Mr. (Richard) Blackwell, fashion critic

LOS ANGELES - Mr. Blackwell, whose annual worst-dressed list skewered the fashion felonies of celebrities from Zsa Zsa Gabor to Britney Spears, has died. He was 86.

Blackwell, whose first name was Richard, was a little-known dress designer when he issued his first tongue-in-cheek criticism of Hollywood fashion disasters for 1960 - long before Joan Rivers and others turned such ridicule into a daily affair.

Year after year, he would take Hollywood's reigning stars and other celebrities to task for failing to dress in what he thought was the way they should.

The more outrageous clothing a woman wore, the more biting his criticism. He once said a reigning Miss America looked "like an armadillo with cornpads."

A few other examples:

Madonna: "The Bare-Bottomed Bore of Babylon."

Lindsay Lohan: "From adorable to deplorable."

Camilla Parker-Bowles: "The Duchess of Dowdy."

Bjork: "She dances in the dark - and dresses there, too."

Spears: "Her bra-topped collection of Madonna rejects are pure fashion overkill."

Blackwell said he had mixed feelings about appearing so publicly mean. Most of the women he put through the wringer, he said, were people he genuinely admired for their talent.

He is survived by Robert Spencer, his partner of nearly 60 years. *