...."I compare the difference between stylists and actresses to the difference between a poodle and a Rotweiler," says the owner of a downtown PR firm. "The stylist is the poodle - a little dog that makes noise to make its presence bigger. The star is the Rotweiler - it sits patiently and quietly, but you know what it's capable of doing."

Hollywood's biggest and best-known stylist is Jessica Paster, who, for the 2000 Oscars, turned Best Actress nominee Hilary Swank - who won for her role as a girl masquerading as a man in "Boys Don't Cry" - into the night's best-dressed, with a green iridescent modern-day ballgown by Randolph Duke. Since then, the actress has emerged as one of the most unlikely style arbiters in recent memory, and is often a front-row fixture at New York's Fashion Week.

....And in the annals of bad behavior, there is The Hoarder of all hoarders.

A publicist for one Hollywood eveningwear company says that this particular stylist comes to their atelier before the Oscars and borrows the entire collection.

"She gets all the best dresses, so celebrities say, 'Well, if I don't go to her, I can't get a good dress," says the insider.

Perpetuating the vicious cycle: Designers have to work with The Hoarder because celebrities know she's the go-to girl for great frocks: "And she only has the clients because she has the clothes," says the publicist. [NY Post] Fascist!

I didn't know there was an "Oscar fashion coordinator":

Don't expect the rich reds and purples of last weekend's Screen Actors Guild Awards to glow on Oscar's red carpet.

Red itself will be reserved for lips stained ruby or berry during Sunday's Academy Awards (ABC at 8 p.m. ET/5 PT), while gowns will be resplendent in spring-inspired blushes and nudes, stylists say - all the better to match baubles colored lavender, coral and peach.

"It will be all-out glamour," says Patty Fox, official Oscar fashion coordinator. "There will be more jewels on ears and necks than on the gowns. It's not as much of an embellished gown" - save for the $2.5 million diamond-studded dress to be worn by Entertainment Tonight's Maria Menounos.

Hair will continue to play off "that whole 1930s look," says celebrity snipper Oscar Blandi, who is working with Jennifer Garner. "Wavy, not messy."

The sleekness will extend to jewelry, where earrings are increasingly more about matchsticks (long and skinny) than chandeliers, according to diamond man Lowell Kwiat.

Stylist Phillip Bloch's new line of crystal jewelry for Baccarat, which includes a delicate necklace and dangly earrings, was designed with the likes of Charlize Theron in mind, every designer's "get" this year.

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