I can't say that I'm the biggest reality TV freak on the planet, but one show I always look forward to is The Rachel Zoe Projecton Bravo. A lot of that fascination is not only because of the teeny-tiny Rachel herself, but also her tortured assistants, Taylor Jacobson and Brad Goreski. These three, along with Rachel's husband, Rodger, make up one of fashion's most lovably dysfunctional families.
Taylor is possibly the most non-people-person ever to appear on a reality show, and the bow-tied Brad is the guy I'd most like to have as a girlfriend. He's upbeat and funny, which is the exact opposite of the broody Taylor. But together, they somehow make it work, as Tim Gunn would say. Or as Rachel might say, they're "a soldier of rising above it all" (OK, she was talking about herself with that comment, but still ... ).
(S06E01)Project Runway is back! With few exceptions, the show seems remarkably unchanged by the move to Lifetime, so those who were fearful that without the Bravo touch Project Runway would cease to be... Project Runway, your fears should be allayed. The one significant change, one I'm still not sure about, is the move from New York to Los Angeles. New York just screams fashion to me, the rag trade, and the buzz of Seventh Avenue. L.A. doesn't, but we shall see how it plays out.
Meanwhile, Heidi, Michael, Nina and Tim were there, the touchstones of the show, and as the new contestants were unveiled, PR was off and running.
In a smart programming move, Lifetime ran a Project Runway: All Stars edition before the Season Six premiere. Seeing familiar faces from the Bravo years immediately sent a message to viewers that this was the same Project Runway.
In preparation for its big August 20th season premiere on Lifetime (and, evidently, to interrupt me when I'm trying to watch a few episodes of Frasier and Will & Grace), Project Runway has been running endless ads, loud and proud. I'm sorry, did I say "loud and proud"? I meant "weirdly sentimental and full of slow-mo."
The commercials featuring individual designers from the upcoming season were almost touching enough to confuse me. I mean, I'm used to the super-catty "I didn't come here to make friends, I came here to be the snarky queen bee" sort of ads. Are these just to reel in the average Lifetime viewer, or is this an early indication of Project Runway's slightly new voice?
It's hard to tell which Bravo reality show to dislike the most. NYC Prep is in the running immediately. I can picture this getting a big following a la Gossip Girl. It has everything: money, sex, backstabbing, education, fashion. I want to say "where are their parents?" but I'm sure they OK'd all of this. The show starts on June 23.
My favorite line: "It's really hard to get into one of these exclusive prep schools because you have to be really strong academically but also very wealthy."
I don't usually write about the world of high fashion, but I was interested in the interview with Anna Wintour on 60 Minutes last night. For one, she's a mysterious women we only hear about from other people. Two, The Devil Wears Prada is on TV every single week and I have to watch it whenever it's on. The best part of this piece is the really funny, sarcastic digs that Morley Safer gets in about this fashion world.
(The video is after the jump because it's one of those videos that plays automatically.)
It's like that old saying, "Fashion doesn't kill people - models kill people."
For some reason, a giant fight broke out at the America's Next Top Model auditions at the Park Central New York Hotel in New York City yesterday afternoon. No one is sure what exactly started the craziness, but at the end there were a ton of shoes and other clothing scattered on the street outside of the hotel. If that wasn't enough, six people were injured (two seriously enough to be taken to the hospital) and three people were arrested. Check out the video after the jump of the crowd stampeding. Officials say that the show wasn't prepared for this many people showing up (ya think?). Also there seems to be a car spewing smoke involved and a woman getting slapped. Or something.
Maybe we need a real Fashion Police, not just one that talks about the clothing. Bad girls, bad girls...whatcha gonna do?
If you're a regular -- or even an irregular -- Two and a Half Menwatcher, you've probably noticed that Charlie Sheen's character, Charlie Harper, has a very distinctive look. You might call it immature, if you're nasty, or eclectic, if you're nice, but it is memorable. I've always thought the look was a reflection of the real Charlie Sheen, and now we're going to find out if I'm right.
Charlie Sheen has created the DaVinci Collection, a clothing line focusing on short-sleeved, button front shirts with a retro flair. The prices will be $59 to $79 each and the description strikes me as very much like Charlie Harper's wardrobe.
