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Jay McCarroll's fashionable array of color-coordinated outfits — complete with matching headphones — helped him defeat Project Runway's designing women last week. Here, the newly-minted couturier shares some behind-the-scenes dish with TVGuide.com, including his take on Wendy Pepper's brazen backstabbing and why he feels his nasty comment about Kara Saun's shoe snafu was taken way out of context.TVGuide.com: Unlike the other two finalists, you never won a challenge. Yet you took home first prize. How's that for irony?Jay McCarroll: It still hasn't really sunk in. I'm just waiting for that moment where it's like, "What just happened?" I'm trying to keep levelheaded about the whole thing and not get too wrapped up in the celebrity of it. TVG: You're just the next big thing in fashion, no big deal.Jay: I don't really look it at that way. I just feel

When the Project Runway designers were asked to create a Grammy gown for Access Hollywood's Nancy O'Dell, Austin Scarlett — who seemed a shoo-in for the final three — lost out to the far less creative Wendy Pepper. Why? His dress was too glamorous. The sneaky Pepper's final showdown against cool costumer Kara Saun and wild-child styler Jay McCarroll airs tonight at 9pm/ET on Bravo. "With Wendy's designs, we thought she had a good chance of being eliminated, but she managed slip by in every episode," Scarlett laments to TVGuide.com. "[But] I was kind of prepared for anything, so I wasn't too completely heart-wrenched." O'Dell tried to soften the blow, however, by asking the aspiring couturier to design her Oscar gown. So will we see her rocking an Austin Scarlett original this week? Unfortunately, no. "Austin never called Nancy's stylist to follow thr

Actress Tammy Blanchard — a 2001 Emmy winner as young Judy in Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows — says her golden statuette still holds an honored place at home. "Right now, it's in my china closet in my dining room," the 27-year-old tells TV Guide Online. "That's pretty much where it's going to stay forever. My family likes to see it when they come over, so I just leave it out in the open." Blanchard isn't resting on her laurels, however. This Sunday, she'll pull our heartstrings even more in When Angels Come to Town (9 pm/ET, CBS). Miss Tammy appears opposite Columbo's Peter Falk in the third jolly holiday film about an angel named Max and his mischievous miracles. Surprisingly, Blanchard reveals she's got something of a crush on her 77-year-old leading man. "He's the most handsome man in the world," she declares, "so good-looking in person." On the set, Falk's youthful antics made Blanchard, well, blanch. "

When Sheila Kelley slid down a stripper's pole in Dancing at the Blue Iguana, something occurred to her: This is hard work. Sensing there was more to the job than stilettos and dollar tips, the L.A. Law cutie tapped into her dance background and developed The S Factor, a how-to on shaping up burlesque-style. In Kelley's L.A.-based studio, the female-only clientele indulge in a combination of Pilates, yoga and erotic moves straight from the stage to redefine their natural curves. The S Factor is rapidly becoming a fitness craze — Teri Hatcher is a fan — and desperate housewives everywhere are getting sleek by vamping it up. Sometimes it's good to be a woman.TV Guide Online: How can shimmying down a pole get me in the best shape of my life?Sheila Kelley: I have to put you on a pole and watch you flounder first. It sounds simple until you actually get on that pole and try doing a trick. I used muscles that I never knew in my life that

Actor Shemar Moore — last seen in the WB's short-lived Birds of Prey — has landed himself a juicy new TV role. He plays reformed drug-peddler Collins Farwell in the two-part CBS miniseries Reversible Errors (airing Sunday and Tuesday night at 9 pm/ET). During his character's jail sentence, Moore sports a roughneck look — we're talking cornrows and tattoos! — so fans may need a sec to recognize this former Young and the Restless hunk. Moore's extreme makeover included fake tats on his forearms, which were covered in bar-code signs and sunbursts. "I was in the [makeup] chair by 4:30 am for the two hours it took to put them on," he says. "I couldn't lean against anything, and the makeup artist was spraying me down with hair spray all day." As for his new 'do, "it's a $7000 wig made with human hair," he reveals. "It didn't take long to put on, but it still was an extensive deal with the glue and covering it with makeup."

