Popular Reality TV

NBC’s forthcoming fashion reality competition isn’t getting any more promising with the latest casting announcement: Nicole Richie will be a mentor on the show, joining previously announced mentor Jessica Simpson . Both starred in reality shows in 2003—The Simple Life and Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica respectively—but for some reason NBC thinks they will now draw viewers. Also joining the show as a mentor is menswear designer John Varvatos; Elle Macpherson is hosting. In a press release, NBC reality executive Paul Telegdy calls Nicole an “international style icon and creative director,” and former NBC chair Ben Silverman, who’s executive producer of the new show, said, “Jessica, Nicole, John and Elle make the most exciting team we have ever worked with on a reality television show and we are thrilled to feature such an extraordinary group of mentors and designers.” View the original article here

American Idol raced through its Las Vegas episode, compressing Beatles performances sometimes into mere clips, so it could get to three hours of elimination faster. But the hour started with a glimmer of hope, and her name is Peggi Blu. She easily outshined mentor Jimmy Iovine, who apparently thinks he’s on The Sopranos and can just sit and mumble things like, “You ain’t gonna win singing that song.” The directness of Iovine’s comments was promising, but Peggi Blu is pure awesomeness. Her passion (or something) came out in hilarious, angry statements. “You’re going to die onstage in front of all those people. I’m going to be laying in my bed watching you just croak,” she said at one point. She interrupted two singers after they started a song and screamed, “No! What is that? Sing, dammit! Do it from the top one more time, and don’t make a mistake.” Later, Seacrest joked that she had a good “philosophy about teamwork,” which was: “Bury her ass on stage. Tap right dance right on her ton...