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The festivities surrounding the Academy Awards continued in Hollywood yesterday when Essence hosted its sixth annual Black Women in Hollywood luncheon at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The pre-Oscars soiree was filled with stars, including Kelly Rowland and supermodel Naomi Campbell (in Azzedine Alaïa), who were on hand to celebrate the day’s honorees, Oprah Winfrey, Gabrielle Union (in Versace and an Oroton clutch), Bond girl Naomie Harris, and the youngest nominee in Oscars history, nine-year-old Beasts of the Southern Wild star Quvenzhané Wallis. During her acceptance speech for Breakthrough Performance, Wallis thanked her on-set babysitter—she was only six when she made the film.

Click through the gallery to see more pre-Oscars parties!

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We’re only a few days into the new year, and the creative nail art trend of 2012 is something that’s definitely carrying over. Celebrities are continuing to get creative with their manicures, like Gabrielle Union, Taylor Swift, and Zoe Saldana, who all went the matchy-matchy route, coordinating their nails and outfits. Union matched her digits to her silver dress, Swift painted the town (and her nails!) red at her New Year’s Eve performance in Times Square, and Saldana mirrored the green tones in her Pucci number with a dark olive lacquer. Click “See the Photos” to take a closer look at each of their manicures, and get more celebrity nail inspiration in the gallery!

Startraks Photo; Sipa USA

Happy New Year! If you rang in 2013 with a fair amount of sparkle and bubbly, you weren’t alone! The celebrity-filled celebrations spanned the country, from New York with Taylor Swift painting Times Square Red with a performance for Ryan Seacrest’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve special to Miami with Zoe Saldana (in Pucci), Gabrielle Union, and basketballer Dwyane Wade bidding adieu to 2012 at an SL Miami bash inside The James Royal Palm. And that’s not all! Click through to see how more stars celebrated.

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• Zoe Rocks an Old Navy Pea Coat
• Bradley and Zoe Take a Thanksgiving Stroll
• Taylor Swift’s Red Looks

“Every woman looks good in red,” All My Children alum Leven Rambin told InStyle.com at our annual Summer Soiree in Beverly Hills this week. The star of the upcoming Chasing Mavericks movie is particularly fond of the color, as she wore a sparkling crimson design by Chagoury Couture to the Los Angeles premiere of The Hunger Games (fittingly, she was Glimmer in the movie). Click through the gallery to see more stars—Jennifer Lopez, Gabrielle Union, and Viola Davis included—in the hue. Then, tell us: Do you agree with her philosophy?

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•  See Celebrities Who Love to Wear Red
•  Photos From The Hunger Games Premiere
•  Red Carpet Trend: Red and Pink!

— Kwala Mandel