Salt Lake City fashionista Keith Bryce returned to Bravo's "Project Runway" last night, two weeks after his elimination - and he still brought the drama.

The challenge for the eight remaining contestants was to design an avant-garde dress inspired by a sign of the zodiac. Each of the eight was paired with one of the eight designers who were previously cast off.

Bryce (once again wearing a T-shirt advertising his Salt Lake store, Filthy Gorgeous) was teamed with Terri Stevens, the headstrong designer from Columbus, Ohio. But aside from choosing to adapt Bryce's astrological sign - Leo - the collaboration ended there.

The camera picked up several moments of Bryce and Stevens arguing, mostly about whether Bryce could do anything more than pin up a piece of fabric for Stevens' "vision." (In a priceless moment, fashion adviser/den mother Tim Gunn had to wake up Bryce, in self-exile in the "Project Runway" lounge, in time for the runway show.)

Stevens' gaudy "vision" (pictured at right) turned out to be a loser, as both she and the "tanorexic" Seattle designer Blayne Walsh got the "auf Wiedersehen."

Labels: Keith Bryce, Reality show

The blogs were not kind to Keith Bryce, the Salt Lake City fashion designer who got booted from Bravo's "Project Runway" this week.

This comment from the blog Nonsense Upon Stilts: "During the episode, I almost felt really really bad for him, what with the self doubt and the Utah and all, but then he started talking about how much more he wanted this than everybody else, and I remembered why I used to find him insufferable.

Karla Peterson, writing on the San Diego Union-Tribune's TV blog, summed up Bryce's departure thusly: "After blaming his boring ensemble on the model and last week's meanie judges who sapped his confidence, Keith packed his scissors and went back to Utah. But not after crying first. And I have to confess that the thought of a gay man going back to Utah made me sad, too. Maybe he could live in one of Rachel Zoe's gigantic purses."

Labels: Keith Bryce, Reality show

Salt Lake City designer Keith Bryce got the "auf Wiedersehen" on last night's episode of Bravo's "Project Runway" - and if you watched the episode, you could see the car crash coming.

The challenge was to make an outfit out of recycled parts from a Saturn Vue Hybrid (cha-ching - product placement!). Bryce turned leather car seats into a mini-skirt. The skirt came apart at the seams when his model sat down, and the cargo netting that held the top together was - to paraphrase Christian, last season's catchphrase-spouting winner - a hot transmission mess.

As he was making the dress (pictured at right), Bryce complained that it wasn't the style he liked - and that he made a tailored dress only to please the judges, who had ridiculed his fringe-dripping designs in previous episodes. (He had been in the Bottom 3 twice, though he won the "Lipstick Jungle" challenge two weeks ago.)

It didn't help that Bryce, in front of the judges, dissed his model for sitting down and complained that judge Michael Kors' criticisms were insulting. (There's more complaining, and some introspection, on Bryce's exit interview, here - which begins with "I feel like I'm leaving too soon.")

Also Wednesday, Salt Lake City's own Slippery Kittens Burlesque had their turn in the semi-final round of NBC's "America's Got Talent" - and their patriotic striptease, going from military-khaki dresses to star-spangled bras and panties (to the tune of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"), didn't exactly win over the judges.

Judge Piers Morgan was the toughest, hitting the "X" buzzer (this show's version of "The Gong Show's" gong) and declaring that, "when you started taking the clothes off, I wanted you to put them back on." Ouch!

But the judges are not the decision-makers here - the viewing public is. Watch for yourself.

Labels: Keith Bryce, Reality show, Slippery Kittens

Boy, you'd think a gay man from Salt Lake City - where garish parade floats are a point of community pride every July 24 - would know how to dress a drag queen.

But no, Keith Bryce - owner of Salt Lake boutique Filthy Gorgeous - found himself in the bottom two on last night's edition of Bravo's "Project Runway," once again creating a dress that looked like it had gone through a paper shredder. (There it is at left, on his model, Sherry Vine.)

Bryce (who won the previous week's challenge) survived the cut though, as New Yorker Daniel Feld - he of the self-proclaimed impeccable taste, who never met a challenge he couldn't turn into a cocktail dress - got Heidi Klum's "auf Wiedersehen."

But Bryce's penchant for layering bits of hanging fabric had the judges shaking their heads (though guest judge RuPaul liked the dress). Even his rival designers were whispering, "Keith's doing swatches again." Dude better mix in a hemline, pronto, or he's outta here.

Labels: Keith Bryce, Reality show

Salt Lake City designer Keith Bryce finally broke from the pack on Bravo's "Project Runway," winning a challenge that will put one of his designs on prime-time TV.

