Will Tori Spelling Be The New Oprah? She Has A Daytime Talk Show In the Works

Tori and Dean, Courtesy of Oxygen

My mother and sister are big fans of actress/HSN vendor Tori Spelling, and we were talking about her over lunch Tuesday. Spelling was just back on HSN last week.

My mom was saying that Oxygen had just run a day-long marathon of Spelling’s reality show, “Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood,” and what a great interior designer the thin blonde is. Mom also talked about how emotional Spelling is, often bursting into tears.

During the course of this conversation, we was wondering how “Beverly Hills 90201” alum has the time to do all she does, namely creating fashion jewelry for HSN, doing a reality show, decorating and furnishing a home, writing books, acting, and raising kids.

Now less than 24 hours later, we hear that Spelling, the daughter of the late TV producer Aaron Spelling, is looking for yet another gig: a daytime talk show for ABC.

The Los Angeles Times broke the news and reports Wednesday that the show would pair Spelling with a male co-host. Spelling’s show would angle to be a replacement for the slot left open when Oprah Winfrey’s syndicated program goes off the air next fall.

Let’s see what happens.

QVC Is Going Green For Earth Day, With Danny Seo And A ‘Brand Ambassdor’

Danny Seo

QVC will commemorate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day Thursday with 24 hours of “unique ideas” — in other words, merchandise — to “help its customers live a little greener,” the home shopping channel said.

And HSN has Earth Day festivities planned, too. It will have shows featuring Earth Footwear and “Go Green With Your Garden.”

QVC claims it’s going to be featuring green products and advice to help its customers save energy and money. So-called environmental lifestyle expert Danny Seo is scheduled to make his QVC debut. The network will also premiere the Portico Natural Bed and Bath home collection.

“There’s no better time to celebrate Mother Earth and evaluate the environmental footprint each of us is leaving on the planet,” Doug Howe, QVC’s executive vice president of strategic multichannel planning and merchandising, said in a canned statement.

“QVC’s Earth Day programming will show our customers just how easy it is to adopt simple changes that will make a big impact in the long-term,” Howe said. “We hope our customers embrace some of the solutions and ideas we are planning to offer in the hopes that it will encourage a more sustainable way of living.”

Seo, green expert for CBS’s “The Early Show” and author of the nationally syndicated column “Do Just One Thing,” will share tips and advice on how to live “simply green.”

Seo and QVC want you to buy their compact shopping bags that can fit into your pocket, like Baggu Set of Six Reusable Shopper Bags by Danny Seo (QVC Item No. F08744). The bags are strong enough to hold up to 50 pounds of groceries.

QVC is also scheduled to premiere Portico Natural Bed and Bath, an assortment of 100 percent organic linens, towels and bedroom accents, which will be presented by Summer Rayne Oakes, a “Portico brand ambassador,” model and activist.

“Brand ambassador?” No comment.

QVC will also be selling Earth Smart Jewelry, made out of recycled sterling silver.

QVC Designer Izaac Mizrahi’s Appearance on ‘Jeopardy’: We Can’t Shake This Guy

No matter what we do or where we go, we can’t seem to get away from home shopping.

Last night at the gym (another exciting Friday night), as we were wiping sweat from our brow while on the elliptical, we glanced at the TV screen of the guy next to us. He was watching “Jeopardy,” and we thought we were seeing things. Was that guy in the middle of the panel QVC designer Isaac Mizrahi?

We tuned to “Jeopardy” on our own TV screen, and yes, it was the curly-haired wonder himself. It was a “Celebrity Jeopardy” show, and Mizrahi was competing against Jane Curtin, a veteran of the old “Saturday Night Live,” and CC Pounder, the talented actress who had a big role in FX’s “The Shield.”

Mizrahi is bright, and he was ahead of his two rivals for part of the competition. But then Curtin pulled way ahead of him. Pounder proved that she should just stick with acting.

Then came the final “Jeopardy” question, where Mizrahi had a chance to pull ahead of Curtin. The question was which British actor was the first to be knighted. Both Mizrahi and Curtin got the right answer, Laurence Olivier, but Curtin was so still far ahead she won. She got $35,000 for her favorite charity.

Pounder bombed out, and wound up with zero dollars.

How QVC finagled to get Mizrahi, a fashion designer, qualified as a celebrity for “Jeopardy,” we don’t know. But score one for the QVC PR department.

By the way, Mizrahi ears should be ringing. He is the target of a lot of anger on QVC’s online forums, now that news leaked that Louis Dell’Olio’s line is being dumped by QVC.

