Official HSN Press Release On Its Designer Ornament St. Jude Benefit

We’re already written about HSN’s holiday promotion, selling Christmas ornaments designed by its celebrity vendors, to raise money for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

We made two errors on our prior blog on this. We did not realize that the most pricey ornament, from Naeem Khan, was a pricey $300. And we thought that celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse’s ornament was a beet, not a radish.

On Monday HSN officially announed the ornament promotion with this announcement:

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Nov. 8, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Throughout the holiday season, HSN, a leading interactive multi-channel retailer, will be offering customers the unique heART HSN 2010 Designer Ornament Collection. As part of the company’s overall “HSN Cares” philanthropic campaign, the heART collection is available exclusively on HSN and hsn.com and was designed by more than 70 HSN partners. 100% of the profits – no less than 30% of the purchase price of each ornament – will be donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“Our annual St. Jude Thanks and Giving campaign holds special meaning for our partners, employees and customers — and, for the holiday season this year, we wanted to offer a unique program to make our campaign the biggest yet,” said Mindy Grossman, CEO of HSN, Inc. “The heART ornament collection reflects the creativity and compassion of our partners…all to benefit the children of St. Jude.”

“HSN has been a remarkable partner to St. Jude during Thanks and Giving, and its dedication and enthusiasm for supporting our lifesaving mission is extraordinary,” said Marlo Thomas, national outreach director for St. Jude. “Through the sale of these exclusive heART ornaments during the holidays, HSN will once again help St. Jude in the fight against childhood cancer and other catastrophic diseases. Everyone who buys one of these beautiful ornaments will be giving hope to the precious children who are fighting for their lives.”

Sarah Jessica Parker, Gwen Stefani, Mary J. Blige, Sean Combs, Tori Spelling, Molly Sims, Martha Stewart, Susan Lucci, Jonathan Adler, Fran Drescher, Sam and Libby Edelman, Liz Lange, Nate Berkus, Padma Lakshmi and IMAN are among the more than 70 participants who designed ornaments. The beautifully designed collection ranges in price from $19.90 to $49.90, with an exceptional ornament designed by celebrity fashion designer Naeem Khan being offered for $299. This exquisite, limited-edition holiday ornament is covered in brilliant, hand-cut Swarovski crystals and is a signature piece for the collection. Swarovski is the official crystal of the heART HSN 2010 Designer Ornament Collection.

Each ornament has its own special story. Whether it’s Jennifer Flavin-Stallone partnering with her husband Sylvester Stallone to incorporate his original painting of Santa Claus; Chef Emeril Lagasse turning to a large radish as inspiration for his design; or fashion icon and London native “Twiggy” proudly waving her Union Jack, all of these incredible pieces are truly special keepsakes that support the lifesaving work of St. Jude.

Also, customers are able to decorate their own interactive Christmas trees with the heART designer ornaments on hsn.com and then share their holiday creations with friends via Facebook, Twitter or email.

In addition to funds generated via the sale of the collection, donations will once again be accepted for St. Jude from HSN customers via phone, online and HSN mobile. HSN customers have generously donated approximately $3,000,000 in support of St. Jude since HSN began its annual campaign in 2005.

HSN Teams With TLC, Kelly Ripa For New ‘Homemade Millionaire’ TV Show

It looks like HSN is dipping its toe in the traditional TV programming business, by joining forces with TLC and Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos’ company, Milojo Productions, on a six-part series that gives women entrepreneurs a chance to make their visions reality.

The show, “Homemade Millionaire,” debuts Nov. 19 at 10 p.m., and in part will feature HSN vendors like Emeril Lagasse and jean queen Diane Gilman.

“The series offers aspiring female entrepreneurs the potential opportunity of a lifetime – to have their innovative ideas sold on-air and online through interactive multichannel retailer HSN,” the press release Monday said. “With product sales on HSN topping $2 billion a year, a deal with HSN could change these women’s lives overnight.”

Here are the canned quotes, folks.

“We are super excited to be working with TLC and HSN on this project,” Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos said, apparently in remarkable unison. “We’re sent so many innovative products from women every day, and to be able to help them get into the marketplace is a dream come true for us. These inventors have worked so hard in this show. We’re beyond proud of them.”

And from TLC…

“’Homemade Millionaire’ provides an opportunity to those ‘kitchen-table inventors’ to get their creative ideas out to the masses,” Nancy Daniels, TLC’s senior of production and development, said. “We are thrilled to be partnering with Kelly and Milojo Productions, and believe HSN is the perfect outlet for these hard-working women to showcase their inventions.”

Each hour-long episode of “Homemade Millionaire” will follow three women competing for a chance to sell their inventions on HSN.

Open calls were held throughout the country, and thousands of women showed up with their unique products in hand, with the hopes of being part of this experience.

“We are very excited to work with Kelly Ripa and TLC to help these inventors realize their dreams,” Bill Brand, HSN executive vice president of programming, marketing and business development said in his canned statement. “HSN is all about great products and amazing storytellers and that is what this series will deliver to our customers.”