On Wednesday night's show, the 12 remaining contestants were challenged to design an outfit for Brooke Shields' character on the NBC series "Lipstick Jungle" - a professional woman who works both in the boardroom and in the evening social scene. Each of the 12 presented their sketches to Shields, who chose six designs to be sewn - including Bryce's.

The six chosen designers then paired up with the remaining six to produce the dresses. Bryce was paired with Bettie Page-lookalike Kenley Collins to create a chocolate-colored layered skirt with a floral-print top (pictured at left).

Bryce's dress won the round, and the dress will be worn by Shields in an upcoming episode of "Lipstick Jungle." (Yes, Bravo is owned by NBC Universal - how did you guess?)

Bryce - who owns the Salt Lake boutique Filthy Gorgeous - shouldn't rest on his laurels. As host Heidi Klum points out, "in fashion, one day you're in, the next day you're out." The designer who got eliminated, Kelli Martin, won the season's first challenge of designing an outfit based on supermarket products.

Labels: Keith Bryce, Reality show

Now Marcus has something else in common with David Archuleta besides being from Utah: He, too, knows the sting when the host calls the other person's name.

Marcus - the guy with one name but many tattoos - took the silver on Thursday's finale NBC's "Last Comic Standing," losing the viewers' vote to the show's first female winner, Iliza Shlesinger.

But Marcus didn't leave without first getting a comment from Triumph the Insult Comic Dog: "I predict Marcus will sell many more CDs than Dane Cook - because he will end up with a job at Virgin Records."

Also on Thursday, the Salt Lake burlesque troupe Slippery Kittens moved into the semi-final round on NBC's "America's Got Talent." If you left the room at the wrong moment, though, you would have missed it - the Kittens got exactly 12 seconds of screen time to show off their prison-themed striptease routine.

And Salt Lake designer Keith Bryce (pictured with his model, Alyssa) was in the middle of the pack on this week's "Project Runway." The task was to design a stylish opening-ceremonies uniform for the U.S. Olympic team. Oddly enough, the show's producers never interviewed Keith about what it was like living in the city that held the last Olympics in North America.

Labels: Keith Bryce, Marcus, Reality show, Slippery Kittens

If you're a regular viewer of Bravo's fashion-forward reality show "Project Runway," you know that when one contestant gets a lot of camera time to get biographical, that contestant is probably a goner.

Labels: Keith Bryce, Reality show

Three Utah residents are still in the running on their respective reality shows.

- Marcus, the many-tattooed comedian, won the challenge on NBC's "Last Comic Standing" to tell a funny bedtime story to "The Girls Next Door" - Hugh Hefner's girlfriends Holly, Bridget and Kendra. That win gave Marcus immunity, and a free pass into the Final 5.

- Pleasant Grove's Chelsie Hightower survived another week on Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance," making it into the final six. (By the way, the touring show for the Top 10 - which includes Hightower and Salt Lake breakdancer Gev Manoukian, will hit West Valley City's E Center on Sept. 23.)

- And Keith Bryce, the director of Salt Lake's Filthy Gorgeous boutique, was in the middle of the pack on this week's eco-friendly challenge on Bravo's "Project Runway." Style guru Tim Gunn described Bryce's creation (pictured) this way: "Keith designed a halter mini-bubble-dress using the champagne silk/hemp blend textile. You may know that I am not a fan of anything "bubble," but he made it work. His execution of the garment was excellent, the proportions were good, and his model Runa knew how to give it runway appeal. Bravo, Keith!"

Labels: Chelsie Hightower, Keith Bryce, Marcus, Reality show

Salt Lake City breakdancer Gev Manoukian was eliminated from Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" on Thursday night - the third finalist from Utah (out of four) to get cut so far.

According to this recap from Entertainment Weekly, Gev (pictured at right) never fully recovered from an early mistake in his solo routine. That leaves Chelsie Hightower, from Pleasant Grove, as the only Utahn left among the eight remaining competitors.

Meanwhile, West Jordan comedian Marcus survived another week on NBC's "Last Comic Standing." And Salt Lake boutique owner Keith Bryce made it through his first challenge on Bravo's "Project Runway," even though he was one of several designers who went for the easy option - a tablecloth - when choosing supermarket items from which to make a dress. (His design is pictured at left.)

And the fate of Rhiannon, the Logan singer who is one of the three remaining finalists on MTV's "Legally Blonde: The Search for Elle Woods," will be decided on Monday night's big finale.

Labels: Keith Bryce, Marcus, Reality show, Rhiannon