Jenny McCarthy accidentally wore her designer frock backwards at her first Oscars.
The former Playmate-turned actress, 51, made the admission while reflecting on her Academy Awards debut in 1997, which came with an embarrassing lesson in how to dress in couture outfits after she was made the gaffe in a Valentino gown she was given to model.
She told ‘Live with Kelly and Mark’ when Kelly Ripa, 53, asked her what her big “takeaway” was from attending the Academy Awards: “Well the funny thing is, I went to the Oscars once.
“They invited me when I was the It girl. They invite the It girl each year. I only was invited once, obviously.
“I literally was working at a Polish grocery store a year and a half prior to me going to the Oscars, so I didn’t know much.
“They put me in a Valentino dress – I didn’t know I wore the dress backwards.”
She also recalled how she thanked Valentino Garavani on the red carpet for allowing her to “borrow” the dress – only for the designer to tell her she had it on back-to-front.
Jenny added: “He said, ‘You’re wearing it backwards.’ You know what, it doesn’t surprise me, I was smelling like Polish sausage still from working the deli!”
Kelly defended Jenny by saying the back of the dress should have been designed as the front, just like the actress had worn it – and the actress thanked the presenter for “sticking up” for her nearly 30 years after the red carpet blunder.
That year was a different story for Jenny at the Oscars, where she wore a sheer gown featuring a jewelled neckline and white sequined rose embellishments winding around the bodice and skirt.
Jenny has been married to actor Donnie Wahlberg, 54, since 2014 and the pair have co-parent Jenny’s son Evan, who she has with her director ex-husband John Asher, 53, as well as Donnie’s boys Xavier Alexander and Elijah Hendrix, who he had with his 53-year-old former wife Kimberly Fey.