Red Carpet

THE EDITORIAL board must have been out sick when economic fundamentals were taught in high school, or they would've learned that governmental control of salaries (minimum wage) is one of the main tenets of socialism. The board is free to pander to those who lack education or drive to make a decent living without state handouts disguised as progressive legislation. Employees are paid their worth as determined by the market. Those unhappy with their lot need to work to improve it. For advice and inspiration, they can turn to millions of us who earn a living wage without the benefits of state interference.

At a grand reopening of the Victory Building on Wednesday night, a red carpet ran up the granite staircase to the original wood doors of the jewel of Chestnut Street. Talk about extreme makeovers. Vagrants once squatted at the top of its stairs. Rats once scurried in the shadows amid debris. Scrub trees grew from balconies. But the building is making a flamboyant comeback. Sitting at 10th and Chestnut Streets, the Victory is one of the country's grand examples of the Second Empire architectural style.

FORGET THE Dolby Theatre, in Hollywood. Cawley's Irish Pub, in Upper Darby, had its own red carpet for the Oscars - and its own Bradley Cooper. OK, so it was a life-sized cardboard cutout of Cooper . . . and the red carpet was more like a wide strip of industrial-strength paper towel material taped to the tile floor . . . and it was definitely smokier than the Dolby Theatre. But, make no mistake, the pub on West Chester Pike was still the best place for "Silver Linings Playbook" fans to watch the Oscars Sunday night.

Bradley Cooper, Brian Klugman, and Lee Sternthal were on Chestnut Street Monday night, navigating the red carpet that had been rolled out in front of the Prince Music Theater. The fans were squealing - well, they were squealing for Cooper - but inside their heads, these three Philly boys were squealing a little, too. The Words , an elaborate, old-style romantic melodrama that Cooper stars in (and executive-produced), and that Klugman and Sternthal wrote and directed, was having its premiere.

Celebs were relatively laid back at the Golden Globes Sunday night, perhaps because they found it hard to be festive in the aftermath of Haiti's devastating earthquake. Most pinned yellow, blue and red ribbons - colors from the Haitian flag - on their dressed-up lapels. Still, those parading down the red carpet at the Beverly Hills Hilton in Los Angeles managed to shimmer with trends that are sure to become the latest in evening wear. Gowns were backless and body-skimming.

NOW THAT A "Sex and the City" movie is finally close to cameras rolling, what about a movie about four HBO men whose lives consist of parties and sex? TV Week says that an "Entourage" movie isn't off the table, according to creator Doug Ellin. There just needs to be a table. "If people were interested in that, and somebody wanted to finance it, I would be all for it," he said. "But it's never been discussed. I hope we have four or five good seasons left of this show before that were to be the case.

WHAT OTHER city but Philadelphia would actually pay groups to hold their event here, then treat them shabbily? That's how we have acted toward the annual Army-Navy game, now threatening to end its long relationship with the city. Last year, when Baltimore hosted the game, it made the teams feel welcome, rolling out the red carpet at every chance. Over the years, we've gotten lazy and complacent, barely batting an eye when the game is here. It's such a yawn that we didn't even do minor repairs on the Vet, and as a result, rotting railings collapsed in 1998, injuring 10 people.

Oscar fever? Academy Award angst? Second-guessing your keenly strategized office-pool entry? (Hmmm, maybe Johnny Depp is going to beat out Sean Penn. And The Last Samurai for best sound mixing - what was I thinking?) It's that time of year again, folks, and the excitement is palpable. (Well, actually, it's a little earlier than the usual that time - they've moved the ceremonies up three weeks.) Whether you're a stay-at-home-with-your-significant-other type, or a let's-go-to-that-place-where-the-barmaids-dress-up-like-Hollywood-glamour-queens sort, whether your primary interest is the red carpet couture show ("Who are you wearing tonight?"

Scientists have identified all sorts of attributes that women like to see in a man, but many are the sort of thing the guy was either born with or not: a prominent chin, shoulders wider than hips, a relatively deep voice. The latest research suggests something that men can do all by themselves: Put on a red shirt. In a series of experiments, women looked at photos of men and judged those in red shirts to be more attractive and sexy than those wearing other colors. Ditto for black-and-white photos of men that were framed in red, though we're guessing this tip won't prove as useful in the singles bar. The color red boosted ratings by about one point on a nine-point scale of attractiveness, scientists report in this month's Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Hollywood's magical ball is Sunday night, and all week television personalities have been fretting and squealing about it, expecting us to watch in supportive awe, like Cinderella. It all seemed to go too far - or further than too far - on Wednesday night, when the gangs at "Entertainment Tonight" and "The Insider" performed an inexplicable Broadwaylike number in gowns and black tie against a white background, drumming up giddiness while frantically trying to brand their coverage of the Academy Awards ceremony.