Fall TV Blog

Somebody had to go first, and on Wednesday’s Project Runway season premiere, it was Jerry Tam. The 32-year-old established designer –he owns his own line, FORM–sent down a raincoat and dress combo made out of shower curtains that judge Michael Kors likened to a scary nurse. Calling from New York, Tam says he’s still shocked that he was auf’d first. “I had a lot of friends that texted me – and they just couldn’t believe that I was eliminated first after seeing some of the garments, such as Blayne’s and Stella’s,” he said. But Tam says he’s made peace with the decision – even if he still thinks his garment was better and more innovative than everything else out there. –Brian Orloff

Was it exciting to take part in the grocery store challenge? It has such a history on the show.
When I heard [what the challenge was], I was kind of upset in the beginning because I thought they would have a more creative opportunity for us to design. But lo and behold, I had a great time with it. I understood the challenge. I picked out some great things . . . that Tim Gunn wasn’t aware of. When he came around and said everyone was using tablecloths, mine was a shower curtain and a few other items [like] cheesecloth. So, in the end I had a good time with it – and made a wearable garment. I thought my model looked very chic on the runway. So I was completely shocked that I was eliminated.
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Season 5 of Project Runway kicked off Wednesday with a familiar face, season 1 finalist Austin Scarlett, and a familiar challenge, which–no coincidence—the bridal designer won back in 2004. Yes, Runway fans, the designer contestants went grocery shopping at Gristedes, where they had $75 to create an outfit from anything you can pick up at the food emporium.

Sadly, few of this season’s 16 competitors used food (Scarlett created his winning look from cornhusks), and instead relied heavily on tablecloths and other fabric-like substitutes. Even Runway’s sage mentor Tim Gunn criticized all the tablecloths he saw when he did his walkabout in the workroom. Well, what the contestants lacked in imagination, they made up in personality.

Let’s talk about 23-year-old neon-loving Blayne, who is already threatening last year’s champ Christian Siriano in the most-overused catchphrase department with his ubiquitous “Holla at ya, boy.”
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Project Runway has seen its share of high-wattage stars — who can forget Victoria Beckham or Sarah Jessica Parker’s stints? — and season 5 (which gears up Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET) will have even more familiar faces.

Lipstick Jungle star Brooke Shields is already slotted to appear on an Aug. 13 episode, during which the contestants will be charged with helping working women dress appropriately. And (just in time for the Olympics) gold medalist and Dancing With the Stars champ Apolo Anton Ohno will help the designers create the perfect sporting outfit on an Aug. 6 episode.

First, though, the show will recruit one of its most memorable alumni: Season 1 contestant Austin Scarlett will return to the workroom on the season premiere as the show resurrects one of its most memorable challenges.

According to Bravo’s official Web site other guest stars for the season include Sandra Bernhard, celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe and rapper-turned-menswear designer LL Cool J, who will appear during a music related challenge on a Sept. 24 episode.

Find out what Tim Gunn has to say about each of the season 5 contestants.

Project Runway fans, Tim Gunn has a message for you about the show’s new season: Get ready to yell at your TV.

“It’s a real roller coaster,” says Gunn of Bravo’s fifth installment of the design competition, which premieres Wednesday (9 p.m. ET). “[Fans] are going to get mad — early! There are some big surprises: Favorites won’t be there anymore, and I can only imagine how the blogs are going to explode over some of the challenge winners. We say that each season has a different DNA and boy, is that true.” – Rennie Dyball

Gunn gave PEOPLE a sneak peek of each contestant. Get to know them: (more…)

Project Runway winner Christian Siriano — who became infamous for using the term “hot tranny mess” on the Bravo reality series — has apologized for deragatory comments about transsexuals he made in a current Time Out New York interview.

In the interview, the openly gay Siriano, 22, said, “If you think of heterosexuals, they have white-trash women and trailer parks, and we have drag queens and trannies.”

That comparison incensed many of his fans, prompting the Maryland native to tell the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, “I mean no disrespect to the transgender population and I never will. Some of my close friends happen to be transgender and I think they are some of the most inspiring people in my life…I completely support the fabulousness and amazing fashion inspiration that most transgender people provide.”

