ON TIME: Dior's first full-blown cruise runway show in New York kicked off relatively on time on Monday evening, and perhaps Charlize Theron helped. The Dior perfume face arrived with pleasant punctuality to support the brand. "[John Galliano] really understands how women want to feel. When I wear his clothes I feel so feminine. And he's not afraid to make a woman look sexy," said Theron as she dispatched a handler to fetch some red wine for her mother. The actress was in town for a couple of days to shoot the new J'adore campaign.

Nearby, omnipresent Dita Von Teese admitted she had never worn Dior for one of her famous striptease acts (she'll be performing at a benefit for the Museum of Sex this week). But if the former Mrs. Marilyn Manson has her way, that will change. "I'm working on a new act right now and I'd really love to incorporate haute couture into it," she revealed.

Kylie Minogue (so tiny she went unnoticed by most photographers) was finding inspiration of her own while in town. "I went to see Blossom Dearie today," she enthused of the octogenarian jazz artist. "She inspired some of the tracks on my last album….I'm working on a new one now. After Cannes, I'm going to Stockholm to do some recording."

As guests fanned themselves in their seats waiting for the show to start, Penélope Cruz was rushed to her place next to Sidney Toledano. "I think Galliano is a genius," she proclaimed, minutes before the show began.

But Galliano's cobblery left something to be desired. Early on in the presentation, a trembling blonde Milana, wearing the designer's towering ball-bedecked heels, took a tumble at the end of the runway and almost toppled again onto Candy Pratts Price before a Dior handler came to her rescue. And later, during the final lineup, May Andersen was so wobbly in her shoes she clutched two friends' hands just to make it down and back in one piece.