The more mature fans of Dell’Olio’s classy tailored clothes don’t like the fact that QVC had made Mizrahi its new design darling, and a lot of viewers — The Homeshoppingista included — have been less than impressed with Mizrahi’s new collection.

But QVC, after angry letters and phone calls, has asked to talk to Dell’Olio about the future of his line, so there may be hope for him yet at the home shopping network.

Twiggy Is Just ‘Brilliant’ On HSN, And We Hope Her Jeans Are, Too

Saturday is Twiggy day on HSN.

The 1960s modeling icon — of short hair and painted lower eyelashes — debuted her Twiggy London line at midnight with her Today’s Special, a Union Jack Tote in a variety colors.

“I carry my life in my bag,” she said during her Saturday morning show. Now there’s something we girls can relate to.

Twiggy, now sporting long hair and more girth that during her modeling salad days, is quite charming. We like how she keeps throwing in British slang and word uses like calling items “brilliant” and talking about putting “bits” in her purse.

Twiggy, who expanded her career to include acting (with two Golden Globes and a Tony nomination) and even being a judge on “America’s Next Top Model,” is rocking a long gypsy skirt that we loved. But we were afraid it would be too long for 5-foot-2 shrimps like us.

Instead, we decided to give Twiggy’s jeans a try, in the grey color that we love so much but is so hard to find in retail.

We’re praying that their waistband don’t fall just two inches above our private parts, like 90 percent of the other jeans we’ve been trying on. How can you not feel like your pants are falling off?

Twiggy will be on all Saturday.

InStyle Magazine Gives Us A Peek Into Celebrity Stylist, And QVC Vendor, Rachel Zoe’s Jewel Box

The April issue of InStyle magazine has a feature on celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe, which talks about her designs for QVC as well as her personal collection of bling.

The article is part of the magazine’s monthly “My Jewel Box” series, which we never miss, and it’s headlined “I Dream of Jewelry.” It’s pretty expansive, three pages as well as a full-page photo of Jersey girl Zoe decked out in her jewels. She’s got it all piled on, she is no minimalist, and one fo the pearl necklaces she’s wearing is from Bulgari. It was a gift from her husband to celebrate the 15th anniversary of their first date.

Zoe is also wearing huge hoop earrings with big white and green stones. We can’t believe that they’re real emeralds and diamonds. It’s likely costume, since Zoe tells InStyle that she owns about 1,000 pieces of costume jewelry.

There are photos of two of Zoe’s QVC pieces in the story. One is a glass bead bib necklace that sells for $125, the other is a gold-plated bracelet with bars, also $130. We couldn’t find the bracelet on QVC’s Web site, so it may be sold out.

Zoe talks about layering jewelry, and admits to wearing about a dozen pieces a day. She started collecting jewelry when she was 11, she told InStyle, and her style icon is 1970s Elizabeth Taylor.

While Zoe often comes off a bit bitchy on her Bravo show, “The Rachel Zoe Project,” she comes across as very charming and passionate during her QVC appearances.

We love her big costume jewelry looks and clothes so far for QVC, which have included a gorgeous lambskin jacket.

The April InStyle issue has Gwen Stefani on the cover.

‘Jerseylicious’ Nets Lousy Ratings, As One Viewer Proclaims ‘We’ve Had Enough of New Jersey’

We are more interested in Gatsby owner Gayle Giacomo, right, than Tracy DiMarco, left.

Well, for awhile there New Jersey, and its loud shoot-from-the-hip residents, seemed to have captured the loving attention of American TV viewers. But the audience has spoken now, and it’s apparently had enough.

The numbers are in for “Jerseylicious,” and they are not good. We knew something was up when Style Network didn’t put out a ratings press release Monday about the show’s premiere Sunday night.

“Jerseylicious,” which chronicles the lives of the owners and stylists at the Gatsby Salon in Green Brook, N.J., had only 320,000 total viewers for its debut. The show posted a 0.42 rating with women in the 18-to-34 demographic.

It pains us to see this, since were like the cast members of the show and were rooting for it.

But it looks like America is sick and tired of seeing fatmouthed, overdressed Jerseyites. Audiences bought into Garden-State shows such as Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” (a fav of ours) and MTV’s “Jersey Shore” (which we detested). But that ship has sailed.

We wish “Jerseylicous” had kicked off focusing on the story Gayle Giacomo and her daughter Christy Pereira, both of Bridgewater, who have re-launched their 32-year-old beauty salon and want to make it a big success. They are both smart, gracious women.

