Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera have got the look you want to know better.
By Anne-Marie Otey

January 12, 2001
Copyright © 1998-2001 FashionDish 

Maybe we're getting jaded, but we now like to cover parties before they happen. So we spent Saturday afternoon backstage at the American Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium, two days before the actual event. We grabbed our backstage pass, and walked up to a tent outside the building, where we discovered a display of apricot pannetone, cappuccino and sticky buns from Starbucks. All the prices on the menu had been rubbed out, displaying the theme of the day: It's free! We watched Britney Spears rehearse from a seat a few rows back in the auditorium, thinking how many 9-year-olds would kill to be in our place. Not everyone was so devoted. Each tech guy scattered around the huge venue had two TV monitors in front of him: one showed whoever was onstage, the other had the Vikings game and then the Raiders. Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees kept his eye diplomatically on both while his girlfriend, Jessica Simpson, sang-Then the two went upstairs to the "opium den," a comfy, couch-filled lounge filled with goodies for the taking. "I have so many thank-you notes to write now," exclaimed Brooke Shields. She was wearing a silver and diamond toggle necklace from jeweler Scott Kay, helping herself to a reflexology foot massage, and then a chronograph watch from the Maurice Lacroix booth. She's thinking of giving the watches as gifts to friends at her upcoming wedding, or perhaps at pal Kathy Griffin's nuptials next month, where Brooke will be maid of honor. Kay, the major designer of platinum jewelry in the U.S., had a special gift for Spears, the night's co-hostess: a platinum chain bracelet with a G clef encrusted in pave diamonds-Swiss watchmaker Maurice Lacroix, a leading brand in Europe, is making its mark here partly by choosing some stellar wrists to adorn. After he performed Monday night, Ricky Martin rushed upstairs and picked out a black-faced Miros bracelet watch. He set it to New York time, then hopped a plane to New York, saying the watch was "fashionable, fun and I can see it when I'm onstage." Toni Braxton chose a stainless steel Miros with 30 diamonds around the face. Aaron Carter, Bill Maher and LL Cool J all now own the Tiago Copper Face watch. Maher, a watch collector, plans to wear it on his TV show.