Still Daring to Give Stars a Dressing-Down

Is Joan Rivers so over or what? Fashion critics would like you to think her red-carpet routine at the Oscars is passe. But millions of her fans think otherwise. She and her daughter, Melissa, are into their fifth year of hosting a pre-Oscars show for the E! Entertainment Television.

“It’s our Super Bowl, it’s such a big day,” said John Rieber, E! vice president of programming and executive producer of the cable network’s awards coverage. “We have a huge 18-to-49 male and female audience. . . . It’s the highest-rated show on E! every year.”

Although haute fashion critics may cringe when Joan pooh-poohs a sophisticated dress and some young stars look bewildered and hurt when the comedian questions their taste, Rivers is unrivaled as the fashion maven of pre-awards red-carpet coverage. Geena Davis will host the official preshow for ABC starting at 5 p.m. PST for the Academy, but she has no plans to mimic Rivers.

“The one thing that I can virtually guarantee that it will not include, however, is anybody yelling, ‘Who made your dress?’ ” the actress said at a news conference in January.

“Joan is the queen of the preshow. She is the standard,” Rieber said. “She is the sweetest woman and the hardest worker. She’ll do anything.”

Designer Randolph Duke, a friend of Rivers’ and probably her favorite designer, credits her with upping the way celebrities dress for these events, especially the men, adding, “If she wasn’t there, I think you’d really miss her.”

But he admitted Rivers does have her critics.

“When it comes to vanity, there is no such thing as a joke,” he said. (Some star handlers even advise their clients to bypass Rivers.)

The mother-daughter combination helps to soften some of the edge. Their relationship helps round out things for the viewers. Mother has a longtime, older audience. Daughter, at 30, understands the younger generation. The two disagree--on and off the air--about fashion. Many mothers and daughters who share the same fashion conflicts can relate to that.

Mother dished Nicole Kidman two years ago for wearing a green dress to the Oscars.

“A redhead in a green dress!” Rivers said.

“I thought it was the best,” her daughter said of the dress. “As my mother’s daughter, I can say, ‘You’re wrong.’ ”

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Joan, who insists a woman is not dressed without high heels, chastised Sarah Jessica Parker at this year’s Golden Globes for wearing flats with a gown. Melissa said later that she gets the same criticism from her mother off-camera.

“I’m into little flat shoes,” Melissa said. “Let me tell you, if I show up wearing a pair, she will just stare at me.”

Melissa said her mother is in touch with her audience.

“There is a certain generation that just wants to be wowed,” she said. “They want to see Sharon Stone getting out of the car looking incredible. They grew up in a time when women had rules.

“We were all raised in the ‘80s with the whole ‘Dynasty’ thing. Then when we came of age, it was all grunge and Armani and simple, simple, simple.”

This new generation of stars wants a return to glamour, Melissa said.

“Everybody’s really embraced the fun of fashion, especially the younger generation. You have a Claire Danes who’s right out there.”

The mother-daughter pairing was E!’s idea. After Joan’s first red-carpet broadcast of the Golden Globes, the network asked her agent whether Melissa, who had worked on air with MTV, could help with the Oscars.

“My mom’s agent called my agent,” Melissa said.