About the Work

Can I just tell you how much I LOVE Project Runway?! I do. I can't help it. I'm even buying more Victoria's Secrets items to feel closer to Heidi Klum. Sounds freaky, I know. I just love that darn show.

I love it because it's about the work. The designers have to tailor well, be "fashion forward," design with look and function in mind, meeting new challenges each week, and they have to GET IT DONE!!! I love that.

And I can't begin to say how much I just HATE the show Who Wants To Be A Soap Star. It's supposed to be a reality contest for actors to win a role on a soap opera. But it's not about acting. It's not about the craft. The winner had no acting experience. None. But because he declared to himself, "I am an actor," he seemed to think that made it true. The judges apparently were duped by his Jedi mind trick as well. Mikey -- I'm cringing from remembering his name -- sucked. He couldn't find an emotion in his bag of tricks -- sorry, he didn't have a bag of tricks. He came with nothing. Brought nothing. Week after pathetic week. So why did he win? He had "charm." Sure, he was good looking. He had a nice, boyish smile and a good body. But he couldn't act. The judges should have made better choices, even if Mikey didn't know how to make better acting choices. The judges for the show work in soaps: an actor, a manager, and a casting director. Each and every week they all talked about how much worse Mikey was than all the other contestants. Each and every week Debbie Morgan would say something noble like, "I prefer skill to looks." And every freakin' week Mikey would be spared from elimination despite his sub-par abilities.

I wonder what soaps would be like if the strict guidelines of, say, Project Runway, were applied to acting. Or better yet, vice versa. If Project Runway were run like Soap Star, that would be hilarious! Clothes would be falling off of models, clownish Elvis costumes would win each week, and the most "charming" designer would walk away with an Elle magazine spread rather than the designer who actually bothered to study fashion design in school and work at it every day.

Here's my idea for a new show: Who Wants to be a Soap Star's Plastic Surgeon. I bet the judges would go for the skill rather than the nice smile then.

auf Wiedersehen!

- Inda