Project Runway Season 12: Episodes 10 & 11: Nuts and Chocolate

Ken with his Superfan client.
He's finally gone. No more petting the kitty.

Well, at least we're rid of Ken and his diva ways. Last week the highlight was a bitchfight between Ken and Alexander. Keep in mind that Ken has already had altercations with Sandro, Helen, Alexandria, and Sue, and his mama knows about the "other Ken" who comes out of the bathroom once in a while. After a hard day of being nice to Project Runway Superfans, all the designers' nerves were on edge. Since Jeremy was gone, Braden and Alexander had to move in with Ken and Justin. Just before the move, Ken tells the camera he feels secure in his set-up with just Justin, who is cowering in the corner and turning off his hearing aide. This is foreshadowing, y'all. Then Alexander knocks on the door to be let in to his new home. Ken refuses to answer since he's busy ironing a pair of cut-off shorts and blocking the front hallway. After several moments Alexander enters and Ken refuses to move right away, as if he's in prison and marking out his territory, When Ken finally moves, Alexander angrily knocks over the ironing board and the iron. Ken explodes and, just as with Sandro a few weeks ago, the fourth wall is broken and a production person is called into the shot. Ken continues to scream into the commercial break and is presumably hauled off in a straight jacket.

I think Sandro and Ken should be paired in their own reality show and call it Rage on the Runway.

Project Runway Season 12: Episode 9: Plaid Is Rad

Ken about to go over to the dark side.

I really thought we were finally rid of the grand diva Ken this week on Project Runway. Last week in real life, eight PR designers showed at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week--the actual final three and five decoys so no one would know the true identity of the finalists, but there were nine contestants left on the show. Ken was the only one still in the running not to get a show at Fashion Week, so I naturally concluded he would get aufed this week. But that's not what happened.

The episode starts with Heidi promising the contestants the morning off and they are given a (presumably) free brunch at an eatery called Juliette. As they are sipping their coffee, Tim walks in and announces the challenge which is to design for the Modern Southern Woman--by a coincidence, the customer for Belk, the company which just happens to sponsor the accessory wall in the workroom (This is their first season, it was always Bluefly before this). Ken thinks he's got this one in bag because he lives in Birmingham, Alabama and designs for these ladies all time.

Broadway Season Update

Harvey Fierstein

The fall theater season is kicking off and announcements for March and April openings are pouring in. Aladdin, Cabaret, Rocky, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch have now set definite dates and theaters, crowding the spring 2014 schedule in the race to make the deadline before the Tony Awards. In addition, Manhattan Theater Club has just filled its late spring slot at the Samuel J. Friedman with Casa Valentina, a new play by Harvey Fierstein, his first non-musical in almost 30 years. (The last was Safe Sex, a trio of one-acts which had a brief 1987 run as an attempt to follow up on the smash success of Torch Song Trilogy.) The new play is set at a 1962 Catskills resort which caters to straight men whose favorite pastime is dressing and living as women.Gender bending has been popular on Broadway (Kinky Boots, La Cage, etc.) in recent decades and with this show and Hedwig and Kinky Boots still running, there will be plenty of cross dressing. As gays and lesbians gain more acceptance, transgendered people are becoming the last American minority you can legitimately discriminate against. (There is still a lot of bigotry and racism out there against all "others" including us gays, but the trans community has it especially hard.) Here's an updated list of Broadway and prominent Off-Broadway openings: 

Project Runway SPOILER ALERT One of Our Designers Is Missing

Heidi Klum, Zac Posen, Nina Garcia,
and guest judge Kerry Washington at New York Fashion Week

On Fri. Sept. 6, eight designers from Project Runway had their ten-look collections shown at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. This includes the final three designers plus five decoy collections. The idea is not to give away who the final three are by including all the contestants who are still in the competition on TV at the time of the fashion show. But somebody made a big mistake. Eight designers showed at Fashion Week, but nine were still in the running as of Sept. 6. Perhaps this is because Tim Gunn used his save option to keep Justin on the show a while back and the producers were gambling on Gunn waiting until near the end to save someone. If you haven't seen the reports on the runway show or counted who's missing, here is a hint: Pet the kittie. Anyway this Thurs. that designer will probably be aufed and he (or she) will have another hissy fit.

Project Runway Season 12: Episode 8: The Return of Poopy Pants

Tim Gunn should have worn that referee outfit
during the fight between Helen and Ken.

Heidi Klum is into poopy pants. We learned that on this week's Project Runway when the gorgeous host of the show revealed she actually liked Alexandria's second set of drop-crotch pants. These were made for the sportwear challenge and Alexandria did the same thing two weeks ago. None of the other judges including returning Michael Kors was smitten with the bizarre bottoms. But Heidi's yes vote saved her from elimination.

Helen miraculously won again for a not-very-exciting outfit. Her win from last week is probably what drove Ken into a jealous, hissy-fit rage and to call his church mother Down South for consolation. But let's start at the beginning with Tim Gunn in a super-cute referee's outfit blowing his whistle and waking the designers in the early morning hours. (They did that a couple of weeks ago for some other field trip.) Once again Ken starts the episode by bitching about the activity. Last week it was going camping and now it's sports ("I don't do sports.") Alexander reveals his only athletic pasttimes are fucking and drinking (I'm sure that's what he said though the Lifetime censors bleeped him out.) Once they arrive at some field somewhere, probably in Central Park, the designers have to team up to run an obstacle course; the winners chose fabrics first and get an extra hour of sewing to design a new activewear look for one of Heidi's thousands of labels.

Project Runway Season 12: Episode 7: Much Ado About Nothing

Bitchy Ken should have won this time.

Three basic black dresses were the top choices on this week's Project Runway and the judges went for the most boring of all. The challenge was to create an outfit to complement a pair of fabulous shoes from the Marie Claire fashion closet. Helen, Alexandria and Ken were the top three and each created a simple, black garment which faded into insignificance beside the footwear. I don't care for bitchy Ken as a person, but his was definitely the most interesting. It had a fascinating texture and was well-constructed. Helen's was basically a shift with a cape and Alexandria's was a Victoria's Secret nightie with some lace on the top. Yet Helen's cape won. You could see Ken was seething at not winning and, according to the preview for next week, his jealousy will spill over when he spews Sandro-like venom at Helen. Poor Helen, she should realize as soon as a male designer defends or befriends her, he'll turn faster than a plunging neckline. (Couldn't come up with a better fashion metaphor.)