text: Let's hope Valentino has a short memory. The revered fashion icon, who custom-designed Anne Hathaway's wedding gown and considers her a friend, naturally expected the Les Miserables actress to wear one of his designs to the Oscars on Feb. 24, where she ultimately won her first Academy Award. His team even sent out a press release late in the afternoon on Sunday, just hours before red carpet arrivals began, announcing that the Best Supporting Actress frontrunner would be wearing "a pink embroidered tulle illusion gown." The release also stated that one of the night's most anticipated presenters, Jennifer Aniston, would be wearing a "nude embroidered silk tulle dress." 
   
   PHOTOS: See what the stars wore to the Oscars! 
   
   Neither, of course, ended up in those two gowns at the event. 
   
   Instead, the Les Miserables star opted to go with the Prada column dress that sparked the infamous "are they darts or nipples?" debate. A source tells Us Weekly that the last-second switch has much to do with her Les Miserables costar Amanda Seyfried, whose Oscar dress (by Alexander McQueen) was remarkably similar to the Valentino design that Hathaway had originally planned to wear. 
   
   Steve Granitz/WireImage.com 
   
   The source tells Us that Hathaway asked Seyfried, "What are you wearing? Can you send me a picture of it?'" After Seyfried obliged, an aghast Hathaway quickly changed course, ultimately going with the controversial Prada dress. 
   
   PHOTOS: See Anne's style evolution 
   
   Says another insider: "She really should have worn Valentino. The gown she picked was beautiful!" 
   
   Dan MacMedan/WireImage.com 
   
   Aniston, meanwhile, showed up not in Valentino's nude tulle dress but in the designer's bright red strapless gown. It's anyone's guess why she, too, changed her mind, but some in the fashion industry are conjecturing that perhaps Hathaway's camp, fearing the two stars would both walk the red carpet in pale tulle Valentino numbers, had something to do with it. 
   
   
   
   Tell Us: Do you think Hathaway should have worn the Valentino dress instead? ||||| Anne Hathaway (left) and the Valentino dress that appears to have been her first choice 
   
   What’s a girl to do? 
   
   Best Supporting Actress winner Anne Hathaway’s pale pink (and hotly debated) Prada gown wasn’t the actress’s first choice for the Academy Awards last Sunday. 
   
   “It came to my attention late Saturday night that there would be a dress worn to the Oscars that is remarkably similar to the Valentino I had intended to wear, and so I decided it was best for all involved to change my plans,” she tells PEOPLE in an exclusive statement. 
   
   The actress, 30, is indeed a longtime fan of Valentino and has embraced the fashion house’s designs for many years, including when she wed Adam Shulman last September. 
   
   “Though I love the dress I did wear, it was a difficult last minute decision as I had so looked forward to wearing Valentino in honor of the deep and meaningful relationship I have enjoyed with the house and with Valentino himself,” Hathaway continues. 
   
   “I deeply regret any disappointment caused.”
target: – Anne Hathaway's nipples got so much attention at the Oscars that they now have their own Twitter account—but Hathaway wasn't even supposed to be wearing the Prada dress that showcased them so well. She had originally chosen a Valentino dress, and Valentino even put out a press release Sunday saying Hathaway would be wearing one of the fashion house's designs. But she made a switch after hearing the night before "that there would be a dress worn to the Oscars that is remarkably similar to the Valentino I had intended to wear," she tells People in a statement. A source tells Us the person in question was Hathaway's own Les Miserables co-star, Amanda Seyfried, who wore Alexander McQueen (you can see a comparison of the two dresses here). But Hathaway has a longstanding relationship with Valentino, who custom-designed her wedding dress, and regrets "any disappointment caused," she says. "Though I love the dress I did wear, it was a difficult last minute decision as I had so looked forward to wearing Valentino in honor of the deep and meaningful relationship I have enjoyed with the house and with Valentino himself."