You say Olay, I say Ole

Olay held its inaugural SA Iconic Women Awards in Midrand last night which was jam-packed with celebs. Interestingly enough, many of those who won were either not present or had not sent a representative. Khanyi Dhlomo/Dlomo of Destiny mag was one of the few winners to be present.

The venue, the Villa Toscana Wedding Village, was hard to find and even though I asked some traffic cops at the McDonald's down the road for directions I was none the wiser. Maybe it was their pronunciation of "Gallagher" as "Gullaga". There were some howlers at the do too ... Linda Makhanya, the ultra-skinny, white jacketed fashion editor of Blaque magazine pronounced Edith Venter, winner of the Media Personality of the Year, as "Edit", Olga Osminskina of Olay dazzled us with her Polish pronunciations (which were admittedly cute - I want to learn to speak like Olga), Ryk Neethling managed to stuff up his auto cue so badly that we completely lost interest in what he was saying (he should really never speak), Emmanuel Castis also got finalists' names in the corporate social investment cat-UGGORY badly wrong and Ciko Thomas's name kept on being pronounced as "Psycho". Surely they could have had a rehearsal or made sure that their presenters were up to the job? I know journalists get rapped over the knuckles if they don't get names right, that's why there is a little thing called Google, so this applies even more to presenters and pronunciation. It just made the sponsors look bad. On the other hand "mistress of ceremonies" Joanne Strauss was brilliant, poised and Hollywood star glamorous. They should clone her.

The event was billed as a major red carpet do and the cameras were everywhere. I was looking forward to dessert after all the announcements but was put off by the bright-ass spotlight shining right behind me where Koula was interviewing some of the finalists.

Bravo to Lucilla Booyzens for winning the Fashion category. All her hard work has paid off in recognition of what she has contributed to the fashion scene. David Tlale (sans sunglasses for once) was the presenter in this cat-UGGORY and started off the announcement with "Unfortunately..". A neighbour murmered: "Unfortunately, David Tlale is not the winner". The big-headed Tlale did pay tribute to the woman who gave him his first big break at SA Fashion Week.

The winners in the various cat-UGGORIES were:
Dr Precious Moloi, Top Businesswoman of the Year (beating out Maria Ramos who was rated 9th most influential woman in the world in Fortune magazine!). Presented by Isaac Moroeng.
Gerry Rantseli-Elsdon, Top Entrepreneur. Presented by Ciko Thomas.
Lucilla Booyzens, Fashion. Presented by David Tlale.
Chriselda Kananda, Corporate Social Investment. Presented by Emmanuel Castis.
Penny Heyns, Sport. Badly presented by Ryk Neethling.
Pabi Moloi, Woman of Tomorrow. Presented by Sean Press of LEAF
Elizabeth O'Leary, Science and Technology. Presented by Peter Blantanis
Khanyi Dhlomo, Arts, Media and Entertainment. Presented by Craig Urbani
Edith Venter, Media Personality. Presented by Linda Makhanya
Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Lifetime Achievement Award. Presented by Olga Osminskina