Paltrow and Winslet show fashion savvy at Emmys

Lea Michele and Julianna Margulies shot for red-carpet fashion heights with their statement gowns at Sunday night's Emmy Awards on Fox, but there's something about movie stars that tends to upstage TV stars -- even on TV's biggest night.

Kate Winslet and her red-as-the-carpet, cap-sleeve Elie Saab seemed the understated, sophisticated look until she flashed the significant cleavage on the bust line, and Gwyneth Paltrow, in a black-sequin number by Emilio Pucci, pulled off a belly baring outfit that would have made the new "Charlie's Angels" trio jealous.

Paltrow topped it off with platinum earrings by Neil Lane that boasted 7 carats of black-and-white diamonds, two platinum and diamond bracelets with a total of 100 carats, and a platinum ring with 5 carats of diamonds and black onyx. That's serious wattage.

Margulies took the biggest risk in a strapless Giorgio Armani Prive gown, with a stiff crescent-shaped bustier and embellished with clear oval stones and shimmery paillettes. It's a look that required confidence -- and it's a good thing Margulies, who told E! she picked her dress late last night, has that.

"If you watch the clothes she's worn since coming back to the red carpet with `The Good Wife,' you'll see she makes incredibly sophisticated choices and she doesn't walk around asking 175 people for their opinions," said InStyle's fashion director, Hal Rubenstein, about Margulies. "She always looks like herself. There's something very grown-up and intelligent about her."

The early online buzz was about Michele's sophisticated Marchesa dress: She wore the look of a seasoned star instead of starlet. She wore a plain-front, low draped back with rosette sleeves that really let her work the crowd. She gave fans lined up outside the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles a big wink.

If there were trends to emerge from the Emmy red carpet, it was the many red dresses worn by Michele, Nina Dobrev in Donna Karan and Sofia Vergara in Vera Wang, and the straight-from-the-runway electric blue looks. Claire Danes wore a fully beaded strapless gown in bright blue by Oscar de la Renta, Dianna Agron chose a Roksanda Ilincic and Amy Poehler was in a T-shirt-style iridescent dress by Peter Som.

Katie Holmes, one of the last arrivals, wore a blue, silk-crepe dress with a tank top and cinched waist dress designed by Calvin Klein's Francisco Costa, and Christine Baranski did sleek and chic in Zac Posen's midnight-blue, double lapel gown.

Two "Mad Men" sirens opted for sexy, beaded, head-turning looks, with Elisabeth Moss in a second-skin Marchesa and Christina Hendricks in a Johanna Johannsson with an open V-neck. "It was the only dress. I tried it on and it was perfect," Hendricks said.

Rubenstein said all the best gowns were sleek, formfitting ones. "Virtually every single woman who looked good wore a body-conscious dress," he said, ticking off favorites Winslet, Vergara and Julianne Hough in a champagne and light pink, duchess satin strapless gown by Carolina Herrera. Moss hit a personal best as did Julie Bowen in a beaded, silver lame Oscar de la Renta with a plunging neckline, he said, and the surprise was Kristen Wiig, whose deep V-neck copper gown was courtesy of Zac Posen.

"The man makes an amazing gown," Wiig said on the carpet. "I love the cut. It's comfortable and it's different. "

Some stars have been thinking about their outfits for weeks. Sarah Hyland collaborated with Christian Siriano to create her one-shoulder, coral-colored gown with a jeweled waistband. Heidi Klum trusted Siriano, a "Project Runway" alum, to come up with her mushroom-colored strapless gown with a pouffy, asymmetrical hemline.

"I love him. He's just a wonderful person. ... I like to give my designers some props," said Klum, of her "flirty" dress. "It has an old-fashioned feel but it's glamorous."

Zooey Deschanel did a little prom-queen turn in a pink strapless gown with a dropped waist and red ribbon belt.

Minka Kelly, one of those new "Charlie's Angels," is a red-carpet up-and-comer -- and that meant she got to wear a navy blue-and-black gown with long lace sleeves and a lace inset at the waist by Dior. Rachael Taylor wore a light pink-and-silver beaded column dress by Armani, and Annie Ilonzeh had on a draped, wine-colored strapless goddess gown by Romona Keveza.

Ceremony hostess Jane Lynch showed a preference for purple -- sporting at least three gowns in that shade by David Meister.

A handful of stars did the black thing, with Kaley Cuoco in a one-shoulder gown by Keveza, and Tina Fey in a wool-jersey gown with cap sleeves and an open neck from Tadashi Shoji.

Evan Rachel Woods did black, choosing an all-over beaded boat neck by Elie Saab. Her big bling came from her cuff bracelet, created for her by Fred Leighton, using a 19th-century diamond bow brooch.

