Reality Check

'Top Chef: Las Vegas': We have a winner, winner, chicken dinner

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:40:26 -0500

Thanks to all of the commenters who entered our contest for the most creative quickfire challenge. After much deliberation between Justine and me (now I know how Padma and Chef Tom feel!), we've narrowed the entries down to our favorites. I know we said we'd have 3 winners at first, but since there were so many clever concepts, we expanded it to five winners. Prizes include Season 5 of Top Chef (for all you Hosea fans out there), Season 1 of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (the UK edition), and a cookbook of our choosing from The Baltimore Sun's cookbook library (which may or may not relate to the challenges the winners suggested).

Check out the winners after the jump!

(Photo of Michael Voltaggio serving a recent quickfire dish from bravotv.com)

Project Runway: Guess who's coming to dinner? Tim Gunn!

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:51:38 -0500

Well kids, I'm Kevin Van Valkenburg, sports writer in my spare time, but Project Runway blogger at heart. And as my favorite cheesy Swedish heavy metal band, Europe, would say...

It's the final countdown! (Da da da daaaaa! Da da da da daaaaaa!) It's the final countdown!

This season of Project Runway has been, I think we'd all agree, a bit uneven at best. A little soulless, even, almost like its Los Angeles locale. As much as I've enjoyed it for comedic purposes, ultimately we're left with three designers I can't quite figure out how to love, for either personal or professional reasons. I suppose if I wanted someone interrogated and waterboarded, Irina would be a great ally because she'd never flinch. (If this fashion thing doesn't work out, she definitely has a potential career as a villain-for-hire.) And I guess Carol Hannah is the dorky, but adorable little sister most of us never had. But as we wrap up this season with a two-parter in Bryant Park, I'm going to confess I can't wait for the show to get back to New York full time.

But the saving grace is that the penultimate episode each season -- where Tim Gunn knocks on your door -- is always one of my favorites, so as Michael Buffer would say, let's get ready to ~~rumble~~ recaaaaaap!

This episode begins with Tim and Heidi giving their usual cheery instructions, letting the designers know Tim will be dropping by, blah, blah, blah. But then, something surreal happens. Tim and Heidi go behind the silhouette screen and start freak dancing on one another. I'm nearly at a loss for words. It's like walking in on your parents and catching them passionately making out. I'm going to be traumatized for the rest of the episode.

Cut to talking heads by Althea and Irina, during which they express how much they'd like to murder one another and dump the other’s body in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. But of course, they pretend to be all Babysitter's Club BFFs to one another's faces.

"Althea and Carol Hannah are intimidated. They're expecting me to take the big guns to Bryant Park but I'm brining a tank. I'm taking the whole army," Irina says.

I think it's awesome that Carol Hannah's fantasies growing up probably involved Barbie and Ken sharing a South Carolina beach house and 13 kids, while Irina's seem more likely about leading the Georgian army to victory in battle over the Russians.

'Survivor: Samoa': No way.

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:00:26 -0500

The first moment of pride in tonight's Survivor comes, surprisingly, when Natalie kills a rat for the tribe to eat. Jaison interviews how proud he is of her and how much she's changed. It's all a little ... odd. But man, they enjoy that rat!

The reward challenge is so complex that it takes even Jeff a couple of minutes to describe. The 11 people split into teams of five, with one person (Natalie) sitting out. The tribe that wins will go to a natural rock slide and eat a ton of food. Natalie has to choose a team to support, and if that team wins, she gets to go on the reward.

She picks yellow (which features Jaison and Russell and Mick). They lose, purple wins. (Shades of the rest of the entire season!)

At the reward, Kelly reveals that she is so scared of water slides. And yet, unlike some people, she goes for it anyway. At their feast, they learn that there is a new hidden immunity idol at camp. Hey, it turns out that no one from Foa Foa is on the winning team (Figures!), so they choose not to share that information with Foa Foa. They all say they want Russell out, except that Shambo doesn't want him to leave.

