Taste the Rainbow

Amanda Bynes

The American Music Awards is a yearly celebration of what’s hot on the pop charts, but if anyone looked to the awards show for the same in nails, they would be quite confused by the starlets sporting a variety of shades. Amanda Bynes got things started with bright red enamel, while actress Natalie Zea and Solange Knowles (sister of pop favorite Beyoncé) stayed colorfully close with

coral polish. Actress Monique Coleman sported natural-looking French nails, and singers like Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavigne and Nicole Scherzinger showed off black polish, which topped the charts as the most fervently followed trend of the evening. Even so, famous manicure mavens Ashley Tisdale and Fergie went the opposite direction with gold and white nails, respectively. It just goes to show that nail trends are as diverse as those who create them.

Photo: Patrick Rideaux/Rex usa/Inset photos: Steve Granitz/Wireimage.com

The Smoking Gun

The Hills

Late in 2007, fans of the MTV reality show The Hills were thrilled to detect proof of the program’s staged nature: Lauren Conrad, star of the hit show, was filmed going on a date with Gavin, a model, while wearing red nail polish, and later that “same night” was shown on the phone with Brody Jenner, another love interest, wearing no polish. This discrepancy became so scandalous that it was labeled “Nail-Polish-Gate.” Conrad explained away the mismatch to Entertainment Weekly, saying that she had to re-enact the phone conversation the next day for the cameras because they didn’t catch it the first time. “I basically had to call [Brody] again and have the exact same conversation on camera,” Conrad told the magazine. “I mean, it’s not lying to anyone, it’s telling what really happened, but it’s just the way they film reality shows.” That may be true, Lauren, but nail polish is obviously a detail that your audience won’t easily overlook—and rightfully so!

Photos: Jeah Baptiste Lacroix/Wireimage.com

A Fatal Flaw

In the independent film Juno, actress Allison Janney plays Bren MacGuff, a nail tech and protective stepmom to the 16-year-old title character, played by Ellen Page, who finds herself pregnant after a fling with her best friend. Despite Janney’s magnificent portrayal, we can’t help but be disappointed by one poorly researched fact: Early in the movie, when Juno is introducing the various characters in her life, she says that her stepmom constantly smells like “methyl methacrylate.” In a film where the nail tech is depicted as someone who cares enormously for everyone around her while sporting beautiful nails, the mere suggestion that she uses illegal product shatters the illusion. Shame on you, Hollywood!

Photo: Foxsearch/Everett/Rex USA