Tim Gunn Falls to Earth

By Claudine Zap

Over the past 7 and a half seasons of "Project Runway," through the petty feuds and bad design, one man stood above it all. A pale, bespectacled, suited Tim Gunn. Part mentor, part therapist, all class. He was the one constant -- the soothing yin to Heidi Klum's "auf wiedersehen" yang.

Even "The Daily Show's" Jon Stewart, who looks at fashion as a foreign language, has eagerly invited back Tim Gunn for a chat and a dish.

But Tim Gunn, who was the standard bearer of all things tasteful, has totally, completely lost it. To pimp his book, "Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for Making It Work," the claws have come out. On "The Daily Show" he went for easy target Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue, saying he saw her carried down the stairs because she couldn't work a Manolo. Or at least walk in them. Really? The man who never takes sides back stage at a "Project Runway" show went straight for the fashion royalty juggular? The new Tim had just had a mean-girl makeover.

If that wasn't shocking enough, Gunn has his, well, guns blazing as he makes the media rounds: Suri Cruise is a "fashion victim." Taylor Momsen is a "diva." Lady Gaga is a diva and a fashion victim. OK, that part isn't true. But the other two targets are four and 17 years old.

Tim, you had me at "Make it work." Could you make your book a bestseller without resorting to being like everyone else in the fashion business? If Tim Gunn has taught us nothing else, it's that class never goes out of style.