'Top Chef: Las Vegas': Casino tour

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:04:45 -0500

Welcome back, readers. Justine and Liz are back and glad to see you survived last week's boring reunion snoozefest (we sat through it so you didn't have to). Our hopes are high for this week's episode since the previews showed Padma in a bathrobe, and we're hoping to see the last of Robin this week. But nothing's ever a guarantee on Top Chef.

Enough bashing the reunion show. On to the cooking!

(Photo of Padma relaxing in a fluffy bathrobe from bravotv.com)

'So You Think Can Dance' results: Voters finally have their say

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:28:12 -0500

Finally, now that we're past the problematic baseball part of the So You Think You Can Dance season, viewer votes are playing a role in who goes home tonight.

The first real results show of the season opens with a crazy group number by choreographer Dave Scott featuring the Top 16. It's intense; that's all I'm saying.

After some babble with the judges, it's results time, and the first three couples come to the stage. Ellenore and Ryan are in the bottom three, we learn right off the bat. Victor and Channing are safe, and so are Legacy and Kathryn.

There's a segment that's like Jaywalking crossed with product placement. Goofy.

Then, more results: Ashleigh and Jakob are safe. Peter and Pauline are in danger, and Noelle and Russell are safe. Commercials, then more. Karen and Kevin learn that they're in the bottom three, and Mollie and Nathan find out that they're safe.

Nigel makes it known that he didn't like Nathan's immature response to judging last night (when he said, "I though it was hoooooooot!").

Dancers from Alvin Ailey perform, and duh, they are amazing.

Then, it's solo time. Ellenore reminds us of how quirky she is in hers. Ryan goes crazy on the floor, but he ends with a backflip that he almost doesn't make. Pauline's solo is OK, but it has a lot of walking for as short as it is. (Speaking of short, when she's next to Cat in her crazy heels, Pauline looks like she's about three feet tall.) Peter's tap footwork is amazing, but it does seem a little restrained compared to the rest. Still, he uses as much of the floor and engages the audience as much as he can. Karen gyrates and hip-shakes as much as she can in the time frame. Kevin's style is so interesting, but he has a relatively long stint that is all arms and hands, which feels a tad static. But then he does this crazy move where he basically falls backward that leaves me stunned.

Nigel tells all the dancers that ever single solos were lackluster. While he lectures them, the camera cuts back to the women, and Karen is standing there in a pageant stance. After some notes, Nigel tells Pauline that she is cut. Same thing with the guys, and Peter finds out he's cut, too. Sorry, tap dancers!

What do you think about the results? I'm not that surprised because they had a rough time last night.

'The Biggest Loser': heart-breaking double elimination

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:02:21 -0500

What a heart-breaker on last night's Biggest Loser.

At the beginning, Allison let the contestants know that something new was happening: There wasn't just a yellow line, but there was also a red line. Whoever fell below the red line with the lowest percentage of weight loss would automatically go home, and then the remaining contestants would vote between the two who fell below the yellow line.

Double! Elimination! No! Voting! (For part of it!)

This caused a lot of panic, of course. And filler -- I swear, half of each episode of TBL is the contestants in one-on-one interviews narrating what we just saw and then recounting their feelings about it. "Allison told us there was a red line, and that's just so scary because that means I have no control." "A red line! My jaw hit the floor when she told us about the red line!" Etc.

It got worse when the pop challenge started. The contestants (well, the non-injured contestants) had to run over to a wall, remove a tennis ball, run back to a can and put the ball in it until they'd removed 50 balls. They learned that whoever won would win a 1-pound advantage in the weigh-in. And this led to more freaking out and more interview filler, a lot of it people doing math. "One pound! Do you know how much one pound can help in the weigh-in? Do you know how much one pound is?" "Two people are going home! That's 25 percent of the contestants! One out of four!" "Allen is halfway there, with 25 of the 50 balls!" It got so bad that my husband, who wasn't even paying attention, starting saying, "One tennis ball! Mua-ha-HA! Two tennis balls! Mua-ha-HA!" a la the Count on Sesame Street. Seriously, this show could be an hour.

Anyway, Allen won the challenge. (This is important later.)

'Dancing With the Stars' results: Who goes home?

