I'm beginning to hate award shows.  I mean, I have plenty of stuff for the column (more than enough, actually) and here come The Emmy Awards just begging for commentary.  What kind of reporter would I be if I just let them slide by with nary kudo or complaint?  Well, since I'm not a reporter in the first place, the question is moot.  However, if I didn't include something, you would wonder why I didn't and then I'd have to explain that I was too busy and you wouldn't care and I'd get mad that you don't realize that I have more to do that just this column and you'd get mad that I was short-changing you and I would say that you never think about my needs and you'd say that, of course you do, but you work hard all day and is it too much to ask to have a hot column on the table when you come home and I'd say you just don't understand all that I do around here while you're off God-knows-where doing God-knows-what and you'd get mad and storm out and we wouldn't talk for days.

And nobody wants that.

What you do want is for me to shut up and get to the column, but before I do I have a couple of small housekeeping items:

• Believe it or not, even though the column is just now coming out, I was still rushed to get it done.  Heck, I actually wanted to put some more Emmy stuff in but just ran out of time.  So, If you could overlook the misspellings, bad format, and incorrect grammer, I'd appreciate it. 
• This column is the September/October column.  I figured since they were coming out until the end of the month they were supposed to be for, I should go ahead and make the change to put myself back on track.  Next column will be the November column and will come out, oddly enough, at the beginning of  November

When last we checked in on HUDSON LEIK, best known as Xena's foe Callisto, she had traded her long, blond hair for a super short cropped coif (not to be confused with Renee O'Connor, who did virtually the same thing a few months later).  It was a  major change for Hudson, but still rather cute on her.  So what's new?  Well, in the intervening 6 or 7 months since the big cut, she has let it grow out.  Uh...sorta.  It's now evolved into a funky, short bob with short bangs.
 

Before	After

FLEA'S CALL:   This has to be an interim stage.  At least, that's what I'm hoping.  Sure it's not actually terrible, but compared to both her previous long locks and more recent pixie, it's comes in a distant third.  She should either chop it off again, add some more  layers, or get extensions.  Anything to soften the Frisbee-like profile this style has.

Back in June, I reported that the lovely REBECCA GAYHEART appeared to have seen the error of her ways in lopping of her magnificent mane and had started cultivating a new crop of curls (are you listening Keri Russell?).  Well, now that Rebecca's profile is a bit higher with her new ABC series "Wasteland", I can confirm that her locks have indeed managed to to reach her shoulders.

FLEA'S CALL:   I loved Rebecca's hair when it was long and so I'm pleased to see she appears to have given up the overly layered short haired life.  The shoulder-length style she sports now is the minimum length she needs to compliment her heart shaped face, plus it allows her go straight or curly equally well.  Good to see that Rebecca appreciates the value of her asset, unlike some other people whose shall remain nameless...uh, well, except for when I named her a minute ago.

Last month, I reported that I was surprised that HALLE BERRY had abandoned her layered blonde bob in favor of a much shorter, over the ears style that retained a little length on top.  This was surprising because Halle had fairly recently commented on how hard it was for her to grow out and a new series of Revlon commercials had just started running featuring Halle and her longer style.  Now, much to my dismay, she has come full circle back to her trademark ultra short pixie, with the only difference being that she's hanging on the dark red/blonde color she had recently adopted.  As you can see from the comparison below, the close cropped, micro-bang cut is virtually identical to the style she wore circa 1994.

Before

After
 
 

Halle in 1994

FLEA'S CALL:   As I've said everytime Halle changes her hair, she still looks great and there apparently isn't a style she can't wear.  This change is actually very safe, since she obviously knew it worked for her the last time she wore it.  As to why she did it, my best guess it that it's for her role as Storm in the new "X-Men" movie.  In the comic, Storm sports a mohawk, so if I'm right, I'm hoping this is as close as Halle has to get.

This is a little subsection I'm going to add in Updates to satisfy a pet peeve of mine.  In my quest to get you the latest information on a celebrity's new look, every once in a while I have to settle on, shall we say, a less than perfect photo.  Ok, admittedly, some outright sucked or I had to mock up a simulation of the new 'do myself which, at times, also sucked (longtime readers will remember the infamous Traylor Howard picture.  Ugh).  Anyway, later I would come across a better picture of the style, but since I'd already reported on it, it didn't make a lot of sense to include a new photo of it.  It would then grate on my nerves that I had a good photo, but nowhere to put it.

