Chikezie Eze was voted off "American Idol" last night, "taking with him 50 percent of this year's Idolette Top-10 personality pool," Lisa de Morales sniped in her Washington Post TV column. For the second week in a row, Chikezie chose to sing a ballad -- “If Only For One Night” by Luther Vandross -- after judges warned him last week that song choice is of the upmost importance at this stage in the contest. Last......

Young fans watch the Project Runway finale with Season 3 winner Jeffery Sebelia Anyone following the phenomenon that is Project Runway now knows that Christian Siriano won Season 4. The judges loved his dramatic collection, feathers and all. Though my favorite Rami Kashou did not win, he will always be a style icon in LA and around the world. Last night as fans of the show gather around TV’s throughout the country to see......

[The Junkie's been sick for a few days but we're back] LAist has some great coverage of the Project Runway finale tonight on BRAVO @ 10:00pm so I'm not even going to touch that. If you can't stand the fashion tension, you can always switch over to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors Meeting broadcast on KLCS and your tension will be released utterly. If you follow the link you can see, there's plenty......

Tonight the Project Runway finale will tell us who will take the top spot on Season 4. Christian Siriano, Jillian Lewis, Rami Kashou survived weeks of grueling design challenges. Christian describes his collection as dark, romantic and gothic. Jillian Lewis’ found inspiration in 15th century armor. LAist wants to know if Rami Kashou’s modern take on Joan of Arc’s fighting gear will earn him the win. While we wait for tonight’s episode, let’s take......

On Monday the NY Times reported that ABC and Cox Communications are collaborating on a video-on-demand service with disabled fast-forward, meaning, yeah, that you can't skip the commercials. This isn't that new an idea as Time Warner Cable has been doing the equivalent with two features called "Start Over" and "Look Back" (after using them IMHO they stink). This is another example of old media protectionist attitudes that think the strategy is to avoid being......

Idol-heads and Runway-heads have a lot to celebrate tonight and I'll be damned, look at how busy the schedule is in the 10:00-11:00pm time frame. Since I don't think any of the options are fantastic is it better to have a little or a lot of mediocrity to choose from? In other news, yeah the writer's strike is over, and SNL is finally heading back into production with it's first show scheduled for Feb.......

The WGA is engaging in talks but that doesn't mean that the Oscars still aren't in danger. For an idea of what the economic impact of a canceled Oscars will be check out the diagram to the right from the 01/28/2008 issue of Business Week. Obviously the entire dollar amount is not exclusive to Los Angeles but a significant portion of it is localized ($26.5 million on limos, security, and gifts??). After reading some comments......

OK so now Oprah wants her own network and she's going to get it. Remember that she is one of the four founders of the Oxygen Network, you know, that paragon of programming that now includes: The Bad Girls Club, Snapped, and the Oxygen Original movie Husband for Hire. Now she's distancing herself from that loathsome swamp of bad TV because of her new altruistic endeavor, the modestly named OWN (The Oprah Winfrey Network) which......

Jessica Morgan and Heather Cocks. Have you ever wondered why the very people that have tons of cash to drop at swanky stores can be such fashion trainwrecks? Often celebrities have the nerve to flaunt both their big paychecks and free designer clothes. Lucky for us, it's always fun to watch. That's where you'll find Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan of the super-popular Go Fug Yourself. Every day they skewer the super famous and......

Hey check it, yours truly was invited to contribute some commentary to this ABCNEWS.com article (I'm on page 2). Thanks for your support! So the Golden Globes got canceled and now maybe the Academy Awards will get canceled and this is conflicting me. On the one hand I will have a whole bunch more free time (hours upon hours) to watch my Tivo'd episodes of Grape Ape but I will have so much less lousy......

So tonight it's Leno vs. Letterman, Conan vs. Ferguson - potentially unfair matches since Letterman and Ferguson have reached an agreement with the writers' union and NBC hasn't. This will mean a further addition to my sleep deficit as I will be sitting up and flipping between these networks until 1:30am [no, I don't have some swank double-satellite-dish-to-Tivo setup like some of you, if you're interested in helping out, I can give you an address......

I'm hoping you got a bunch of DVDs to tide you over during this dead week as well as until the writer's strike ends. It looks like TCM is running an "aviation in movies" marathon tonight and IFC's featuring Harvey Keitel. For further marathon action, check out BRAVO which is showing all of Project Runway's fourth season (starts at 6:00pm). 4:15pm Five Easy Pieces IFC - (1970) If you've got the day off like me,......

I have said it before and I'll say it again, the best designers on Project Runway this season are from Los Angeles. In my holiday wish, I see Rami Kashou, Sweet P, and Kit Pistol in the final three and visions of their collections on the runway in the finale. Christina Scarbo A.K.A. Kit Pistol created her alias during her time studying and working in Italy. You can find her designs at Jack Henry Couture......

Relatively speechless tonight because there's so little on TV and yesterday was pretty lame as well. The final schmaltzy segment of Tin Man aired to much disappointment, and Nip/Tuck started out great but fizzled about halfway through the episode. Tonight though, Tyler Perry actually returns to the show he created and that's a big deal so check TBS at 9:00pm. [Please note how I'm specifically not mentioning the Julia Roberts special on AMC as she......

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Sweet P has designed club wear, sleepwear, and retro inspired pieces. She sites John Galliano, Marni, Chloe, Phillip Lim, and Balenciaga as favorite designers. Combined with her childhood love of Sonny and Cher and passion for surfing and motorcycles, she represents the fun side of Southern California culture. Her first Sweet P collection will be available in February 2008. On Project Runway week one, Sweet P wowed the......

