Only one lady could take home the Screen Actors Guild award for best actress, but all five contenders dressed to impress on the red carpet.
Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Michelle Williams, Tilda Swinton and Viola Davis strutted their stuff at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles today.
And while The Help’s Viola Davis took home the coveted prize, Glenn Close won the best-dressed title, blowing her competitors away with her glamorous Zac Posen dress.
Here are the best (and worst) gowns from the 2012 Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Glenn Close, Michelle Williams and Tina Fey.
*My Week with Marilyn* star Michelle Williams in Valentino.
My Week with Marilyn star Michelle Williams in Valentino.
*Bridesmaids* star Melissa McCarthy.
Bridesmaids star Melissa McCarthy.
*Albert Nobbs* star Glenn Close in Zac Posen.
Albert Nobbs star Glenn Close in Zac Posen.
*The Iron Lady* star Meryl Streep.
The Iron Lady star Meryl Streep.
Tina Fey in vintage Versace.
*The Help* star Octavia Spencer.
The Help star Octavia Spencer.
George Clooney’s girlfriend Stacy Keibler in Marchesa.
Angelina Jolie in Jenny Packham.
Julianna Margulies in Calvin Klein.
*The Help* star Viola Davis in Marchesa.
The Help star Viola Davis in Marchesa.
*We Need to Talk About Kevin* star Tilda Swinton in Lanvin.
We Need to Talk About Kevin star Tilda Swinton in Lanvin.
Breaking up is hard to do: Pamela Allardice shares five ideas for getting through the dark times and finding a way forward.
1. Let it out
Disappointment and anger will fester if you keep them cooped up. Go for a run, chop wood, learn boxing, scream, or kick a cardboard box to pieces. These emotions can also be used to the good. Get busy and clean the house, scrubbing, sweeping, polishing and tossing trash. Physical activity eases mental anguish and you’ll find satisfaction in a job well done.
2. Allow yourself to grieve
Mourning is a natural reaction to loss, and the more intense the relationship was, the more you’ll grieve. When we give our heart to another person, we trust them with the essence of who we are. When this connection is broken we feel as though we have not only lost the other person, but that we have lost a chunk of ourselves. Grieving presents in several forms: you may feel numb; you may brood and continually go over what went wrong; and you will undoubtedly feel just plain miserable. You can’t go around this mountain of sad feelings — you have to go through them. Yes, it will hurt like hell. But it will make you strong.
3. Find closure
In order to make room for the next stage of your life, this relationship needs to become part of your past, not your present. A formal ‘closing ceremony’ may help. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Set aside an hour where you can sit undisturbed. Have paper and a pen handy. Head one sheet of paper with “What I will miss about this relationship …”. Head the second, “Things I won’t miss …”; the third, “What I’ve learned about myself during this time …” and the last, “What I want from a future partner is …”. Be honest. By opening up, you will gain a greater understanding of yourself and be able to accept the loss.
4. Find forgiveness
When you’ve been dumped, this is the toughest call of all. It’s also necessary, because otherwise you’ll find it hard to move past your hurt, and may unconsciously see yourself as a victim. Before you list your ex’s faults and swear that you’ll see him in hell first, understand that forgiveness doesn’t mean that what he did to you was acceptable. It means you don’t want to be angry with him any more; it’s not worth it. Continuing to hate them will make you cynical and bitter. Deciding to forgive and let go means you take back control and focus on a positive future — yours.
5 Move on
Ultimately, the most important thing you will learn from breaking up is to have faith in yourself. By working through the pain, you will come to understand that you are resilient and courageous enough to cope with change and challenges. Tape these words from French philosopher Jean de la Fontaine to your mirror: “I bend but I do not break.”
From TV brats to natural born serial killers, prospective parents have been given stark warnings about the dark side of child-rearing. So, asks Bettina Arndt, are the naysayers about parenthood right?
It’s a mesmerising image. The gaunt mother stands stock still surrounded by road workers, clutching her baby pram right next to the booming rat-a-tat-tat of a pneumatic drill.
Relief sweeps over her face as her baby’s screaming is momentarily drowned out.