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:58:13 -0500

It's going to be a super quick recap today -- more of a recaplet -- because The Baltimore Sun's blogs will be undergoing maintenance at 10 p.m. for about an hour. Thus, I need to get this posted ASAP. If you can't comment, be patient. Once the work is over, things should be swell.

The judges want to see Joanna Krupa and Derek Hough's futuristic paso doble. I think it's future-tastic.

Who are safe first and in the semifinals? Joanna and Derek.

After a recap of Monday night's competition. Michael Buble performs. But, who's the next couple who makes it to the semifinals?

'So You Think You Can Dance' recap: Top 16 perform

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:55:22 -0500

Finally, it's in the voters' hands on So You Think You Can Dance, now that pesky baseball is out of the way.

(Just a quick technical note, to get it out of the way: The blogs will be down for maintenance starting around 10 p.m., so while you might be able to read, you won't be able to comment during the downtime. Sorry for the difficulty; it sure wasn't my choice of times!)

The stars from last season, who are on tour right now, are in the audience tonight. The tour already stopped in Baltimore, but you can relive the experience in our photo gallery.

They spend some time pimping the big fund-raiser for the Dizzy Feet Foundation, which you can read more about here.

Karen and Kevin are first. Karen shares that she tried out with her husband, but he got cut in Vegas. Shortly thereafter, they decided to get a divorce. Ouch. Awkward to have to go public with that already. They're working on the Hustle with Maria Torres. As usual, it kind of feels like Karen is dancing circles around Kevin, though he is definitely there for her on some lifts and tricks. Adam Shankman says they made it work for them, and he disagrees with me and says he noticed Kevin for the first time in this competition. He says he could see their partnership growing. He adds that Karen performed with "wonderful restraint." Mary Murphy calls it a "Sadie Hawkins Hustle, with the lady leading from beginning to end." She credits Kevin with his performance. They're both still on the train. (You know the one.) Nigel Lythgoe says his friends back home must be absolutely shocked and that he himself is absolutely delighted.

Ashleigh and Jakob share things people don't know about them. Ashleigh says she is a "book nerd" because she got good grades and interned for a congressperson. I find this annoying; real nerds own it, thank you very much. Jakob is really good friends with Jeannine Mason, last season's winner. They are doing jazz with Mandy Moore, and a cane. I want to like this. Really I do. But the prop usage is just really overwrought and labored. Not like they are having trouble with it, but the way the dance is structured. Adam says Ashleigh absolutely deserves to be on this show, and that it's been great watching their partnership grow. He found it to be a mature, studied and fiery performance. Mary agrees that it's a perfect partnership. She, unlike me, loved the prop usage. She calls Ashleigh a chameleon who is getting better every week and says that Jakob is brilliant. Nigel says this comes up to the standard of the table routine with Neil and Sabra. Mmmm ... I don't know about that. That's my all-time favorite, and this just isn't.

'Top Chef: Las Vegas': Win Stuff Contest!

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:22:00 -0500

Bravo.com

The Swag Faeries have granted our wish to give you some free stuff for faithfully commenting on our hatred of Jerkface Mike, our impatience with Jen and our swooning over the Brothers Voltaggio.

The contest is simple: Come up with a great idea for a Quickfire. The idea has to be reasonable and, ideally, great. Delicious helps, too. (Don't expect to see your idea on an upcoming season, though: We have no ins with Bravo producers.)

We have some DVDs and cookbooks to give away to the top three ideas: Top Chef: Season 5, Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, myriad cookbooks and lots o' love. The winners get to pick their prize.

You have to leave the entry as a comment and provide a valid e-mail address so we can contact you (we won't share it, we promise).

Contest ends Friday at noon Eastern. Your time STARTS NOW.

(P.S. -- That picture is what Justine's heaven looks like.)

'Dancing With the Stars' recap: Ballroom, Latin and ... insanity

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:10:01 -0500

Tonight, the remaining competitors on Dancing With the Stars have to take on two performances each, one ballroom and one Latin. And yeah, they're kind of stressed about it.

The show starts with a video of the judges giving the final five advice. But how can anyone take advice from head judge Len Goodman when he's wearing that ridiculous shirt? Dress shirt with a white collar and cuffs, but the rest of it is lemon yellow.

