Entertainment

PROBLEM SOLVED: 3 PAGES OF OSCAR FASHION PREDICTIONS

IT’S six days until Oscar night – and designer dresses are flying faster than you can thank your agent.

In Los Angeles, the showrooms of Rodeo Drive are jammed with stylists who turn choosing a gown into a blood sport.

The holy grail: the look that will make fashion history and land a star on magazine covers the world over.

And then there’s the other kind of style fame: of the “what was she thinking” variety.

“You just wouldn’t believe it,” sighs one weary local fashion publicist. “My phone has literally not stopped ringing for two weeks straight. Stylists. And everyone is demanding the same dress.”

Tensions are higher than ever this year. Now that the ceremony has been moved up a month, it’s clashing with the European runway shows, making life hell for popular red carpet designers like Badgley Mischka and Valentino and leaving stylists to fight for fewer gowns than ever.

So it’s a solid bet that few if any of Oscar’s girls know yet what they’ll be wearing on Sunday night.

“Most people know what they’re going to wear by late on Thursday,” says one fashion house insider. “But then there are always the girls who don’t decide until the very last minute. It drives everyone crazy.”

The actresses may not have chosen their outfits yet, but we have.

We noted the previous style choices made by five different actresses – then scoured runway photos from the latest New York Fashion Week to find Oscar-worthy gowns that combine the stars’ favorite elements. And voila – the perfect dress, revealed!

Of course, perfection is subjective – especially on the red carpet, where disasters like Nicole Kidman wearing what amounted to one of Tonya Harding’s costumes gone bad at the Golden Globe Awards. What was she thinking?

If they’re smart, these ladies will take our lead and dazzle us on Sunday in these five superior looks. [For more, see Pages 36 and 37.]