Cat Deeley, wearing a metallic strapless Monique Lhuillier gown, wasn't all that eager to give back her $1.4 million in Bulgari jewels.

She told E!'s Ryan Seacrest, "Meet me in Rio tomorrow?"

2 Broke Girls' review: Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs have intuitive chemistry in gal-pal sitcom

Here's an easy way to pick out the best new sitcoms on TV this fall: Look for the two with "Girl" in the title. And "2 Broke Girls" (Monday at 9:30, CBS) is one of them.

Like many sitcoms, "2 Broke Girls" stretches a little to set up the premise, but once it gets there we're sold, mainly because the two lead actresses are funny and endearing with great chemistry.

Kat Denning plays Max Black, a career waitress at a funky coffee shop in what is described as a slightly dodgy part of Brooklyn.

After her boss, Han Lee (Matthew Moy), fires the diner's other waitress, a Russian hooker, he hires Caroline Channing, played by Beth Behrs.

Caroline is everything Max is not. She's from the upper East Side and was born with enough silver spoons in her mouth to do service for 12 at a place much fancier than this restaurant.

But Caroline's family lost all its money when a Bernie Madoff-type scam was busted, so Caroline had to flee the house "taking just what I could grab - and I grabbed all the wrong things."

For instance, she now finds herself wearing white after Labor Day.

Her friends won't even answer her texts anymore, so now she's just a broke girl - which drops her right into Max's world.

We also soon learn that both Max and Caroline are smart and sharp. Just when we expect they will say or do one thing, they say or do something smarter and sharper.

So they bond quickly and credibly, which lets the show immediately begin setting up story lines.

When Caroline sees that Max bakes a great red velvet cupcake and sells it for what Caroline considers way too low a price, she starts planning how they can open a cupcake shop.

All they need is $250,000, and by the time the first episode ends, they are only $249,613 short.

Money will be a running theme. So will men. We can assume Caroline will meet a different class of men in her new world. As for Max, well, Caroline notices right away that she has self-esteem issues. That's a good start.

Also starting well is the writing, by Whitney Cummings and Michael Patrick King.

Max to an idiot customer: "I wear knit caps because it's cold. You wear them because of Coldplay."

Caroline to Max's rotten but hunky boyfriend: "Back up, Jersey Shore."

Garrett Morris, who plays Earl the cashier, gets the most incorrect lines. When Caroline is fumbling through her first day, he says: "That girl is working harder than Stephen Hawking trying to put on a pair of cufflinks."

A few scenes get excessive - the horse may not work - but Max and Caroline already fit nicely into the female buddy tradition that runs from Lucy and Ethel through Cagney and Lacey up to Rizzoli and Isles.

Jury to former NBA star: No discrimination

A federal jury decided in less than 15 minutes of deliberation Friday that a Buckhead tavern did not violate the civil rights of a former professional basketball player and an Atlanta attorney by asking them to give up their seats to two white women and ejecting them when they refused.
Joe Barry Carroll, once an NBA All-Star, and lawyer Joseph Shaw were drinking in the Tavern at Phipps five years ago when they encountered the unwritten policy that men be asked to give up seats to women in exchange for a free round of drinks.

The men, both African-American, refused and were told to leave the restaurant. On those facts all sides agreed, but on not much more.

Carroll and Shaw contended the tavern used the policy to harass black patrons and keep the bar and its patio predominantly white. Greg Greenbaum, CEO of the Tavern Corp., contended the policy was strictly to curry favor with female patrons, who would attract more men and keep the bar tabs high.

The policy, he said, was created by a black bar manager who saw the opportunity in female shoppers burdened with bags.

The two men asked the jury, which was evenly split by gender and comprised seven whites and three blacks, for more than $3 million in damages.

"I'm disappointed in the outcome, but I had to go through the process," Carroll said after the verdict in U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash's Atlanta courtroom Friday. "Their behavior was outrageous."

Ernest Greer, a lawyer for the tavern, told the jury it was Carroll and Shaw who injected race into the policy, which he said had been applied evenly at the restaurant, open for at least two decades.

“This incident didn't happen because they were black," Greer said. "This incident happened because Mr. Carroll and Mr. Shaw wanted to be treated better than anyone else."

He quoted Kathleen Cleaver, an Emory University law professor, who testified that a humiliated Carroll told her shortly after the incident that he wasn't giving up his seat for two "scantily clad white women."

But, Greer said, "when he was asked on the witness stand, would he if they were black? He said, ‘I might have.”'

