HSN Plans Multi-Million Dollar 33rd Birthday Bash In Sin City, We Can’t Wait For Our Invite

Molly Sims will be on hand for HSN's Vegas Live Celebration

After being away in Chicago on business last week, we’re way behind and just catching up on our blogs. But HSN is apparently having a big Las Vegas blowout to celebrate its 33rd birthday, with plans to telecast there live in August. We’re all for party-hardy B-Days, especially in Sin City.

HSN announced last week that it’s teaming up with Harrah’s for the home shopping channel’s “Lucky 33 Birthday Celebration,” a multi-million dollar promotion.

The summer-long birthday event kicks off June with millions of dollars in HSN gift cards becoming available to select Harrah’s Total Rewards members through local promotions, driving members to 25 Harrah’s casino resorts across the country.

Additionally, members can visit http://www.TotalRewards.com to learn how to enter and play the HSN $185,000 Birthday Giveaway, an interactive online instant-win game and promotion that provides participants the opportunity to win even more HSN gift cards.

HSN customers can get into the act at http://www.hsn.com/vegas as HSN celebrates its 33rd birthday with giveaways, savings and special offers for an array of new merchandise that’s slated to debut in July.

Those who play the game at http://www.hsn.com will automatically be entered into a grand prize drawing featured live each night on HSN TV throughout the month of July. Grand prize winners will receive one of 62 trips for two to HSN Live in Vegas, a spectacular, star-studded HSN shopping spree at Harrah’s Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas August 14 to 15.

Jewelry designer Carol Brodie will be in Sin City to meet HSN fans

At HSN Live in Vegas, also August 14 to 15, HSN fans will have the opportunity to see some of their favorite personalities, including: celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck; Serious Skin Care founder Jennifer Flavin-Stallone; model-actress-jewelry designer Molly Sims; and inventor Joy Mangano.

All will be broadcasting live on HSN throughout the day on Saturday, August 14. In addition, attendees will be able to use HSN gift cards at eight boutique kiosks stocked with HSN merchandise.

Other personalities scheduled to attend include Susan Lucci, Tori Spelling, Carol Brodie, Debbie Meyer, Tony Little, Diane Gilman, Randolph Duke and Rhonda Shear.

Participating Harrah’s Entertainment resorts, include: Harrah’s Atlantic City, Bally’s Atlantic City, Bally’s Las Vegas, Harrah’s Cherokee, Caesars Palace, Harrah’s Council Bluffs, Flamingo, Grand Biloxi, Harrah’s Tunica, Harrah’s Atlantic City, Horseshoe Bluffs Run, Harrah’s Las Vegas, Imperial Palace, Harrah’s Joliet, Harrah’s Louisiana Downs, Harrah’s Laughlin, Harrah’s North Kansas City, Harrah’s Metropolis, Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, Paris Las Vegas, Harrah’s Reno, Harrah’s Rincon, Showboat Atlantic City, Harrah’s St. Louis and the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino.

“HSN is constantly striving to deliver new discoveries and a great shopping experience for our customers,” Bill Brand, HSN’s executive vice president of programming, marketing and business development, said in a prepared statement. “This exciting new relationship with Harrah’s provides HSN with a highly creative and compelling marketing platform from which to launch our birthday celebration. Harrah’s has an active member base of 10 million potential customers and we look forward to introducing them to HSN.”

HSN Celebrity Chef Todd English Still Has Taste For Asian Woman, According To New York Post

The New York Post must save a spot in its Page Six gossip column each Saturday for an item on HSN celebrity chef Todd English.

Ever since English left his bride-to-be, Erica Wang, at the altar last October, the Post has been writing about him. Most of those tidbits have been about English kicking up his heels at some joint having a good ol’ time, not mourning his nasty break-up with Wang.

Today Page Six wrote about a possibly touchy subject: English’s “taste for Asian beauties.” His jilted bride Wang is of Asian descent, and today’s item says English was spotted in Las Vegas at American Fish “chatting up” an Asian woman at the bar there.

Page Six added that on Wednesday, Todd was seen with “another Asian stunner” while flying from Sin City to the other sin city, South Beach.

We’ve read stories by Asian woman talking about the sexual stereotypes Caucasian men have about them, and how they feel about those myths.

We’re half Puerto Rican, so we’re aware of the Latin spitfire, Madonna-whore, notions that men have about Hispanic women. We once went to a party for a Spanish-language cable network, and we ran into men who were essentially there just to meet the Latina hot tamale of their dreams.

It gave us the creeps. You couldn’t tell if the guy was interested in you, or the Latin stereotype he had in his head.

We Hate To Break It To You, Fellow Jewelry Lovers, But It Looks Like Another Year Of Boring Laptops, B. Makowksy Bags and Wii On QVC

Mike, enough with the Clarisonic, cause we don't care if it's one of Lisa's favorite things

QVC had a great fourth quarter, which is good for the home shopping network but bad for jewelry geeks like us.

The U.S. channel, a unit of John Malone’s Liberty Media, Thursday reported a 13 percent jump in revenue to $1.7 billion in the fourth quarter.