Kelly told you recently about NBC's legal attempt to block Project Runway from going to their Bravo channel over to Lifetime (Lifetime paid $150 million to air the show for the next five years). Now it looks like NBC is looking for contestants for a show that sounds very similar to Project Runway...and they're using Craigslist to find people to be on the show.
The new Bravo show is going to be called Fashion House. The ad says that the winner will win "a large cash prize" and that the winner can use the show to "serve as the launching pad to catapult your fashion career into high gear."
Catapult your fashion career into high gear? What a horrible sentence.
Call it stunt casting gone bad...or a good idea on paper that failed to produce anything interesting on film. I'm speaking, of course, of La Diva Lohan's mini-arc on Ugly Betty as Kimmie, Betty's high school nemesis. Lindsay Lohan's guest stint on Ugly Betty has come to an end. If you read some of the stories across the media today, things got very ugly indeed on the New York set. Whether it's true or not that LiLo was a walking disaster area, that she feuded with America Ferrara and irritated the crew, is all conjecture and rumor. The bottom line is that it's over.
E's Kristin Dos Santos confirmed today that all of Lindsay's remaining appearances -- four upcoming episodes, including tonight's -- will be shown. However, that's all there is and there will be no more.
Once upon a time, Hollywood made movies like Lifetime's Coco Chanel all the time. They were called women's pictures and gave the biggest stars of the times amazing roles, Bette Davis in Now, Voyager, Greer Garson in Mrs. Miniver, Rosiland Russell in Sister Kenny. Watching this excellent TV movie starring Shirley MacLaine as the older Coco and newcomer Barbora Bobulova as young Coco, I was enthralled and entertained.
You won't find a better TV movie on HBO or CBS or Hallmark Channel or anywhere else on the dial -- Lifetime set the bar high with this expansive biopic and then delivered the goods. Forget your idea of what a Lifetime movie is -- Coco Chanel is no victim of the week. If the intent was re-branding Lifetime movies with this effort, the cable net has hit it out of the park.
(S05E09) My last review began oh-so bluntly with "I am so full of anger", which was a pretty good summation of the grumpiness that would follow. This episode triggered some very familiar feelings and, while some of you thought I was being a little too hard on the designers, especially Kenley, I can't see how anyone could wonder why after this episode. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a Project Runway fan. If I only half-cared for it, the drop in quality of this show would not affect me quite as badly. But when a show I love so much and have constantly praised and confidently recommended takes such a sharp drop within one year, it's disappointing, to say the least.
As horrible as it sounds, I'm actually looking forward to the Lifetime move now, despite my earlier worries, because at least PR will be on a network that wants them around. The same can not be said for Bravo, which is currently treating PR like it's the ex that still has to live in the apartment because they're legally obligated to finish paying half this year's rent.
(S05E04) Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have witnessed the beginnings of a new low in Project Runway. I don't recall ever seeing a group of designers so completely miss the mark in a challenge. Most of the outfits weren't atrocious as straight-up garments, but in the context of the challenge, all of them were terrible in one way or another.
I think my horror is fully justified, as this is the first challenge in which a freakin' skort was in the top three. A skort. The very thought of a skort makes me want to set a Limited Too alight, so imagine the severe trauma that ensued after I ever-so briefly entertained the idea of America's top athletes representing the country in front of the rest of the world... wearing freakin' skorts. I have a mess to clean up.
(S05E03) Question: What were the judges smoking in this episode? More specifically, were they smoking one of the hideous creations from this challenge?
This challenge was pretty straightforward, as the designers were dropped off at different locations in a rainy New York City and told to pull inspiration from their surroundings. NYC streets at night are rough and sleek and bright and dark, all at the same time. But looking at this episode's outfits, you'd never know. In fact, you'd probably be too scared to step foot in the Big Apple ever again, for fear of being mauled by psychedelic, leggy, cha-cha-ing monsters.
(S05E02) First of all, I thought last week lacked a fancy new intro because the episode was packed the rafters with new season goodness. However, since we got nothing again, I suppose this was just another instance of Bravo not caring enough to give the show the love it deserved.
Secondly, I have decided that I don't have a favorite this season, just some people that annoy me less than others. Everyone is so self-conscious this time around. I pray that Blayne leaves the show soon, just so this "-licious" craze he is attempting to jump-start will die a quick death. Plus, I'm tired of adjusting my display to make sense of his tan.