As Law and Order: SVU's ADA Casey Novak, Diane Neal has spent nearly a year throwing the book at bad guys. Sometimes this TV legal eagle's so carried away with herself, she feels like she is an attorney. A real judge recently had to give her a reality check. "I was in court testifying about a woman who lives in my building," she chuckles. "At one point, the judge actually yelled, 'Ms. Neal, just because you play a lawyer on TV does not mean you have license to speak whenever you feel like it in my courtroom!' It was a humbling experience." In tonight's episode (10 pm/ET), the pretend prosecutor goes up against one tough adversary — a corrupt judge who threatens to sabotage her. "I'm asking him to recuse himself," explains the actress, who often runs plot lines by her father, a real-life federal attorney. "When I told my dad, he's like, 'Oh, you're screwed. You never ask the judge to leave a case unless it's unbelievably clear he's never

New York's Fashion Week is the perfect time to ditch everyday wear and break out the couture — especially if you can snag invites to those glitzy after-parties that cap off the runway shows. Debutantes, divas and drag queens alike were at the West Village's Ace Gallery to sample the fifth incarnation of Viva Glam. That's MAC's high-shine cosmetic offering, with 100 percent of proceeds going to the MAC AIDS Fund. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy's social butterfly, Jai Rodriguez, practiced what he preaches as he worked the room. TV Guide Online spotted him trading hugs and quips with another NBC reality boy, The Apprentice's Kwame Jackson. FYI, the Fab Five has just put out the Queer Eye soundtrack, but Rodriguez plans to do a solo act on his in-the-works debut CD. "It's pop-rock, kind of Anastacia meets Justin Timberlake," h

Survivor grad Elisabeth Filarski Hasselbeck outlasted 20 competitors to earn the coveted fifth co-host slot on ABC's gabfest The View. But the chatty 26-year-old swears she didn't employ a strategy or form any secret alliances to land the gig. "The show was going to be stuck with [whoever won] for a while, so if they didn't get to know the real me, I'd being doing them a disservice," she says. "My goal was just to come have some conversation and get to know the women." Though she was the unanimous choice among the existing hosts — not to mention the clear audience favorite — Hasselbeck had no clue she was the frontrunner when Barbara Walters made the congratulatory call. "As soon as Barbara started talking, I thought, 'You better get a grip now, girlfriend, because you're going to hear something you don't want to hear,'" she recalls. "[But] then she stuck it in there

Survivor grad Elisabeth Filarski Hasselbeck outlasted 20 competitors to earn the coveted fifth co-host slot on ABC's gabfest The View. But the chatty 26-year-old swears she didn't employ a strategy or form any secret alliances to land the gig. "The show was going to be stuck with [whoever won] for a while, so if they didn't get to know the real me, I'd being doing them a disservice," she says. "My goal was just to come have some conversation and get to know the women." Though she was the unanimous choice among the existing hosts — not to mention the clear audience favorite — Hasselbeck had no clue she was the frontrunner when Barbara Walters made the congratulatory call. "As soon as Barbara started talking, I thought, 'You better get a grip now, girlfriend, because you're going to hear something you don't want to hear,'" she recalls. "[But] then she stuck it in there

He didn't make it to Kelly Ripa's hot seat, but Robert Jerome Lacovara Jr. can always claim he was number one — in line, that is. The film student from Manhattan's Hunter College was first to compete in Live With Regis and Kelly's American Co-Host Search last Thursday. The winner will sit next to Reege on April 16, filling in for Ripa, who's currently on maternity leave with her third child. "I've tried out for Survivor three times, and for American Idol, you have to be under 25 and sing," says the 34-year-old Lacovara, who's also an ex-model. He braved the night's elements, staking his spot outside the Live studio nearly 14 hours before auditions commenced, even though rumors had

Stephen Dorff throws a few punches in Deuces Wild — opening Friday — a gritty rumblefest about teen gang violence in the late 1950s. But the sexy Blade star reserves the rough stuff for the big screen. In real life, he's much more of a peacemaker. "I'm a lover, not a fighter," Dorff says with a dry laugh. Recalling the one time he's resorted to fisticuffs — after kissing another boy's girlfriend when he was 16 — Dorff says he prefers to discuss a disagreement. "I'm usually good at talking my way out of things," he shares. "Fighting to me seems kind of macho, and that's not really who I am." Though Dorff prefers verbal sparring, he understands why his character, Leon — a gang leader who's out to drive drug dealers off his block

