animal was, IRVING. — H

1. Case in point: Love his shows or not, hiring Pharrell Williams seems to have been an interesting and successful risk for Louis Vuitton. — H

2. Also, do they pick the co-chairs from this group? Or do they specifically NOT do that, so as not to offend the ones who aren’t chosen? What are the politics here? — H