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.
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]
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!
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. CONTINUED »
Under the original deal struck between The Weinstein Company and Bravo, Project Runway cost the NBC Universal channel $600,000 per episode. That was not enough for Harvey Weinstein, especially when Bravo started taking all the credit for the show's success. So Harvey started going around NBC's back to try and make the show more lucrative on his end, striking product placement deals without telling Bravo suits, even though they had already lined up major sponsorship deals with brands like L'Oreal and Tresemme. Bravo's deal with Macy's totally dried up when Weinstein insisted a rep for Wal-Mart, which it had an arrangement with, appear in the finale. In Weinstein's new deal with Lifetime, the lady network will be paying upwards of $1 million per episode, a nice 66 percent fee hike. And reality television was supposed to be the cheaper alternative.
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. CONTINUED »
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]
Uber-gay Project Runway winner Christian Siriano sat down with Craig Ferguson yesterday. And, while we can’t say for sure, we’d like to think that our pleas helped fuel his disavowal of “fierce,” which threatened to undo our nation.
Not one to be without a catch phrase - or, rather, word - Siriano announced to the world that he’ll now use the word “expired,” as in “fierce is expired”.
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. CONTINUED »
Access Hollywood is giddy to announce they've got Project Runway winner Christian Siriano on blast to cover Nickelodeon's 2008 Kids' Choice Awards. He'll be on the red orange carpet handing out Fierce Fashion Awards and says, "I think it's fabulous that I'll be on the red carpet checking to see if anyone is a hot tranny mess. Watch out - you know I'll be fierce with my comments."
Adds supervising producer Ryan Patterson: "Christian IS fierce, fabulous and ferosh and he is a pop culture catchphrase machine. He also really knows fashion - he's a style stud who will standout on the carpet with his one-of-a-kind hairdo and electric personality and most importantly, he'll be able to spot out whose fashion is a 'hot mess' and whose fashion is 'fierce.'"
Adds Jossip: Nobody should speak like this.
Now that he’s won Project Runway, Christian Siriano’s got a new mission: save Britney Spears.
After watching the Project Runway Reunion Special last night, did anyone else think that Chris March and Rami were together?
Artistic rendering after the jump. (Safe for work) CONTINUED »
This, the fourth season of Project Runway, will be over before this winter heat wave. (Oops, there it went!) And whoever wins, whether it's Rami, Christian, or that annoying brunette, will be forever lost to pop culture, showing up only at Lizzie Grubman events for a WireImage photo, just like the casts before them.
But not Jack! Mr. Mackenroth – who we know more intimately than other PR contestants, both in the flesh (NSFW) and in the know – has himself his own personal PR agency.
Michael Rogers PR has been assigned the task, and cashed the retainer cheque, to keep Jack's name relevant. It helps, then, that he's dating fellow reality star Dale Levitski, of Top Chef.
How else would Jack's PR team been able to issue a press release announcing those two were going on a date? CONTINUED »
• Madonna is still pretending to be British. How come when people fake an English accent, they become posh-English instead of cockney-English? Class discrimination knows no borders.
• Oh, by the by, Brad Renfro died of a heroin overdose. But did you hear that Heath Ledger died? A real tragedy, huh? CONTINUED »
• Jennifer Lopez has set the birth of her twins for February 14. Cheesy, sure, but a total J. Lo move. What we do judge is planning her c-section on a Thursday, for the benefit of the tabs. If that's true, he deserves every forthcoming invasion of privacy.
• Kate Hudson and Liv Tyler threw a party at the Waverly Inn. Where did those ladies meet, a group for the famous children of famous parents?
• Paris Hilton is still into men with fading fame; she hooked up with Simon Rex last night.
• Playboy bunnies hit up Mardi Gras. Hopefully they know better than to give it up for a free t-shirt.
• Pictures of the bump that launched "My Humps"
• Pink Is The New Blog is better at keeping Project Runway related secrets than we are.
[Photo]
It's been much-rumored about, but a source seated at this morning's PR show confirms it's … CONTINUED »
Editorial Director
