Ready, Set, Gowns! The Governors Awards This Weekend Got Serious — and Long

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Kristen Stewart, Amy Adams, Helen Hunt

Let the gowns begin, as they say. We've seen many a probable awards nominee — Amy Adams, Helen Hunt, Naomi Watts, Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence -- out and about in cocktail dresses promoting their movies. But the Governors Awards, put on by the Academy, are when things start to get serious. Very serious, as in floor-length serious. Plus all the critics' awards will be announced this week, and the SAG and Golden Globe nominations are just around the corner.  

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The Governors Awards had a heavily male presence: Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Seth McFarlane, Ewan McGregor, David O. Russell -- but the three major female stars who attended were all swathed in serious long dresses, no frou frou. There was a touch of lace here and there, but these were gowns that read, "I'm a serious actress -- I'm not moctress!" (Our term for pseudo-actresses who are more like glorified models.)

Take Kristen Stewart: She's been wearing some very spirited and cool-girl short looks as she promotes both Twilight and On the Road -- but the young star went long and very demure in this gown with a silver and white lace prim bodice and black fishtail skirt. Not a lot of sexy going on with this dress -- and that's just the way the Academy likes it. 

Helen Hunt donned a long white gown with no waistline, in soft chiffon with a bit of lace embroidery in it -- very simple, very flattering, as white always stands out in a crowd that mostly wears black. The look: serious. And she's already an Oscar winner, so why not?

Adams can get very glam, and we love when The Master star wears deep jewel tone colors -- this pale gold gown with a black underlay making her seem more innocent wasn't her greatest look. It doesn't flatter her figure and it's so close to the color of her hair that it washes her out. It's like she was trying really really hard not to look too lovely . . . not an easy thing for her to do.