The Modern Age

Anyone familiar with this site knows that I love reality TV. So it’s with much sadness that I have to report that this season’s reality TV shows seem to have lost some steam.

Case in point: America’s Next Top Model. Is it just me, or is this season seem really…lame? I can’t stand Tyra and her over-the-top acting, I’m so over Mr Jay and Miss J., I still have yet to see anything “noted” fashion photographer Nigel Barker has shot in a real fashion magazine, and Twiggy is Zzzz as per usual. (Oh how we miss you, Janice!)

I’m not sure if this sudden lameness has anything to do with the fact that Top Model is now on the CW, a network I still don’t understand. I can never remember if I’m supposed to tune into channel 9 or channel 11. I really miss the old UPN Top Model site, which was like 50x better than the one on the CW. Also, how come when I search for “America’s Next Top Model” on Google, the number one result is the CW page for 7th Heaven?!?!

This year’s crop of young wanna be catwalkers are alarmingly non-controversial. Melrose (aka- this year’s Lisa) is the close as the show comes to a polarizing figure. Where’s the DRAMA, girls? Where’s crazy Jade when you need her? Can’t someone eat someone else’s cereal bar or something? Judging from the not-so-subtle Flamenco outfit Tyra wears in the preview for next week, my guess is that the girls will be flying to Madrid (or at least Spain) for this year’s foreign location. Maybe someone will eat some bad paella and go crazytown on us all. Here’s to hoping…

Tonight I got caught up on a show I got hooked on to last year in my Project Runway withdrawal, Top Chef. Luckily for EVERYONE, Katie Lee Joel (wife of human wrecking ball, Billy Joel) has been deposed as the host, having been replaced by the much better (and by “better” I mean “capable of reading off of cue cards without sounding like an ESL student) model/ actress/ author Padma Lakshmi. Thank god!

Keeping up the tradition of resident hottie is Ilan D Hall, a line cook from NYC who is originally from Long Island. And through that linked Newsday article, I realized that he also has a Myspace profile (although it’s set to “private”). Hmm… does that bio ring any bells to anyone? That’s right, last year’s winner (and Season 1 hottie) Harold Dieterle was working as a Sous Chef in NYC and is originally from Long Island.

Tonight I saw the episode where Harold was the guest judge, and I gotta say, he was looking kinda…pink. Did someone forget to put on SPF 50 before heading out to LA?

But back to Ilan–he wears a small silver-colored earing on his right ear, which had me wondering if he was gay, but according to the internets, the “right ear pierced = gay” myth is fiction. Thoughts?

Also, should I feel weird that Ilan previously worked at Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio’s restaurant, Craft?