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Which is exactly what Witherspoon, who walked the premiere's red carpet in casual black slacks and jacket, wanted. "She just was fearless. That is what I have always loved about Christina, she has a real intelligence to her work. She always plays a very intelligent woman, also very sharp, very witty, and she's always just been great. We grew up auditioning together. We had known each other for years from sitting in the waiting room, waiting to get cast, or not cast, in movies. We made a friendship. So it was great to finally have that collaboration we had talked about for so many years."

"Penelope" marks Witherspoon's first real stab at producing an independent film, and as she tells it, it is a perfect way to establish her Type A Films as a force to be reckoned with in making films for today's modern female.

"It was perfect for our company," she reflected, "because at the center it was a wonderful, fantastic, cinematic movie. At the center, it also had a really great female character who was strong, ambitious, but definitely had a journey to go through to get to the place where she would find herself. I just thought it was great."

As her co-star (and the film's producer) Reese Witherspoon explained earlier at a press conference for the comedy, it wasn't Ricci's piggy properties that got her the leading role.

"Christina was my first choice," Witherspoon recalled. "We were lucky when we sent her the script. She and I sat down for lunch [to discuss it] and I thought 'She is not going to want to do this.' Here is this weird pig face. I think that people around her were thinking she didn't want to do it, she just came in and was like 'No, I'm excited! I want to do this. I want to wear this pig face, I think it's great, and it's awesome.'"

A long, sherbet orange and pink check dress won applause, not least for the wearer's kisses to the audience, while the same fabric pitched up in a dress under a purple wet-look cape coat.

Swirling skirts and satin shirts were cinched at the waist in wide chestnut leather cummerbunds or swathes of fabric.

A pistachio and sparkle loose short-sleeved shirt was worn with black cotton baggy trousers and chestnut suede boots.

Half-gloves, which covered fingers, thumbs and just part of the palm, triggered more smiles in the audience.

The lighthearted mood reined in a little for evening wear, with a midnight blue satin dress worn under a black swinging coat with another cummerbund.

The audience clapped along to the rousing sounds of The Pogues' "Sally Maclennane" as Bini herself appeared at the end to dance down the catwalk.

Guest judge Victoria Beckham joined host Heidi Klum, Nina Garcia and Michael Kors, in judging the collections of five finalists: Kathleen "Sweet P" Vaughn, Chris March, Jillian Lewis, Rami Kashou and Christian Siriano.

Generally speaking, the collections were not in keeping with the mood of disheveled, easy femininity and emphasis on sleek, menswear-inspired tailoring that characterized most of the New York collections this week. Instead, most of the five designers showed overdone show pieces in garish colors and fabrics. Few of the collections felt like coherent, winning statements about the designer's vision and instead seemed to be "made for TV" clothes that seemed to be designed instead to make a splashy impression on camera.

"Whatever you want to wear is going to work," Lee added. "There's women in full formal dresses and you see guys in jeans."

There were indeed some men in jeans but there were plenty of full-fledged tuxedos. Jay-Z wore a traditional tux, complete with bow tie, by Tom Ford, and Ne-Yo topped his tailored Ferragamo suit with a brown suede fedora. He — like so many others — wore aviator sunglasses, but he was happy to tell E! that his were from Banana Republic instead of a bank-breaking designer.

Seal wore a white suit by Yves Saint Laurent and a skinny black tie, and Chris Daughtry was in all black — suit, shirt and tie. Akon had on a fur-trimmed jacket despite the warm and sunny weather.

Dierks Bentley wore a dapper taupe suit by Dsquared that he complemented with a black tie and black pocket square, while Ludacris added a white pocket square to his black jacket by Armani.

Armani also dressed John Legend. He wore a shawl-collar tuxedo with velvet lapels and a high-neck shirt — and another pocket square.

Cyndi Lauper wore her now-blond hair in a loose curly updo, and her gown was black with lace around the bust. She also wore long black leather gloves.

Faith Hill played it safe in a one-shoulder black gown and then jazzed it up with oversized earrings, and Natalie Cole chose a flattering draped metallic dress with twisted-fabric straps.

Not everyone took that route, though. Perhaps Adrienne Lau thought her silver slip-style micromini would capture the paparazzi's attention, while Paramore's Hayley Williams might have thought all up-and-coming rock stars wear shocking red hair, a mostly sheer dress and ankle socks.

"I think anything goes in the music industry," said Evanescence's Amy Lee of Grammy fashions. Her own outfit was a black gown with roping on the bodice and a slit up the front that had a bit of a Goth vibe