Is Jennifer Lopez's Versace dress an Oscar campaign move? - Los Angeles Times
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The J.Lo dress is back! Could her iconic Grammys look help her campaign for Oscar?

Jennifer Lopez at the 42nd Grammy Awards
Jennifer Lopez, shown at the Grammys in 2000, turned up on Versace’s runway Friday in the same dress she wore that night.
(Kevork Djansezian / Associated Press)
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Jennifer Lopez and an updated take on her iconic 2000 Grammys dress just made a surprise runway appearance at Versace’s spring 2020 show — marking, possibly, the next attention-grabbing move in the actress-singer-dancer’s “Hustlers” Oscars campaign.

For those of you who weren’t paying attention on that February night 19 years ago, Lopez’s cut-below-the-navel dress definitely won the 42nd Grammy Awards, even though the singer took home nary a trophy.

The dress went viral before “going viral” was a thing. Google Image Search was created, for Pete’s sake, because of this shimmery assemblage of chiffon. Seriously, look it up.

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The runway strut that one Twitter wag referred to Friday as “quality stunt casting” comes amid awards season buzz that has Lopez’s name all over it.

“As Ramona, a one-woman supernova who reigns over a New York strip club, Lopez gives her most electrifying screen performance since ‘Out of Sight,’” wrote The Times’ critic Justin Chang in his “Hustlers” review, “slipping the movie into her nonexistent pocket from the moment she strides out onto a neon-lighted stage in a rhinestone bodysuit.”

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And Lopez had a humble reaction to the critical raves when she talked to The Times’ Jen Yamato at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month, saying, “It’s like, ‘Oh! Somebody liked what I did!’ I love doing this and it doesn’t matter, but it does matter — it does make you feel like all my hard work is being recognized, and that’s nice.”

Yes, that is nice. Just like it’s nice to see a 50-year-old woman absolutely rock one of the most memorable — and most revealing — dresses ever to hit a red carpet.

And just like it would be nice for Lopez if she nabbed an Oscar nomination on Jan. 13 — let alone took a statuette home on Feb. 9.

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