The Practice's Lisa Gay Hamilton wants to get the African-American community talking about The Vagina Monologues. Hamilton, with the help of pal Rosie Perez, is producing a benefit performance of Eve Ensler's enduring hit play geared toward women of color. V-Day Harlem 2002 will take place at New York's famed Apollo Theatre on March 30. The 37-year-old actress was moved to act after appearing in last year's all-star V-Day benefit at Madison Square Garden. "I was disappointed as an artist to see that the audience was predominantly white women," she laments to TV Guide Online. "That's just terrible. The Vagina Monologues benefits all women — especially women of color. So, I thought, 'Perhaps we need to take the mountain to Mohammed.'" Hamilto

If HBO's mob opera The Sopranos had been called something else, Jamie-Lynn Sigler — who plays headstrong mafia princess Meadow — might have never auditioned for the role. Luckily, the multifaceted singer-actress-dancer misinterpreted the show's tuneful title! "I thought it was going to be a show about music and musicals!" she tells TV Guide Online, giggling. Sigler's not-so-secret passion for singing caught the eye — or should we say, ear — of Sopranos producers, who decided to let Sigler croon on the show. Sigler's record label, A&#038R, was listening. "They heard me sing in one episode, and that's how I got my record deal," she explains. "So it all turned out great in the end." Her melodic voice currently can be heard on Sigler's debut album, Here to Heaven. Not only did she belt out the compilation of funky dance tunes and heartfelt ballads, she actually composed a fe

With seven Grammy nominations, look for soul diva India.Arie to take center stage when the music industry's biggest kudofest airs live Feb. 27 on CBS. Will Arie — whose autobiographical Acoustic Soul album has made her a sensation — break into the movies like other musical darlings before her? "I don't necessarily have aspirations to that... but I'm open to it," Arie says. Well, any directors interested in hiring the soulful songbird should take note: She doesn't fancy the glamour and glitter that most singer-to-screen sirens demand in their film debuts. "If I did it, it would have to be something similar to my life experience in some sort of way," she muses. "I would never be a model in a movie. I'd be, like, the fastest swimmer in the world." Actually, Arie is already involved in the movie business, even if we haven't yet seen her on the screen. She's recorded a track that will be featured in

Quick, name a show about four tight-knit gal pals who aren't afraid to dish about sex! If you're thinking Sex and the City, think again. Girlfriends also follows a quartet of feisty females, while also tackling the complicated issue of race. As UPN kicks off Black History month, tonight's "Sister, Sistah" episode (airing at 9:30 pm/ET) explores what racially defines a person. "It's a really huge topic they try to address in 22 minutes, and that's courageous," says Tracee Ellis Ross, who plays neurotic but loveable lawyer Joan. In the episode, Joan and Toni get upset when they meet Lynn's white sister, Tanya — who's gone a bit overboard in embracing black culture. Ross admits she caught some discrepancies in the original script and felt compelled to suggest changes to the show's producers.

Paolo Montalban — no relation to Fantasy Island's Ricardo — stole moviegoers' hearts with his princely performance in Disney's 1997 remake of Cinderella. But don't expect him to pull out that glass slipper in American Adobo (in limited release Jan. 25). The indie drama finds him doing a full 180 as Raul, a charming but heartless womanizer. Summing up his character, Montalban explains: "Take every quality you find in Prince Charming, still use those things to get the girl, but then make him a completely thoughtless man once he gets what he wants." Raul's one of five friends testing their love and self-esteem (and delicious meals) over the course of a year in New York City. Adobo writer Vincent R. Nebrida's bilingual script explores such universal themes through the eyes of Filipino-Americans. "It's an accurate port

