Punky Rooster

It was great to see a slightly different side of Jeffrey last week. "Bad boy" is such a tiresome image, but "punk rock daddy" works just fine.

Plus, we got a chance to see Tim's yenta face. "What a shayna punim!"

Melanie seems like a real sweetheart and we like her Harrison Detroit tat more than Jeffrey's. And so convenient! You can nurse AND teach them to read at the same time!

Nothing says "punk rock" like a Chuck E. Cheese portrait.

No matter what else happens tomorrow, Jeffrey will always be the guy who made Tim drink out of a "Slut" mug. Gotta love him for that.

Oh Tim, you clever boy. You thought you could hide it from us.

Harrison is adorable...

...and he's the spitting image of baby Jeffy.

Seriously, it really was nice to see Jeffrey's tender side. Granted, like all the designers' stories this week, it had a manipulative feel to it, but he's obviously a proud papa and he's clearly doing this for his family. Besides, these "personal history" edits may be manipulative, but no more so than locking someone in a room and telling them to make a gown in 12 hours.

The editors and producers have done their job well. We're in the impossible position of wanting all four of them to win for different reasons. No, really.

At the risk of turning our comments section into yet another "No he didn't!/Yes he did!" festival, we'd like to point your attention to something Nick Verreos said in his recap:

"I was more moved by Jeffrey's incredibly professional workspace and that every garment was hanging in their plastic bags, just as if he had received them back from the sewing contractor the night before. I made a mental note. "

We report, you decide!

Miami Nice

We've about had it with Uli. Do you all have any idea how hard it is to be bitchy about someone who's so sweet?

We wanted to see her and Tim get vasted! We thought her apartment would be nothing but ashtrays full of roaches and empty Captain Morgan bottles. Instead, it was like watching a sorority girl take her father on a tour of the campus.

Look at her! Adorable! What can we possibly say about her?

Bitch.

Tim honey, take the jacket off more often.

But leave the shoes on. Those dogs are blinding.

That sound you hear is the sizzling of skin cells.

Oh, that's it. Living in the cold, colorless world of East Germany, dreaming of the future by watching "Miami Vice" episodes? You have gone too far, Fräulein! Tell us you hate Laura, tell us you're an alcoholic, hell, tell us you shot a man in Reno just to watch him die - anything!

We need our insulin shots now.

Looks like she went to the Vincent Libretti School of Hat Design.

Realty Television

BURNING.

REAL.

ESTATE.

ENVY.

The very first thing the PRGayBoys said to each other when it became obvious that Laura was in the Final Four was "We're going to get to see her place!" From that point on, this episode has been known not as "The Season Finale Part 1" or even "The one where Tim visits the designers," but as "The one where they go to Laura's place!!!"

We have designgasms every time we look at it. And we've looked at it a lot.

We love how this was what they showed as Laura was saying "It's a great space for the kids." We know you love them, but those are shoes, honey. The kids are the blurry things holding the poop.

From Punching Bags to Dress Forms: The Laura Bennett Story.

An Original Television Event, this Fall on LifeTime Television for Women.

The picture's sweet and she looks cute, but she looks almost exactly like the last girl one of the PRGayBoys ever dated. Could there be aspects of lingering, vestigial heterosexuality to our LauraLove?

Naah. Still wanna go shopping with her.

Only Laura would consider 20 caged birds a suitable addition to her work space.

We've avoided talking about any of the clothes because we're waiting to see the collections walk down the runway, but since this didn't wind up in the final collection, it's fair game. We have to say, we "responded" better to this than Tim did. He was right that it didn't fit in the collection, but we actually liked this piece. It wasn't perfect and there was definitely too much going on (which is unusual for Laura) but it was in its own way, gorgeous - and a major departure for Laura.


It took an hour of frame-by-frame to get this image.

It was worth it.

The look of pure gay horror dawning on Tim's face is priceless, yes?

They're adorable. Like a living Hirschfeld drawing. Actually, Laura's husband looks like a character actor in a 1930s movie. "Go to casting and get me an architect type! Tell them to pull from their "intellectual" file! If that's no good, get me someone from "mad scientists!"

