After all the chatter, Elle editor Robbie Myers and creative director Joe Zee made brief – we're talking approx. one full second each – appearances on last week's season finale of Ugly Betty, playing themselves when their magazine battled the show's Mode in a softball match. (Spoiler: Mode won, but they had Naomi Campbell on their side.)

We won't sweat the duo for throwing a viewing party in their own honor, which they did at the Tribeca Grand. (We'd be writing our moms, too, if we appeared on Betty!) And it's clear that they made the most of their bit parts: "Myers switched her line to Williams after striking out to 'Bite this' from 'Bite me' because the latter sounded too crude, while Zee ad-libbed his own zinger [aimed at Williams' character]: 'I'm not going to be distracted by how fat you look in white.'" Brill!

One Elle staffer reacted to their appearance in this way: "It was great for the magazine from [a branding perspective], but they came across as complete assholes … which I guess is how Joe likes to be perceived anyhow."

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Despite our excitement about Elle's The CW reality show Stylista, and fashion news director Anne Slowey playing the evil villainess, our behind-the-scenes spies are painting a less entertaining picture. At least for those working on the show.

As Jossip was the first to tell you last month, staffers have been roped into participating in the series unwillingly, being forced to ditch weekend plans to attend tapings at the show's faux office.

Now we're hearing two senior editors, Joann Pailey and Kate Lanphear, were blatantly lied to about their involvement on the show, originally being told they'd be extras, which they begrudgingly allowed, and then bait-and-switched into prominent roles as judges. "Both were completely humiliated and wanted nothing to do with it but were basically lied to by the powers that be," says an insider.

As for the overdramatic Slowey? "Where do you start," says our source.

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Earlier today we brought you news that Nina Garcia had signed an editor-at-large contract with Elle that would keep her there through Sept 1, just long enough to shoot the fifth (and Bravo's final) season of Project Runway. Interesting that the announcement came with an expiration date, we noted.

And here's why: We were just told Nina is heading to Marie Claire as fashion director, effective .. Sept. 2.

Well so much for Fashion Week Daily's "exclusive" news that Nina Garcia was heading to Hearst's Marie Claire after her dust-up at Elle. News just arrived that she's signed a deal to stay on at Elle, as editor-at-large, through Sept. 1, 2008.

And how many job announcements do you see that come with an expected termination date?

Right, just this one, because it means Garcia gets to stick around for the fifth season of Project Runway while Elle's Robbie Myers figures out how to hang on to the TV show, now that Cosmopolitan, Glamour, In Style, Harper's Bazaar, as well as Marie Claire, are all said to be vying for a deal.

Here's a preview of the upcoming Elle reality show Stylista (nee Fashionista?), starring fashion news director Anne Slowey as the evil villainess who will RUIN YOUR NAME IN THIS INDUSTRY.

She arrives via town car! She wears dark sunglasses! She dons four-inch heels! She expects her lunch plate to be feng-shuied! THIS IS THE DEFINITION OF GLAMOUR, PEOPLE.

She's clearly trying too hard to be Miranda Priestley, but those who know her might, uh, say the act isn't an act. Whatever. We're going to love it.

Below, dos mas clips. One almost features tears!

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Putting to rest any notion that Nina Garcia would take Elle's Robbie Myers up on her offer to stay on in some fashion, the Project Runway judge is heading to Marie Claire, as was rumored. [FWD] She'll officially join the staff in September, as fashion director, replacing Tracy Taylor, who left. Sadly, there's no update about whether Runway will hop beds from Hearst to Hachette Hachette to Hearst, but Harvey Weinstein is said to love Garcia, so if keeping her on the show means switching to MC, perhaps he'll do it.

"A spokesman for The Weinstein Co., which produces the show, said the reports were inaccurate. Contract negotiations between "Project Runway" and its primary judges — Michael Kors and Garcia — are still continuing, and according to sources close to the show, negotiations for sponsorships and magazine partners for season six have yet to begin. Garcia is also still negotiating the terms — or the severing — of her relationship with Hachette Filipacchi Media, Elle's parent company." [WWD] And this concludes the explanation for why the future of Nina, Elle, and Project Runway is dragging on longer than the sale of a daily newspaper. (NB: Poo on Women's Wear for calling The CW's Gossip Girl "Gossip Girls.")

Nina Garcia has finally made her decision: She's not sticking around Elle to be Joe Zee's playtoy. She's heading to Marie Claire, which, not so surprisingly, has stole the lucrative Project Runway magazine contract away from the Hachette title. [P6] She probably won't even have a real office over there at Hearst; simply a place to stash her handbag while running to PR tapings.

Marie Claire's Joanna Coles is said to be leveraging Elle's up-in-the-air status as a Project Runway partner to scoot her own magazine in the door as the heading-to-Lifetime show's magazine brand.

In other semi-PR related news, Ugly Betty, the ABC sitcom that's been serving as a dumping ground for Runway personalities Christina Siriano, Nina Garcia, and Elle's own Robbie Myers and Joe Zee, will see Lindsay Lohan grace the set. She began shooting her cameo on Saturday for the same episode Elle v. Mode softball game that had Naomi Campbell at bat. "Lindsay arrived on set 45 minutes early," a source told Us, which totally means she's on the wagon again.

And you thought Nina Garcia's guest spot on Ugly Betty, airing Thursday was the only extension of the Elle brand into ABC primetime. Not so.

