Oscar glam turns to fantasy on the red carpet

Hollywood is the stuff of fairy tales, and at the Academy Awards on Sunday, celebrities dressed the part.

Recession may be reality, but the gowns and jewels were pure escapist fantasy. Because, let’s face it, if stars aren’t glamorous, they aren’t doing their job.

There was a magical princess aura to many looks in a palette of pales keeping with the spring season’s trend for powdery colors.

The best was Sarah Jessica Parker’s silver-embroidered sea-foam silk tulle Dior Haute Couture bustier gown, cinched at the waist, with an enormous ballerina skirt, followed by Penelope Cruz’s 1950s vintage Pierre Balmain strapless ivory lace gown, hand-embroidered with gold bouillon threads.

Miley Cyrus’ ivory silk chiffon Zuhair Murad confection, with scalloped tiers and foil-like embroidery, was too much dress for a 16-year-old.

Likewise, Marisa Tomei’s dove-gray one-shoulder Versace gown with spiraling origami pleats was so ornate you barely noticed her.

Anne Hathaway looked like a mermaid in Giorgio Armani Prive’s champagne-colored mermaid gown, covered in half-dollar size clear paillettes, but I wonder if it crunched when she sat.

Taraji Henson, in a rippling cream chiffon Roberto Cavalli column, offset by a red Mary Norton clutch, was the evening’s best dressed. I loved it when she lifted her skirt to show Ryan Seacrest her shoes and you could see her Spanx lingerie. That’s reality.

Henson’s 19th-century diamond flower Fred Leighton necklace exemplified the jewelry trend. Amy Adams also wore an impressive Leighton piece, a 1950s colored gem-and-diamond collar. Viola Davis fastened a 1950s Leighton clip brooch to the front of her gilded Reem Acra goddess gown.

Freida Pinto showed off a diamond ring of Indian provenance. Her one-sleeved midnight-blue beaded-lace John Galliano gown was an interesting choice. I liked the way the shape echoed a sari, but somehow it aged her, especially with her hair up.

Red dresses, the surest way to va-va-voom glamour, also were popular — Adams in red Carolina Herrera with a sculptural pleated bodice, and Heidi Klum in a slit-high red-silk taffeta RL by Roland Mouret gown.

Kate Winslet wore a one-shouldered blue-gray Yves Saint Laurent gown (the silhouette was all over the fall runways in New York last week). But what I really loved was her hair — a sculptural flip styled by Renato Campora.

Hair styles looked more modern than ever, particularly Henson’s sleek bob and Jessica Beal’s easy do, the front pulled back and the rest tumbling around her shoulders.

Brooks Brothers dressed the evening’s “biggest littlest” stars, the children from “Slumdog Millionaire,” in tiny tuxedos.

Brad Pitt was in head-to-toe Tom Ford and, as usual, Giorgio Armani had quite a pack of fellas, including Sean Penn and Anil Kapoor.

Burberry dressed Hugh Jackman in three different tuxes, and Dev Patel. I only wish Patel’s Brooks Brothers bow tie had been bigger.

It’s been fun to watch Mickey Rourke do the red carpet rounds because he actually takes risks, unlike so many stars. Sunday night, he wore a Jean Paul Gaultier white wool tuxedo with a black vest and chained zipped-up watch pockets. Around his neck was a photo pendant of Loki, his recently deceased pooch. Gotta love it.

I’m all for self-expression, but Philip Seymour Hoffman’s black knit cap made him look as if he were en route to a jewel heist.

Lord knows, he was in the right place.