From his blog:
Now the crazy. Let me quote an excerpt from my TV column today...
"Finally, this week was the premiere of the BRAVO hairstyling series, "Shear Genius." The pun department at BRAVO is, well, shear genius. The development folks, on the other hand, need to come up with something other than this lame attempt at "Project Runway." They failed with "Top Chef" and "Top Design," but "Shear Genius" is a whole new brand of bad television. Contestants like "Dr. Boogie" (I'm not making this up) styled hair with twigs, feathers, and in the case of the winner - yes the winner - a treasure chest that opened when the model pulled her ponytail. The old cliche about watching paint dry also applies to blow drying wet hair. No one cares. I miss Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum."
And let me quote an e-mail from John Pierson...
"Hey Alex-
How have you been? Saw the "This Week in TV" column
today. But more importantly, Lauren Zalaznick read
it.
Who is she? President of Bravo and, as it happens,
guest in the Master Class tonight at 6 pm. I was
planning to hide the DT, but somehow she found it on
her own despite the fact that she didn't land until 4
pm.
You should come by Studio 4D since I'm sure we'll be
joking about you later.
best.
John"
Uh-oh! I had actually planned to go to the lecture anyway because I love BRAVO, but now I was nervous. I didn't know she was coming to campus until last night after I left the DT and I didn't figure she would read it. Plus I was kind of drunk when I showed up to the thing. Sho' nuff, Lauren Zalaznick brought it up and we discussed my review/she kept bringing it up and kind of teased me a little. Well first Pierson asked if I had the balls to show up. My balls = huge and I made my presence known via the good ol' hand raise.
It went well. I really do love BRAVO, just not those three shows. And really, I kind of love to hate them. Todd Oldham's voice, for example, is a great source of humor. After the show a few kids came up to me and lauded my handling of the situation. Then I talked to Pierson and Zalaznick. I think we're BFF now. Then, to make it crazier, we all went to dinner. Us three + Janet (John's wife) + four or five other students. It was surprisingly chill, considering she playfully ribbed me for the past couple hours and I trashed her latest show of which she was immensely proud. She answered all my questions, she was very kind, she knew a ton about the TV industry (duh), and at the end she said it was a "pleasure" meeting me. This was a rare victory in my life. I'll remember this for a long time. This also is exactly why I don't wanna be a journalist. You never know who is reading. It's kind of flattering she read it, really. Man all of it was so cool and surreal!
Love his take. And it was a fantastic evening. Lauren was dazzling with her unpretentious smarts. Super quick in her listening and understanding skills, on top of everything current, yet able to distill all to its essence when speaking. I was so impressed with her great attitude: game for everything, no demands, no fatigue, just OK, I'm here, happy to be here, let's see what Austin is about, this is fun. Truly inspired by her example. And surprised too to really see the adoration of all things Bravo among the college age crowd.
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