Jeffrey Bramlett, lead lawyer for the plaintiffs,  dismissed the restaurant's contention that the policy was just "good manners" or "Southern hospitality." He quoted two former employees who said Greenbaum feared that if the tavern attracted too many young blacks or a hip-hop crowd, it would ruin the business because it would turn off white people.

“Southern Hospitality did not apply equally to blacks and whites," he said. “The Tavern doesn’t cater to blacks.”

The controversy started on Aug. 11, 2006, when Carroll, who was taken first overall in the 1980 NBA draft by the Golden State Warriors and is now an investment adviser, met Shaw at the Tavern's bar and ordered drinks and appetizers.

Two white women walked up to the bar and the bartender asked Carroll and Shaw to relinquish their seats to the female patrons. Carroll and Shaw declined, saying they were not ready to leave.

The bar management then offered to get the men a table but they refused.

The Tavern's operating partner, Heather Dennis, called an off-duty Atlanta police officer who provided security and had Carroll and Shaw escorted out. Carroll and Shaw contend they were removed from the bar because they were black, constituting a civil rights violation of public accommodations laws.

Greer acknowledged Dennis could have been more diplomatic during the confrontation, but he reminded jurors that only two former employees contended the restaurant's strategy was to keep the crowds white. He noted other former employees disputed that assertion and that no other patrons testified they had suffered discrimination.

“Everybody has testified to you that it was a racially mixed environment,” Greer told jurors. “This is a race case. They have to prove to you they were asked to get up from their seat and made to leave the bar because of their race.”

Rodgers throws 3 TDs, Packers outlast Saints in NFL opener

On the day that Peyton Manning may have seen his season, and possibly even his career, come to an end, Aaron Rodgers strengthened his case to take his place among the NFL's elite level quarterbacks.
anning had occupied a spot beside Drew Brees and Tom Brady atop the quarterback version of Mount Rushmore the last few years, but it might be time to start carving a spot out for Rodgers.
Rodgers outlasted Brees in a shootout between the last two Super Bowl MVPs Thursday night as the world champion Green Bay Packers edged the New Orleans Saints 42-34 to kick off the 2011 regular season.
The game, which some believe could be a preview of the NFC championship, was a high-octane affair featuring two of the league's top passing attacks.

Bills are NFL's best looking team

The study looked at five offensive and five defensive players from each team and also threw in two of the most photographed personalities on any team: the owner and the head coach.

To measure each subject's attractiveness, the researchers analyzed their photograph with a computer program that measures facial symmetry, or how closely the two halves of a person's face match up. Research suggests this is a reliable measure of how attractive a person is perceived to be. It also suggests that looks are a fair predictor of a person's career success. A 1994 study found that more attractive "symmetrical" people are paid about five percent more than the average person, while more homely "asymmetrical" people earn up to 10 percent less.

Jennifer VanGilder, a professor of business economics at Ursinus who oversaw the research, said the lure of hiring pretty faces is unconscious. "People are drawn to more symmetrical objects."

The most attractive sample of NFL players, with an average facial symmetry rating of 99.47, was one of the worst teams in the league: the Bills. Their record last season was a woeful 4-12. The least attractive team, the Chiefs, won its division last season and made it to the playoffs.

The research also found that the vast majority of NFL players rank 10 percent higher in facial symmetry than the average Joe. They also seem to be better looking than other athletes. VanGilder also measured the NBA's All-Star team and found it was less attractive than its sample of NFL players.

Another surprising finding: NFL quarterbacks are not the most attractive players. According to this sample, the most attractive position in the NFL is the kicker. The symmetry score for kickers beat the score for quarterbacks by .16 percent.

The least attractive position of the ones studied was wide receiver. But with a score of 97.04, these men were still vastly more attractive than average people, who score in the high 80s, VanGilder said.

Best NBA players from the University of Illinois

To date, some 35 players from the University of Illinois have gone on to play in the NBA. One of those players, Andy Phillip, is in the Basketball Hall of Fame.


Deron Williams
Wikimedia Commons
Phillip played in the early days of the NBA, and led the league in assists per game from 1950 to 1952. Phillip is not on this list though, because he only averaged 9.1 points per game. To make this list a player had to average at least 13.0 points per game in the NBA.

Two of the players on this list, including the top player, have played for my favorite NBA team, the New Jersey Nets. One of those players is active, and we Nets fans are very happy to have him on the team, as he is one of the best point guards in the NBA today.

Best NBA Players from the University of Illinois

1. Deron Williams(notes) - 17.2 points per game

Deron Williams averaged 11.0 points and 5.9 points per game at the University of Illinois from 2003 to 2005. He led the Fighting Illini to the 2005 NCAA Championship game, which they lost to the University of North Carolina. Williams was then taken with the third overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz.