Instead, it seems to us that producer Endemol TV decided to concentrate on the battle between makeup artist Olivia Blois Sharpe, of Montville, who looks just like Snooki of “Jersey Shore,” and hair stylist Tracy DiMarco of East Hanover. At least, that’s what the first episode was abouit. That just makes “Jerseylicious” seem like a lot of other Jersey reality shows.

We know Style is trying to draw in younger women by concentrating on Olivia and Tracy, but we frankly are more interested in pretty Gayle (she in her 50s, our demo).

Anyway, even before the ratings came out, we suspected the show might be in trouble when we read a post on the story we did for NewJerseyNewsroom.com on the “Jerseylicious” premiere party.

“I personally enjoyed ‘Jersey Shore.’, but I think bringing on this show is pushing it!” wrote Nikki Dolce, a hair stylist from Scottsdale (our favorite place in the world). “We’ve had enough of New Jersey!”

‘Jerseylicious’ Cast Celebrates Show’s Debut, Along With The Homeshoppingista, With Hoboken Party

Gigi Liscio, Anthony Lombardi, Tracy DiMarco, Gayle Giacomo and her daughter Christy Pereira at the Jerseylicious party

We just got back from the “Jerseylicious” premiere party in Hoboken, which we almost ditched Sunday night, out of frustration.

We got lost trying to find the venue — Lua, on where else but Sinatra Drive — and asked at least five people how to get to this restaurant, to no avail. Finally, the car attendants at the W Hotel gave us some accurate directions, and we made it to the party.

It was a rather balmy night here in the NY metro area, and the restaurant is on the Hudson River almost directly across from the Empire State building. The view was beautiful. But we digress. We were working, covering the party for our blog and NewJerseyNewsroom.com.

The place was packed with lots of young Jersey girls wearing thigh-high dresses and showing a lot of cleavage. We figured we’d never be able to scout out the “Jerseylicious” cast, who we interviewed in December for NewJerseyNewsroom.com, and if we did, it would be too noisy to interview them.

But we found the PR person, and she took us back to a roped-off VIP area where many of the cast members of the new Style Network show were talking to the press. While we were at the shindig we didn’t see makeup artist Olivia Blois Sharpe, the “Jerseylicious” cast member who looks a lot like Snooki from MTV’s “Jersey Shore.”

We did speak to the mother-and-daughter team who own and run the Gatsby Salon, where the reality show “Jerseylicious” is set.

The mother, flame-haired Gayle Giacomo, was wearing a sexy, low-cut long flowery print gown. She said she had bought it two 1/2 years ago to wear to her daughter Christy Pereira’s wedding, but then never did. Christy was there, wearing a black BCBG V-necked dress.

Giacomo said she hadn’t watched the first “Jerseylicious” episode yet.

“I’ve been so busy I said I’ll just wait and see it on TV,” she said.

But Pereira had seen it and said she liked it. The New York Times gave the show a drubbing this weekend. But Pereira said that even though she and her mom hope people like the show, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

The Homeshoppingista, and Jersey girl, interviewing Tracy DiMarco of Jerseylicious

Next up was hairdresser Tracy DiMarco, who is essentially the villain in “Jerseylicious.” On the show, she basically says she hates Sharpe and is going to make her life miserable at the Gatsby. But DiMarco, dressed in what looked like a tiger print dress, was charming and sweet to us (she said we looked beautiful, and with us flattery will get you everywhere).

“I’m only mean to people I don’t like, or people who are mean to other people,” DiMarco told us. “I don’t like Olivia. That’s very obvious.”

She told us her mom has been keeping a book of press clippings of the show, which have included the cover of the New York Post’s TV Week section Sunday.

“I hope everyone likes me, even though I’m a little bit of a nasty bitch,” DiMarco told us, laughing.

We also spoke to hairstylists Anthony Lombardi, the only male member of the “Jerseylicious” crew, and Gigi Liscio. Lombardi was wear a white porkpie hat that he said he picked up in Bloomingdale’s that day. We kidded him about The Times review, which said he was the best-looking member of the cast.

“I know, The New York Times loved me,” Lombardi said. “I bought seven copies of it.”

“I got to hear this all day,” his pretty brunette wife said.

Lua in Hoboken, the site of the Jerseylicious premiere party

But she then waxed on about what a great guy he is. The day we can say all this about the man we’re with is the day we can stop saying those novenas praying for Mr. Right.

“I’m very proud of him,” Patty said. “He’s very successful. He’s the most beautiful man I’ve laid eyes on. He’s the father of my son. He’s a fabulous husband, a fabulous husband. I couldn’t ask for anybody better, for my son and myself.”

