How'd I Miss This?

Better late than never: Red carpet on Oscar night: We could use this right about now, as an antidote to all that In-N-Out-drive-thru-style rehab, all that unseemly live video feed from Florida courtrooms, all that breathless Britney weed-whack-a-doodle-do. Celebrities are such a bummer now, except here, at the ultimate prom. Who would have thought the walkup to the Academy Awards could do so much carbon offsetting from B-list pollutants?

How refreshing to see something as mannered and calm as Helen Mirren making her way through a more-mobbed-than-ever arrivals area on this dullish-gray afternoon. Dame Helen, in her ethereally beady Lacroix, says she's a typical Leo (astrological, not DiCaprio), "basking in the sunshine," and she looks skyward toward the blahs: "I'm British, so one doesn't really mind gray skies."