'Project Runway': Are We In? Oh, We Are SO In.

Really, only one term comes to mind as "Project Runway" die-hards chatter and text and ping tonight's season kickoff at a fever pitch.

No, not "Auf Wiedersehen!" Nor "Guten Tag." But rather: "Verklempt!"

As in: I haven't seen so many fellow Klum Clubbers so "verklempt" (or verklemmt) since Heidi recently described her initial steamy attraction to hubby Seal. (And speaking of bike shorts: We still contend that would make for a grand and gimmick-y designer challenge -- say, a tea dress made of Nike's finest Lycra. But we digress as we redress.)

Yes, our shared anticipation is wedge-heel high with the Jeffrey Sebelia Season still so fresh in our minds (better known as The Season That Brilliant, Superior Michael Flamed-Out in the Finals). Tonight's debut doesn't provide the typical Gimmick Challenge -- it's radically free of bells, whistles and recycled Jersey rubbish. But the contestants -- whether by force of casting or pure joyous happenstance (yeah, right) -- are as distinct as they are uber-professional. As in, some of these 15 folks we've actually heard of before. (For more on that, see Robin Givhan's preview.)

And as further proof in strike times that reality shows don't need "writers" -- WGAs, at least -- some fine one-liners fly. The best: Annapolis's own sly-quipping Christian Siriano (by our count, the only contestant younger than 26), who tonight tellingly acknowledges: "I'm kind of a celebrity in my own head."

And the princess of the one-liners? Our host-frau herself turns out to be a regular "Heidi Youngman" when she says of one contestant: "Her model looked like she was pooing fabric."

After which, another German word comes to mind: Schadenfreude. Delicious, addictive schadenfreude.

-- Michael Cavna

Michael Cavna  |  November 14, 2007; 12:52 PM ET Project Runway
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