Hasta La Ideas

Pictured from left, Kathryn Ireland, Martyn Lawrence Bullard, Mary McDonald, Nathan Turner, and Jeffrey Alan Marks. (All photos courtesy Bravo Media)

Tonight is the premiere of Bravo‘s newest docu-series, Million Dollar Decorators, and if you can make it past the unctuous opening montage and obligatory round of sassy, arms-akimbo introductions (“I don’t follow trends, I set them,” says Jeffrey Alan Marks, smoothing a lushly textured rug and plopping down on a coordinating settee), you’re in for an entertaining peek into the lives of five Los Angeles-based interior designers: Marks, Martyn Lawrence-Bullard, Kathryn Ireland, Mary McDonald, and Nathan Turner. These high-charisma characters offer plenty of reasons to watch, but having previewed the series (thanks, Bravo!), we offer eight additional enticements to tune in.

UnBeige’s Eight Reasons to Watch Million Dollar Decorators

8. The designers’ offices. Not up for watching the beat-the-clock challenge of furnishing Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne’s new apartment? Cut the sound and delight in the glimpses of the designers’ workspaces, including McDonald’s glam/mod aerie and Ireland’s Provence-infused pool house. And while Lawrence-Bullard’s home teems with exotic rugs and Hermès Balcons Du Guadalquivir china, his offices are dominated by white lacquer and inspired accents—fur-covered task chairs, anyone?

7. The seersucker blazers. We’re suckers for seersucker, and the premiere episode doesn’t disappoint. For those inclined to TV-based drinking games, take a sip anytime someone wears a seersucker or a plaid, or says “madness.”

6. The birthday parties. This series runs for eight episodes, and there are about as many elaborate parties. Tonight’s premiere features a birthday bash for Ireland, whose three teenage sons offer to do the cooking (weak-stomached viewers may want to turn away during this portion of the program). The trio gets waylaid by preparing tortilla chips from scratch, so the dinner menu is abridged. No worries, says Ireland. “Give [the guests] enough tequila and we can skip the middle course and go straight to the cake…if there is cake.”

5. The design concepts. “I’m kind of thinking of doing antlers, but in a hip way. There’s nothing ski house about it,” says McDonald of her concept for a new project. Meanwhile, Marks advises, “You should always decorate a room and then put one thing in there that’s an accident.” [Cut to: the wooden rowboat suspended upside-down from the ceiling of his living room.] continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

When a ref has a decision to make on the football field, it’s de rigeur these days in the professional game for players to gather round and vent their spleen, often using foul and abusive language. Last week agency BETC London released this web film designed to address an increasing lack of respect shown to referees and other match officials in professional football.

The film, written and created by a group of fathers working in the advertising industry, shows a class of school children respond aggressively and abusively to a teacher. The idea is that the film prompts viewers to sign a pledge with the following copy that appears at its end: “Millions of kids watch the beautiful game every week. Now players, managers and parents can sign a pledge to help set a better example.”

“It is appalling how rife awful behaviour has become in the game,” says Matthew Charlton CEO at BETC London. “We see everyday how it influences our impressionable kids and it occurred to us that we were in a position to do something about it.”

More info about the campaign can be found at facebook.com/KeepFootyBeautiful

Keep Footy Beautiful credits

Client: Matthew Charlton, CEO, BETC London
Director: Johnny Maginn
Production Co: Mustard Films
Producer: John Doris
Editor: Simon WiIlcox
Post production: Golden Square
Sound design: Pure Soho
DoP: Darren Tiernan

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