GO TEAM! Kevin Gillespie wins the first elimination challenge
Score one for Atlanta!
In a sea of tattoos, piercings, and un-shucked clams on last night’s debut of “Top Chef Las Vegas” (at first, I thought I might have accidentally been watching a new episode of “LA Ink”), Atlanta’s three resident cheftestants managed to make quite a splash. Kevin Gillespie of Woodfire Grill, who came off with an odd mixture of arrogance and good guy charm, won the season’s first elimination challenge for his procrastination-inspired arctic char and turnip salsa verde, winning over guest judge celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck and tough guy Tom Colicchio.
Kevin was definitely the star of the evening, but my heart already lies with Hector whose accent and cooking motto (“I cook with heart and balls”) are setting him up to be this season’s gentle giant. I was a fan the minute he complemented Padma without just calling her hot, although I’ll admit I’m still wrapping my head around the deep fried steak dish.
As for Eli, Atlanta’s third representative, I’m pegging him as this season’s class clown. His commentary (“I cook ’cause I’m a fat kid”) and faux-cocky attitude (which appears to be about as tough as his faux hawk) are funny without going the way of, say, “Top Chef” New York’s Stephan. Stephan’s honor I’ll reserve for Michael Isabella, whose own cocky attitude and sexist comments put him as the prime suspect for season villain. Preeti may not have been able to shuck clams, but she does know what seitan is — take that, Jersey boy!
Though best known for her dramatic antics and tell-it-like-it-is attitude on Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” Nene Leakes has also become a dramatic, tell-it-like-it-is author. Voted Bravo’s A-List winner for Guiltiest Reality Pleasure in 2009, Leakes has been busy recently heading up her Twisted Hearts foundation and promoting her new memoir Never Make the Same Mistake Twice. Never hit shelves Tues., Aug. 11. The spunky reality star speaks out here in anticipation of her author talk and book signing at Borders in Lithonia Aug. 13, 7 p.m.
Did you always aspire to become an author or was it a response to the persona Bravo has presented to its viewers?
I never saw myself as an author. A publishing company reached out to me. I said to myself, “How am I going to write a memoir? Memoirs are usually written by older people. I’m so young and my life is not over yet. I have a lot more life to be livin’.” They told me I could just finish with a continuation. I couldn’t possibly fit everything in about my life. Writing this memoir was was like therapy for me. As I started to write about the resentment I had towards my mother for not raising me and the abuse I endured, I began to think some of it was too much. However, I tell the truth throughout the memoir.
Was there a readership in mind as you were putting the memoir together or where you strictly catering to Housewives viewers?
No. No. I just wanted to write the memoir and tell my story. When I finished, I was sure the book would be great for young women. I wanted women to learn from my experiences. As a young single mother, I was a part of the continuing cycle of women who had gotten pregnant young and were unmarried. Young women can definitely learn from my story.
I’ve been hearing a lot of mysterious talk lately about Bravo’s “icky” artist reality show. The details are beyond murky. We know that Sarah Jessica Parker is the executive producer. We know that hundreds are responding to the casting calls. And so far, we know only one of the judges: Simon de Pury, chairman of the fancy-pants auction company Phillips de Pury. Otherwise, we simply know that it’ll be mayhem. Let’s just hope it’s not too embarrassing for the artists.
Mr. de Pury, on the other hand, had “no hesitations about accepting the invitation” to be a judge. He hopes the show will help penetrate the “hermetic inapproachability” of contemporary art. I won’t question his motives, but … really, dude? Is reality TV an acceptable solution to the art world’s reputation for obscurity?
Perhaps the video above provides a taste of what’s to come. Mr. and Mrs. Foox are a husband and wife artist team. He’s a transplant from New Zealand and a former lawyer. She greets the camera at the front door — holding a crossbow. “Welcome to Texas,” says Mr. Foox. (Another shot shows them shooting guns together, after teaching painting to amateurs.) How adorable!
It’s an episode of what’s to be an ongoing internet reality show. Nothing quite on the scale of what Bravo has in mind, of course. It just makes me wonder: Does dropping your life to become an artist always inspire you to be so damn positive? Believe. Hope. Change. It’s almost like they’re Barack Obama campaign robots (or, “Obamatons” as I’ve read elsewhere) ….
“How do you go from struggling, emerging or even semi-established artist to selling a complete show for $198 million? It’s a big art world out there, but maybe this is one place to start!”
This is the opening line from the casting page for Bravo’s latest foray into reality TV — an elimination show a la “Top Chef,” “The Fashion Show,” etc. The press release continues:
Magical Elves (Peabody Award-winning Project Runway, Emmy Award-winning Top Chef) and Sarah Jessica Parker (Golden Globe- and Emmy Award-winner) and her production company, Pretty Matches, are teaming up for an hour-long creative competition series among aspiring contemporary artists who will create and compete to conquer the art world!
As a watcher of some of the most questionable TV currently on air (reality and otherwise), I have to admit that this concept makes me feel kinda icky. And not the good icky that you get from watching 60 minutes of fake-baked real New Jersey housewife. But maybe I’m being too idealistic. PSFK.com puts it well, saying,
While there is no reason the art world should be exempt from the reality TV show madness which has engulfed everything from the modeling business to the hairdressing industry, for some the fine arts still seemed like the last genuine refuge for creative expression. However, the fact that many of the world’s top arts institutions have been strained to the point of collapse by the current economic recession, and are most likely in dire need of capital, might explain the willingness for established galleries to attach themselves to such a dubious project.
What kind of artists/personalities, do you think, would make this show worth watching?
Before I begin, I just want to assert, in the strongest possible terms, that I do not regularly watch Bravo’s “Make Me a Supermodel.” But I did happen to catch the first episode of the current season a few weeks back when it was shown right after the “Top Chef” finale and I was too lazy to get off the couch.
If you’ve never seen the show, it’s a rip-off of “America’s Next Top Model,” using the same competition format as “Top Chef,” but without the Tyra drama and with the added twist of having half the contestants be male. Each week, the host, tatted-up bo-hunk Tyson Beckford, has to maintain a straight face while delivering the silliest send-off in the short history of reality TV: “I’m sorry, we can’t make you a supermodel.”
Anyway, about five minutes into that first episode, I turned to my wife and said, “That girl’s going to win.” The girl was Salome Steinmann, a coltish 20-year-old from Nashville with short brown hair and facial features that recall a young Rose McGowan. According to the Bravo website, her only modeling experience is six months of working with Click Models of Atlanta.
Steinmann also had the most interesting backstory, having been raised Mennonite, which she describes to another contestant as “like being Amish, but with electricity.”
Well, seven weeks on, Steinmann is still on the show and just won this week’s episode. Here’s Salome’s MySpace page if you want to know who you’re rooting for.