This is actress Tilda Swinton in her recent movie, We Need To Talk About Kevin, as she engages in a teeth-grinding struggle to mother a malevolent son who ultimately commits a high-school massacre.
It’s hardly fun entertainment and most disconcerting for anyone toying with the idea of having a baby.
Prospective parents would also hardly have been reassured by the ABC’s recent drama series, The Slap, where an angry man slaps an obnoxious child at a family barbecue.
Here, the monster is more clearly of the parents’ making, as needy, self-absorbed, volatile adults fail dismally to provide the consistent, loving care that the child needed.
In the wake of all this gloom, who would take on the tough job of parenting? For years now, there’s been a steady stream of research suggesting it’s just all too hard.
Parents aren’t happy. The daily grind of screaming fits, nappy changes, runny noses and wars over bedtimes and homework gets them down. Let alone the damage to their bank balance.
Research on happiness has long shown that parents are less happy than their childless peers.
One famous study, by Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize-winning behavioural economist, surveyed a large group of Texas women and found they preferred almost anything to childcare — preparing food, watching TV, shopping, even doing housework.
How about that? Doing the ironing is more fun than having your little poppet on your knee for the 32nd reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
People with kids generally show up as less happy, showing less satisfaction with their day-to-day lives compared to non-parents, with happiness declining soon after having a child. Parenting also has a marked effect increasing marital strife.
The real question is why would parents keep having children if the first one made them feel so bad?
Yes, parenting forces you to dig deep, but I wouldn’t have missed it for quids. Some years ago, I was asked to speak at a career night at my daughter’s school.
I talked a little about the great life I have had as a sex therapist, journalist and writer, but my major message was simple, “Don’t forget to have babies,” I said, telling the girls that motherhood is not to be missed.
The careers adviser was thrilled. “No one has ever told them that before,” she said. How sad is that?
There’s no denying that many people enjoy happy, fulfilled lives without children, but it would be a great shame if the negative talk about parenting put people off embarking on this thrilling life adventure — the ultimate white-water rafting.
The internet can be a dangerous place for children — here’s how you can make it safer.
Julia was a trusting girl. She trusted her school friend when she suggested that they make a video together after school.
Julia trusted that it was like a game. And Julia trusted that, when asked to wear garish make-up on her face and act seductively for the camera, it was just for laughs.
By next morning, that trust lay shattered. Julia discovered that the video was on the internet. By first bell, most of her classmates had already seen it, alerted by emails the night before from her so-called friend.
There was plenty of laughter, but for Julia, a shy, sensitive 11-year-old girl, there was nothing funny about it at all.
“Julia was devastated,” says her mother. “Suddenly, she was the outcast, picked on, laughed at, excluded. Every day was an ordeal. When we approached the girl’s parents, we were told that it was all just a bit of fun.
“Perhaps that was the intention, but it didn’t work out that way. The victimisation didn’t stop. It was too late. Eventually, we had to move our daughter to another school. It was cruel.”
Unfortunately, Julia — not her real name — is not alone. She is a victim of internet bullying, a 21st century malady now reaching epidemic proportions across the country.
In fact, says one national survey, as many as one in four of our children suffer internet bullying and harassment, some of them to the point of suicide. Other estimates put the figure as high as one in three.
And despite clichéd impressions, the modern bully is no longer the big kid with a chip on their shoulder and a fist the size of a melon. These days, it’s more likely to be the meek and mild kid who is wielding the most potent weapon in their arsenal — humiliation and public ridicule delivered via the nearest internet device.
The abuse can come from anywhere — anonymous comments posted on a Facebook page to emails, photographs or text messages spreading rumour, gossip and outright lies.
Perhaps worst of all, internet bullies are as all pervasive as the internet itself and are able reach inside a child’s home, the very place where they once might have been safe and secure.
Yet there are strategies parents can use to help safeguard their children when they are online.
“Parenting in cyber space is just like parenting in the real world,” says Dr Barbara Spears, who is the co-author of the Australian government’s cyber-safety program and an academic at the University of South Australia.
“You have to ask yourself, ‘Would I allow my child to go out alone to walk down dark alleys in the dead of night to consort with complete strangers in places I don’t know anything about?’ Most parents would say no. But that’s what many parents are doing when they allow their children to roam the internet.
