Our night at the EE BAFTA Awards

Chloe Mac Donnell gives us the inside scoop of what happened when her and colleague Natasha Wynarczyk hit the EE BAFTA Awards

Chloe Mac Donnell gives us the inside scoop of what happened when her and colleague Natasha Wynarczyk hit the EE BAFTA Awards

'She’s refusing to take off her coat. She’s in Dior but the coat isn’t coming off.' Slowly the news trickled up the press line on the red carpet that Jennifer Lawrence who a few weeks ago due to pneumonia missed out on accepting her best actress award at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Awards in Los Angeles was unwilling to shed her black overcoat and pose in her strapless baby pink Dior gown. It was a win for the sensible association of mothers. You could imagine them smugly beaming at her practicality with that 'I told you so look' only mothers can do so well before adding it to their file for the 'have you got your coat' argument the next time their daughter dared to brave the cold sans cover-up. And boy did we feel Lawrence's pain. For four hours we stood in the 'fashion pen' outside the Royal Opera house as the rain/ hail/ sleet and eventually snow trickled down, turning the once crisp red carpet into a sodden, squidgy mess. Our position was at the top of the carpet, right next to the pack of paps. We couldn’t see who was arriving when but instead judged the caliber of celebrity about to descend on the carpet by the level of noise fans (many who had camped out for 24 hours) let loose. Early arrivee Caroline Flack got a couple of claps and even a few hisses (the Harry wounds still run deep for some it seems) whilst Jessica Chastain generated numerous enthusiastic whoops and shrieks before the decibel volume reached peaked levels when Bradley Cooper and George Clooney went public with their bromance.

Once the celebrities had been chaperoned up the 120 meter long carpet by an excited looking assistant they took their place in line for their official press photo. This is when we tried to lure them to our side of the pen in the hope they would give us lots of juicy sound bites that we would then reveal to you dear readers. However, surprisingly A-listers aren't that keen to stand in a downpour and chat about how long it took them to perfect their hair/makeup and choose their frock whilst said hair/ makeup and frock slowly disintegrates into a rain sodden mess. Those who did risk the droplets and thus get added Marie Claire bonus points included model/ BFC ambassador Laura Bailey in Roksanda Ilincic who revealed she was most looking forward to seeing Ben Affleck and Rising Star winner Juno Temple in a white Stella McCartney gown. Describing her first Bafta experience as a 'whirlwind' and still in disbelief she was nominated - 'just being part of that category of such amazing talent is good enough for me' - the English actress added she was thrilled to be wearing a British designer to the British awards ceremony. We bet Stella was too.

So who else really wowed us and managed to raise our damp, damp spirits? Well, we adored Helen Mirren's bubblegum pink coloured hair aswell as her enthusiastic twirling in her Nicholas Oakwell dress. Marion Cotillard (in stunning canary yellow Dior couture) made us laugh with her loud shrieking and numerous shocked facial expressions as a particular heavy burst of hail fell just as she stepped from underneath an umbrella and into the blur of photography flashes while later we swooned when Bradley Cooper gave us a thumbs up and a wink before joking around with the gorgeous George. Yet, one of our favourite parts had to be the banter from the sea of press photographers. It was evident what celebrities had done red carpet posing before as they obediently stood on their marks and worked the cameras from left to right, front row to back, whilst the newbie’s looked on in terror as orders and even obscenities were yelled at them from all directions.

However, the highlight of our evening had to be a photographer who shall remain nameless. Although, devastated at missing the Ireland vs. England rugby match he kept us entertained with his random questioning – who is she - (Jessica Raine, you know from 'Call the Midwife' – cue blank stare,) why is she (Paloma Faith) wearing that on her head? (it's actually her hair) and oh gosh that poor girl (Jennifer Lawrence) looks like a drowned rat, (errr no her hair is actually meant to look like that, it's the slicked back look, it's so SS/13!) See you can think your acting all sensible leaving your coat on but there’s always someone that will still think your fashion look is completely mad.

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