Makeup and Hair

Coming shortly after the tuxes and evening gowns came back from the dry-cleaners after their New Year’s Eve abuse, the Fifth Annual Hollywood Makeup Artist & Hairstylist Guild Awards provided a lively kick-off to award season, replete with gold statuettes and whiffs of existential suspense.
The vibe at the Beverly Hilton event on January 17 was more like one of those old-time, pre-TV Oscar shows at the Coconut Grove, where everyone involved sat around banquet tables, getting a little drunk and keeping up their own running commentaries as the evening progressed.
Did we say pre-TV? Almost. Your humble BTL correspondent was positioned near the teleprompter and can report that most presenters in fact read exactly what was written there, any variance from the ordained copy providing welcome relief. Thus, when a very loose Tom Hanks showed up to present a Lifetime Achievement award to Daniel Striepeke (he did Hanks’ makeup in Apollo 13 and Forrest Gump), the riffing was refreshing. However, much badinage at the tables—you don’t get that in the seats at the Kodak Theater!—made up for the scripted aspects. BTL can now report, for example, that any character’s hair set in a tropical country must “wilt” during the course of a day, as it will in a moist climate. Unchanging hair connotes cold climes—or perhaps upper-class status.
Other winners and honorees included Colleen Callaghan, for Lifetime Achievement in Hairstyling; Nicolas Cage copping the Barrymore Award as the actor most willing to advance the makeup artist/hairstylist’s art (perhaps apocryphally, he had teeth pulled for Birdy—that’s dedication!); the crew on Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle for Best Contemporary Makeup; and their counterparts on Pirates of the Caribbean for Best Period Makeup and Best Character Hairstyling.
Other statue’d films included The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in the Best Character and Special Effects Makeup categories, Legally Blonde 2 for contemporary hairstyling and The Last Samurai for period coiffes.
On the TV side, greasepaint kudos went to the Nip/Tuck pilot for Special Makeup FX; Tracey Ullman in Trailer Tails in the mini-skein department; and Gilmore Girls for character makeup.
On the tube’s tonsorial side, Gilmore Girls copped Character Hair Styling, and Normal won in the made-for/miniseries department. HBO did well as Sex And the City copped make-up and hairstyle awards, as did Carnivale for Period Hair.
And in the live-action department Wicked won for Best Makeup or Hairstyling in a Theatrical Production. Perhaps honoring a show that deconstructs the myths of the Land of Oz is the perfect note for any awards ceremony to end on.