Straight Talk From Ted Allen

In this week’s issue of New York, Jennifer Senior takes a hard look at the Bravo network’s reality-TV machine and the former contestants whose lives it’s upended. “There’s something a little bit cruel about all the attention,� says Ted Allen, of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Top Chef fame, in the piece. “You are famous for a while … [But] there’s no certain road map for translating that kind of ephemeral success into a life of yachts and bling.�

In a part of the conversation that didn’t make the magazine, Allen recalled the early days of his own fame: “The most annoying, condescending thing that friends, fans, journalists, and people from my previous life would do,� he remembered, “is tap me on the shoulder and say, ‘Enjoy the ride.’ As if the five of us weren’t completely aware that fame can be a fleeting thing. It was like, fuck you. Enjoy the ride being an accountant.�

He also had some harsh words for Project Runway’s first-season winner Jay McCarroll. “I used to like him, when I first met him,� Allen said. “He was asking for advice about how-do-I deal-with-the-sudden-fame bullshit. And I gave him the phone number of one of my guys at William Morris, who I really like. And the next thing I heard about Jay McCarroll is that he was talking shit about the five of us behind our backs. He’s whiny, he’s immature, he’s catty — he’s really kind of a jackass, whether he won Project Runway or not.�

The Near-Fame Experience [NYM]