For the upcoming Monster's Ball (opening Dec. 26), Halle Berry shed her glamorous image — and her inhibitions — to play Leticia, a tortured widow in love with the Death Row prison guard (Billy Bob Thornton) who executed her husband. Don't be surprised if your fellow moviegoers spill their popcorn during the first love scene, when Berry bares a lot more than her soul! "We didn't think of it as a sex scene in a movie," she says. "We approached it as these two characters really getting what they needed, like they needed the air to breathe." Committing to the scene on paper was easy; actually going through with it called for the actress to step outside herself. "I wasn't really there," she shares. "I was so out of m

In Joy Ride, a harmless practical joke sends a lonely trucker on a psychotic rampage. Of course, leading stud Paul Walker (The Fast and the Furious) knows pranksters always run the risk of retaliation, but he still loves messing with people. "My buddies just got their sweetest revenge," shares the 28-year-old actor, who tasted his own medicine on the golf course when a pal asked for one of his Calloway balls. "I reach in my bag, and something doesn't feel right... I say, 'What is it, man?' — and it's a toad. I jumped a mile!" While traveling to pick up his dream girl (Leelee Sobieski) in Ride, Walker stops to bail his mischievous older brother (

John Singleton's decision to cast an acting novice as the lead in his highly anticipated follow-up to his 1991 Oscar-nominated urban drama Boyz N the Hood had many in Hollywood scratching their heads. But the 33-year-old filmmaker makes no apologies for entrusting the role of streetwise deadbeat Jody in Baby Boy with R&#038B stud Tyrese Gibson. "The freshest moments in my films have always been with unknown actors," Singleton tells TV Guide Online of the 22-year-old model-cum-singer-cum-actor. "Tyrese has so much charm and charisma; he was basically a movie star who hadn't done a movie yet." The role of Jody was originally written for slain rapper Tupac Shakur, and as Singleton explains, his passing was almost the death of Baby Boy. "I didn't think I was going to find someone with as much hea

Tyrese Gibson (aka Tyrese) may have shown some skin in those sexy Guess? ads, but the R&#038B superstar admits that when he was asked to drop trou in the John Singleton-directed pic, Baby Boy (opening June 27), he got all hot and bothered. "You just got to hype yourself up and try to get through it," the 22-year-old acting neophyte tells TV Guide Online of his love scene with leading lady Taraji P. Henson. "But once you are doing it and John says, 'Take four, take five,' and 'We're going to do it from three different angles,' it starts eating away at your soul. I'm a real private person; it wasn't easy for me to do those scenes." Well, on the eve of the film's debut, Gibson seems to have overcome his early rump angst. "My mama hasn't seen my ass cheeks since I was born," he says, "but I'm going to take her to the premiere." In

Christopher Titus makes a living satirizing his life on his self-titled Fox sitcom, Titus. So, it would seem natural that he would incorporate into the hit comedy the latest development in his off-screen existence: Impending fatherhood. However, the comic-turned-actor — whose first child (a daughter) with wife Erin is due in August — tells TV Guide Online that when it comes to the small screen, infants are no laughing matter. "If babies weren't such series killers, we would do it," confesses Titus. "That's a new story. A baby is a whole new chapter in your life, and we have so many stories to tell in this one... maybe at the end of the series run we might bring in a baby." Ironically, Cynthia Watros — who plays Titus's reel ladylove on Titus — is also preggers. (The Emmy winner will deliver twins in August.) Still, even that miraculous coincidence wasn't en

Comedians Bill Bellamy and D.L. Hughley had a field day abusing Young and the Restless hunk Shemar Moore on the set of their new film The Brothers (opening Friday). "You'd come out of a room, and women would be screaming at Shemar," recalls Hughley, star of the UPN sitcom The Hughleys. "He had to suffer for that." Hughley — who also appeared in last summer's surprise hit The Original Kings of Comedy — adds that Moore didn't get all the attention. "They'd scream at me too," he insists, "to tap him on the shoulder." Dubbed Refusing to Exhale by director Gary Hardwick, The Brothers follows four lifelong pals — Bellamy, Hughley, Moore and Morris Chestnut (The Best Man) — as they tackle issues of love, sex and friendship. But off-screen, there wasn't much soul-searching going on. "We shot the film Monday through Friday, and on Friday, Bill and D.L. were of