Every time Tim Gunn uttered the words "make it work" during the first season of Project Runway, he was paid precisely this amount: $0. And during the second season? Just $2,500 per episode. That's according to his testimony in New York State Supreme Court, where proceedings are underway between NBC Universal and The Weinstein Company, which ripped Runway away from NBC's Bravo for Lifetime. Other tidbits from the ongoing trial? NBC chief Jeff Zucker has instructed Bravo to air marathon repeats of Runway during the same timeslot Lifetime will air new episodes of the show's sixth season. Did we mention Zucker is BFF's with Harvey Weinstein?

Though it's pretty clear that Project Runway is headed to Lifetime for the show's sixth season, NBC Universal isn't taking Harvey Weinstein's bull sitting down, which explains why Jeff Zucker was in a New York court yesterday trying to convince a judge that they lost the show on Bravo because of the Hollywood mogul's shadowy ways. The Weinstein Company wants NBC's breach of contract suit — which claims Weinstein didn't give NBC right of the first refusal option that was promised — dismissed, while 30 Rock wants an injunction to keep the series from going to Lifetime until the trial is over with. Us? We just want this trial to continue forever and ever! Also, photographers in the courtroom.

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We will miss Portfolio's napkin math sessions when the magazine eventually closes. Last month, they calculated the net worth of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," supposedly the most profitable song ever recorded, which earned an estimated $572 million. Now, they've moved on to other pop culture fare: Project Runway. Just how much is the fashion reality show franchise worth? Well, The Weinstein Company's new deal with Lifetime pits the show at $150 million over the next five years. But if they were to sell the show? $243.5 million — the insurance policy on Heidi Klum's legs not included.

Ever since NBC Universal execs learned they would officially be losing Project Runway on Bravo, they've been working overtime to tear the brand apart. Why should they bother promoting a show that Harvey Weinstein ripped away from them to take to Lifetime, where he's set to bag a bigger payday from production and product placement fees?

At first, the negativity was subtle. Bravo execs kept quiet as they stole Runway's brilliant production team, Magical Elves, away from the show in an exclusive deal. And then the more obvious signs arrived.

Project Runway's fifth season, and the last for Bravo, premieres on Wednesday. And by the time it arrives, and certainly by the time it wraps, its varnish will be worn, damaged, or gone altogether.

So just how is Bravo systematically sabotaging the Project Runway brand?

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How do you let the execs behind your show know that you're pissed about all the sweeping changes that they're making? If you're Cindy McCain critic Tim Gunn and have the uncertainty of what lies ahead for Project Runway, you start sniping away at the brand any opportunity you get.

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There was a time when Carson Kressley was the golden boy of a little network called Bravo, an underdog in a sea of cable channels looking to cement their voices. He led four other charges on a New York metro area witch hunt for heterosexual fashion mistakes on a show called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, later chopped down to just Queer Eye. After a season or two, his show began tanking in the rankings, and its buzz factor wore off as other programs with similar formats entered the market. Kressley looked doomed to be ushered into the shadows of reality television has-beens. And then Lifetime came knocking. They had a little show called How to Look Good Naked naked they wanted him to host, and in February 2007, word arrived he'd be leading yet another makeover show about feeling good about yourself, but this time for women. When the show premiered nearly a year later in January, it set record numbers with Lifetime; 1.6 million viewers tuned in, and Kressley was solidified as a television commodity. Very quickly, Kressley became the male face of Lifetime; perhaps more importantly, it was Lifetime's acknowledgment that its unofficial tagline, "Television for women (and gay men)" was part of its operating procedure. So it's only logical, then, that Lifetime wants to extend its investment in Kressley. With his own talk show. This is big.