“We posted our strongest quarterly results in over 10 years, and moved our full-year results into positive territory,” QVC CEO and president Mike George told analysts during a conference call Thursday.

And George got a pat on the back from his boss, Liberty CEO Greg Maffei.

“At Liberty Interactive, QVC had a very impressive fourth quarter, which capped a greatly improved 2009 overall,” Maffei said.

Why is all this bad news for bling lovers? George said that QVC saw the revenue gains because it posted strong sales on consumer electronics, kitchen and floor care, beauty, accessories and fashion jewelry. Apparel, while soft, improved significantly over the trend for prior quarters, according to George.

“Jewelry, especially gold, did remain difficult, however,” he said, at one point noting, “We continue to pull back our time on jewelry.”

That means more Wii and Clarisonic shows, not sterling and gold (fashion jewelry doesn’t count). Break out the No-Doz.

George spent quite a bit of time crowing about Isaac Mizrahi joining the QVC family, but offered no numbers on how well the designer’s extensive line of products have sold.

“Compelling exclusive content is powering our business,” he said, calling the debut of the Mizrahi line as “one of the biggest brand launches in our history.”

QVC also premiered Godiva chocolate, NARS cosmetics, Stephen Dweck diamonds and fashions by celebrity styliest Rachel Zoe in the fourth quarter, said George, who boasted that the channel in its history had never had the level of publicity and buzz it got in the final quarter.

Veteran brands on QVC — B. Makowsky, Rachael Ray, Philosophy, Bobbi Brown and Dennis Basso in fashion — performed well in the quarter, according to George.

Some 720,000 new customers joined QVC in the fourth quarter (which we presume means they made purchases), a 22 percent increase in the number of new customers a year ago. Revenue from new customers was up 53 percent from last year.

“At any given point in time we have 10 non-customers watching QVC for every customer watching QVC,” George said. “So when we get it just right, and get the right kind of products that have high appeal to new names, as we did in Q4, you can really get explosive growth without any additional advertising or other support, just by people coming by the channel.”

He also attributed some of QVC’s fourth-quarter success to the more favorable channel position it now has on DirecTV and Dish Network, and the fact that the network’s HDTV channel is now in more than 25 million homes.

In December QVC launched an iPhone application that’s been downloaded by 115,000 customers in a little over two months, George said.

HSN’s Joy Mangano Breaks Record With Orders For 180,000 Of Her Home Fragrance Product — Two Weeks Ago

Mangano's Forever Fragrant

Joy Mangano, HSN’s so-called “Mother of Invention,” is doing well with products beyond her Huggable Hangers.

Maybe they’re taking a cue from QVC PR, but HSN waited two weeks to finally put out a press release on inventor-entrepreneur Mangano making HSN history Jan. 31 by selling 180,000 units of her home fragrance product, Forever Fragrant, in one day.

She surpassed her previously held record, for Huggable Hangers, by more than 50 percent.

Here is Mangano’s canned quote.

“I am thrilled by the overwhelmingly positive response to Forever Fragrant. I believe in the product, but didn’t know just how many people would be as excited about it as I am. HSN, once again, has been the perfect platform to allow me to enter the homes of 93 million Americans and share with them such a remarkable new household item.”

Forever Fragrant are fragrance-releasing sticks and discs that last up to two years.

Mangano introduced six new scents to the collection during her January appearance: Blackberry Grape (deep purple); Coconut Colada (golden yellow); Country Home (red); Couture Powder (pink); Eucalyptus Desert (dark green); and Lavender Fields (lavender). Fresh Linen (white) and Vanilla Amber (amber), two of the original best-selling scents, were also reintroduced.

Yummy.

Mangano’s claim to fame is her Huggable Hangers. Laugh if you will, but our closet is full of them. They really do free up a lot of space in your wardrobe. There’s a reason more than 260 million of them have been sold.

HSN owns Mangano’s company, Ingenious Designs LLC, making of the Huggable Hangers, My Little Steamer. IDL is now also
managing and designing product for the guitarist Esteban, Iman, Serena Williams, Paula Abdul and chef/restaurateur Todd English.

“Joy epitomizes the creative, entrepreneurial spirit that thrives here at HSN and we couldn’t be happier about her latest accomplishment, especially as it coincides with her 10th anniversary,” said Lynne Ronon, HSN’s EVP of merchandising. “Her ability to take practical home solutions to the next level is unmatched. She has an innate talent for creating products that people need and want to have in their homes.”

Designer Isaac Mizrahi Gives Away His QVC Purses on Rachael Ray’s Show: They Are Fellow Vendors On That Home Shopping Network

The QVC drawstring bag that guest Isaaci Mizrahi gave to Rachael Ray's audience

QVC’s new in-house designer, Isaac Mizrahi, was on “The Rachael Ray Show” Wednesday.

Our sister saw the show, we didn’t, but she tells us that Mizrahi gave away one of his QVC leather handbags to the audience.

The purse is a drawstring tote, with matching accessories, that was a QVC Today’s Special Value some weeks ago. It’s on QVC’s Web site now for $218.

