Mena Suvari and the magical mystery dress

One look at Mena Suvari in that little black dress at the Beverly Hills Hotel’s 100th-anniversary party Saturday was simply not enough.

That night’s event was supporting the Motion Picture & Television Fund and the American Comedy Fund, but what in the world was supporting the top of Suvari’s frock?

The Maria Lucia Hohan dress, which retails for about $630 at Monday’s exchange rate, was the brainchild of stylist Taylor Jacobson, according to Suvari’s Twitter feed. (Jacobson is familiar to early fans of “The Rachel Zoe Project,” where she did two seasons as a styling assistan. But she’s much happier now.)

Alas, because we hate fun and magic and unicorns and the like here at the Ministry of Gossip, we had to figure out the secret.

So we peeped the Hohan website, which gave us some different views of the dress in its natural environment.

Then we blew up Suvari’s Instagram shot until the pixels were bigger than our heads and confirmed the secret that’s not obvious in those red-carpet shots: Sheer, nude panels were wrapped around the lovely lady’s sides, anchored by hardware that made the gear on the back of a matron’s brassiere seem like Scotch tape and a paper clip.

And then ... the Ministry’s events specialist, Matt Donnelly, who attended the event and saw the dress in person, said something along the lines of, “Oh, yes, there were sheer, nude panels on the back of the LBD.”

Mystery solved. Think “Dancing With the Stars” but more subtle with fewer sequins.

Others who managed to dress themselves for the anniversary event included Warren Beatty, Prince (who ducked in), songwriter Diane Warren, Debbie Reynolds and the night’s host, Brett Ratner.

The crowd sipped from mini bottles of Moet and took in a performance from Mary J Blige.

No wardrobe malfunctions. Anywhere.

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