E!’s award show red carpet coverage always guarantees two things. One: Ryan Seacrest will literally never ask who anyone’s jewelry is designed by. Two: Giuliana Rancic will deftly schmooze regardless of how awkward her interview subjects are. Ditto if they’re rude. And ever since the 2013 Emmy’s, we’re guaranteed another staple: the Mani Cam shall be met with varying degrees of emotion, ranging from derisive annoyance to enthusiastic flipping of the bird.
The Mani Cam, invented to show off the “manicures” of female celebrities, enabled jewelry commentators at home to get a close up of any ring action happening on the hands. The jewelry community on Twitter rejoiced. We would finally be able to ogle all those Lorraine Schwartz rocks in HD.
But the celebs were less than thrilled, for the most part. I don’t understand what the hassle is – you’re sticking your hand in a shoebox and plugging the jewels you were lent (and sometimes paid!) to wear, which is an understandable and expected “thank you” to the jeweler.
Some celebs deemed the mani cam beneath them from the get-go, and if they deigned to interview with G at all, the mani cam caught ple-henty of shade. I figured they were either self-important or playing coy about an engagement confirmation or even finally giving the salivating masses a glimpse of a ring we’ve only seen in blurry pap shots (ahem, Aniston.)
But last night at the SAG Awards, Jennifer Aniston literally laughed in poor, awkward Maria Menounos’ face when asked to show off her “nails.”
Her rep, Stephen Huvane, can be spotted in the background vigorously shaking his head “HELL NO.” Other A-listers like Reese Witherspoon and Julianne Moore declined to walk their fingers down the red carpet too. Now, instead of appearing pretentious or snobby, the actresses are heralded as taking a stand against sexism on the red carpet.
No one has yet issued a statement concerning the mani cam and gender equality, but CBS news is running with it. Personally I think it’s all spin (very possibly from Huvane himself, who also reps Julianne Moore.) No, the men aren’t asked to show off their manicures (or lack thereof), but they typically don’t wear any fun nail polish I want to look at. Obviously the Grammy’s are an exception here, bc I always want to see what Sam Smith is accessorizing with, but honestly I think E! would ask him to show off his myriad Gothic Nouveau cross rings. And ditto if Adam Levine showed up with a color on his nails. The red carpet is all about the actresses, and what they’re wearing, because 80 billion different Tom Ford tuxes are boring. Calling the mani cam sexist is a bit of a stretch in my mind, and smacks of spin. Some celebrities think the mani cam is dumb, and don’t want to participate, but this approach makes them look better. If they truly wanted to take a stand against sexism on the red carpet, they’d skip the stroll altogether – it’s not just the mani cam that perpetuates disparate coverage of the men vs. women on the carpet.
Plus, I have a distinct concern that all the other actresses will now start to boycott the mani cam, and I personally don’t want to be deprived of close up shots of Sofia Vergara’s new engagement ring.