Five tips for parents
1.Place your family computer in an open and visible place, such as the lounge room, where everyone can see what is going on and which sites are on the screen.
2.Educate yourself about the sites your children like to visit and how they work.
3.Limit access to the internet, especially late at night. Set boundaries and stick to them.
4.Explain the risks of an online identity: revealing too much personal information is dangerous.
5.Know where your child is going, what they are doing and who they are hanging out with online, just like you do in the real world.
Demi Moore has been rushed to hospital in LA for suspected substance abuse, according to media reports.
Paramedics arrived at Moore’s house after responding to a 911 emergency call on Monday night at 10.45pm.
After being assessed for half an hour, she was transported to a local hospital.
Demi’s rep has given a statement about the incident saying the 49-year-old is suffering from exhaustion.
“Because of the stresses in her life right now, Demi has chosen to seek professional assistance to treat her exhaustion and improve her overall health,” her rep said.
“She looks forward to getting well and is grateful for the support of her family and friends.”
There’s a sense of foreboding craftily interwoven with the darkness of sexual desire running right from the first to the last sentence in this achingly powerful suspense thriller.
Although it takes a while to realise how every tiny observation and throwaway comment forms a tile in the mosaic of the life story that builds for Trudy and Bruce Harrison following one fateful day on the winding coastal route back from a stolen moments holiday together, reading through a second time reveals just how sharp the storytelling is here.
Author Honey Brown, whose own life changed in a moment when a traumatic farmyard accident when she was 28 left her struggling with a new existence as a paraplegic, knows only too well the potency of a world turned upside down by a single incident and in After the Darkness she explores this idea to its fullest.
Driving home back to their children and successful life as property developers, Bruce and Trudy are lured by the Ocean View gallery, perched teasingly on the cliff edge. It seems innocent enough but as we draw closer to this isolated edifice you can sense the portent of things to come.
Despite Trudy’s growing misgivings the passion-drunk couple mistily head to their oblivion. Once inside the pace picks up.
The severity of what comes next delivers perfect dramatic irony with the reader longing to scream “behind you….get out of there!”
Trapped, brutalised and utterly terrified, one thing is certain: Trudy and Bruce will never know what security feels like again.
Eventually they do get out of there but not before experiencing untold horror and pushing themselves to do things they never could have believed they’d be capable of.
And the chase has only just begun. Should Trudy and Bruce turn themselves in to the police and how will they conceal what has happened from their children?
Honey Brown’s genius is in the way in which her story-telling is dictated by her characters — just when you think you have a handle on how things are going she shifts gear exposing the dark places in their souls.
If there’s one criticism of this switchback ride it’s that the ending doesn’t do justice to what has gone before, but the journey is certainly enthralling.
About the author
Australian mother of two Honey Brown is 40 this month and has been writing novels since an accident forced her to reassess her life and left her wheelchair bound.
She won the Arealis Award with her first novel Red Queen and was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award for her second — The Good Daughter.
“My inspiration for After The Darkness came after holidaying on the Great Ocean Road with my husband,” says Honey.
“We visited an art gallery with an ocean view and there was a moment when I was alone in a section of the gallery, and an eerie feeling came over me.
“I remember the vertical cliff faces down to the ocean, and thinking of how they could be used to cover up a murder.”
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The real Margaret Thatcher, and Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady.
Most actors would be thrilled to win just one Academy Award, but the inimitable Meryl Streep is desperate for a third.
The 62-year-old actress is nominated for her portrayal of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.
After a record 17 Oscar nominations, 25 Golden Globe nominations, and a slew of BAFTAs, Screen Actors Guild awards and People’s Choice awards, Meryl tells the February issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly she still isn’t satisfied.
Meryl loved playing Thatcher, but was surprised by the former British leader’s stamina.
Margaret famously only slept for four or five hours a night and always found time to cook dinner for her husband, even while running an empire.
“I’m in awe of her,” Meryl says. “How, for eleven and a half years, to exist on that amount of sleep and make that many decisions?
“I’m not that way. I need to go away, ‘Leave me alone, I need to go to sleep’, and have a big refurbishment.