After playing the better part of six seasons with the Jazz, Deron was traded to my favorite NBA team, the New Jersey Nets, on February 23, 2011, for two first round draft picks, and Derrick Favors(notes) and Devin Harris(notes). Over his first six seasons, Deron Williams has career averages of 17.2 points and 9.2 assists per game. Deron's 9.2 assists per game average is the sixth best in NBA history.

If there is a season in 2011-12, Nets fans like myself are confident Deron Williams will lead us to the playoffs, and maybe even to our first NBA Championship. If there is no season, Deron will play this year in Turkey for $5 million.

2. Eddie Johnson - 16.0

Eddie Johnson averaged 14.0 points and 6.9 rebounds per game at Illinois from 1978 to 1981. He was then taken with the 29th overall pick in the 1981 NBA Draft by the Kansas City Kings. Johnson played 17 years in the NBA, and averaged 16.0 points per game. Despite scoring 19,202 points in the NBA, Johnson was never selected as an all-star. He was NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 1989.

3. Don Ohl - 15.9

Don Ohl averaged 19.6 points per game as a senior at Illinois in 1958. He was then taken with the 36th overall pick in the 1958 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia Warriors. Ohl never played for the Warriors, and did not play in the NBA until 1960. He then played 10 years in the NBA, and averaged 15.9 points per game. Don Ohl was a five time all-star.

4. Nick Anderson - 14.4

Nick Anderson averaged 17.0 points and 7.3 rebounds per game at Illinois over two seasons in 1988 and 1989. He was then taken with the 11th overall pick in the 1989 NBA Draft by the Orlando Magic. Anderson played 13 years in the NBA, and averaged 14.4 points per game.

5. Red Kerr - 13.8

Red Kerr averaged 18.6 points per game at the University of Illinois from 1952 to 1954. He was then taken with the sixth overall pick in the 1954 NBA Draft by the Syracuse Nationals. Red Kerr played 12 years in the NBA, and averaged 13.8 points and 11.2 rebounds per game. Kerr was a three time all-star, and won a championship with the Nationals in 1955.

6. Ken Norman - 13.5

Ken Norman averaged 15.1 points (20.7 as a senior) and 6.9 rebounds (9.8 as a senior) at Illinois from 1985 to 1987. He was then taken with the 19th overall pick in the 1987 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Clippers. Ken Norman played 10 years in the NBA, and averaged 13.5 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.

7. Kendall Gill - 13.4

Kendall Gill averaged 12.0 points (20.0 as a senior) per game at the University of Illinois from 1987 to 1990. He was then taken with the 5th overall pick in the 1990 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets. Gill played 15 years in the NBA, and averaged 13.4 points per game.

Kendall Gill played almost six seasons with my favorite NBA team, the New Jersey Nets. On April 3, 1999, Kendall had 11 steals in a game for us vs the Miami Heat. That is tied with Larry Kenon for most steals all-time in an NBA game.

8. Derek Harper - 13.3

Derek Harper averaged 10.9 points and 4.7 assists per game at Illinois from 1981 to 1983. He was then taken with the 11th overall pick in the 1983 NBA Draft by the Dallas Mavericks. Harper played 16 years in the NBA, and averaged 13.3 points and 5.5 assists per game.

Does Brian Waters give Patriots NFL's best O-line?

WR Chad Ochocinco and DL Albert Haynesworth have been the Patriots' most high-profile summer acquisitions, but new G Brian Waters may prove the best.

After surprisingly parting with the Chiefs in July, Waters signed in New England over the weekend. He could take over at right guard, a position that's become an injury black hole for the team.

"Brian has a good level of experience. I think his playing style is one that we feel like -- the way that he plays the position is kind of the way we feel like we would want it played," said coach Bill Belichick on Monday.

"We've gone up against him a number of times. I have a lot of respect for Brian: his play, his professionalism, what he brings to the team."

He brings 11 years of NFL experience. Waters, LT Matt Light and LG Logan Mankins were all Pro Bowlers in 2010 who have been first-team all-pros during their careers.

"I've been a fan of Brian's for quite a while now," said Mankins. "He's a good player and a good guy so we're happy to have him."

C Dan Koppen is a former Pro Bowler, RT Sebastian Vollmer is a rising star and first-round LT Nate Solder is waiting in the wings.

It adds up to what could be the best line in the league in 2011, which would be just fine with MVP QB Tom Brady, who's been under siege in New England's last three playoff games, all losses.

"It was just about finding a situation that was best for me," said Waters, a five-time Pro Bowler. "It's a great organization, so why not? The record speaks for itself. It's a football team that's a contender year in and year out."