LITTLE ROCK — Get out your sketchpads, needles and duct tape, it’s time for Season 8 of Project Runway.
The challenges begin at 8 p.m. today on Lifetime. Note one major change — this season each episode will be 90 minutes long.
Returning will be host Heidi Klum, 37. She’s looking amazingly svelte for just birthin’ a baby. The girl was her fourth child. I suspect Faustian deviltry at work.
Also back will be fan favorite Tim Gunn, 56, as designer mentor, and judges Michael Kors, 50, and Nina Garcia, 45.
Expect the usual guest designers and celebrity judges to pop in. Actress Selma Blair, 38, will be on hand for the premiere episode.
Many Arkansas viewers have had an increased interest in Project Runway since 2008 when Little Rock resident Korto Momolu, 35, was runner-up in Season 5. Some fans believe Momolu was robbed of the title, but the judging is always subjective.
There are no Arkansans among the 17 new designers this season. That’s the most contestants yet. Maybe they added more designers to help fill the extra 30 minutes each week.
As usual, the designers will face bizarre (Lifetime calls them “inventive”) challenges — evening gowns out of cabbage, or athletic wear out of trash bags and Hershey bars. Each week the herd is culled with the goal of sending the three best and brightest to New York Fashion Week at Lincoln Center.
Once again the winner will get a pile of money and a spread in Marie Claire magazine and other stuff to jumpstart his designing career.
This season’s players are a diverse lot. They come from Hawaii and St. Louis to South Korea and Cleveland and points in between.
The youngest contestant is 21 and the oldest 50, but most are in their late 20s to early 30s. As usual, some will be sweet and others catty. Some will be over-the-top flamboyant and others quietly determined.
The fun is watching them all trying to work magic under the pressure of deadlines and with inappropriate and maddening materials.
My favorite Project Runway moments are when Gunn saunters in, cups his right elbow in his left hand, props his right index finger against his pursed lips and says, “Tell me what you’re going for here” to the totally flustered designer.
He then listens with furrowed brow, sort of snorts and barks, “Make it work” and wanders off to “mentor” the next person.
Gay TV. For four years, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has put out a Network Responsibility Index on 15 networks (five broadcast; 10 cable) and their representation of gay characters in original material during prime time.
The latest report states that on MTV last season, 42 percent of the programs had characters “that reflected the diversity of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender [LGBT] people on television.” GLAAD honored MTV with its first-ever “excellent” rating.
GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios said MTV programs “have offered richly diverse portrayals of gay and transgender people that help Americans better understand and accept our community.”
The CW won top honors among broadcast networks with 35 percent, squeezing past Fox with 30 percent.
ABC slipped to third (26 percent). NBC got an “adequate” rating (13 percent) and older-skewing CBS scored a dismal 7 percent to earn a “failing” grade “for lack of inclusion of the LGBT community.”
Bieber fever. Justin Bieber, the 16-year-old teen heartthrob du jour, will play a troubled youth on CSI this fall. He’ll be in the Sept. 23 season premiere and maybe other episodes later in the season.
Young Bieber needs to strike before puberty hits. Once his voice changes, he’ll just be another pretty boy Canadian and Tiger Beat hasbeen destined for a sad, sad life of substance abuse and rehab in the footsteps of Leif Garrett.
Maybe not.
News news. Martin Bashir has bailed out of ABC’s Nightline and taken an anchor job at MSNBC. He’ll also be a contributor to Dateline NBC. His new duties begin in September.
Replacing Bashir, ABC
Good Morning America
weekend co-anchor Bill Weir will move up to Nightline to co-anchor with Terry Moran and Cynthia McFadden.
Crass TV. In case you care, Jersey Shore begins Season 2 at 9 p.m. today on MTV. The gang takes their road show to Miami.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. E-mail:
Weekend, Pages 30 on 07/29/2010