“I need to listen to music. I need to read some poetry. I need to be by myself much more.”
There is a deeply poignant moment in the film where Thatcher as an old woman is looking at a DVD of her twins, Mark and Carol, playing as young children on the beach.
The former prime minister wonders aloud if it was all worth it, if she might not have spent more time with her children. Her husband replies, “You can rewind it, but you can’t change it.” It was a scene Meryl could relate to.
“Yes, everything is a decision. Everything is a choice. It comes down to that, the choices. You don’t even know if the choices you made were the right ones and the jury is out until your children have children. So it’s an ongoing anxiety.
“But no, to me the reason to make the film was to look at the life of a big public person and then to morph it at some point into a story about you and me and all of us.
“How do we take leave of things? How do we reconcile ourselves to the cost of the choices we made in our life?”
Read David Leser’s exclusive interview with Meryl Streep in the February issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Your say: What is your favourite Meryl Streep film?
Shane with his identical twins Jack and Harry at 12 days old.
The Celebrity Apprentice was a tough gig, but it was a mere warm-up to Shane Crawford’s next job. Sue Smethurst discovers the family man behind the television and footy star.
Behind the scenes of the boardroom bust-ups and charity challenges of last year’s hit TV series The Celebrity Apprentice, Shane Crawford was secretly preparing for the biggest challenge of his life.
He wasn’t scheming to overthrow his reality rivals, or plotting a mutiny of the TV show that had the nation glued to its seats. Instead, he was snatching every spare minute off-camera to swat up on survival strategies for the arrival of twin boys.
“When we finished filming each day, I went back to the hotel room and locked the door. There was no mucking around. The only person I would let in was Pauline Hanson because she brought me lemon meringues!” he says with trademark cheekiness.
Joking aside, it takes a lot to make Shane Crawford cry, but get the former footballer talking about his family and fatherhood and you’ve hit the soft spot that always raises a lump in his throat.
The AFL champion turned TV star is unashamedly emotional as he proudly shows off the latest additions to the Crawford clan, precious twins Jack and Harry, who were making their presence felt at their first official photo call.
“This is what life is all about,” he says of the tiny babies nestled in his arms. “Fatherhood is my greatest joy. I love being a dad and my life now is all about my family. I love being around the boys. I couldn’t imagine my life without my kids.”
After several miscarriages, Shane and his long-term partner, Olivia Anderson, were ecstatic when they discovered last May that they were expecting their third child, a brother or sister for sons Charlie, five, and Ben, three.
“We were really happy to have baby number three. We just weren’t expecting babies three and four in one go!”
And at 12 days old, identical twins Jack Anderson Crawford and Harry James Crawford, who have just spent their first nights home from hospital, have already made an indelible mark on their lives.
The reality of a nursery filled with special feeding mats, twin cots, twin baby rockers and an endless supply of nappies, bottles and blankets seems a world away from the glitz and glamour of his football and TV career. Yet it is here, off-camera, surrounded by his family, where his heart is truly at home.
“When we found out we were having twins, we were told that it’s beautiful to have one child, but twins are something else altogether.
“There’s a whole new dimension to twins because of the special bond they have and I think now that we have them home it’s really dawning on me what an amazing thing this is for all of us.
“When I was playing footy, footy meant everything to me, but it’s not a patch on what fatherhood brings, nothing compares to this.”
Shane Crawford made his name carving up the footy field, a 305-game veteran with a swag of accolades to his credit, including a premiership with his beloved Hawthorn Football Club and the league’s most coveted prize, the Brownlow medal.
Shane and Olivia had made no secret of their desire to expand the family. With no history of twins in the family, the possibility of twins and indeed twin boys was the last thing they imagined.
“Olivia has always wanted a girl and I was hoping we’d have a girl so I had someone left in the family to look after me when I’m old because I know the boys won’t!” Shane muses. “So it was a bit of a shock to learn we were having twins.”
Admittedly, it took a little while for the news to sink in, even after Olivia came home from the first check-up to confirm her pregnancy and said, “They’re both fine”.
“It didn’t really register at first,” Shane says, “then she handed me the scan and I was like …what!”
Read more of this story in the February issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Your say: How would you cope if you found out you were having twins?
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