FASHION: Inside Project Runway hits Beverly Hills tonight. Get a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the production, the catfights and, oh yeah, the fashion. Heidi Klum will be there, and organizers promise a few surprise guests. (The main auditorium is sold out, but a few tickets remain for the overflow theatre.) 7 pm // The Paley Center for Media // 465 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills // $7 for closed-circuit viewing room. OPERA:The LA Opera brings......

LAist watched the Season 4 premiere of Project Runway with Santino Rice and chatted with Rami Kashou about dressing celebrities. Next Tuesday Heidi Klum will bring the glow of the beautiful Project Runway world to The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. Will the uber German supermodel say her famous catch phrase 'in fashion one day you are in and the next day you are out'? Will she wear a dress designed by......

In Los Angeles, LAist most definitely celebrated Thanksgiving like no other. After all, one has to keep up all the energy to keep on walking the line at the Writers Strike and fighting the unfortunate return of the wildfires in Malibu, which single handedly destroyed over fifty homes within the first 24 hours. National outlets may be covering the fires, but CNN also found it is easier to buy a gun than fruit and......

A friend said to me yesterday: “Thanksgiving feels like the only holiday left that hasn’t been totally exploited.” And I couldn’t agree more. It seemed like that the day after Halloween this year, most big box retailers declared it Christmas season, totally skipping over turkey day mostly because they couldn’t find many marketing tie-ins with green bean casserole. (Think about it…hasn’t your local Starbucks been decorated in holiday red and green for awhile now?)......

I was going to do this in anapestic pentameter, but screw that. Beyond the typical scope of these sort of things (life, family, health, friends, etc.) here are five things I'm thankful for: 1. The Dodgers. Without the Dodgers I wouldn't have a chance to torture as many people on this forum with my mangling of the English language. As torturous as some of the games were to watch, it was still gratifying to......

If you don't want to watch football over the next 4 days you are screwed. Normally I would tell you to head over to TCM or IFC for some fine movie action but it's slim pickins my friends. TCM has (lamely) decided to schedule a 3 day Andy Hardy marathon starring everyone's favorite short actor, Mickey Rooney, as the misguided but lovable Andy Hardy. One or two Andy Hardy movies is fine, but several days......

While waiting for the premiere of Project Runway, I came across the list of designers that were participating this season. One name caught my eye. This is a name I already knew. He lives in LA. I had noticed several of his designs in photos from red carpet events. His dresses were always the ones I'd put in my 'if I could ever buy' category. Here was his name on the list of designers......

Last night some of my friends got together to watch the season premiere of "Project Runway". With a very tall surprise up my cap sleeve, I showed up to the viewing party with the one and only Santino Rice. Santino and I had met this summer at the Project Angel Food party backstage at the Rufus Wainwright concert. I thought who better to give us the inside scoop on all things "Project Runway"? First......

A couple premieres tonight worth noting, Project Runway for all you fashionistas, and the incredible Kenny vs. Spenny makes its US premiere, and check the above video for a message made exclusively for LAist! The boys live in LA, check the show out or at least Tivo the mofo. 8:00pm Pushing Daisies ABC - "The Soup"'s Joel McHale guest stars tonight. TV Junkie 8:00pm Pick 8:00pm Wired Science PBS/KCET - Love the show, hate......

My asshole has been clenched in anticipation since October 18, 2006 for the fourth season of the Bravo hit show Project Runway. On that Wednesday evening, I was at a Project Runway finale viewing party my friend threw at her apartment in West LA watching local designer and Cosa Nostra founder Jeffrey Sebelia win the whole kit and caboodle. Starting tomorrow there will be 15 brand new contestants vying for: An editorial feature in......

A Word or 12: Dirt - I forgot to mention Dirt yesterday, someone just kill me please. Tonight - Wednesday - January 31st, 2007 The Spiral Staircase (TCM, 5:00 p.m.) This nifty thriller from the '40s features a strangler that follows a mute maid through a dark New England mansion during a storm. Lakers @ Celtics (KCAL, 5:30 p.m.) Monster (IFC, 6:00 p.m.) Charlize Theron transorms herself in an Oscar winning performance. Worth watching just......

The moment of anticipation has finally arrived! (Albeit amongst much more controversy than previous installments of Project Runway.) This season was more than peppered with its share of intensely dramatic moments—what, with Keith Michael’s disqualification, the bitter tension between Angela and her whiny mother and Detroit Neck, and the reinstatement of Vincent and Angela at the last minute for a challenge. But the final four have blazed through to Bryant Park will brilliance and......

Gen Art events will always pack the house. Sometimes overpack the house as LAist has been to other events of theirs where you couldn't tell if you were coming or going. Interestingly, the makeup of Gen Art is very different from city to city (we hear Chicago has the best mix of young professionals - as the LA version can at times just have too many wanna-bes). So when LAist trekked to the Santa......

Last night's episode was a repeat of last week's "Black and White" episode in which Vincent Libretti (Woody Allen) and Angela Keslar (Holly Hobbie) return to the competition in a desperate producer gimmicky attempt at boosting the ratings. The finale and runway show of Olympus Fashion Week airs 10/18. The final episode will air in two parts beginning 10/11. I will be on vacation that week, but I'm sure our guest reviewer has great stuff......

Challenge: Create a cocktail dress using only a black and white palette, incorporating all material purchased in the overall look. No leftover scraps are permitted. They are given one day to construct. Guest Judge: Designer Zac Posen. Heidi wasn’t kidding when she said the challenges would get harder. Starting from last challenge, immunity was dissolved. This week’s episode twist is more like a wrench thrown into the spokes of a moving bicycle. Heidi announces......