Seeing Lady Gaga walk into the Academy Awards, I felt like I was watching “Ocean’s 8” all over again. You’ll remember that in the 2018 film, an all-female installment in the “Ocean’s” heist movie franchise that George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon teamed up for, Sandra Bullock plays Danny Ocean’s sister Debbie, who’s spent the last five years in prison and is ready to get back to robbing. She assembles a team of geniuses that aren’t afraid of breaking the rules and plots to steal a jewel -- and not just any jewel.
The parallels are there:
- In the film, the gem is on the Cartier Toussaint necklace (holding a $150 million diamond). At the Oscars, it was the $30 million, 128-carat Tiffany Diamond.
- In the film, a high-profile actress wears it to a huge Hollywood event (namely, the Met Gala). Lady Gaga wore it to the Academy Awards.
- In the film, the necklace is heavily guarded in a 50-foot deep vault. As for Tiffany & Co., they rarely let the diamond out of their New York store -- one of its outings was for Audrey Hepburn’s publicity shots for “Breakfast at Tiffany's.”
Alas, last night’s Oscars ceremony was not the set of a heist film, and Sandra Bullock didn’t even show up to make the joke. Instead, Gaga paired her necklace set with the giant yellow diamond with Audrey-esque long, black opera gloves, a strapless black Alexander McQueen gown that mermaided at the bottom and a sweeping updo that Holly Golightly herself would stare dreamily at.
But you don’t just pick out the Tiffany Diamond from a jewelry box and go on your way. Though it’s valued around $30 million, the jewel is considered “priceless” and had never been worn to an awards show before -- it usually just travels under lock and key to jewelry fairs and museum exhibitions, besides being shown off in the Fifth Avenue windows. Before Hepburn, it had only been worn one other time: Mrs. Sheldon Whitehouse wore it on a strand of pearls at the 1957 Tiffany Ball in Newport, R.I.
The diamond is considered one of the greatest gem discoveries in the world; found in South Africa in the 19th century, it was bought (for a measly $18,000) directly by Charles Lewis Tiffany in 1878 and was cut into the cushion shape it is today. It features 82 facets, about two dozen more than your typical round diamond, and is just really, really damn pretty.
That’s all to say that it’s a really spectacular piece of jewelry that truly should not be taken lightly. The fact that it rested on Lady Gaga’s chest during the ceremony puts her up there in the ranks with Hepburn, an honor meant to be beyond appreciated.
Gaga’s stylists, Sandra Amador and Tom Eerebout, told The Hollywood Reporter, “The chance to work with such an amazing piece of design and history tonight is a creative dream come true. There are so many beautiful jewels in the world, but the radiant Tiffany Diamond...is truly exceptional, which is just so fitting for Lady Gaga.”
Tiffany’s Chief Artistic Officer Reed Krakoff agreed, calling Gaga “the ultimate creator, innovator and rule breaker, and I’m thrilled that she will be wearing the legendary Tiffany Diamond on the awards show red carpet.”
So, while it’s not exactly the fake-but-not-entirely-fake Toussaint necklace, Gaga’s use of the Tiffany Diamond was nothing short of movie magic.