• Tim Gunn of Project Runway thinks Katie Holmes is regressing, fashionwise, with the baggy jeans and overall tomboy look. But maybe husband Tom Cruise likes the tomboy look. Or, better still, hates it! Maybe she's regressing to more independent days. [People]
• Meanwhile, Cruise phoned up ole Liz Smith at the Post for some friendly chatter about how he doesn't "run United Artists, I just own it" and how his ousted business partner Paula Wagner "wants to produce elsewhere and in her own venue, and I don't intend to stand in her way." [Post]
• Lindsay Lohan posted to her MySpace account a blog entry about her dad, who lashed out at her girlfriend Samantha Ronson for supposedly trying to exploit Lindsay's fame. "He has become a public embarrassment and a bully - to my family, my co-workers, my friends, and a girl that means the world to me... His recent attack on my life and my loved ones is simply for an ADDICTION THAT HE HAS - FAME." [Myspace via Sun]
• Maybe Eliot Spitzer's hooker Ashley Dupre ratted the then-governor out on behalf of her mob buddies? This idea was written by a private eye in an epilogue in the paperback edition of a book by an editor at CNBC. So it must be true. [P6]
• Magazine editors really like appearing on Gossip Girl. The next one is from Gotham. [P6]
• Onetime teen star McKenzie Phillips was arrested at LAX airpot trying to bring bags of cocaine and heroin through a security checkpoint. That's actually a useful trick for checking into rehab super quick. [National Enquirer]
• Naomi Campbell's Russian billionaire boyfriend bought her a $19 million apartment in a fancy part of Sao Paolo, Brazil. It comes with a complete staff of servants for her to brutalize. And extra cell phones! [P6]

• Huge platform. Even without financial compensation, Gunn enjoyed the benefits (and potential hazards) of what, based on early critical acclaim and audience growth rates, looked to become a hugely-watched hit. Airtime like that does not come cheap.
• Winning personality. As we've said, Gunn is an articulate and charming mensch, always ready with a crisp take on fashion. If he wasn't, then having a big platform wouldn't have done him any good — and might have actually harmed him.
• Winning platform. Crucially, Runway wasn't some cheap reality television disaster, recruiting Gunn solely for his ability to stir up unnecessary drama with which to titillate viewers. Instead, it offered him a chance to showcase his strongest area of expertise in a relatively dignified setting.
• Residual benefits. When the show started, Gunn was chair of fashion design at Parsons. He must have had an inkling that Runway, even if it never became a big hit, might open up new doors careerwise. And it did!
• Kept his day job. Gunn wasn't desperate to pay his rent.
• Not content being a poor. Tim didn't work for free long! Though his season-two take of $2,500 was something of a pittance by TV (and Runway) standards, he kept leveraging his success into more money and outside gigs. Know your worth!

Be sure to keep this list handy for the next time a cable network comes knocking on your door. It could totally happen.

[Daily News]

"What?! No, I couldn't possibly. 'Make it work' comes with me. I've been saying it for decades," he tells The Cut. Phew. We are very apprehensive about this upcoming Lifetime/LA move, but as long as whimsical Tim is still puttering around, saying comforting things, I think we might be OK. Do any of our LA readers want to offer their services as a chauffeur? I'm sure he'll pay you back in titillating anecdotes about the New York glitterati and perfectly placed bon mots.

• Tim Gunn had a terrible stutter as a child and it made him an introverted yet creative little boy (who also "preferred the company of adults.") He was obsessed with LEGOs and built elaborate structures for hours on end, alone in his room. Also, he received a toy castle once from his father, and proceeded to make outfits for the little guards that came with it.
• His father, way high up in the FBI, was understandably a bit aloof and removed. But he coached some kids' sports teams in the Washington D.C. area, none of which Gunn was a part of. Until he discovered swimming, which "is clean and you don't sweat," and he began to compete. His father became a coach.
• Tim's FBI father was the "right hand man" to J. Edgar Hoover, who Tim is convinced he saw dressed as Vivian Vance (Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy. )
• Tim was wearing a black suit with a blue shirt and a purple tie. Do not ask me for more details (if for some reason you happen to care) because I am not a fashion person. Currently I am wearing a potato sack with Kleenex boxes for shoes.
• Tim is bigoted against New Jersey. When talking about a change-resistant woman on his Guide to Style show, he said something to the effect of "well then go back to New Jersey with your cargo capris." Then later, discussing his father working as an FBI agent, said he worked "in Newark. And you can imagine what that was like." My born and raised Bayonne, New Jersey companion was none too happy.
• His overhaul of the Parsons fashion design program included ending famous designer apprenticeships and making students more responsible for their own creative destiny.
• He was so nervous to teach once that he vomited in the parking lot and could not stop his knees from buckling.
• He is "the luckiest guy in the world" for all the unexpected fame he's gained of late. His mother is becoming more and more fame hungry, though, demanding magazine articles with pictures and wanting that Nina Garcia to stop doing fashion commentary for People.
• There was a surprising number of visibly straight men in the audience.
• If you go by the fashion examples he cited, there are essentially two looks: classicist (Sally Field) and bohemian (Tilda Swinton.) Never the two shall meet, though people exist somewhere in between (I guess?)
• The producers of Project Runway only have a hand in the eliminations if there is a stalemate.
• Tim does not like What Not To Wear and other fashion "intervention" shows.
• Tim Gunn believes I should forge my own path and is so nice that I would like to hug him and have him make tea and we'd sip it and chat and chat about nothing and everything and the world would be perfect.
• I am happy to report, he really, genuinely, did not seem sad.