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You might not be aware, but the fifth season of Project Runway, and the last for Bravo, kicks off just one short week from today. Even we, usually so adept at knowing when these sorts of cultural phenomenon are making their return to the horizon, have been caught off guard. So too, television critics — because Bravo hasn't sent out any screeners of the upcoming season, nor do they plan to. And they haven't even unveiled the upcoming cast of contestants, and won't do so until Monday, just 48 hours before the season premieres, even though it's been the network's practice to tell all weeks in advance.

"A representative for the network said it was part of an effort to 'protect the secrecy' of the fifth season," blogs Maureen Ryan. HAHAHAHA, please. You know the reason.

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Lifetime, the television network for women that appears to be in the middle of a renaissance of sorts, or at least a mid-life crisis, is saying goodbye to Susanne Daniels, its entertainment president, who is stepping down "to spend more time with her family." Uh huh. (That family includes husband and The Office exec producer Greg Daniels.)

Daniels, who is credited for bringing to the network Army Wives, its highest rated original production, has held her post for three years, and has been in television for two decades, rising up from The WB and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And should you know the actual reason for her departure, well, you know what to do.

Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz of production company Magical Elves are the duo responsible for turning Project Runway into ratings and publicity gold. That's why NBC was angling for 'em, and now they've got 'em, signing the twosome to an exclusive deal, effectively stealing them away from the Weinstein Co.'s fashion franchise just as they're moving from Bravo to Lifetime. Cutforth and Lipsitz will remain producers for Bravo's Top Chef and NBC's Last Comic Standing.

Oh, what's that? NBC owns Bravo? Yeah. It was basically Jeff Zucker's way of brushing the top of his hand underneath his chin at Harvey Weinstein.

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How else will the new non-Bravo Project Runway screw things up, aside from moving to Lifetime and possibly filming without Nina Garcia? By moving to Los Angeles, the city that pretends to be a fashion capital with its own fashion week but is really just a town where Victoria Beckham pushes her crappy jeans at Kitson. [EW]

Lifetime, not content to serve just one historically oppressed group (womyn), is now going after the gays. By stealing Project Runway from Bravo and commissioning projects like Carson Kressley's How to Look Good Naked, it's clear the channel is finally catering to the audience of homothethuals it always managed to attract. Except as the Observer points out, the channel is a bit too earnest, a bit too P.C., a bit too Middle America. Army Wives, anyone? It's everything that isn't Bravo, the sassy and smarter channel.

And as if to show they've got something to prove, Lifetime is making the biggest mistake of all: They're bailing on Golden Girls and Will & Grace – the show for those who still find Sex and the City too edgy – which is the only excuse our DVR ever had for tuning in.

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."

In what can only be described as good news for Lifetime as it successfully swindles the Project Runway brand away from Bravo, new research shows TV viewers are loyal to their favorite shows, and not the networks they're broadcast on.

Analysts at Accenture see this as a ripe opportunity for content creators (producers, directors, self-absorbed video bloggers) to start putting their commodities on "multiple platforms and distribution channels and find new revenue streams by doing so."

Perhaps that's why the Weinstein Company is so enthused about its new deal.

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The reason Bravo lost Project Runway to Lifetime is because the show's producers, The Weinstein Company, wanted to force NBC Universal to buy up some of its "second-tier" film projects as part of a contract renewal. NBC balked, but Lifetime was up for the offer, so they took the bait, agreeing to buy "stolen goods." Or at least that's the series of events according to NBC and the lawsuit they filed yesterday against Weinstein. And they're also claiming any cash a court ruling might send its way as punishment to Weinstein for breaking their contract – which promised NBC right of first refusal – wouldn't be good enough. They want to be back in negotiations.

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Bravo parent NBC Universal filed suit against The Weinstein Company today after, in a shock to them, losing the network's biggest show, Project Runway, in a backroom dispute with producers. If things go accordingly, Lifetime will snap up the show, with a new season airing in November. "Weinstein officials said that NBC had filed the suit after 'declining to compete for the right to have Project Runway' and the legal action was simply, NBC trying to 'disrupt the series moving to Lifetime.'" [NYP, Variety]