new york fugging city

Fug Girls: Blake Lively Pays Homage to Anna Wintour

The hot rumor swirling around the tents this morning was that Bette Midler would attend the Michael Kors show, which had us tempted to test our chutzpa. See, we’re fairly sure most people go up to her to talk about Beaches, whereas we’d have freshened things up for her by complimenting her stellar work in Rochelle, Rochelle. But as we trolled the runway, we saw neither hide nor hair of her, nor even her Kramer-crafted macaroni counterpart. Frankly, it hurt. We don’t like being disappointed before we’ve even had any caffeine.

Still, an epic crush of photographers pulsed up and down the runway — even the Sheriff of Bobbingham aborted her attempt to get to her front-row seat, backing up into a cheaper one until her bodyguard could part the sea of people. It took about ten minutes. Clearly, all this hubbub wasn’t just for the exercise. Someone big had to be coming.

And it was … Blake Lively. Apparently she IS officially that big a deal here, even though she’s around town filming all the time. In person she looks exactly as you’d expect: great hair, great-looking, regular height, no surprises. As she came out from backstage, her handlers stopped the swarm right in front of Anna’s chair, where they waited a beat until she looked up and spied Blake smiling. Anna’s face lit up as if Roger Federer had won three more U.S. Open titles just for being alive, and they air-kissed before Blake was dragged to her seat. Smart Heidi Klum didn’t emerge until everyone was diverted by tailing Blake, although a PR girl did run around us and shout, “Heidi needs help getting to her place!”

Starlet Joy Bryant took in the show with an unusually cheerful-looking Rachel Zoe. Bryant arrived before the fray turned really messy, wearing a gold tweed dress and almost no makeup. She told one girl that her basic routine is to “shower, brush my hair, curl my lashes, put on some blush, and head out the door.” But not everyone got such a pleasant sound bite. We heard one reporter huff, “Joy Bryant just BLEW ME OFF.” Her cameraman snorted, “Whatever. Who is she, anyway?” Through gritted teeth, the reporter responded: “You know those people you don’t really want to talk to, but you have to? Yeah.” Ouch.

We were still lamenting the lack of Midler when the lights went down, but suddenly, when they came on again, there she was — front row, wearing her specs, and seated with her daughter just a few berths down from Michael Kors’s mom, Joan. We have no idea where she came from or how she got there so quickly. It was almost as though she had wind beneath her wings. (Sorry.) (Except, no, we’re totally not.)

View backstage and front row photos
from the Michael Kors show.
View a slideshow of the Michael Kors collection.
Watch video of the Michael Kors runway show.
Watch video of the Michael Kors receiving line after the show.

Fug Girls: Blake Lively Pays Homage to Anna Wintour