There's an article about Santino in today's New York Post. It's in the TV Week Section on page three.
‘Runway’rebel
Prickly designer Santino Rice alienates judges
By DEBORAH STARR SEIBEL
“THE judges may think that I’m just the most arrogant person that they’ve ever encountered,” says “Project Runway”’ s Santino Rice. The 30- year-old designer came into Bravo’s red-hot reality competition with a scorched-earth strategy, vowing to leave the 15 other designers in his pile of trimmings.
But his combative stance with the judges has hurt him as well. Though Rice has won two challenges he has also come close to being voted off twice. Rice is the only contestant who’s always ready to rumble with the judges.
“I thought he was going to kill me,” says one of them, Elle fashion director Nina Garcia. Rice went off on Garcia when she told him that his “Heidi’s Homeland” lingerie collection, which featuring highly embellished lederhosen shortshorts, “not aesthetically pleasing.” Says Garcia, “What you didn’t see on the air was that the fight went on for 90 minutes. I thought he was going to jump from the stage and choke me to death because I didn’t like his design. It was ugly. Everybody agreed it was ugly.”
Rice stands by his vision. “It was humorous and sexy and had a bit of a fetish element,” he says. (Garcia later lambasted him for designing an ice-skating outfit that was festooned with feathers.) “When they said, ‘It’s not even comfortable,’ I’m like, ‘Well, what does that have to do with anything?’ That’s like saying, ‘Is it flame retardant?’ When did that become part of the competition? If you didn’t like my kooky idea, then don’t pick the kooky idea.”
But even Rice, who lives in Los Angeles, admits to cringing as he watches his performance at home. He’s embarrassed by some of the snide comments he has made about the other contestants.
In one particularly memorable aside during the lingerie challenge, Rice, teamed up with Emmett and Nick, dissed a competing team made up of Marla, Diana and Guadalupe. On the air, he said, “Those three are so f—-ing lame. They’ve never had sex in their lives.”
Now, months after finishing the monthlong “Runway” shoot in New York, Rice regrets his remarks.
“I said, ‘Oh, man. How could I say that?’” He explains that the three women “were talking about what’s sexy and it was this really weird conversation and I was getting really annoyed. But it doesn’t justify my saying something like that.”
The article continues - Please check the NYPost for the rest. I just wanted to include the part about regretting the unkind things he said about our girls!
9 comments:
I really didn't like the snarky comments he expressed towards other designers. He didn't like Diana's voice, everyone other than him was "grasping at straws."
The "never had sex in their life" comment was uncalled for, as well. But does anyone remember what Nick said to him after? It was something like "Neither have you." And then Santino said, "Well, yeah."
Am I imagining that??
You're not imagining that, but it was the classy Emmett, not Nick, who said it.
I say good for him for developing at least SOME humility. I think that this competition will serve Santino well in life.
on a side note, aunt teak, I LOVE your heart gif!
That's sweet of him that he would admit his regret on that comment. I really disliked him at the beginning of the season, but I think he's becoming more and more likeable (and funny!) as the season goes on and we learn more about him.
Santino's actually one of my favorites at this point - I hope he makes it to the top three with Andrae and Daniel!
I'm glad I didn't imagine the "Neither have you" statement. The next time Bravo shows that episode 4 times in a row, I should pay closer attention.
What exactly does that mean, though? Or is it just too much information for my purse-adled brain to handle?
the article combined with some of the bonus vids are making me like santino again. alright, really the bonus vids cuz he cracks me up. his little songs and impersonation of tim kill me.
Maybe he's just trying to save face before a reunion show. I really could not stand how he was expecting to win all the competitions earlier in the shows. There's nothing wrong with having confidence--you need it to succeed in any carreer--but he was so smug. Ugh.
However, as phillykat mentioned, the bonus videos of Timpressions are great. I love the way Daniel eggs him on too by stating the lyrics for Santino to sing.
I'm glad he feels contrite.
Here is the rest of the story:
To understand Rice, you have to consider a childhood filled with adversity. He grew up in St. Charles, Missouri, a small farming town where he says he “treated more like a foreign exchange student than a native.” The problem, according to Rice, was that his mother was half-black and half-Ital-ian. And his father was a little of almost everything else: German-Jewish, Scottish, English, Welsh, French and Native American.
“I was the kid that wasn’t really invited to the party,” Rice says. “They treated me like I wasn’t good enough. And my dad’s family goes back to Lewis and Clark, so I always resented that.”
The perceived racism fueled Rice to make his mark elsewhere. He left home for Los Angeles at age 17, determined to become a noted fashion designer. Graduating from L.A.’s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Rice became skilled as a clothes “cutter” and assistant designer.
Now he wants to strike out on his own. “I do think he’s talented,” says Garcia. “But he is very immature in the way he deals with it. What happens when he goes out there, in the real world? There are far worse judges than us. You have to take direction. You have to listen. And he can’t.”
Win or lose, the show has given Rice the biggest break of his career. His days of being the kid who wasn’t invited to the party are over.
“The whole time, I knew that in some way, I was finally making fashion history and beginning the long road of what’s going to be my career as a designer,” says Rice. “On ‘Project Runway,’ I’m inviting myself.”
PROJECT RUNWAY
Wednesday, 10 p.m., Bravo
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