Pop culture costumes for Halloween challenged

Halloween 2005 is right around the corner and the party invites are stacking up. There’s precious-little time to throw together a fabulous getup, but that’s no excuse for falling back on the Bag O’ Costume at your local party supply store. Seriously, the last thing any Halloween celebration needs is another Austin Powers, Sith Lord, Stripy-Suited Convict, or Priest with Pregnant Nun and/or Naughty School Girl.

Don’t let time constraints and poor planning keep you from showing your friends and coworkers just how cutting-edge cool you are. If you’re short on time, budget or imagination, look no further…

Group effort
If you need a high-concept costume for the whole gang, nothing's hotter right now than ABC's hit series “Lost.” Deck your posse as the ill-fated passengers of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 — but don't bother with leads Jack and Kate. Their costumes are as dull as their characters. Go for the intense castaways. A bald cap, a briefcase full of knives and a wild-eyed look are all that's needed to pull off a reasonable John Locke. You can even get your pet involved with a skinned-boar costume. Leave the role of hunky grifter Sawyer to whoever looks best sans shirt. The only other requirements are a well-worn pair of Levis and a crumpled letter that embodies your daddy issues.

If you’d like to dress as one of the island’s more seasoned inhabitants, Rousseau a.k.a. “Crazy French Lady,” is the derelict of choice. Just tell everyone to be quiet while you cock your head and listen for voices, ask constantly about Alex, and steal a baby doll from another member of your party. Or your group can wear whatever they want and go as “The Others.” Nobody really knows what they look like, anyway.

Mario Perez / AP With a suitcase full of knives and a crazed look in your eye, you too can be "Lost's" John Locke this Halloween.

This season’s “Amazing Race: Family Edition” is packed with potential for parents and kids. Spend the night in an SUV, don backpacks and yell directions at your kids while they try to find which houses have tricks and which have treats. If the children get too distracted with all the fun, remind them that “this is a RACE!”

How about showing up as a “Hot-Button Issue?” With all the talk about “Intelligent Design,” start a little controversy by dressing your group as the various stages of human evolution. (Hint: If you don’t want a backache from the necessary knuckle dragging, be quick and call dibs Homo erectus or Homo sapiens.)

Mom, if you’re looking for an easy costume to wear when you take your little boy trick or treating, think Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher. Dress your lad in his Sunday best and dig out your old wedding dress, drag a flat iron through your hair and try your best not to look desperate.

Points for originality
Speaking of “Desperate Housewives,” don’t bother with Susan, Lynette, Gabrielle or Bree. This season, it’s all about the TV critics panning the show. Focus less on what to wear and more on a few key phrases you can repeat ad infinitum: “Sophomore slump,” “kitschy,” “lost potential,” “derivative” and “disappointing.”

Amazing shrinking celebrities Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan showed us that skinny was only a concept before they got a hold of it. Why not show off your bones this Halloween? A skeleton body suit underneath some boho couture should do the trick. If you’re going as Lindsey, don’t forget to spray those bones with gallons and gallons of tan-in-a-can. (And lest you get too into character, leave the driving to someone else.)

Every party in town will be lousy with costumes from “Charlie & the Chocolate Factory.” But you can really stand out by going as one of those annoying people who whined nonstop about how the new movie wasn’t as good as the old movie. Really get into the part — tell everyone the new movie is blasphemy, and go on at length about how Gene Wilder is the only man who could ever really play Willy Wonka and how the story is now ruined for an entire generation.

The important thing this year is to be creative and trendy. Why not go as a Birken bag? Or as Oprah and the Hermes employees who wouldn’t let her in the store to buy a Birken bag. Or as the Hermes PR crew groveling for Oprah’s forgiveness and trying to convince the world that the store really was closing for the day.

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