Project Runway Gets Project Lawsuit
Tonight is the season premiere of Project Runway, Bravo's wildly popular reality show in which sixteen unknown fashion designers compete for the love of supermodel host Heidi Klum and the approval of her panel of fashionista judges, all in hopes of winning the grand prize: a spread in Elle and a mentorship from haute couture fashion house Banana Republic.
To promote tonight's premiere, Heidi Klum is making the publicity rounds, but her German monotone just lacks the enthusiasm to make any of this seem exciting. Even a little legal trouble strikes us bland:
In a copyright lawsuit filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York, designers Cynthia Rodriguez and Elizabeth Marie Anne Zwiebach claim they provided a 40-page outline for a reality show they were interested in developing titled "American Runway" to Klum's agents after first approaching the agents with the idea in July 2003.
The designers claim they had previously registered and copyrighted the work with the Writer's Guild of America in March 2003 and that "Project Runway" is "strikingly similar" to their idea.
Oh, bah. Is True Religion not "strikingly similar" to Antik? Are Botkier bags not "strikingly similar" to Balenciagas? This is fashion, sweethearts. Your idea is nothing unless its stolen, recycled, and reinterpreted for profit. Suck it up.
