Ex-QVC Host Antonella Nester Diagnosed With Cancer

We’re sending good vibes, healing and light to former QVC host Antonella Nester. She’s facing some tough times.

We just watched a YouTube video where Nester says that she has been diagnosed with not only leukemia, but now also breast cancer. Her doctors say they are unrelated. But how would you like to get that double dose of bad news?

Nester, if you recall, was laid off by QVC abruptly last year, part of a group of employees swept out the door by the home shopping network. The pink slip was a shock to Nester.

We know the feeling. We had it roughly a decade go when we were laid off, for the first but not the only time in our career. It stinks.

We really have not been keeping up with Nester, but today we also watched a second video she had done. It turns out both she and her husband lost their jobs. And here’s a surprise: They couldn’t find other work. Nester said her husband unsuccessfully applied for 100 jobs. She suspects it’s age discrimination.

We don’t suspect it. We’d bet our life on it. Can’t tell you how may times we’ve seen it.

So she and her husband decided to retire, sell their house and live on a boat.

Now this cancer situation has happened.

Nester put up a brave front about the cancer, but admitted she’s scared. Of course.

All we can say is we wish her well and are praying hard for her. You should do the same.

Moissanite Coming to Bali Sarda Jewelry: Yech!

Let’s see how folks land on this topic, cause we definitely have a strong opinion.

We got an email saying that Della Ama, which sells Janyl Sherman’s Bali sterling silver jewelry online, will start hawking some of her goods encrusted with Moissanite.

“SARDA’s Sterling Silver Moissanite will be released Friday, February 19th at 7PM EST!!” the email said. “What an amazing opportunity to own the first few rare, limited quantities of Janyl’s Initial Product Launch of her Moissanite pieces!! More information will be available Friday morning!! See you then!!”

If you watch JTV and ShopHQ, you’ve seen Moissanite. It’s a manmade, lab-grown material that is exactly the same, chemically, as Moissanite that’s found in the earth. But it’s rare in its natural form. Manufactured by man, it’s used in jewelry as an alternative to diamonds. In fact, it’s refractive index is greater than a diamond: It creates more fire.

That said, we don’t like these types of gemstones, either synthetic or manmade versions of the natural-in-origin stones. You can tell us, as we are lectured relentlessly by JTV, that a lab-grown sapphire is the same as a natural one. That’s true if you are a chemist. But we value gemstones in part because we believe in their mystical properties, silly as that may be. And you can’t convince us that lab-grown stones have those attributes. We want from the earth.

We suppose that Janyl will be selling her Moissanite Bali jewelry on JTV, as well. Not looking forward to it.

If you can’t give us a diamond, give us white topaz, white sapphire, white zircon or clear quartz. Don’t give us Moissanite.

And BTW, the next time we hear a certain JTV host say, “You’ve got to have that in your life,” we’re throwing a shoe through our TV screen. Apparently, you have to have virtually everything she shows you “in your life.”

Not for nuthin’, but that BS don’t fly in Jersey.

Former HSN Host Connie Craig Carroll Returns With Jewelry Line

One of our readers gave us the heads-up that former HSN host Connie Craig-Carroll will be back at the home shopping network this week, selling her own jewelry line.

We took a gander. It’s costume jewelry with real gemstones, like rose quartz and lapis.

Not a fan of costume or so-called “fashion” stuff, and not wowed by the new line.

ShopHQ Reports 4Q Sales Of $124.6 Million

ShopHQ has released preliminary fiscal fourth-quarter results saying sales were $124.6 million, a $1 million rise from the same year-ago period.

In the quarter the home shopping channel also saw its number of new customers increase about 12% compared to the same prior-year period, reversing a six-year negative growth rate trend.

The network’s net loss is expected to be roughly $3 million, compared to the same prior-year period net loss of $18.4 million. Full-year 2020 net loss is expected to be $13.5 million compared to a net loss of $56.3 million for the same prior-year period.

And here’s a new twist. On Feb. 5 ShopHQ contributed about $3.5 million in inventory to acquire a controlling interest in an online marketplace called TheCloseOut.com. The site offers consumers exclusive and name-brand products at deep discounts. The network is launching a “Closeout Deals” television program to drive customer growth.