Hot Atlanta Knights

We love when Tim visits the designers every year. It's a great way to learn more about who each designer is and gain a better understanding of their aesthetic.

Plus it's just fun to see Tim totally out of his element.

If we drew bunny ears and whiskers on him, he couldn't be any cuter.

Now you want to draw bunny ears and whiskers on him, don't you?

Waitaminnit...Michael has a neck tattoo? How did we miss this? What is it with the necks this season? Between Robert's bullfrog neck, Keith's praying mantis one, Jeffrey's twice-as-big-as-it's-supposed-to-be one and now this. PR Season 3 was all about the necks this year.

Michael's house is cute and it was sweet how excited he was to see Tim and show him his stuff. He was like a kid with his little league coach.

PAM! We love Pam. One look at her and you see exactly where Michael got all of it - the looks, the personality, the drive. Everyone wants a mom like Pam.

And actually, Michael's dad was pretty awesome in his own right. We loved how he said that he didn't care if Michael sewed or worked as a beautician(!). The world needs more dads like Michael's.

And Damn, if he wasn't rocking that afro 25 years ago. We have a sudden urge to get out our old Commodores CDs.

Motown Philly back again!

THE most frequently asked question we get in email is "Is Michael gay?" Girl, we want to respect you, but this pic ain't exactly helping your denials.

THIS pic, on the other hand ...HOT. CRAZY HOT. DAYUM!

It's official.

Tim Gunn is The Whitest Man in America.

Okay, here's what we think.

We'd rather just talk this out of our systems now so we don't spend the rest of the week rehashing the same stuff.

Is Jeffrey a cheater? Is Laura a bitch? Who knows? That episode had more edits than a George Michael video. The stench of manufactured drama wafted from our television last night.



Look, Laura had a valid question and the second she raised it to the other designers, they not only immediately agreed, they urged her to follow up on it. At first, that looked awfully manipulative of Michael and Uli, but to their credit, they immediately copped to it when confronting Jeffrey. All this sturm und drang* over Laura doesn't make any sense to us. All the designers made the accusation.


It's also to Laura's credit that she immediately went to Jeffrey about it. There wasn't anything sneaky or underhanded. It was "Look, I have some questions and I went to Tim about it. I think you should know." That, to us, was admirable. To those who thought she should have gone to Jeffrey before speaking to Tim, if you listen to Tim's podcast, he went to her before she had a chance to talk to Jeffrey.


The one thing that was not cool was the designers pawing through Jeffrey's collection when he left the room. There were audible gasps among the PRGayBoy Posse in our living room last night when they did that. We'll chalk it up to stress and leave it at that.



One point we feel needs to be raised. When you've opened up the competition to established designers with their own lines, employees and facilities, does that make for an even playing field when the other designers might be working with a sewing machine in the corner of their living room? Whether Jeffrey got outside help or not, the fact is, he had access to an amazing work space with sophisticated equipment. That's not his fault, but it's something the producers might want to consider in future seasons as the applicants get more and more polished.



As for Jeffrey...well, first off, this is a perfect opportunity to address something we've been meaning to. Despite what some might think, we really don't dislike Jeffrey. We think he acted like an ass a couple of times this season, but we think almost every designer did - including Laura. His designs are not to our taste but we're perfectly happy that he's one of the final four. We'll reserve
judgment on his collection - on all of the collections - when we see
the episode. You need to see them blown up and in motion before you can really get a sense of the clothes.


Anyway. Jeffrey. Yeah, we have to say that his actions last night were a little shifty. That could be pure editing of course but there is at least the spectre of a suspicion and because of that, we can't sling mud at anyone for raising the question.




But Bravo producers, enough with the manipulated drama. Your viewers are more sophisticated than that.

*Oh please. We've been using it for years. Tim didn't invent the phrase, y'know.

Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin-Eater!

We'll definitely have our thoughts on the cheating controversy later (once we've seen the episode a half-dozen times), but it's obvious it's what everyone wants to talk about, so have at it, fabulous reader. Is Laura just a jealous bitch? Is Jeffrey a lying cheater? Is Uli a passive-aggressive manipulator? Is Tim adorable when he looks stern? O, the drama!

EDITED TO ADD: Here's the preview of next week's show. Notice any suspicious absences?