Loading...
On-Air Promo Creative 115x175
|| News ||
Page 1 of 1

Project Runway: Anatomy of a Disaster



The show had many glorious advantages: millions of devoted viewers, drama-prone design wunderkinds, Michael Kors’s sharp tongue and Tang-colored skin. But the reinvention of Project Runway on the Lifetime network fell flat, gay critics say.

In a Wednesday article on The Daily Beast, writer Choire Sicha plumbs for answers. “Lifetime took us through some scary hole of broken space-time," he writes, "revealing a world with a Project Runway nearly identical to, yet somehow totally opposite from, the Project Runway we knew so well from our universe.”

Polling a small sample of the show’s once-core demographic ("smart, urban-living homosexuals who can afford to both wear clothing and own televisions”) Sicha compiles the following blunders as primary reasons for Project Runway’s demise. Among them:

-The show’s L.A. diaspora. “Sun-addled brains made for irrelevant hack design.”

-Absence of compelling drama (and competent story editors). “They signed on people with stories rather then people with personalities. ... Crying is not a story. Go to therapy or drink more or something. It was sooo tiring to see that gay's whinnying and weeping week after week.”

-Klum despotism. “In the end, this was the year of The Heidi. Because of the oft-missing Kors and [Nina] Garcia, her power on the show became as swollen as her belly.”

For Sicha’s complete litany, click here.

 

Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Facebook. Page 1 of 1
Reader Comments
  • Name: Cynthia
    Date posted: 11/18/2009 4:51:01 PM
    Hometown: Camden

    Comment:

    "Project Runway’s demise."? Aren't we overreaching here a bit?

  • Name: Doug
    Date posted: 11/18/2009 4:04:08 PM
    Hometown: VB

    Comment:

    what ticked me off was the last challenge- it didn't seem to matter- 2 judges said they loved Jordana's dress and all said they hated Alethea's (the phrase 'train wreck' was used)- but put her in the final and eliminated Jordana, because they thought Alethea's overall work was stronger...they eliminated strong designers the first weeks because they screwed up a challenge- I stopped watching then and there- don't care who wins



More Online Only
  • Photography Artist Spotlight: Didio

    São Paulo photographer Didio says he enjoys observing the daily life of normal men. If these photographs tell us anything, it's that Brazil has raised the bar on what defines normal.

  • DVDs Hot Sheet: Sade, Channing Tatum

    This week's hot sheet includes a movie about a gay romance in Jerusalem’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community... and shirtless performances by Channing Tatum and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

  • Books Jackie Collins Takes on Hollywood

    From overdoses to horny old men to gay guys landing leading roles, best selling novelist Jackie Collins runs her mouth... and it's juicier than ever.

  • Sports Weir Comes Out ... Against Anti-Fur Activists

    With one week to go before the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, irrepressible men’s figure skating star Johnny Weir talks about the threats that led him to rip tufts of fur from his long-program costume.

  • Music Stephin Merritt Keeps It Real

    Stephin Merritt, the lead singer of the critically lauded group the Magnetic Fields, is one of the few openly gay artists in today's music world. Just don't call him "indie."

  • News Features The Strains of DADT on One Couple

    Andrew Cirner tells the story of his relationship with a military man, evading "don't ask, don't tell," a blackmailing ex-lover, and the extreme steps his mother took to save the day.

  • Sports Saints Linebacker Fujita Tackles Gay Marriage

    As New Orleans Saints linebacker Scott Fujita gears up for Super Bowl XLIV, Fujita talks to The Advocate about standing up for gay rights and against inequality, and about Tim Tebow's draft prospects thanks to Focus on the Family.

  • Commentary Mosbacher Family Affair

    Nanette Gartrell pays tribute to former Secretary of Commerce Bob Mosbacher, the father of her partner, Dee. Mosbacher, one of the Republican Party’s most successful fund-raisers, passed away in January. 

  • News Features The Faces of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

    Tuesday's Senate hearing sparked what promises to be the biggest discussion of "don't ask, don't tell" since the antigay policy was instituted in 1993. So The Advocate is spotlighting some of the biggest voices on both sides of the debate.

  • News Features They're Having a Baby

    Thomas Moore, husband to fellow transgender man Scott, talks to The Advocate about helping his spouse get through nine months of doctor issues, baby showers, and bellyaches.

  • Prop 8 Prop. 8 Plaintiffs Speak  

    Jeff Zarrillo and Paul Katami, two of the four plaintiffs challenging California’s Prop. 8 in federal court, talk to Advocate.com about their resolve (and occasional nerves) during the testimony phase of the trial.

  • Music The Grammy Awards in Pictures

    From Lady Gaga's many costume changes to Pink's wet and wild aerial act, take a look at the some of the highlights from Sunday night's Grammy awards.

  • Books Book Excerpt: The Play That Changed My Life

    Playwright Doug Wright, who was awarded the Pulitzer, a Tony, and a GLAAD Media Award for his play I Am My Own Wife, remembers how Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Theatrical Company inspired his illustrious career.

  • Activism Leaderless

    Porn impresario Michael Lucas looks for the country’s gay Martin Luther King Jr., and finds little to celebrate.

  • Society Life on the G-list: Episode 2

    It may be the most cliché line in all of Hollywood: “What’s my motivation?” And for actor David Moretti, motivation does not include having just conquered Britney, Beyoncé, or J.Lo.