Project Runway: Christina Aguilera Bores and Sequins Galore

This week on Project Runway, I was enormously pleased to see snarky judge Nina Garcia back in the saddle, but bored to tears by guest judge Christina Aguilera. Seriously, first Lindsay Lohan and now this? At least viewers had "sultan of sequins" Bob Mackie to lend a bit of entertaining levity to the judging panel.

The Challenge: The contestants this week were given the honor of meeting legendary costume designer Bob Mackie, who lists the likes of Cher, Tina Turner and Diana Ross among his celebrity clients. In what should have been a dream challenge for any would-be top designer, Mackie tasks the competitors with creating a stage costume for a superstar pop icon - namely, pop diva Christina Aguilera.

With two days for the design and a red carpet kind of challenge any designer could dream of, I had high hopes for the designs on this episode. Sadly, several designers ended up responding to the stress of actually designing for a celebrity by having complete meltdowns.

The Sticky Part: From now on, no one gets immunity for winning a design challenge. Anyone is fair game to be sent home from this point forward. Which is a bad thing for some of the designers who have barely skated through a few challenges just because they happened to win the previous one.

The Drama Quotient: Gay boy Nicholas was so excited to meet Bob Mackie he nearly passed out, squealing: “This is the best Project Runway moment ever!” As for the rest of the contestants, the nasty commentary continues to ramp up. Irina, entirely full of herself, dissed Shirin nastily - "I just don't know why Shirin is still here... Way better designers than her are out... Her design sensibility is very sort of bargain basement." Later she gives Carol Hannah a tongue-lashing as well, telling her model "The little one, the blonde, annoys the f--- out of me. She's so mediocre."

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Tim Gunn - who seems to have been let loose to say whatever the hell he wants this season - dropped a nice one when he launched into a critique of Christopher's design by saying, "Here's my disappointment." He also ripped Shirin a new one by calling her dress "Guinevere meets Vampira" and a "16-year-old's really bad prom" dress. But the best line of the night though came from Nicolas, delivered in a deadpan and hysterically matter-of-fact tone: "Irina's actually a very good designer. The only problem with her is that she's a bitch."

The Middle of the Pack: With half the designers already gone, only one designer was sent backstage before final judging this week. Irina's short black dress and overcoat were nicely made and attractive, but lacking any significant wow factor. The judges deemed it worthy enough to pass her through, but she failed to land in the top three.

The Winners: Althea's long silver-sequined gown impressed the judges, but I personally thought it looked a bit rough around the edges in close-up shots. It certainly was shiny though.

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Nicholas' short, ballerina-style dress was cute enough, but a bit too similar to one of his past challenge dresses. Overall, it was also just kind of boring for something meant to be a show-stopping stage outfit. Christina Aguilera, however, seemed to love it - as did the other judges. Granted, Aguilera loves to shake her ass and Nicolas' dress was definitely an ass-shaking kind of outfit.

Carol Hannah, who was one of the designers most freaked out by the challenge, shocked herself by winning the judges' favor and taking the top spot. Her long, black dress plastered with feathers and sequins seemed rather lackluster in my eyes, but I rarely agree with the judges, which is why I'm probably glad I never pursued that dream of being a fashion designer.

The Losers: Cute boy Logan's short, one-shoulder, animal print dress was a bit safe and "cavewoman" as Christina Aguilera said, but was at least good enough to keep him in.

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Christopher's nightmare outfit was badly made and screamingly ugly. Those hot pants should be sold with a side of eye bleach. Even Christopher's model looked pained having to wear it down the runway.

Gordana's long cream sheath dress looked like the model was wearing a half-dead fish. Seriously - and what were those weird black things on the front looking like pasted on nipples? Week after week, Gordana just seems to be sinking further into mediocrity.

Sadly, it was Shirin's long, fluff-bottomed dress judged the biggest the hot mess of the evening. Although the top was actually kind of interesting, the bottom looked like it was thrown together out of a rag pile and the judges thought it looked like a bad Halloween costume. Heidi Klum said all it needed to be complete was a "point black hat and a broom." Needless to say, Shirin landed on the bottom and was sent home.

Final Weigh-In: Shirin's dress may have been slightly pathetic, but Christopher's outfit was a disaster. If he doesn't get thrown out on his butt soon, I'll have to lose some serious faith in the judges this season. They keep letting him pass even though he's obviously lacking in skill and taste. Plus, he doesn't even add that much interesting drama or scandal to the show, so it really doesn't make any sense why he's still around. As for the guest judges, I have to heartily applaud the inclusion of Bob Mackie, who was entertaining and enjoyable to watch. Christina Aguilera, on the other hand, was perhaps one of the biggest bores yet to guest on the series. Every time she opened her mouth, I couldn't help but play a soundtrack of "blah, blah, blah, blah" over her words in my head.

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