Saturday, August 30, 2008

When Reality Worlds Collide

On Wednesday, Laura K and I went to New York to attend the Shear Genius finale viewing party, sponsored by Nexxus. Upon arrival at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, Laura K spotted Charlie, his sister Kelly, and Daniel in the lobby, and they were nice enough to pose for some photos.

Before the party, we met up with Project Runway's Malan Breton and model Amanda Fields to have dinner at Top Chef season one winner Harold Dieterle's restaurant, Perilla. On our way out the door, we ran into finalist Nicole, posing here with her friend, Matt who came up from Texas to cheer for her. She was tiny and completely adorable.

Dinner was fantastic, and I enjoyed meeting Ms. Fields for the first time. Here are our dinner companions posing on the red carpet at the party.

The party started at 8PM with flashbulbs, as photographers flooded the red carpet area with lights to capture the stylists. Jaclyn and Rene were also in attendance. They are both as utterly gorgeous in real life as they are on the show. More so, actually.

Rene and Jaclyn pose with Nicole, Dee, and Charlie.

Other stylists in attendance were Glenn, Gail, and Daniel. The gals were just plain stunning in the flesh. Gaw-juss!

After the initial red carpet photography, the stylists were allowed to mingle with the guests and Bravo shot mini interview videos (which will pop up on BSG sometime later). Then came a surprise Short Cut challenge in which the three finalists cut the hair of women who were making a donation to Locks of Love, a charity that creates wigs for children suffering from long term medical hair loss.

Here we see Jaclyn Smith, Nexxus Editorial Director Roy Teeluck and President of Locks of Love Madonna Coffman during the judging.

At 10 PM we were ushered into the hotel's theatre to watch the finale broadcast. The stylists sat in the front row, with the rest of us in the seats behind them. Everyone cheered and clapped during the broadcast, and it was probably the most fun I had watching TV in a long time. However, it did feel pretty weird not to be taking notes. Fellow blogger in attendance David Dust expressed the same sentiment.

After the broadcast, Dee was presented with a giant check and there were more photos taken plus interviews. At that point, the guests took the opportunity to thank their hosts and leave the event, as did Malan, Amanda, David, Laura, and I. What a fun party it had been!