Strip Service

While new, rumored revelations about the DVD release of Dreamgirls set us back, oh, about a century, stars like David Duchovny and Becki Newton show skin and talk skivvies at Hollywood Life's Style Awards. Plus, our early Oscar predix!

This one’s simple, seemingly obvious and most disturbing. And since original Broadway Dreamgirls star Sheryl Lee Ralph stirred up all things glittery, girlie and green about the movie last week, wanted to weigh in with a little more hardly dreamy dish:

There was, uh, how can we put this, a movement, let’s call it, within the Dreamgirls powers that be, we’re told, to originally peddle the Jennifer Hudson-Beyoncé-Jamie Foxx-Eddie Murphy pic to as wide an audience as possible. That’s the kindest way we can put it.

Therefore, a trip to Lily-White Lane (and to the rear of the bus, perhaps?), I'm told, took place. It was decided that the backs of those heads belonging to the three leads—Beyoncé, Hudson and Anika Noni Rose—would be utilized for the movie poster, in case the film could be deemed “too black” for white audiences, insist Paramount-DreamWorks sources directly involved in the film’s release.

But when time came for the recent Dreamgirls DVD release, not only had Hudson nabbed an Oscar for her larynx-loosening breakout job, Beyoncé had become even more of a celeb, thanks to her flesh-flashing couturier mama. So—voila!—the three gals' faces were considered more suitable this time round. Bam! There they are, out friggin’ front!

But it wasn’t just that Hudson & Co. became more celebrated and gossed about. No, more politically savvy (and just plain horrified) souls working on the DVD campaign felt the three actors’ pusses were a moral and artistic must for the DVD campaign. But it wasn’t an easy one.

“It looks like an ad for Harlem Nights,” the movie camp hissed to the DVD camp once the final, face-touting art was unveiled. 

Oh, please. Is this crap still going on? Who’s deciding these movie campaigns anyway, Paris Hilton?

PR P.S.: DreamWorks did respond officially to the above potentially nasty sitch, which they insisted is "not true," so sniffed a big-time repper. "[The poster] was a shot from the film, we all loved it," she continued. “And we had no consideration of race and you can quote me.”

I think we just did, sugarcakes!

Hmmm. Everybody satisfied here?

David Duchovny and Benicio Del Toro absolutely steal the show from Halle Berry in Things We Lost in the Fire, a DreamWorks film we hear is already being touted for Oscar worthiness. Well, possibly. It’s so good to see bad-butt Benny back in gruffly lovable shape, even though he plays the most wasted scoundrel imaginable—real Lindsay Lohan b-f material here. And D.D. shines as the blown-away daddy (short role), but Halle?

Yes, she’s luminescent and te-riff, but you just get the sense we’ve seen the put-upon beauty-pout someplace before, like Monster’s Ball. Should Halle somehow receive a nod for Best Actress this year, she’ll be eaten alive by Cate Blanchett’s turns in Elizabeth: The Golden Age and I’m Not There, films in which C.B. plays Elizabeth I and Bob Dylan, respectively. She’s sweeter than hot sex on a big brass bed in both movies, seriously.

Oh, and George Clooney, the man all you Awful readers say can’t act worth a red carpet damn with any of his reported ladyloves? He’s gettin’ the Big O for Michael Clayton, mark my backstage flirtations with the dude.

A random assortment of Tinseltown types, from Cindy Crawford to David Duchovny, got awards at Hollywood Life’s Style Awards. At the cocktail party before the show, Emmy Rossum arrived hand in hand with her record-producer boyfriend Justin Siegel, who’s definitely on the dorkier side. Also doin’ the digital dance (with matching hairdos, to boot) were Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz, who promptly made a beeline for the bar. We’d drink, too, if we had Joe Simpson for a ‘rent.

New mama Jaime Pressly, who’s lookin’ ridiculously svelte, postbaby (and swears it’s strictly through diet and exercise), said she had no advice for fellow mom Britney Spears. “No, I’m sorry,” she replied to our Q. “I think the girl’s got enough problems and enough people busting her ass, so I don’t really want to.”  

Such decorum! Brits, go get Jaime-love as your newest BFF pronto! Won’t have to worry ‘bout “friends” and all their paid-for blabbings to the rags that way.

Despite Jaime’s demure dismissal, Brit continued to be a theme o’ the night. Extra’s Tanika Ray dissed Ms. Es in her introduction for Sam Nazarian. Lynne Spears was wincing someplace, we’re sure.

Something Brit’s not exactly fond of, i.e., underwear, was also big, thematically speaking. As she exited the stage, Ugly Betty’s Becki Newton, in a supershort dress, tripped on a light and accidentally flashed her skivvies...too lush. Later, Crawford announced she, too, was wearing panties. Ironically, earlier in the evening, we asked Duchovny what never goes out of style. “Clean underwear,” he offered. Not that he wears much of it in his new show Californication. Despite his salacious scenes, David dished he wasn’t concerned about dropping trou.

“I wasn’t nervous,” he swore. “I spend a lot of time in my life naked. Most mornings, I wake up naked, and it’s all fun.” But when he got onstage to accept his Style Hipster award, presented by the hilarious Orlando Jones, D2 did make his pantsless scenes sound a little more painful.

“It’s nice to show up to work every day knowing you’ll be wearing nothing but a cock-sock,” he deadpanned.

That’s for when Téa’s mischievous man remembers to put it on, mind you.