Now comes word that editor Robbie Myers and creative director Joe Zee are pulling a Me Too! and will also appear on the show, which actually fits in quite nicely with the rumors we reported back in December about the twosome holding talks with Ugly's producers. (Those meetings, which included America's Next Top Model's producers, also yielded the Elle reality show Fashionista.) Myers and Zee will represent Elle in a softball game against the show's Mode magazine, with Naomi Campbell guesting for the true-life magazine. (Easy joke: Will she be swinging at BlackBerrys?)

This, on the heels of Garcia having just been spotted (and trying to go unnoticed) leaving Hearst's glass tower, where it can only be assumed she's establishing her quote.

NEENER NEENER NINA Elle is floating names of possible Project Runway judges to replace Nina Garcia for Season Five, including some of her old assistants. Queue the scare tactics to get Nina to sign on the dotted line! [WWD]

Ever since Robbie Myers and Joe Zee decided they wanted their own television project, the Elle brand has taken hit after hit. While they got Nina Garcia to guest spot on Ugly Betty, the fall out from firing her couldn't have been the type of publicity they were after.

Then last week, Ben Widdicombe reported contestants on Elle's reality show Fashionista were "getting under the feet of people who are actually trying to run the magazine"; nevermind the show is being filmed in a fake office.

Now we hear the guest judges Elle has enlisted to grade the contestants keep canceling, which means Elle editorial staffers are being pressured to fill in. Meanwhile, "a number" of senior editors at the mag are "furious" over having to film the show on weekends, two days that are supposed to be a reprieve from the grind. So how are those Elle staffer retaliating?

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ELLE-O, GOODBYE Harvey Weinstein wants Nina Garcia back on Project Runway whether she accepts Elle's backhanded offer or not. [WWD]

Maybe-outgoing Elle fashion director Nina Garcia and Project Runway winner Christian Siriano filmed their Ugly Betty appearances last weekend, as Jossip was the first to tell you about, and now comes the photo evidence: This shot of the duo with the cast might be the last time Garcia was photographed as a Hachette employee. Sad!

On top of its Nina Garcia drama, Elle is now getting melodramatic calls from inside the house. It seems the reality show Robbie Myers and Joe Zee fought so hard for, Fashionista, is causing the staff to revolt. "The contestants, who are being put through various cockamamie challenges, are just getting under the feet of people who are actually trying to run the magazine. 'It's a nightmare,' one insider complained. 'And his real assistant hates it. No one believes they're actually going to hire the person who wins the reality show.'"

SO NOT TRUE! When Seventeen magazine aired MTV's Miss Seventeen in 2005, they totally hired winner Jennifer Steele. As an intern. (Then again, show quitter Brianne Burrowes also scored a minion gig.)

Why do the post-Elle Nina Garcia rumors keep circulating? Because no decisions have been made, which means it's conspiracy theory time! Though she's no longer the magazine's fashion director, Elle's Robbie Myers understands her relationship with Project Runway may hinge on her foe's involvement, which is why Myers is so ready to offer Garcia an editor-at-large assignment. That would at least keep her on the magazine's masthead, but only through season six, according to one rumor mill, which means she'd be done wit Elle by mid-October. Meanwhile, Harvey Weinstein, who is taking the show to Lifetime, could possibly keep her on the show sans Elle affiliation. She would simply be listed as "author and Blackberry ad face."

Back in December, we heard Elle chieftess Robbie Myers, and creative director/hatchet man Joe Zee, were looking to oust fashion director Nina Garcia. Naturally, Elle spokespeeps refused comment, which, to us, confirmed our story, but behind the scenes they were denying things.

Cut to today: Elle is said to have "parted company" with Garcia, says WWD. Nobody likes a liar.

It was just last weekend (as in six days ago), we're told, that she filmed her Ugly Betty cameo along with Runway winner Christian Siriano.

Meanwhile, as Jossip also first reported, Myers and Zee were looking to book their own TV gigs at the expense of Garcia; as we predicted, that's taking place with reality show Fashionista.

So we're not entirely surprised to see Garcia make her exit, but the timing is suspect. Or is it? Elle's relationship with Project Runway, where Nina was a judge, is theoretically also in jeopardy now that the franchise is moving from Bravo to Lifetime. Let's hope this is everything Robbie Myers was hoping for …

News that Project Runway winner Christian Siriano would be making an Ugly Betty appearance was reported at least two weeks ago, but now ABC is confirming the rumor, and adding this twist: Judge and Elle fashion director Nina Garcia will also be appearing.

Which shouldn't be that surprising if you've been following our coverage of the meetings Elle EIC Robbie Myers and creative director Joe Zee have been taking.

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Although Elle always had "no comment" for us when we asked them to confirm they were working on a TV project aside from Nina Garcia's involvement in Project Runway, it's clear they've finally found a skein to latch on to.

As we were the first to report in December, Elle EIC Robbie Myers and creative director Joe Zee were running around town meeting with various TV outfits, including Ugly Betty and America's Next Top Model.

Now it seems Myers' minions have sealed a deal with the latter, with Zee and Anne Slowey signing on to a Tyra Banks-Ken Mok-produced project for The CW that's billed as The Devil Wears Prada meets The Assistants. Rumor has it, the show will be called Fashionista, with the contestants all gunning for the grand prize of a gig at Elle.

Though Elle magazine had only "no comment" for us about whether EIC Robbie Myers and creative director Joe Zee were meeting with TV producers about various projects, we've learned they did sit down with Ugly Betty and America's Next Top Model, but meetings fizzled, at least temporarily, because of the writer's strike. (Even though reality show writers aren't union, apparently all of Hollywood is not functioning at the moment.) So far, there have just been "talks," which means any impact on fashion director Nina Garcia and her judging duties for Project Runway are a ways off.