On Ray’s show, the audiences was shown the eggplant color version of the pebble leather bag, but it comes in a multitude of bright colors.

You can call the whole episode corporate synergy, since Ray is also a QVC vendor, just like Mizrahi.

Page Six Spots HSN Celebrity Chef Todd English — Apparently Over His Broken Engagement — Drinking, Dancing On A Banquette And Playing Air Guitar

The New York Post’s Page Six continues to track HSN celebrity chef Todd English as he cavorts following leaving his bride at the altar last October.

Today Page Six says that English, who sells a line of “green” pans on HSN, was “embracing his bachelorhood” by drinking Belvedere, dancing on a banquette and playing air guitar at Bagatelle in Manhattan.

English’s jilted bride, Erica Wang, claims he left her at the altar on the day of their wedding. English denies it, and filed domestic assault charges against Wang. She may be taking anger management classes and doing community service to get the charges dismissed. Isn’t love grand?

Thank God the Post isn’t watching our whereabouts, otherwise they would have seen us sloshing down two huge margaritas with a gang of journalists at the Diva Lounge in Montclair, N.J., last night. With our buzz on, we sent out one of those e-mails last night that you wish you could pull back.

Temper, Temper: Judge Tells HSN Celebrity Chef Todd English’s Jilted Bride To Take Anger Management Classes

The soapy saga of HSN celebrity chef Todd English and the fiance he left at the altar, Erica Wang, doesn’s seem to end.

On Thursday Wang was in criminal court in New York City on domestic violence charges that English, a Boston restaurateur who sells a “Green Pan” line on HSN, filed against her. Both the New York Post and the New York Daily News reported on the court hearing.

According to the tabloid reports, the judge told Wang that the charges against her would be dropped in six months if she takes anger-management classes and does 10 days of community service. She must also abide by a restraining order that bars her from bothering English.

Getting the classic groom’s cold feet, English bowed out of his planned Oct. 3 wedding to Wang. The couple had paid for a $150,000 reception at the St. Regis in Manhattan, which Wang went ahead with despite the fact that her wedding had been cancelled.

The scorned woman, Wang, promptly gave the Post an exclusive interview where she blasted English, calling him “an animal.” The day after the Post ran the story, English lodged a domestic violence complaint against Wang, charging she used his watch to slash a one-inch cut near his eye last September.

Such drama.

Months After Jilting Bride, HSN Celebrity Chef Todd English Is Frolicking In St. Barts With Mystery Woman

HSN celebrity chef Todd English has rebounded quite nicely after allegedly leaving his bride-to-be at the altar last October.

English, a Boston restaurateur, was seen “with a mystery Asian beauty” on the beach at St. Barts last weekend, The New York Post’s Page Six reported Wednesday. Some witnesses apparently initially thought that the woman was English’s ex-fiance, Erica Wang. But the “mystery” woman was not Wang.

English, who sells a line of environmentally friendly pots and pans on HSN, made tabloid news last fall when he jilted Wang.

Wang opened up and told her side of the story to the Post, painting English as a real cad who stiffed her some money owed on their wedding reception.

English, in turn, filed assault charges against Wang, alleging that she had whacked him in the head with his own watch.

As we’ve said before, the English-Wang mess makes our romantic break-ups look good.

Oprah Winfrey Gives HSN Decorator Nate Berkus His Own Daytime Show

Oprah Winfrey is giving decorator and design expert Nate Berkus, who does a home collection on HSN, his own TV show, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The story, in the business section, said that Oprah’s Harpo Productions and Sony Pictures Television were set to announce “The Nate Berkus Show,” with a possible launch in next September.

Nate Berkus journals

Berkus got exposure on Oprah’s show, and she has successfully launched talent such as Dr. Phil McGraw and Rachael Ray with their own shows.

His HSN line includes linens, tableware, bedding, pillows and towels.

HSN CEO Mindy Grossman Shows Some Cleavage In Her Video: What Kind Of Message Is That?

HSN CEO Mindy Grossman, Without Cleavage

HSN’s Mindy Grossman is the first CEO we have ever seen show cleavage during a company presentation.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. We guess.

On Wednesday we first spotted a video clip called “A Message From CEO Mindy Grossman under “company overview” on HSN.com.

In the seven-minute video, Grossman gives investors and customers an eyeful, along with an update on the nation’s first home shopping channel, founded in 1977.

Grossman is wearing a low-cut, V-necked black sweater, and she’s rocking some cleavage. Now would QVC CEO Mike George or ShopNBC CEO Keith Stewart do that?

Anyway, Grossman does her spiel about how her strategy is working at HSN, which is in its second year as a public company.

“HSN is a non-stop, 24-hour, 365-day retailing giant,” Grossman says, noting that the network is in 93 million homes.

The executive also cites some of HSN’s vendors and lines, including Iman, Serena Williams, Wolfgang Puck and Lancome.

We think Grossman, a veteran of Nike, may be wearing a Heidi Daus bracelet. We’ve looked as close as we can, but we’re not absolutely sure.