Wow, what an endorsement! They have a 13-month-old son, and live in Fairfield. Lombardi also owns the Anthony Robert Salon in Verona.

In the show Liscio’s boyfriend Frankie comes off as a tough, old-style Italian guy, looking to be served hand and foot by Liscio. But in the middle of our interview, he walked up to Liscio and gave her a big kiss, then walked away. That rather endeared him to us.

“I want it all in life,” Liscio said. “I want my family, my career. I live in a fairy tale, yes, you can say that, but I won’t stop til I get it all. I’m very determined. I love him to death. That’s who I want it with.”

There were several TV sets at Lua, and when “Jerseylicious” came on at 10 p.m. the whole party started cheering. Unfortunately, there were so many people it was impossible to hear the sound on the episode.

And by that time, we had to head out to write our blog.

We’ll see how “Jerseylicious” does when the ratings come out Monday.

‘Jerseylicious’ Gets Big Thumbs Down From New York Times, Which Defends The Garden State

Jerseylicious

The Grey Lady has spoken: The New York Times panned “Jerseylicious” Saturday.

TV critic Neil Genzlinger accused Style Network’s “Jerseylicious” reality show, which debuts Sunday night, of trying to ride on the coattails of MTV’s “Jersey Shore” and Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.”

And that’s the nicest thing he had to say.

He described the show as “witless” and the cast from the Gatsby Salon in Green Brook, N.J., as “vapid.”

Genzlinger also jokingly lambasted two of New Jersey’s most famous inventors, Thomas Edison and David Sarnoff, for their role in bringing electricity and color TV to America.

“They made it possible for their home turf, a perfectly decent state, to be flogged over and over again by lazy television executives working the same tired shtick,” the TV critic wrote, referring to “Jerseylicious” on Style Netweork. “Fellows as visionary as Edison and Sarnoff should have seen this coming and suppressed their innovations in the interest of protecting New Jersey’s reputation.”

And that’s not all he had to say about “Jerseylicious.” Neil, tell us what you really think!

“Virtually everyone here is loud and self-absorbed and not overly bright, qualities that were amusing for about an episode and a half of ‘Jersey Shore’ but now seem as unappetizing as the ’80s look that the Gatsby is inexplicably still peddling,” he wrote.

‘Jerseylicious’ Met Up With Tyra Banks Friday

Not Snooki, but Jerseylicious Olivia Blois Sharpe

While we were at the gym this afternoon, we caught the cast of “Jerseylicious” on Tyra Banks’ show.

Even though Banks had to get in her cheap shots at their Jersey accents, we thought the cast of the new Style Network show came of pretty well.

We didn’t have a pen and pad with us on the elliptical machine, so we have to do this from memory and paraphrase. Makeup artist Olivia Boise Sharpe, who is already being billed as the new “Snooki” because of her deep tan and long dark hair, set the record straight by saying she’s been sporting the “Jersey Shore” look for at least three years. The inference is that the randy “Jersey Shore” peanut stole Sharpe’s look.

When Banks waxed on about the nation’s sudden fascination with Jersey, Sharpe and her nemeis on the reality show, Stacy DiMarco, talked up the fact that Jerseyites are blunt and bold. If we don’t like you, the “Jerseylicious” cast members said, we won’t talk behind your back. We’ll tell you right to your face. (We’re beginning to understand why the rest of the country hates us now).

The “Jerseylicious” crew — who work at the Gatsby Salon in Green Brook, N.J., where the reality show is set — then offered hair and makeup advice to members of Banks’ audience, which seemed to be 99 percent Garden State residents.

Finally, the “Jerseylicious” cast did a makeover of three plain-Jane women from Delaware, we think it was. after the Gatsby Salon got done with them, the trio came up looking hot in super-short dresses, mile-high spike heels, smokey eyes and teased hair. They looked pretty good.

“Jerseylicious” debuts Sunday at 10 p.m., and we’re planning to attend the show’s premiere party that same night in Hoboken.

Joan Rivers Sports One of Her QVC Necklaces On ‘Celebrity Apprentice’

QVC’s veteran jewelry queen, Joan Rivers, made an appearence on “Celebrity Apprentice” Sunday night. And that girl never misses a chance to promote her home shopping wares.

We didn’t see her, but Rivers was wearing one of her new pieces for QVC, a bib necklace that comes in either blue or biege color waves. It sells for $82, and will be on “PM Style” Monday night.