Leading Man: Sure, Daniel Day-Plainview may have drunk George Clooney’s milkshake last night, but with his shawl-collar tux and styled arm candy, Dr. Ross walked away with our award. [Observer]

Fit to Be Tied: Speaking of the Oscars, a few attendees, including Scientology’s unofficial co-pilot Ms. John Travolta, can’t manage a bow on their own. For shame. [Manolo for Men]

Sparkle, Sparkle: Dear Diablo Cody, remember that those snarky, insipid style critics have a job to do and tearing you apart is just part of it. It’s nothing personal. As far as we’re concerned, you’ll always be the second or third hottest former stripper to win for best script. [Beauty Fashion Life]

Hand Me Down: Adrian Grenier says vintage style is good for Mother Earth. Damned hippie. [Hoopla]

Watch out for Klingons: Ted Baker goes zoom! zap! bleep! bleep! in your underwear. [Retro to Go]

The White Pages: Social injustice, the class system and America’s yawning racial divide arrived bundled with P.C. Richards circulars this Sunday. [PSFK]

Welcome to the MOTH makeover edition. Rather than an award for a single outfit, this one goes to Tom Hanks for his recent transformation from Tinseltown schlub to one of Hollywood’s best-dressed men.

Up until the past few months, it was strictly sack suits and Today’s Man looks for the hapless Hanks, when he could even be bothered to wear a tie. When Hanks started turning out extra nattily, we quickly detected the hand of Machiavellian style master (and MOTH mainstay) Tom Ford, whose new ad campaign is causing such a ruckus. Ford prescribed well-cut suits and elegant ties with bespoke details in classic monochromatic palettes worthy of Cary Grant.

More on Hanks’ latest transformation»

Who is that guy? Was he in that boxing movie? With the guns?

That’s right, it’s Mickey Rourke. And by the time February rolls around, you may be seeing him on the cover of a lot of magazines that weren’t returning his calls a scant few years ago.

His latest, The Wrestler just took home the top prize from Cannes (with a little help from indie auteur Darren Aronofsky), and its latest distribution deal guarantees him an Oscar campaign and a few months in the media spotlight. In other words, the folks at GQ are on the phone with his publicist right now—if he still has a publicist—and the early reports indicate he’s a hell of an interview. Hopefully, he can pull off a suit too.

A few of our favorite passages»

David Fincher isn’t doing terribly well in the Oscar-buzz arms race—and he isn’t doing himself any favors in interviews—but the lackluster Benjamin Button may be covering up one of Hollywood’s more interesting directors.

No, seriously»

Dear Abby: Complex turns us on to the unique charms of British mini-star Abigail Clancy. Thanks, gentlemen. [Complex]

Blowhard 2, Blow Harder: A very brief, very critical history of Oscar speeches. [Esquire]

Slip Them a Mickey: Your guide to post-oscar careers, or exactly how long you’ll have to wait before Mickey Rourke is back on the street. [Vulture]

Regrets, I’ve Had a Few: Amy Poehler reconsiders a life in fashion. But not for very long. [BlackBook]

Dearly Departed: Expect to see a lot more of these as Oscar season picks up. [Esquire]

The Shining: Barker Black’s guide to caring for those oxfords. [Valet]

I Am a Scientist: Kurt Andersen sings the praises of the Large Hadron Collider. It is large and collides hadrons. [Vanity Fair]

Back in the Day: A tour through the archives of Hart Schaffner Marx. Not as many mustaches as you’d hope. [Fine and Dandy]

We’d rank Fantastic Mr. Fox as easily the best-dressed film of the year, but it looks like the academy is going to let this one slide. Unfortunately for the corduroy lovers of the world, Wes Anderson handled all the designs himself, so there’s no official costume designer for the movie and an Oscar nod is off the table. It’s the first time we’ve seen them penalize a director for being an auteur, but there’s always next time. Maybe he can nab a special achievement in back-split suits?

We’re not much for Oscar-watching, but by now the field has narrowed enough for us to make the following prediction: There will be at least one glorious ‘stache on the red carpet, courtesy of Lee Daniels.

The man who directed Precious has been making the publicity rounds for months now, but every time he shows up on daytime TV, his badass horseshoe mustache overwhelms just about everything he says, shining forth like he’s the second coming of Melvin van Peebles. Even if he doesn’t take home anything, a few primetime cutaways to a mustached man in a tuxedo should be enough to keep the soupcatcher revival going through the summer.

As for the Best Picture race…he’s got a lot of institutional support.

You Know, Metaphorically: That jacket probably crinkles a lot. [Fashion Gone Rogue]

The Style Guy of Style Guys: Glenn O’Brien is scouring eBay for a Citroen. Sometimes the only appropriate response is awe. [A Continuous Lean]

Bags, Hats and Belts: The latest crop of APC accessories just landed, and no matter what you think, they refuse to make their belts any thicker or their ties any wider. Shine on… [Selectism]

Little Gold Men: Ranking “For Your Consideration” ads on a scale from Spielberg to Seagal. [Vulture]

With Hurt Locker looking like an almost-sure thing for Best Picture, we thought we’d dig up one of the director’s attempts at the fine genre known as “advertorial.” Specifically, a nine-minute spot called Mission Zero that Kathryn Bigelow made a couple years back for the tire company Pirelli (remember them?) which features a bright yellow Ferrari, an omnipresent squad of assassins and a typically hardass Uma Thurman. It was passed over by the Academy, presumably because they wanted more on the political implications of Ferrari chases.

Watch it here»

We’ve already tipped our hat to Jeff Bridges, and he’ll probably be getting all the praise he needs come Sunday. But at the risk of piling on, we thought we’d pay our respects to an icon that’s drifted out of the public eye: the drunken rambler.

Check amongst yourselves»

Yesterday’s Girl: Sartorially Inclined takes a moment to appreciate Brigitte Bardot. [Sartorially Inclined]

Base Instincts: Molly Lambert dissects the orgy of crassness that is Basic Instinct. [This Recording]

I’ll Be Your Host for the Evening: Do the Oscars need a permanent host? We’re pretty sure Bob Hope is too old for that. [Esquire]

Twill for the Ages: A trip to an archival khaki warehouse proves to be all kinds of awesome. [A Continuous Lean]

There was a lot of good style on display last night, between Guy Pearce doing his best Thom Browne impression and Morgan Freeman completing his transformation into one of the coolest people in Hollywood, but our favorite had to be Tahar Rahim, star of the French gangster opus A Prophet.

The movie’s only playing in a handful of screens, and his chances of becoming a household name are just about slim to none, but somehow he managed to land the best tuxedo in Hollywood last night. Thanks to a particularly 70s-inspired vest, he manages to turn the uniform of the Oscars into something playful, without ever looking older than he is. Not bad, given he was sharing the red carpet with none other than Tom Ford.