The first couple is Mya and Dmitry Chaplin, with the quickstep. I'm hoping choreographer Dmitry lessens the gimmickry a little. But in rehearsal, Mya says she doesn't want to change what they're doing to please the judges and maybe end up alienate the audience. Ruh-roh! But actually, this is really charming, and they're interacting, and they seem to have upped the technique factor, too. Incidentally, I love when, during a performance, you can see the judges (usually Bruno) standing up and peering over the table to really see the footwork. This time, you can also see him tap-tap-tapping on the table in rhythm with the song to check whether she's on beat and then clapping for her after the sequence. Len says his priority is how you dance and her priority is the wow factor. He says he was disappointed tonight because he couldn't find anything to criticize. That was a fabulous fakeout! Bruno Tonioli: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is quality!" Carrie Ann Inaba says they made the difficult and intricate quickstep look easy. She loved it. Scores: 9-10-10, 29/30. A 10 from Len! They are thrilled!

'The Amazing Race' recap: Needle in a haystack (redux)

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:23:09 -0500

Bucky's back with this week's recap of The Amazing Race. Take it away, Bucky ...

The teams leave the Amsterdam pit stop for their next destination, Sweden, in the usual staggered fashion—12 hours after they checked in—and head for the airport. Sam and Dan are the first team to depart and determine that the next flight to Stockholm is in about 10 hours. This, of course, means that all the teams will get to the airport, wait and end up on the same flight.

Nuh-uh.

It turns out that the first flight to Stockholm has only six seats available. Brian & Ericka and Gary & Matt will have to take a later flight, so Sam & Dan, Meghan & Cheyne and the Globetrotters gain a two-and-a-half hour advantage from the get-go.

'Don't Be Tardy for the ...' OK, nevermind

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:59:36 -0500

On last night's Real Housewives of Atlanta reunion, Kim Zolciak sang her song "Tardy for the Party" live. Hmmm ... "sang" isn't really the right word. Even remotely. Ever stumbled into a karaoke bar? And everybody's drunk and tone-deaf and doesn't know it? Yeah ... well, the pained looks on the other housewives' faces make it worthwhile. In a can't-look-away kind of way ...

Project Runway: Can you hear me Bryant Park?

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:55:06 -0500

Greetings and salutations, PR fans. Before we get to the penultimate episode of Project Runway: 90210, a brief apology from me, your master of blogging ceremonies, Kevin Van Valkenburg.

My "other" writing job (sports) and a tragic TiVo malfunction managed to get in the way of recapping the last two weeks, which made me feel incredibly guilty. After complaining about Michael and Nina missing multiple episodes this year, I essentially became them by letting other interests get in the way of what's really important: bad fashion designing recapped with bad jokes.

Bad form, that was.

And sadly, perhaps in an effort to punish me in absentia, Heidi and the Weinsteins decided to eliminate my two greatest comic devices, Nicolas and Logan. A part of me already misses Nicolas' crazy cackle, Logan's raw sex appeal, Nicolas' phony sense of entitlement, and Logan's ability to use his raw sex appeal to coast through 10 weeks of shoddy designs.

It's pretty clear this has been a strange season for Project Runway. Sure, Irina has been a noble villain, serving as the producers' go-to designer for snark and sass in talking heads all season long. After all this time in Los Angeles, I'm starting to suspect she's actually Kobe Bryant's notoriously nutty wife, Vanessa -- seriously, look at the two of them here and here -- and that in the final episode, she'll strut off the stage in Bryant Park, slap a Kardashian (but hopefully not Bruce Jenner), and then sit down next to Kobe, Pau Gasol and the Beckhams.

There really hasn't been a counterweight to "Mean-a-Irina" (as Logan dubbed her last episode) at any point this year, which has made the season difficult to embrace. She and Nicolas traded a few barbs, but you mostly just prayed for mutual destruction whenever that happened. Personally, I would have loved to see Irina and Santino go at it for 12 weeks, if only because I'm certain Irina would have pointed out that Santino looks like a homeless orthodox rabbi, and Santino would have responded in kind. ("It's 5 p.m., do you know where Kobe is?") Alas, we'll just have to pray for a sequel to the Project Runway All-Stars show that aired earlier this year. By the way, you can order "Santino!" t-shirts off Rice's website if you like for just $40, which seems about $38 too much if you ask me, but who am I to say?

