“Yes, she did, but I said no. I’d just prefer to work with someone who is more original and someone who is not copying me, actually.” —Grace Jones, on being asked to collaborate with Lady Gaga, UK Guardian
Gag reflex: 61-year-old Grace Jones performs at the Open'er festival in Gdynia, Poland. Image via Gawker via Splash.
Presenting, for your consideration, His Excellency John G. “Johnny” Weir, 26-year-0ld fashion forward Olympic athlete, dubbed the Lady Gaga of figure skating, star of the Sundance Channel original documentary series Be Good Johnny Weir, currently on the ice rink, competing for the United States, at Pacific Coliseum during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. Additional images of the future designer, via various sources, at Refinery29.
Two of Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir's more conservative fashion looks. Images via Refiner29.
“She’s a really great manipulator. It’s a long process to become a rock star, and she’s willing to crush anyone in her path to do it. She has zero ethics whatsoever. None.” —An Excellently anonymous ex-friend of Lady Gaga.
The Lady Gaga at Radio City Music Hall, Wednesday, January 20, 2010. Image via The New York Post via Wireimage.com.
Presenting, by category, the 2009 Excellent People Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Excellency.
Image courtesy the Excellent Thomas Ludacer.
1. Architecture: Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron for their Excellent sets for the Metropolitan Opera‘s upcoming production of Verdi‘s rarely heard Attila.
2. Art: Former dealer Jeffrey Deitch for his Excellently controversial, and much deserved, recent appointment as director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
3. Beauty: Her Excellency Pat McGrath, Outstanding makeup artist, for CoverGirl Cosmetics.
4. Cinema: Tie: His Excellency Colin Firth for his Outstandingly Excellent performance in A Single Man; Mo’ Nique for her heartbreakingly Excellent performance in Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.
5. Communications: Messieurs Jean-Luc Dupont and Wade H. Grimbly of Système D press office in Paris. Global fashion PR at its most Excellent. Excellent need-to-know clients: Petar Petrov, Odyn Vovk, and Georgy Baratashvili, among many Excellent others.
6. NOT APPLICABLE. Winner removed. Please see number 7. Hey, that life in all it’s Excellency.
7. Disillusionment: The old friends lost vs. the new acquaintances gained during 2009. Goodbye. Hello. And best wishes for an Excellent 2010 to all.
8. Excellency: The Excellent People.
9. Expectation: The extreme Excellency of The Excellent People: A Memoir, begun in Fall 2009, to be published in Fall 2011.
10. Fashion: Her Excellency Robin Givhan, of The Washington Post, also winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize, for her continued Excellent reporting and writing about the wildly wonderful world of style.
11. Hope: His Excellency Barack Hussein Obama, the first light-skinned Black African American President of the United States sans Negro dialect, yo.
12. Icon: Her Excellency Sandra Bernhard. Enduringly Excellent. Perennially Outstanding.
13. Literature: Alice Munro for Too Much Happiness: Stories, also winner of the 2009 Man Booker International Prize.
14. Loyalty: Please see number #7.
15. Lust: South African actor Sharlto Copley. Outstandingly Excellent.
16. Luxury: The 2009 International Herald Tribune Sustainable Luxury conference held in New Delhi, India.
17. Media: Harvey Levin, the Excellent founder of TMZ.com, Excellent internet chronicle of Hollywood life.
18. Music: His Excellency Jason Bentley, program director and host of Morning Becomes Eclectic, at KCRW Radio in Los Angeles, for his Exquisitely Excellent musical tastes.
19. Nostalgia: His Excellency Edmund White for his memoir City Boy: My Life in New York During the 1960s and 1970s.
20. Photography: Dean Sameshima for his Excellent work on view here.
21. Society: Derek Blasberg for his consistently Excellent, glittering café society reports for Style.com and other fashionable publications.
22. Style: Lady Gaga for her dubious and gaggingly overrated and hysterical influence on fashion and music.
23. Technology: The Excellent Nick Knight for his ShowStudio.com, Excellently forcing the fashion world to acknowledge the 21st Century.
24. The Look: Tights under shorts for men. Excellency for your consideration.
25. Theater: Cate Blanchett for her Outstandingly Excellent performance as Blanche DuBois in The Sydney Theater Company’s production of Tennessee Williams‘s A Streetcar Named Desire, presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
26. Thought: What is Excellence?
27. Travel: The City of Angles for its upcoming status as the capital of the art world.
28. Visuals: The Excellent staffs and artists of Peres Projects, Los Angeles and Berlin, for their Outstandingly Excellent program and exhibitions.
Presenting the reportedly Excellent fame monster Lady Gaga, wearing a black suit by the Excellently mysterious Maison Martin Margiela, as photographed by Nick Knight for i-D magazine. Broadcast live via internet by SHOWStudio.com.
Excellently backstage as Nick Knight shoots Lady Gaga at Somerset House in London. 11:38 a.m., Sunday, December 6, 2009. Image courtesy i-D magazine via Tweetie.
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