Open Post: Hosted By The Queen Of Versailles

One of my favorite movies from last year was The Queen of Versailles, a documentary about how the financial crisis almost killed the making of the biggest, tackiest and gaudiest private mansion in America. The documentary follows David Siegel, the CEO of the timeshare company Westgate Resorts, and his extremely elegant, gold digging trophy wife Jackie Siegel as they try to build their Florida (of course) dream home, a 90,000 square foot palace modeled after the Palace of Versailles in France. When the recession hit, they had to stop construction of it (they have since started up again) and Jackie had to go on a budget. That gold-leafed mess was nominated for Best Documentary (it lost) at the Critics’ Choice Awards, so Jackie Siegel showed up to last night’s show with the movie’s director Lauren Greenfield.

As soon as the all-natural Queen of Versailles sashayed into the room, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried and Jennifer Lawrence were already sitting, but they stood up and sat back down again, because the true queen of the night was there. Who else could make a diamond tiara look like something from Party City made out of foil and glue? Who else could make a $10,000 couture grown look like something found on the floor of a dressing room in a stripper store on 6th Street? Who else in that room had chichis like two raw egg yolks? I hope everybody in the room brought a tablet to take notes, because they need to learn from Jackie Siegel. This is how you do award show glamour.

Here’s more pictures from last night’s show, but why bother? The only pictures you should on are the ones with THE QUEEN (no, I’m not talking about B. Coop) in them! In order: THE QUEEN, Ben Affleck, Emily Blunt with John Krasinski, Jessica Chastain, Bradley Cooper, Marion Cotillard, Elle Fanning, Jennifer Lawrence, Eva Longoria, the Texas T-Rex, Amanda Seyfried, Octavia Spencer and Quvenzhané Wallis.