Nard38's new line beats the original, Tim Gunn And Friends Look To Heavens For Answers, Little Monkey Creature Looks...Elsewhere.

Bell County's new line beats the original, I Know What Made Tim Gunn Sad Last Night.

Was at The Townhouse last night. Not very friendly. As I walked over to say hello, (he was alone and looking lonely) he mouthed "go away."

People come and go in the homes of the painter Hunt Slonem, both the quick and the dead... Lunch is Louisiana takeout: boudin sausage, pecan pie, a local desert called ooey gooey. The talk is of a portrait, just hung, of Catherine of Aragon... Then Mr. Slonem's caretaker calls with word of an interloper: a voodoo head, or something that looks like one, has been found in the third-floor ceiling earlier in the week and tucked away in a kitchen cabinet. Mr. Slonem goes at once to retrieve the head, a mud-colored walnut-size carving of a skull, with a tiny straw hat and pointy appendages. Then he retreats to make a call.

Not only the Louisiana plantation that is the focus of the article but another one a hundred miles away. He also owns an 89-room New York studio, and it really is awesome. And we're not talking closets, we're talking legitimate rooms. The place was profiled in Men's Style. You can watch the video if you like. Annual rent on the NY studio alone is $300K, while the southern manse cost him $625,000 and another Kingston, NY house set him back $770,000. The article mentions the fact that Hunt's paintings sell for around $70K which is relatively chump change in the art world.

So the real question, apart from why isn't this guy married to Tim Gunn already, is how in the world did he make so much money? If you have any idea, for we are truly confounded, let us know.

Southern Gothic: Ghosts Welcome [NYT]
INside Hunt Slonem's NYC Studio [Style]

The Headmaster of Fashion [NYT]

TO: Students, Faculty, and Administration: Department of Fashion Design

FROM: Tim Gunn, Chair

DATE: February 1, 2007

SUBJECT: Leadership Transition

This memorandum is very difficult for me to write, because my heart and
soul reside at Parsons and the University and, more specifically, with
all of you in the Department of Fashion Design. The achievements that
we have realized together since the time of my arrival in the Department
in September 2000 are phenomenal and we should all feel very proud. I
have had every reason to assume that we would be together for a very
long time. However, an opportunity has presented itself that I would be
foolish to turn down. I have been offered the position of Chief
Creative Officer of Liz Claiborne, Inc., and I have accepted that
position. In this new role, I will work with the 350 designers who
create product for each of the company's 40+ brands. I will serve as
a mentor, advisor, teacher, and advocate. It's very exciting for me
and it is also a welcome new challenge.

I want to emphasize that my work with you has been and continues to be
exciting and challenging. You students never cease to amaze me:
you're intelligent, exceedingly talented, and you're fearless,
qualities that ensure a metaphorical creative combustion! You faculty
are our academic leaders: you nurture, inspire, and give
unconditionally and selflessly to our community. Our work together is
the source of my greatest professional pride.

I want to assure all of you that my departure will in no way harm the
Department. Yes, there will be a period of transition in the
administration, but every measure will be put in place to ensure that
the highest quality education continues to be delivered. Towards this
mandate, I am working closely with the Office of the Dean and the
Department's administration and full-time faculty. I have every
confidence that there will be no disruptions to your academic
environment.

I also want to assure you that I'm not abandoning you! I continue my
commitment to the students in my class, I plan to fully participate in
the senior year thesis review, and I also plan to host the Parsons
Benefit and Fashion Show. Discussions are underway about how I can
continue to be active with Parsons, the University, and the Department
of Fashion Design. Furthermore, in my new role at Liz Claiborne, Inc.,
I will be actively and enthusiastically recruiting Parsons graduates.

Next Tuesday, February 6 at noon, I will hold an open meeting to
respond to your questions and to any concerns that you may have. All of
you are invited to attend.

Bravo's pulling the plug on Queer Eye after five seasons and four years on TV. The show's ten-episode fifth season, which debuts this summer, will be its last, the network was expected to tell television critics today at a presentation in Pasadena.

Separately, the network signed Project Runway den daddy Tim Gunn and pop star-turned American Idol judge Paul Abdul to series of their own. Tim Gunn's Guide to Style will profile Gunn as he solves people's fashion dilemmas by helping them get makeovers. While it's still unresolved whether Gunn will return to Runway for its fourth season, his own show debuts as he is set to publish a book on style and taste in May, 2007.

Bravo Cancels Queer Eye [B&C]