Sabrina Carpenter is having a big month of May: she made it red carpet official with boyfriend Barry Keoghan at the Met Gala on May 6, turned 25 on May 11, and, as one does, threw a party to celebrate.
If that dress Carpenter is wearing at her birthday bash looks familiar, it’s for good reason. It looks extraordinarily similar to the yellow Carolina Herrera gown Kate Hudson made so famous in the 2003 film How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days—and Hudson drew the parallel herself to her character in the movie, Andie Anderson.
Carpenter’s yellow silk minidress wasn’t Carolina Herrera, but rather sourced by her stylist, Jared Ellner, at Depop, an online shopping platform for vintage and second-hand clothing, People reports. She accessorized with a diamond necklace by W. Salamoon, “which made for a look reminiscent of Kate Hudson’s character’s own in a pivotal scene of the rom-com favorite How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” Entertainment Weekly writes. Like Hudson’s dress 21 years ago, Carpenter’s featured a low-cut neckline and an open back; unlike the gown from the film, Carpenter’s was a mini version (and not floor length).
Referencing both her character’s name and Carpenter’s song “Espresso,” Hudson commented on Carpenter’s social media post of photos “That’s that Andie Anderson Espresso,” punctuating the message with four yellow hearts and a kiss emoji. “As if that weren’t enough, there was karaoke, just like at the party in the movie,” Entertainment Weekly reports. “No word if ‘You’re So Vain’ was on the playlist.” (Good one.)
In a sobering realization of one’s advancing age (or is that just me?), Carpenter wasn’t yet four years old when How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days premiered in January 2003. Marking its 20-year anniversary in February 2023, Hudson’s co-star Matthew McConaughey told Variety that the climactic scene of the movie—the one where Andie is wearing that gorgeous yellow gown—was difficult to shoot. (For context, both Andie and McConaughey’s character Benjamin Barry have both just learned that they’re being tricked by the other, so they’re visibly annoyed with each other.)
“Underneath, probably for things that were happening in character and out of character and off-set, we’d gotten under each other’s skin a little bit,” he said of the scene. “We were legitimately kind of pissed off at each other in a really cool way.”
Closing the loop here—Carpenter’s party was thrown, sweetly, by Keoghan, where about 100 people (including Ice Spice) celebrated her at DUMBO House in Brooklyn. In addition to the How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days homage (planned or not), there was another nod to the movies, Entertainment Weekly reports—according to the publication, “a Leonardo DiCaprio-themed cake about the joke that he doesn’t date women over 25” livened up the party.
People reports that the event space was decked out with blue, yellow, and white balloons, and guests enjoyed a custom drink menu, “which, of course, featured espresso martinis,” the outlet reports—no doubt a nod to Carpenter’s new single, currently charting at No. 2 on the Billboard Global 200 chart. A happy birthday, indeed.