“Q4 was another strong quarter for us,” ShopHQ CEO Tim Peterman said in a canned statement, “which creates an even stronger foundation for revenue and profit growth in 2021.”

ShopHQ Jewelry Designer Victoria Wieck Has New Look, And We Don’t Like It

We debated writing this blog but here goes. Not trying to be nasty or bitchy, but wish women in the home-shopping TV would stop getting facelifts, eye lifts and lip fillers.

The most recent case in point: Victoria Wieck

Now, admittedly we haven’t actually seen her much since she took her jewelry line from HSN, where she was forever, to ShopHQ.

But we saw her Sunday on ShopHQ’s Tucson Gem Show programming, and WTH!

Wieck is/was a gorgeous woman, but she has obviously undergone an eye lift, maybe a facelift and lip fillers. The look is unnatural. Our friend Irene was over, and she had never seen Wieck before. But Irene said the work that Wieck had done was very unnatural looking.

We don’t know how recently Wieck got her new look, but call us crazy but we’d rather have wrinkles and a saggy face than look off.

We’ve done blogs before on home shopping women who have gone under the knife. We understand there is terrible pressure on women to look young. It’s unfair.

But we don’t often like the outcome.

BTW, kudos to ShopHQ’s jewelry offerings on Sunday for Tucson. The Southwestern jewelry was gorgeous and reasonably priced, with several items selling out before we got a chance to buy them. In fact, the whole lineup was stunning. Nice work!

‘Nude Nut’ Crashes Suzanne Somers Facebook Session

We get Facebook alerts when veteran home shopping vendor, author and actress Suzanne Somers does Facebook live sessions. We got one Friday night, and boy do we wish we had watched.

According to our favorite tabloid rag, The New York Post, Somers was doing a demonstration of her own makeup line at her Palm Springs home in Cali when an intruder busted in.

https://pagesix.com/2021/02/06/intruder-interrupts-suzanne-somers-livestream-at-home/?_ga=2.196980460.1764404974.1612715715-1263504742.1603111796

The guy, who the Post described as a “nude nut,” came sauntering into Somers’ home and her session. Somers told the Post that she had invited guests for dinner, and when she heard this joker come in she thought he was one of them.

The situation was so wacky that one of the people viewing the Facebook live session called the police to report what was going on.

The unexpected visitor did talk to Somers, but he wasn’t making much sense.

The gent was taken away, and Somers made light of it, so all’s well that ends well, so to speak.

Host Nancy Hornback Exits QVC

This one kind of hurts.

We’ve always enjoyed watching QVC host Nancy Hornback. She was informative, not pushy, a pleasure. Now she’s gone.

One of our readers had mentioned that Hornback was no longer on the No. 1 home shopping network. We checked it out on Hornback’s Facebook page, and our reader was right.

“Hi Beautiful Friends!” Hornback posted last week. “I’m so glad QVC brought us together! As my life takes me on a new road, I hope you’ll join me on the journey – you can continue to follow my next adventures on social media…Facebook: Nancy Hornback Instagram: @nancyhornbackq.”

There was a huge outpouring of support for her.

“How stupid is QVC?” one person posted. “The early morning slots they put her on is ridiculous! Not everyone is up that early to shop and plus we are all at work at that time of the day. She is a very talented lady.”

“This company is losing its ever lovin mind,” wrote another. “About done with high prices, poor quality and bad judgment.”

Even JTV host Kristen Keech chimed in.

“I love you Nancy!!!!” she wrote. “I’ll be so interested to see where you are going and what you are doing!”

And another Hornback fan wrote, “Best of EVERYTHING to you! I will miss u! I can’t believe how many of the best host are leaving! I miss Antonella too! I hope this was your choice & not the Q, bcz I’m beginning to be put off by them for all of the experienced loyal FUN HOST, leaving. Got to be honest, I have been watching a lot less after they let Antonella go! How disloyal of QVC!”

Ditto all of the above.

She hasn’t been scrubbed from QVC.com yet, though.

Here’s her bio:

“Inspiring, sweet & fun, this gemstone lover is a GIA Graduate Gemologist. At work, she adores her Q family (that includes you and those she works alongside, both on & off air). At home, she’s all about DIY projects, working in the yard, caring for her elderly cat, getting her daughter to a flurry of activities, and making time for date nights with her husband.”