Lisa Rinna made a dramatic entrance at the star-studded 2026 MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night.
At the ceremony, held at Los Angeles’ 7,000-seat Peacock Theater, the 63-year-old actor swapped her familiar brunette shag for a spiky, peroxide-blonde wig.
She paired the striking hairstyle with a daring white strapless gown, whose sculpted bodice closely followed the contours of her breasts and torso.
The ‘naked’ dress opened into a flowing train and featured a bold thigh-high slit, revealing Rinna’s tanned legs and white platform heels.
For her beauty look, the reality TV star chose smudged black eyeshadow, a glossy nude lip and a radiant peach-toned blush.
She kept her accessories understated, wearing only a pair of sparkling stud earrings.
Lisa Rinna commanded attention as she arrived at the star-studded 2026 MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night.
Rinna confidently worked the red carpet, striking a series of poses against a blue backdrop decorated with imagery of the VMAs’ iconic Moonperson.
Her husband of nearly 30 years, Harry Hamlin, was not by her side for the occasion.
Rinna and the 74-year-old Hollywood actor share two model daughters, Amelia Gray, 25, and Delilah Belle, 28, neither of whom attended Sunday’s event.
Rinna was among the early stars to arrive, joining Summer House personality Ciara Miller, Bebe Rexha and singer JoJo on the red carpet.
The night’s most eagerly awaited moment is expected to be Taylor Swift’s presentation with the inaugural Artist Director Honors.
At 36, the megastar is set to move ahead of 44-year-old Beyonce as the VMAs’ most decorated artist. Both entered Sunday’s ceremony with 30 awards each.
Because Beyonce has no nominations this year, Swift is poised to become the event’s sole record-holder.
The MTV VMA Artist Director Honors recognizes artists with a sustained, influential body of work who have expanded creative boundaries and established a distinct directorial voice.
Swift has treated music videos as an extension of her songwriting, directing visuals for The Fate of Ophelia, Opalite, The Man, cardigan, willow, All Too Well: The Short Film, Anti-Hero, Bejeweled, Fortnight (feat. Post Malone), I Can See You (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault), Karma (feat. Ice Spice) and Lavender Haze.
At the ceremony inside Los Angeles’ 7,000-seat Peacock Theater, the 63-year-old debuted a spiky, peroxide-blonde wig in place of her signature brunette shag.
Rinna pictured in January.
The bold hairstyle was paired with a revealing white strapless gown featuring a bodice sculpted around Rinna’s breasts and torso.
The ‘naked’ gown’s flowing lower half included a daring thigh slit that highlighted her tanned legs and white platform heels.
No doubt diehard Swifties will be watching the event with plenty of scrutiny as she released deluxe album The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore along with new single Patient Zero on Friday.
Meanwhile, were unveiled last month as it was Madonna who emerged as the artist with the most nods.
Madonna, 68, is in competition for a staggering 11 prizes, narrowly beating out Swift, who has nods in nine categories.
They will be vying against each other for the evening’s top honor, video of the year, with Swift up for The Fate of Ophelia and Madonna for Confessions II (The Film).
Rounding out the category are the music videos for Hate That I Made You Love Me by Ariana Grande, Tears by Sabrina Carpenter, I Just Might by Bruno Mars and Storm by GENER8ION (starring Yung Lean).
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Madonna famously performed at the first-ever VMAs in 1984, bursting from a gigantic wedding cake while dressed in a bridal gown for a rendition of Like a Virgin.
She has emerged as a reliable engine of memorable moments at the extravaganza, where she ignited a fan frenzy in 2003 by kissing Britney Spears on the lips.
Over the course of her more than four-decade career, Madonna has earned a total of 19 VMAs, meaning that in order to equal Swift and Beyonce’s current record she will have to triumph in every category in which she is nominated this year.
No doubt the most anticipated moment of the night will be when Taylor Swift receives inaugural Artist Director Honors (Above, at the 2024 MTV VMAs in New York in September 2024)
No doubt diehard Swifties will be watching the event with plenty of scrutiny as she released deluxe album The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore along with new single Patient Zero on Friday
Madonna, 68, is in competition for a staggering 11 prizes, narrowly beating out Swift, who has nods in nine categories (Above in New York in June)
Confessions II (The Film) is in the running to win best direction, best cinematography, best visual effects, best editing, best choreography, best art direction and dance video of the year.
Trailing Madonna and Swift, Grande and Carpenter are tied for third place with seven nominations apiece, while Mars, PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson each have five.
The artist of the year category is a face-off between Madonna, Swift, Grande, Carpenter, Mars and country music heartthrob Morgan Wallen.
Madonna and Carpenter have landed a joint song of the year nomination for their duo Bring Your Love, the lead single of the former’s new album Confessions II.
Their rivals are Ella Langley for Choosin’ Texas, BTS for Swim, Raye for Where Is My Husband, Olivia Dean for Man I Need and HUNTR/X for their Oscar-winning number Golden from the streaming sensation KPop Demon Hunters.
Madonna’s Confessions II (The Film) is up for dance video of the year, against such competition as Aperture by Harry Styles, Runway by Lady Gaga and Doechii and New Religion by Bebe Rexha and Faithless.
The other nominees in that category are Dance… by Slayyyter, Stateside by PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson and Nobody’s Girl by Tate McRae.
Madonna and Carpenter could also win best collaboration, for which they would have to beat out Clipse, Kendrick Lamar, Pusha T and Malice for Chains & Whips as well as Shakira and Burna Boy for Dai Dai.
They will be vying against each other for the evening’s top honor, video of the year, with Swift up for The Fate of Ophelia (pictured) and Madonna for Confessions II – The Film
Trailing Madonna and Swift, Ariana Grande (pictured in January) and Sabrina Carpenter are tied for third place with seven nominations apiece
Carpenter is pictured in her music video for Tears, which is up for video of the year against offerings by Madonna, Swift, Grande, Bruno Mars and GENER8ION (starring Yung Lean)
Also in that category are Teyana Taylor and Lucky Daye’s Hard Part, PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson’s Stateside and French Montana and Max B’s Ever Since U Left Me.
Best pop video has emerged as a contest between Hate That I Made You Love Me, The Fate of Ophelia and Nobody’s Girl, as well as Dream by the Blackpink breakout Lisa, SS26 by Charli XCX, Drop Dead by Olivia Rodrigo and House Tour by Carpenter.
Madonna’s VMAs coup comes after she earned a burst of critical acclaim and fan adoration for her latest album Confessions II, which was released July 3 and serves as a sequel to her 2005 smash hit Confessions on a Dance Floor.
During the promotions for Confessions II, Madonna went viral for describing John F Kennedy Jr as one of the best lovers she ever had.
Madonna was asked to reveal her ‘best f***,’ and after insisting she would ‘only name dead people,’ whispered: ‘John Kennedy Jr.’
The Queen of Pop indulged in a dalliance with ‘America’s Prince’ in the 1980s, to the purported dismay of his mother Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Madonna paid her compliments to JFK Jr’s bedroom skills while appearing in a video for the gay hookup app Grindr, with which she had launched a Pride month partnership as an advertisement for Confessions II.
Meanwhile, the fever-pitch publicity around Swift reached a zenith this summer with her Madison Square Garden wedding to NFL star Travis Kelce on July 3.