He said of the Time Out New York article, “I wish that my words were not taken in that way. When I was speaking, some comments that I made were not used in the article.” –David Caplan

Theo Wargo/WireImage

Project Runway is entering its sixth season — with some major changes! The design competition is likely to move from Bravo to Lifetime and will be partially filmed in L.A., according to a spokesperson for the Weinstein Company, which produces the show. The decision was partially influenced by host Heidi Klum’s schedule, says the rep: “This was an opportunity for her to be close to home and her family.” (Klum — who is married to singer Seal — has two children: Leni, 4, and Henry, 2, and Johan, 17 months.)

But fear not, Mood Fabrics! The show’s grand finale at New York Fashion Week will still be a pivotal point of the reality competition. “We’re still fully vested in fashion week,” says the rep.

For the seventh season, the show will return to New York full time. –Cara Shultz

Tell us: Do you think this will impact the show?

Sylvain Gaboury/FilmMagic

Need a fierce fix? Project Runway winner Christian Siriano, who was famously spoofed on Saturday Night Live, is back on TV, playing himself in on ABC’s Ugly Betty in an episode airing May 1.

The plot: Mode magazine is trying to convince Christian to work with them for a fashion spread instead of their competitors. So the designer shows up for a meeting with an entourage of models wearing his designs and Runway judge Nina Garcia, who also plays herself on the episode.

“Filming Ugly Betty was amazing,” Siriano, 22, tells PEOPLE. “The cast was the most fun, lively and supportive ever.” In addition to the outfits he designed for his model pals, the Runway winner also whipped up a look for Becki Newton (Amanda) — who happens to be a huge Christian fan.

So, who was the fiercest cast member of them all? “Ooooh, they’re as fierce and ferocious as they can be,” raves Siriano. “Vanessa Williams is the queen of fierceness and Becki Newton is the princess … I’m inviting them all to my Spring 2008-09 collection — it’ll be a great front row!” –Rennie Dyball

Get another first look — of Christian with Becki Newton — after the jump! (more…)

Project Runway winner Christian Siriano is bringing his fierceness to Ugly Betty.

Siriano, 22, will be joined by Runway judge and Elle magazine fashion director Nina Garcia during a guest appearance on the hit comedy, ABC announced Thursday.

The pair plan to film scenes this month for an episode to air during May sweeps. ABC has not revealed the storyline Siriano and Garcia will be involved in, but does say the Runway winner will cross paths “with Mode’s own hot tranny mess, Alexis Meade” — the character played by Rebecca Romijn.

Missing Christian Siriano and his fierceness? Well, Project Runway’s season 4 winner is dropping in on Bravo’s Make Me A Supermodel Thursday (10 p.m. ET) to teach the final four contestants a thing or two about working the catwalk. The competition, hosted by Niki Taylor and Tyson Beckford (pictured towering over Christian), is winding down but the prize of $100,000 and a modeling contract with New York Model Management is still up for grabs. In addition to getting help from the Runway winner, the final four will also get inspiration when they get a surprise visit to from legendary supermodel Naomi Campbell. Now that’s fierce.

Barbara Nitke/NBC

Christian Siriano caught Amy Poehler’s impression of him on Saturday Night Live over the weekend and the Project Runway winner has just one word — an ‘F’ word — for the skit. And, no, it wasn’t “fierce.”

“I thought it was SO FUNNY,” the 22-year-old designer wrote in an e-mail to PEOPLE. “Amy [Poehler] looked exactly like me which is kinda scary, but fabulous.”

Known for his catty commentary and catchphrase, “That’s fierce,” the pint-sized designer wasn’t the only Project Runway personality to be parodied in the three-minute sketch about a hypothetical Runway spinoff, which features Siriano giving someone an apartment makeover. While Poehler played Siriano, the skit also featured guest host Amy Adams playing Runway host Heidi Klum and SNL castmember Bill Hader imitating Tim Gunn. (See the clip here.)

“The fact that they are even talking about me is so fierce, fabulous and flawless and is such an honor,” Siriano told PEOPLE. “[Poehler] was hilarious and little. It was so crazy that she looked just like me!”

And Poehler didn’t just nail Siriano’s sassy tone — she perfectly approximated his flat-ironed hair. “The hair was absolutely perfect,” Siriano wrote. “I don’t think I could have done it better myself. It was fierce!” –Brian Orloff and Rennie Dyball

George Napolitano/FilmMagic; Inset: SNL