Let's get to the show, shall we? Time to find out who is going to Bryant Park!

The episode begins with Irina making excuses for why she's such a gigantic be-yotch. But instead of pointing out that she briefly joined forces with Althea to mock Logan's zipper turtleneck last episode, only to turn around and try to get Althea bounced on the runway by whining that her look had been plagiarized, she claims she's disliked by others because no one can handle her raw honesty. Also, for some reason, she won't get out of bed, preferring to lie there with the covers tucked to her chin so she can make evil eyes at everyone. (BTW, are we sure Logan isn't being held captive under those sheets? It would be just like Irina to belittle his designs but drug him and keep him in her bed to torture other designers like Carol Hannah.)

"I always say that I won't say anything behind your back that I wouldn't say to your face, but I guess people would rather you just say it behind their back," Irina says.

Christopher informs us that boys' room is lonely, and then he laments the absence of talented male designers like Nicolas and Ra'mon, and marvels at the fact that he's still in the competition and they're not. If I were Epperson, and I was watching this while drinking away my sorrows at an Oktoberfest bar, I'd be pretty peeved Nicolas got name-checked and I didn't.

The Heidibot 3000 shows up to give us her usual cryptic spiel that always, always begins with a short " 'ello!" and ends with "byyyyyyyyye!" I don't know why it just dawned on me, but I'm certain that some poor failed screenwriter actually writes these little oracle bits for Heidi, because there is no way she's up late the night before crossing out words and making notes in the margins. Not with four kids, anyway.

Carol Hannah continues to win the award given out by my heart for "Most Adorable" by telling us her own heart beats really fast every time she thinks about going to Bryant Park. I'm starting to wonder if her earnest, Southern politeness might single-handedly redeem the entire state of South Carolina for Mark Sandford's "Appalachian Trail" non-hiking, and the whole Joe Wilson "You lie!" debacle earlier this year. She's basically Amy Adams from Enchanted, which is fitting when you consider Irina is obviously Susan Sarandon, the evil dragon queen.

'Survivor: Samoa': It's an e-MERGE-ncy

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:43:33 -0500

The first thing I notice on tonight's Survivor is that Jaison so jacked up from his time on the show that he could barely walk down the stairs after tribal council during the "previouslies" footage.

The second thing I notice is that Erik say, "Sham-BO" instead of "SHAM-bo," like he just doesn't want to admit that it's supposed to rhyme with Rambo.

Anyway, right off the bat Laura and Shambo get into this stupid fight over Laura's canteen, which had been given to Shambo when she sent Laura to the other tribe during the reward last week.

Suddenly, they're having a random meeting without Jeff, where they open a treasure chest, find blue buffs and realize it's the merge. Immediately, Foa Foa puts its strategy into effect and begins trying to connect with the folks from Galu.

Russell thinks he's got it in the bag: "I can already see I'm going to rule this group, I mean who gets grapes fed to them? The king does." Thanks a lot, Monica, for bringing us that sound bite from Russell with your actions at the feast!

Based on Brett's suggestion, the tribe renames itself Aiga, which means "extended family." How sweet. Erik wonders, "What's Samoan for 'get the hell off my island'?"

'Top Chef Reunion': Fabio's no Padma

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:06:00 -0500

Top Chef may have taken a break this week from regular programming, but that doesn't mean that Liz and Justine are taking the night off. This week, we've got a Top Chef reunion show, bringing back some of the strongest personalities from the previous five seasons of the show. The 11 cheftestants (plus Fabio, fan favorite from season five, playing host) who came back were some of the strongest and conveniently most dramatic on their seasons.

We're not banking on huge fireworks on this episode, but it will be good to catch back up with a few of our favorites. Justine wanted to see Richard, Hung, Fabio and Harold; Liz is excited about Marcel, Richard and Harold.

Enough of the nostalgia. On to the reunioning!

(Photo of the charming Fabio by Getty Images)