Sorry J-Law, you stick out like a sore thumb
HOLLYWOOD goddesses are special, otherworldy creatures, not like you and me. Hopefully they don’t even feel the cold because otherwise Jennifer Lawrence must have been frozen solid, posing in the frigid London temperatures in a plunging Versace gown that was slashed to the thigh and wearing open sandals.
As the star known as J-Law smiled through her pain, below, her male costars, the friendly bottom-patter Jeremy Irons and Australian heart-throb Joel Edgerton, were as warm as toast. Their layers of winter woollies, heavy overcoats and sturdy boots gave them the look of eastern European labourers from the nearby building site.
Poor Jennifer. Instead of the highvoltage glamour she was aiming for, she looked as if she had just returned from an all-night bender and was too polite to refuse a selfie with the hired help.
Given the molten atmosphere surrounding gender equality and sexual harassment created by Me Too it was only to be expected that the photographs were instantly seized upon as yet another example of Hollywood’s double standards.
Why was the most famous actress on the planet freezing her derrière off for the sake of promoting her new movie, while her male co-stars did the very same job looking like upholstered sacks of potatoes?
BUT J-LAW was not half as eager to shoulder the mantle of victimhood implied in that narrative as she was the misery of shivering half-naked in the cold. She was deeply offended at the suggestion that she was pushed around by any PR agent or coerced into dressing a certain way. The mere idea was sexist and anti-feminist, she thundered.
‘That Versace dress was fabulous,’ she said. ‘You think I’m going to cover that gorgeous dress up with a coat and scarf?
‘Everything you see me wearing is my choice. And if I want to be cold that’s my choice too.’
It’s good to know that J-Law has the power to decide what she wears but it can’t be denied that on this occasion she made a pretty poor choice indeed.
The unfortunate photograph has turned her into a laughing stock. She and her co-stars looked as if they were at two different events and she also ran the risk of catching her death of cold.
Perhaps there is some consolation in knowing that she only has herself to blame.
Free choice is the argument that many Muslim women often give for wearing the burka. Covering up has nothing to do with the Koran or their father or husband’s authority, they insist. It’s their decision entirely.
The thousands of teenage girls who head to teenage nightclubs like Dublin’s Wez or Wrights on freezing nights in mini-dresses and towering heels while the boys are fully clad say the same.
THEY have chosen to accept the social doctrine of the West, that says women look their best in revealing clothes with their assets on display, or that of the strict Muslim world, that says they must be hidden from view. When women agree with those terms there is no need for men or Hollywood agents or Weinsteinstyle creeps to enforce them.
Pointing out how weird J-Law looked in this photograph is not about denying women glamour or fashion, or the chance to embrace their sexuality through both.
It’s just saying that there is a time and a place for it.
Liz Hurley shot to global fame in a Versace gown and created an iconic fashion moment for the Nineties. Her safety-pin dress stole the show from Hugh Grant and his red-carpet co-stars and it came to be seen as a wondrous celebration of the female form.
By making herself look so ridiculous, Jennifer Lawrence has achieved the reverse.