The inventors were had to perform a series of tasks designed to get their product ready for consumers. Helping Ripa coach these women are two “business experts,” Wendy Robbins and Ed Evangelista, who serve as mentors for these would-be business women as they evolve their product and build a unique marketing strategy to present to HSN.

Wendy Robbins, founder of Nowhere To Millionaire LLC and author of “Why Marry a Millionaire? Just Be One!”, worked her way out of debt to make millions with her invention the Tingler head massager. She is also a leading expert on mastering the millionaire mindset, and how to manufacture and market ideas to millions.

Ed Evangelista became the first advertising executive embedded into entertainment content when he served as a judge, juror, and executioner on ABC’s “American Inventor.” Evangelista has created award-winning advertising, marketing and alternative content for some of the world’s largest consumer brands from diamonds and liquors, to automobiles, finance and bubble gum.

Alongside Ripa on the judges’ panel are two HSN executives – Jennifer Cotter, senior vice president of television, and Chris Nicola, vice president of product development – who draw upon their vast experience in television and retail to evaluate each product.

Each episode also features HSN vendors and lifestyle journalists including Emeril Lagasse, Jennifer Flavin-Stallone, Colin Cowie, Ingrid Hoffmann, Diane Gilman, Stacey Schieffelin, Jeffrey Banks, James Mischka and Mark Badgley, Skip Borghese, Carolyn Forte, Good Housekeeping Research Institute, Allie Lewis, food editor, Real Simple Magazine and Lori Bergamotto, fashion editor for Lucky Magazine

“Homemade Millionaire” is produced by Milojo Productions and Discovery Studios for TLC.

Celebrity Chefs Are Hot For HSN, But There’s No News About Todd English And His Bride-Jilting Caper

HSN was crowing Thursday about the success of the high-profile chefs that hawk products on the network. We guess it’s no surprise that officials didn’t mention the tabloid headlines that Todd English made recently for allegedly jilting his bride-to-be.

During a third-quarter conference call Thursday, HSN CEO Mindy Grossman said that the network “marries the best chefs of HSN with our successful commerce platform,” citing English, Wolfgang Puck and Emeril Lagasse.

The home shopping network expanded its chef roster last with week with the premieres of cook/TV host/cookbook authors Padma Lakshmi and Ingrid Hoffmann as part of the channel’s second annual “HSN Cooks” event. Lakshmi is a host of Bravo’s hit “Top Chef,” while Hoffman does shows for Food Network and Univision.

“The combination of diversity of product, personality and programming resulted in a sales increase of 40 percent over last year’s event,” Grossman said.

HSN was able to strike a deal with Lakshmi and leverage “the tremendous popularity of the ‘Top Chef’ reality series” after talking to her in April about doing a line of cutlery, teas and spices. That Easy Exotic line launched and sold out during the cooks’ event, according to Grossman.

Not mentioned again in the call was English, who was recently in the news in his home base of Boston and in New York City when he left his fiancee, Erica Wang, at the altar the day they were supposed to get married in Manhattan.

Wang painted English as a rat in an exclusive interview with The New York Post. Days later, English filed domestic abuse charges against Wang in Boston, alleging that she hit him in the head with his own watch.

Advice for Chunky QVC and HSN Hosts: You Go Girls, To The Gym, And Skip Wolfgang’s Food

Shannon Smith

The female hosts on QVC and HSN may or may not be getting better, but they sure are getting bigger. Women on both the No. 1 and No. 2 home shopping channels seem to have gained a lot of weight in the past few months, enough that it had us doing a double-take at what we are seeing on the screen.

HSN’s Lynn Murphy, Chris Scanlon, Connie Craig-Carroll, Suzanne Runyan and Shannon Smith are all looking fuller around the face and hips. It’s a sad setback for Smith, who slimmed down last year and looked spectacular.

Perhaps everyone is doing too much sampling when celebrity chefs Wolfgang Puck, Emeril Lagasse and Todd English are in the house, cooking up a storm to demonstrate their cookware lines.

We aren’t the only ones to notice the weight gains. One writer on an HSN Forum asked whether Murphy was pregnant, because she looks so big. Murphy got married this summer.

If she is pregnant, we’re not aware that she’s officially announced it yet, or if any of her colleagues are pregnant (Here’s a hot tip: Never ask a woman when she’s due unless you are absolutely sure she is pregnant).

And on QVC, right now Jill Bauer, Jane Treacy and Jacque Gonzales sure look a lot wider when they stand up and step away from their tables on-air.

It’s said that the TV camera makes you look 15 pound heavier, but these ladies can’t blame the camera for the girth we are seeing on them now.

They need to start using their own networks’ products, starting with Spanx for a slimmer appearance immediately and then going on NutriSystem to lose the extra pounds.

Maybe everyone should ask QVC host Patti Reilly for her diet secrets. The once hefty host is a sliver of her old self, with a teeny wasp-like waist. Patti, you look marvelous.