Off-Screen Bickering Spoils Project Runway

No designers at Friday's finale as 6th season stuck in court

By Ambreen Ali, Newser User

Posted Feb 19, 2009 1:13 PM CST

(Newser) – Cattiness on Project Runway is part of the show's distinctive flavor, but it's legal wrangling between networks and producers that has kept the whole 6th season off the air. As a result, the finale, a live event tomorrow at New York Fashion Week, will be completely anonymous: Designers will be hiding backstage instead of getting facetime with the fashion elite, writes Monica Hess in the Washington Post in a spirited look at the whole mess.

The show's fate rests with the New York Supreme Court, which hasn't set a date to resolve the dispute between NBC, LIfetime and the Weinstein Co. But the maddening part, writes Hess, is that the show went on—and we should have been watching it since November. Presumably, the designers were "dismissed one by one with a frosty 'Auf wiedersehen,'" she writes. "But what if they weren't? What if co-host Heidi Klum started saying 'Later, alligator' just to switch it up a little?"

[Images (3)]

[Videos (1)]

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Last fall's Fashion Week featured a "Project Runway" show that allowed designers to strut their designs and receive face-time. This year, their designs are anonymous. (Getty Images)

Even "Runway's" host Tim Gunn seemed confused about what's happening with the show: "I haven't a clue," he told reporters. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano, FILE)

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The final runway show is usually an exciting chance for designers to show off their talents. This year, it will be an anonymous show. (ngordeli)

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The complaints went on
and on, and all we
could think was:
Gentlemen! Why don't you hop into some couture gowns made entirely of repurposed car parts and battle this out on the catwalk!
- Monica Hess

Without Project Runway's inane challenges to discuss (professional lady wrestlers? Seriously?), we literally had nothing to talk about with most of our co-workers. We had built entire relationships upon yelling 'MAKE IT WORK!' across the cafeteria.
-

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Off-Screen Bickering Spoils Project Runway