Partyhopper

From In Style's Glynis Costin in Los Angeles: For some reason, Brittany Murphy (our current In Style Home cover girl) reminds me of one of those cute and kooky stars from the '50s. Like a Doris Day, maybe, only cooler. I can’t explain it, but every time I see her I feel like I’m looking at and talking to someone from another era—in a good way.

I saw her Monday night at the opening of fashion designer Carolina Herrera’s new shop on Melrose Place. (With stores like Marc Jacobs, Diane von Furstenberg and Marni, Melrose Place has become quite the glam new shopping destination for stylish Angelenos.)

Brittany Murphy and photographer Art Streiber,
who shot her for the current cover of In Style Home

Wearing a sexy orange Herrera dress, Murphy was happily checking out the shop’s racks and racks of colorful clothes. “Hey, I wore that one to the premiere of Happy Feet last night!” she said almost giddily, showing me a jeweled turquoise frock. “Wow, I wish I'd known about this little jacket that goes with it,” she added, fingering a Jackie O-esque cropped bolero.

In Happy Feet—an animated film about penguins that opens this weekend—Murphy is the voice of Gloria, the love interest of Mumble (voiced by Elijah Wood). And boy, can she sing! I know I said that about Zooey Deschanel in one of my other posts, but I mean it about Brittany, too. Her soulful rendition of Queen’s “Somebody to Love” had me floored. (I saw a 20-minute preview of the film a while ago).

“I’m so excited about Happy Feet," Murphy told me. “It’s a kids' movie that grownups will love, too. It took five years to make!”

But she also told me she was equally excited about her upcoming film The Dead Girl, in which she plays ... the dead girl. “I don’t want to sound like a commercial,” she said, “but please tell everyone you know to see it! It’s such an important message about women and violence.” Consider yourselves told. (Actually, I have heard good things about the film.)

Anyway, as Herrera flitted around greeting well-wishers, who sipped champagne as they oohed and aahed over her designs, Rose McGowan (accompanied by her cute stylist pal George Kotsiopoulos) showed off her perfect pale skin and curvy shape for the photographers in a long black and white gown. Lauren Graham and Gabrielle Union stopped by (see In Style's upcoming March issue for a beauty story featuring Union getting ready for this fete), and Rebecca Gayheart, who in real life is married to Eric “McSteamy” Dane from Grey’s Anatomy, was there with her makeup-artist pal Maital Sabban. (The event, sponsored by Couture Cares, helped raised funds for the Revlon/UCLA Breast Center.)

Afterward there was an intimate dinner across the street at Lucques, where the gorgeous and hilarious Angie Harmon kept everyone amused at Herrera’s table. Mariska Hargitay further livened up the fete when she arrived during dinner for a quick hello. (I could swear she was wearing the same alluring Herrera gown Gabrielle Union had on at the store opening, but they both looked great in it!) Alas, Hargitay had to leave early to get back to her new baby.

All in all, it was a lovely dinner, and as we waited at the valet station for our cars, I talked with Harmon and Jamie Tisch (the statuesque, blond and philanthropic wife of producer Steve Tisch) about exotic dancing (don’t ask) and how we loved the big red gift boxes we had been given almost as much as we knew we would like whatever was inside them.

(OK, so maybe the gold handbag that turned out to be inside is more chic. But don’t think I won’t put that red box to good use during the holidays!)

For more InStyle.com coverage of this event, including a gallery of photos, click here.

-- James Patrick Herman