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Sunday Book Review: The Fug Awards
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One of the most enjoyable aspects of celebrity fashion is what I’ll call the superiority factor. You know, the sneering satisfaction that you or I can take in seeing someone who has all the money and fashion consultants in the world and still looks like they got dressed in a lightless closet stocked with Salvation Army rejects. On Oscar Sunday, your television screen will offer the best opportunity to see which stars haven’t gotten it right.
The best place on the web for getting those fashion-snob rocks off is Go Fug Yourself, an LAist favorite websitefull of odious comparisons in living color, snarkingly crafted by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan. Now the Fug girls, who were interviewed by LAistnot all that long ago, have extended their franchise into a glossy book, Go Fug Yourself Presents The Fug Awards. Next to celebrity snark, there’s nothing more irresistible than made-up awards (I have fond childhood memories of the Golden Turkey Awards, concocted by the pre-conservative Michael Medved). And the ladies deliver; this is a fun book for reading or browsing, preferably while your staff – maybe your pet has opposable thumbs and can pinch hit for Hazel – serves you fine champagne.
The Fugsters have refined celebrity-outfit snarkitude to a fine art that is one part Joan-and-Melissa, one part wholly original. What’s more, these bloggeuses were able to QUIT THEIR DAY JOBS and blog all day, which makes them lucky as well as smart. The Fug Awards pays homage to the most talented participants in the fug-stakes. Categories include “The Sag Award: Most Egregious Misuse of the Privilege of Having Breasts” (offenders include Pamela Anderson, Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johannsson) and “The Dr. Nooooo! Most Tragic Surgical Choices” (patients include Faye Dunaway, Priscilla Presley, and Tara Reid).
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The ladies don't ever hold back. On Mischa Barton's often inexplicable fashion choices, they say "Instead of taking what the rest of us would praise Jesus to wake up with and WORKING IT, Barton usually drapes it in something that would be considered "dowdy" by cloistered Carmelite nuns, "old" by that mummified iceman they excavated from the Tyrolean Alps, and "ugly" by the rest of the people in this book."
And, hey! The gang's all here. Let-it-all-hang-out Britney? Check. Freakish exhibitionist Bai Ling? Present. Plus we'll-always-have-Paris, LiLo, Posh, Kiki, Sienna, and lots more ladies with highly questionable taste. It's enough to make you feel good about even the tiniest shopping spree at H & M.
While The Fug Awards may not be for everyone (Rachel Zoe, maybe?), it's an entertaining compendium of some of the Fug Girls' snappiest lines. The daily Go Fug Yourself still trumps it for timeliness and zip, but this is a good collection to keep on the coffee table to read in between the commercials while watching, say, reruns of Absolutely Fabulous, while Intern George paints your toenails (read the blog).
photo of The Fug Awards from Simon and Schuster.
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