Past guest judges include Faith Hill, Apolo Ohno, Selma Blair, Nicky Hilton, Catherine Malandrino and Tory Burch, so Betsey will be in good company.

The episode has the competing designers working with a theme quite fitting for the always colorful and sometimes wacky Johnson. The contestants are creating works of fashion art using materials from a party supply store! Known for party dresses that are often an explosion of tulle, satin and ruffles,  we love the idea and think Betsey has the perfect eye for this one. {People}

Elle magazine has in the past voluntarily participated on the reality Project Runway and Stylista series, and now the mag’s hub in midtown Manhattan serves as the set for Whitney Port’s reality series, The City. Editor in Chief, Robbie Myers admits the company is calculated in its efforts to gain exposure.

Elle editors Joe Zee and 'the City' star Erin Kaplan

“I thought it was a good idea for us to do ‘Project Runway.†That was not necessarily the popular view around here. But my feeling was that we should be in as many mediums as we could be as a brand when appropriate. We want exposure. I think we are very aware what makes interesting television.” she said. {Racked}

We agree. The personalities of editors in the Elle offices clash repeatedly, but definitely make good TV. Not all agree, and bigwigs like Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue Magazine, have been notoriously private about their operations.

The bottom line is, advertising is advertising and numbers matter. Television reaches a much wider demographic than most glossies can achieve on their own, and Elle has reaped the benefits seeing audience numbers rise 35% in the last year. {NY Times} While the audience numbers for each of the shows fluctuates between smash hit, and lukewarm reception, a 2 million viewer flop to TV execs can still be a publicity boon for a magazine with a circulation just under 1.5 million. While we love some shows more than others, if reality TV gets more people interested in fashion, we say keep it coming!

Above, the cover of Lauren Conrad's latest book, Style

The former The Hills cast member has also tried her hands on fashion designing. In 2007, Conrad designed her own clothing collection called the Lauren Conrad Collection, financed by MTV and Tangerine promotions. Subsequently, in the fall of 2009 she produced an exclusive line for departmental store Kohl’s, called LC Lauren Conrad.

Conrad’s growing list of achievements is indeed impressive. At only 24, the former reality television star, fashion designer and author has a good number of accomplishments under her belt – 2 fashion lines, 4 books and a burgeoning bank account. According to Forbes, Conrad is currently raking in a healthy income of $1.5 million annually.

Yet, looking past these statistics, we aren’t sure if she can be exactly considered a “success”. Sure, based solely on financial indicators, Conrad is certainly doing very well for herself. And though it’s easy to look at Conrad as another person who’s just famous for being famous, she does seem to be putting real effort into her endeavors.  But a look at the bigger picture suggests all is not as rosy as her bank account would suggest.

Last year, the New York Times reported that Conrad’s first fashion line – Lauren Conrad Collection, will be taking a hiatus until 2010 with hopes that the line will go overseas. According to LC (as she is sometimes affectionately referred to by fans) herself, she would like “to give it (Lauren Conrad Collection) a whole new feel,” before continuing, “but that requires us to take a few seasons off.” {New York Times}

Above, Lauren Conrad runway show

Conrad may like to refer to this break as an effort to take the collection away from public eye and improve it so that it comes back stronger. But this doesn’t remove the fact that the Lauren Conrad Collection was far from a spectacular success. Back then, fashion critics and fans alike complained that the line was overpriced. Casual dresses which were likely targeted towards her teen fan-base sold for upwards of $100. In a telephone interview, she admitted that the collection “wasnâ€t as accessible and affordable as I wanted it to be.” {New York Times}

So when news of her new book Lauren Conrad Style first broke out, we couldn’t help but wonder if Conrad is really the right person to turn to for style advice. She may have designed two clothing lines, but with celebrity fronted fashion labels, it’s often difficult to determine if the celebrities themselves do the designing, or merely just put their names up on a label while other people do the “dirty” work. Lauren Sherman over at Fashionista.com seems to think so too.

It may be premature for us to judge the book before it has even hit stores, so we’ll withhold a final verdict, but we can only applaud  Conrad’s determination to become more than just a reality television star.

This week, they may understand. Or not.

MTV’s taking the Snooki, J-Woww and Situation show on the road and pushing it out to more than 30 countries this week, pushed up from an originally planned late spring/early summer roll out.

Antonio Campo Dall’Orto, Southern Europe manager of MTV International, says they couldn’t wait {New York Times} to introduce international viewers to “the lifestyle of the ‘Jersey Shore†team — their habits, their attitudes.”

In Latin America, Gym, Tan, Laundry (the daily Jersey Shore mantra) will become gimnasio, bronceado, lavandería. And the Situation? Well, he’ll be the Situation in every language. Somehow we don’t think anything will get lost in translation.

The Jersey Shore crew has headed to an undisclosed location, widely thought to be Miami, for season 2 of the popular show. There’s still no word on whether the duck phone was able to join in on negotiations for a recurring role.

Before he digs into the serious business at hand, we have to  acknowledge the completely camp (and visually amazing) Halloween transformation into a mermaid who could give Ariel a serious swim for her money.

Now, we’re ready to watch him swim with the fashion sharks (our last pun, promise).

Read more {Papier Blog}

Read more {the Cut}

Marc has been saying for years that he would love to have his own show, and Bravo is hoping that they will be able to make that dream — um, a reality.  The premise of the show would be simply Marc being Marc and living his life day-to-day — which hopefully means we’ll be able to catch some footage proving that even Marc is just like us and eats cornflakes in his unglamorous PJs while watching reruns of The Office.

Read the full story {The Cut}