Now, I do. 

Let's start with MOIRA KELLY.  It looks like she realized that the hacked style she wore in the pilot of "The West Wing" just didn't fly (get it?  Pilot, fly?  Nevermind) and so she has already begun to return to a softer look.  As you can see in her new NBC publicity photo to the right, it's longer, in the vein of the "tucked" style, and makes use of her natural curl.  A vast improvement over the previous I-cut-my-own-hair-in-the-dark mop.

Next, I have a couple of slightly better pictures of JOELY FISHER's new short cut.  We can still mourn the loss of her "deliciously askew" (Joely's words, not mine) red waves, but since she did it for a role in "Caberet", it's tough to be too harsh on it.  These not good enough for you?  Well, if you can wait until next month, I think I'll be able to put Joely's cut to bed once and for all. 

BROOKE SHIELDS of "Suddenly Susan" cut her hair just before the end of last season and really hasn't changed it over the summer (though it may be just slightly shorter).  I did run across a couple of better pictures of it, however, which I now present for you viewing pleasure (ignore Eric Idle's extraneous eye in the first picture).  Personally, my viewing pleasure would increase if she let it grow out again.

I had an update on country duo, and twin sisters, THE KINLEYS back in June, reporting that, though HEATHER's hair remains long, JENNIFER had gone even shorter.  Her hair is now in the Winona Ryder/Sharon Stone realm. 

Finally found some pictures of it, including a "Before", just to show you that how short is was before she went even shorter. 
 

Before	After

Two things come to mind when looking at Jennifer's cute crop: 1) Given the number of styles Jennifer has gone through in the past year, Heather will never have to consult a hairstyle book and 2) If The Kinleys ever break up, Jennifer would fit right in with The Dixie Chicks.

And finally, though this item dances right on the edge of legitimate criteria for inclusion in the column (and did even when I first reported it last month), I couldn't pass it up.  I stumbled across a new photo of ALYSSA MILANO that shows what a positive difference her abandonment of the pencil-thin eyebrow look makes.
 

Then	Now

You can't tell me that she doesn't look better now.  Well, actually you could, but you would be wrong.

After watching, a few episodes of SELA WARD's new ABC series, "Once and Again", I'm not quite ready to take back my statement that the shoulder-length, straight look isn't that flattering on her as a shorter, fuller 'do, but I am willing to cut her a bit of a break.  Though the length makes its fine texture very obvious as she tosses it about (which she does A LOT on the show), I have to admit that she works it extremely well.  It would be much harder to create that touseled, hair-covering-one eye, come hither sex appeal she exudes on screen with a different style.  Oh, and the show is pretty good too. Jv  As long as I'm doing apologies of a sort, I have to include KRISTEN JOHNSON.  In last month's column, after seeing the mediocre to bad picture of the "3rd Rock From The Sun" star's shortened style, I said "In the long run, given her height, I think she'd be better served to grow it back out".  I then saw Kristen at The Emmys' with her new cut and lighter blonde color.  Wow, but was I wrong (note Kristen's emphasis of that point in the picture).  Suffice it to say that it not only flattered her, but was one of the best looking coifs at the ceremony.  Look for more detail in the Fleature on The Emmys later in the column. 

 Returning to The Dixie Chicks, I caught a glimpse of NATALIE MAINES at The CMA Awards the other night and it looks as if she has begun to let her platinum locks grow out from the Lilith Fair pixie she got this summer.  Then again, she could just be between haircuts.  Hey, I can hope.  I can't be the only one that thought her previous bob was significantly more attractive v  One tiny update on KERI RUSSELL.  An "Entertainment Tonight" online poll showed that 69% thought her hair looked better long, 17% like the new "no-nonsense 'do, and 14% thought she was hot no matter what (ET's words, not mine).  In a related story, 31% of these same people responded that they ate large quantities of paint chips as children.

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