Lifetime, the cable network that purports to be about empowering women, has gotten into bed for one of its new projects with Donald Trump, the guy who seems just the teensiest bit dismissive of women who are (a) plus-size, (b) lesbian, (c) over 40 or (d) Angelina Jolie.Trump Tower is described by Lifetime as "a juicy night-time soap set in one of New York City's most glamorous Trump apartment and condominium complexes." But the ring-kissing did not stop there, reports Lisa de Moraes. At its new-season development unveiling ceremony in New York, Lifetime went on to say the show is a "microcosm of the world's most chic, sophisticated and powerful players, and a rare insider's look at how they live, love and interact with the men and women who work in this plush and well-appointed building." And, best of all, Trump, who is executive-producing, will narrate the voice-over bits, Lifetime announced, though no writer has yet been assigned to the project.
Trump, you'll recall, got nicked by Rosie O'Donnell when he gave a reprieve to then-Miss USA Tara Conner after she got busted for under-age drinking, among other things, if she'd enter rehab. Trump owns the Miss USA and Miss Universe franchises. He responded that Rosie was a "fat slob" and said he was going to send one of his friends to try to break up her relationship with TV exec Kelli Carpenter, with whom she is raising four children. "I imagine it would be pretty easy to take her girlfriend away, considering how Rosie looks," he said.
Speaking of Rosie, she's executive-producing a movie in development at Lifetime called America, about a teenage boy by that name who is separated from his foster mother. No word on what Trump thinks of that project.
Rosie is in good company in Trump's No Beauty List. He also put stunning Jolie in that camp. Trump also slammed her for dating multiple men, once telling Larry King in a CNN interview she has "been with so many guys she makes me look like a baby, okay, with the other side." On the other hand, Trump had only good things to say about Jolie's partner, Brad Pitt, in that same interview for not marrying Jolie, with whom he now has two children.
Anyway, the whole women-empowering Lifetime in bed with stuck-in-the-1950s Donald Trump irony thing seems to have been lost on the Reporters Who Cover Television who attended Lifetime's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York, knicker-knotted as they were by the formal disclosure of the pinching of Bravo's Project Runway. Attending Lifetime's clambake, according to news reports, were "Runway" den mother Tim Gunn and Harvey Weinstein, whose Weinstein Co. is being sued by Bravo parent NBC Universal. NBCU claims Weinstein Co. violated terms of its contract by not affording it the opportunity to match the Lifetime deal.
Weinstein told the Hollywood Reporter the move to Lifetime would help his show reach its potential. Lifetime promises to televise two new Weinstein reality series: Project Pygmalion, in development for 2009, which will remake some lucky gal and give her entree into "high society," plus a series looking at Project Runway from the perspective of the models who wear the contestants' designs.
Trade publication TV Week, meanwhile, reported that Weinstein insisted he and NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker were "best friends" and "that after three years of cleaning his house and babysitting his kids, they would be best friends again." Which reminds me of that old gag -- you know, the one about "with friends like these . . ."
Gunn, Heidi Klum and Michael Kors are on board to continue as judges; judge Nina Garcia is less of a sure thing -- she was just shown the door at Elle, which was her calling card on the fashion-design competition series. Weinstein apparently was still getting traction out of the line that NBC Universal knew "Runway" couldn't stay on Bravo anyway. NBCU had been talking to the Weinstein Co. about moving the show to a network in the NBCU family with greater distribution.
Bravo's upfront presentation, ironically, is scheduled for today.
