~ Inside Out Australia

The Stars Come Out For The Logies

Feature, By Travis de Jonk, 5th May, 2008

It’s celebrity month here on Same Same and what better way to kick off proceedings than with a look at Australian TV’s night of nights – the TV Week Logies.

The TV Week Logie Awards is without doubt Australia’s most glamorous event, and this year’s 50th Logie Awards celebration really brought out the glamour factor and star power like never before.

Record crowds turned up the Melbourne’s Crown Complex to catch a glimpse of their favourite stars, packing the venue to the rafters. And the stars turned up not only for Australian TV’s ‘Prom Night’, but also to celebrate the amazing milestone of the Australian icon award. One by one they arrived from 4pm along the red carpet, slowly lifting the temperature of the night, until it became white hot with excitement and anticipation. The vibe was totally electric.

Melbourne must now officially be out of botox, fake tan and Vaseline – there were plenty of beautiful and famous faces around, from presenters, performers and comedians, to models, musicians and sportspeople. It is always a bit disturbing when people start looking younger and fresher faced even though they are getting older, but hey – that’s showbusiness!

There were many Logie winners, but the real winner on the night was Fashion itself. High power jewelry, both real and fake was abundant, and couture was everywhere! And no one really got it wrong, including shock dresser Suzie Eleman, who is notorious for her outrageous Logies fashion statements. She hit the red carpet in a gorgeous black sequin frock with silver trim, which highlighted her plentiful cleavage.

And speaking of cleavage, that was certainly the recurring theme of the night, along with sparkle. The girls blitzed the fashion stakes as usual, blowing away the punters and media alike with their exquisite taste and attention to detail. Black was abundant, with sprinkles of winning colours – hot pink, purple, flesh pink, electric blue and canary yellow.

Olivia Nixon shone in an beautifully elegant electric blue satin gown, and former Australia’s Next Top Model host Erika Heynatz showed them all how it was done, dressed in stunning red-orange Collette Dinnagan, dripping in diamonds. Crowd favourite Natalie Bassingthwaite and TV Legend Kerri-Anne both turned up in canary yellow, which was a winning colour for the night. However, it was the gorgeous Dannii Minogue who took our breath away, looking drop dead gorgeous in her flesh tone gown.

One guy certainly did make a brilliant fashion statement; Rhys, runner up in reality TV favourite So You Think You Can Dance, turned up on the red carpet sporting his trademark eye make-up and an amazing full black and metallic silver pattern suit that turned heads in a good way. Other fashion winners for the boys included visiting Irish boy band Westlife who radiated glam factor and stole the hearts of both their male and female fans with their handsome looks and perfect red carpet fashion.

There were plenty of stretch limousines on the night, and unsurprisingly, the blokes from The Footy Show turned up in a stretched Hummer, which was pretty fitting. Many stars arrived in their teams, with news teams and program presenters arriving together. Even nominees arrived together in the spirit of camaraderie, including Gold Logie nominees Chris Lilley, Andrew Denton and Adam Hill. The only real separation was network alliance, and you could certainly feel the competition between the stations.

Not everyone arrived in a gorgeous car, with quite a few celebrities opting to make the event on foot. Logies host Jude Lund jokingly called it the ‘Green Environmental Alternative’. Wow. If that’s the case, Channel Ten must really love the environment, because they sent their whole news team on foot.

Winner of the most outrageously funny entrance at this years awards definitely goes to Pauly from the SBS hit cult show Fat Pizza. Pauly turned up to the red carpet in a pumping disco panel van, flanked by two hot and busty girls, and holding a giant inflatable Gold Logie.

Home and Away stars, So You Think You Can Dance Cast and judges, and Rove McManus were definitely crowd favourites judging from the deafening roars from the crowds and the blinding flashes from the media paparazzi.

On the gay front, Tim Campbell and Anthony Callea attended the awards, however they decided to play it straight, arriving separately with their own female dates, which was very disappointing.

‘Drink Spike Victim’ and Dancing with the Stars judge Todd McKinney was notably absent, but was thanked by the Dancing cast when the show took out the Most Popular Reality TV series, beating Big Brother, Australian Idol and The Biggest Loser.

And he’s not gay, but he is the Queen of the Pearl Necklaces – Ian Thorpe looked gallant with his stunning red carpet partner Alice, winner of the most recent series of Australia’s Next Top Model.

Magda Szubanski faked a hilarious catfight with Guys And Dolls co-star and Logie nominee Lisa McCune for the cameras and Logies host Jules Lund.

Mr G – also known as Chris Lilley, stole the show with excerpts of ‘Mr G – The Musical’ from his hit ABC show, Summer Heights High. His performance included his platinum club hit Naughty Girl which is still in the top 25 after ten weeks.

Check out our hot shots from the Logies red carpet right here.

And here are the winners:

Most Popular Reality Program
Dancing With The Stars (Channel Seven)

Most Popular Lifestyle Program
Better Homes And Gardens (Channel Seven)

Most Popular Factual Program
Bondi Rescue (Network Ten)

Silver Logie — Most Popular Actor
Chris Lilley (Summer Heights High, ABC1)

Silver Logie — Most Popular Actress
Kate Ritchie (Home And Away, Channel Seven)

Most Popular New Male Talent
Lincoln Lewis (Home And Away, Channel Seven)

Most Popular New Female Talent
Bindi Irwin (Bindi: The Jungle Girl, ABC1)

Most Outstanding Drama Series, Miniseries or Telemovie
Curtin (ABC1)

Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy Program
Kath & Kim (Channel Seven)

Most Popular Drama
Home And Away (Channel Seven)