DUBAI: Hollywood actress Emily Blunt made an appearance on US television’s The Ellen Show this week, wearing a glittering top by British designer Osman Yousefzada.
The Birmingham-born designer, who is of Afghan descent, founded his namesake label OSMAN in 2008 and has gone on to make a name for himself on the British fashion scene.
Blunt is the latest in a long line of stars to show off clothes from his label and chose the sparkling black “Amos” top from the designer’s collection. The blouse features a high-necked collar, bow details on the back and is covered with sequins.
Blunt wore the top with casual jeans and strappy black heels for her appearance on The Ellen Show, where she was promoting her latest film, “Mary Poppins Returns.”
The film, set some 20 years after the original movie made actress Julie Andrews a star, was named as one of the 10 best films of 2018 by the American Film Institute on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
The honors are among the first to be handed out during Hollywood’s awards seasons, which continues with Golden Globe nominations on Thursday through the Academy Awards in February.
The film had its world premiere in Los Angeles last week, featuring a new cast and new music but with a nostalgic nod to the original.
The 1964 film “Mary Poppins” starring Andrews and Dick Van Dyke as a cheerful chimney sweep brought a best actress Oscar for Andrews and an award-winning score of songs like “A Spoonful of Sugar” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” that have become classics.
In “Mary Poppins Returns,” Blunt plays the firm but kind singing nanny who descends on London in the early 20th century to take care of the children of the now adult Banks siblings from the 1964 film.
Like the original, “Mary Poppins Returns” features fantasy sequences and plenty of dance numbers. It even brings back the animated dancing penguins.
“It really is a trip down nostalgia lane and paying homage to these incredible movies that we all grew up watching that are so representative of everything we remember as children,” Blunt told reporters on the red carpet, according to Reuters.
“Yet we’re doing something new, and I think it’s a film that’s just full of feeling and full of joy.”
“Hamilton” rap musical creator Lin-Manuel Miranda takes on the role played by Van Dyke in 1964, but as a young lamp lighter rather than a chimney sweep. Van Dyke, 92, who was given a standing ovation by the Hollywood audience on Thursday, has a cameo as a kindly, tap-dancing banker.
Disney’s “Mary Poppins Returns” marks the first time in 54 years that the character, who was created in books written by P.L. Travers in the 1930s and 1940s, has been revisited on film. The story was turned into a Broadway and London stage musical 15 years ago.
