Reality Update: Strippers on Project Runway, Fabulous Pamola Faith

Tim Gunn with Thunder Down Under on Project Runway

Yesterday I started jury duty and nothing is as exhausting as sitting around waiting for something to happen. I last did jury duty about eight years ago and a few things have changed. Now they show movies in the waiting room and let you keep your phones and laptops on. The film was The Day After Tomorrow--the one from 2004 with Dennis Quaid rescuing his son Jake Glyenhaal who is trapped in the NY Public Library while the city is first flooded and then buried in snow. Later while waiting again in another part of the building I was surrounded by TV monitors blaring first The Chew and then Katie Couric's show. It was maddening trying to read an old New Yorker article about homeless gay teens while Jessica Alba was blathering about nutrition. Why couldn't they have changed the channel to Judge Judy? That would have made sense at least.

Paloma Faith, my new obsession

After an exhausting day of sitting, I totally indulged myself with too much TV last night. First there was a moving episode of The Big Bang Theory with Howard finding a letter from his long-gone father. Project Runway was super hot with the designers having to create breakaway stage costumes for the Australian male strip team Thunder Down Under. (I had seen them before on this highly intellectual VH-1 show called Strip Search.) The contestants were split into two teams and both produced awful clothes. Patricia did her usual artsy-craftsy, weaving thing with a shirt which would have been perfectly fine under other circumstances. But they covered it up with this ankle-length trenchcoat making the beefy Aussie dancer look like a flasher. Nina Garcia totally lost it during the critique portion as the pants of another dancer began to fall apart like they were bought at K-Mart. Disaster metaphors proliferated (sinking ships, drowning in the ocean, etc.). Amanda got thrown under the bus for the third time by her team and was finally eliminated after crying on Richard's shoulder because she didn't want him to think she was throwing HIM under the bus---but she was.

Just as history was made on The Amazing Race earlier this week when John and Jessica became the first team to be eliminated while still holding an Express Pass, a new precedent was set on Project Runway when no winner was chosen. Yes, designs can be so bad than no one gets first place. They should do that at the Oscars or the Tonys. "And the winner is...nobody!" I would have given Michelle the prize for her steampunk vest look, which was actually OK, but I guess Heidi, Nina, Zac, and that actress from some show thought OK was not good enough.

Next I caught the repeat of Comic Book Men which consisted of a bunch of guys trying sell old junk. Not too much exciting. Two weeks ago there was a guy and his middle-aged son selling a copy of the first appearance of Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy to pay for the private-school tuition of the son's twin daughters. They wanted $18,000. Now you just know that's the exact amount of the school fees. But Walter only offered $3,000. A few days later, I was in the Time Machine comic book store and we looked up the value of that issue. The lowest Grade Z evaluation for the book was $3,000.  

As the evening ended I flipped channels and happened on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live from Austin, Texas for the SWSX festival. Seated next to Andy Cohen was a fabulous creature in turquoise rubber skirt and matching headdress and a wild print top with mile-wide shoulders. Who was this amazing-looking woman with the Cockney accent and drag sense of style? Apparently it's this new British singer named Paloma Faith. I don't usually follow pop music, but she had me a first glance. I didn't even need to hear her sing, which she did at the end of the show and was spectacular.