tFS: It’s what we’re here for!
KC: Alright. The worst thing I did when I was an assistant — I was Susan Blond‘s assistant and we were working with a band called Bananarama. I worked really hard to get an interview for them and they wouldn’t come out and do the interview with Rolling Stone. I threw a glass of water into the girl’s face and told her to get up and do the interview. Uh, that was pretty bad! Susan Blond was really nice and gave me a warning and said, “Don’t let that happen again.”
tFS: So, you’ve got your show coming up!
KC: Two shows! I’ve got America’s Next Top Model, premiering on August 18, but I also have The Kelly Cutrone Project, which I’m really excited about, September 6 on the CW Seed.
tFS: So tell us a little more about The Kelly Cutrone Project, and why CW Seed? I understand they’re an online platform.
KC: It’s a really cool way to start out. Like, you see what happens to people like Bethenny [Frankel] and Kris Jenner or Katie Couric or Anderson [Cooper] — they jump out too quickly. Katie and Anderson are huge TV veterans and they step out and it’s a gladiator sport out there. I like the Internet, I have a young audience having been on TV for seven or eight years now, from MTV to The CW. So, kids that were 21 then are 28, 30 now, and people watch The CW. I know, I was at my daughter’s volleyball game, I have 12-year-old fans who watch Top Model. So, I think that for me that’s a really good place for me to get my chops and also to learn. There’s so much to learn. It sounds so easy, but there’s no handbook. It’s not like, “Hey, do you wanna be a TV show host? Go to Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com, there’s this great book!” Mark Pedowitz, who’s the president of The CW Network, was really nice and really kind in a meeting one day. He was like, “I think you should have your own show.” And I jumped on his couch like, “Sweet Jesus Marie! I’ve been telling people for years that I wanted my own show!” I don’t think he knew that. Then he said we can try it on the Seed and see.
tFS: What can we expect to see on The Kelly Cutrone Project?
KC: The Kelly Cutrone Project is really cool because I interview some friends of mine from back in the day that people didn’t really know and are now huge. Charli XCX is on the show, but nobody knew her then. She’d just written “I Love It” for Icona Pop, but I was really a fan of “You (Ha Ha Ha),” so I’d been talking to her for a couple years and she’s on the show. Now, she’s done “Fancy” and she has “Boom Clap” right now, so she’s really big. My other friend is Mary Lambert, the hot lesbian girl who did Macklemore‘s “Same Love.” It was before she got signed, and I was like, “Oh my God, you’re going to become a huge rockstar! I have to introduce you to Diane Warren,” and she wound up getting signed at Capitol and she came on my show. Jared Leto does a late arrival at Jeremy Scott, so we get an Oscar winner apologizing for being late. Pat Field is on the show, Joe Jonas, Icona Pop, really cool people are on my show, it’s cute. I also do a nipple test.
tFS: A NIPPLE test? You gotta tell us what that is.
KC: I get to run around and check guys’ nipples sizes and measure them to nickels, dimes, quarters or half-dollars. There are a lot of dimes and quarters.
tFS: What about Top Model, what can we look forward to? Miss J is back! How’s working with her?
KC: I love J a lot. I actually interviewed J for the Kelly show, and our dressing rooms [on Top Model] are next to each other. So I ask him, “How did you learn how to catwalk?” and he was like, “Honey, I kicked my way out of my mother’s vagina!”
tFS: Ha! So, while we’re talking TV…it’s weird within the fashion industry because as a professional, going on TV can be hit or miss. Some people wind up wildly successful, while others…not so much. You’re obviously in the former group. What do you think has made you so successful in this medium?
KC: Just the fact that I keep getting offered a job after something goes wrong! [laughing] I don’t think there’s any other reason.
tFS: It hasn’t held you back at all.
KC: I don’t want to be who people want me to be. That’s not my goal. I knew what I was doing was dangerous, but I also knew that the world that I was living in wasn’t serving the people who were playing to it and the ones who wanted to play to it. I decided to adapt, transform or die. That’s my motto: Adapt, transform or die. That’s just the way that it goes. There’s not a right way or a wrong way. If you’re a journalist, for example, and you get a job at The Washington Post or The New York Times, and somebody comes around and says, “You know, you should be on The View.” “I couldn’t possibly, no one at my work is going to respect me.” What are you really going to say, no? It depends on what’s most important to you. I think we get experience and we grow, and move forward. I think a lot of people understand the power of television and the Internet. From that perspective, I think that the old school method of traditional media isn’t serving anyone exclusively. It serves a little bit, but it’s not a full meal. It’s more of an appetizer than an entree.
