 "Photo: The Associated Press")
NEW YORK - Strut aside Tyra, Carmen Electra is hunting for a few models of her own.
The actress-model will host Bravo's upcoming reality competition "Manhunt: The Search for America's Most Gorgeous Male Model," the cable network announced Wednesday.
"Carmen Electra has just the right mix of energy, magnetism and fun to be the ideal host and guide for the young, novice competitors on 'Manhunt,'" said Bravo President Lauren Zalaznick.
Electra will be flanked by judges Bruce Hulse and Marisa Miller, both professional models themselves. For eight episodes, 15 men will compete in a series of challenges in hopes of snapping up a one-year contract with the IMG modeling agency.
A former "Baywatch" babe and MTV staple, Electra has walked down the reality TV catwalk before. Cameras followed her and guitarist Dave Navarro as they planned their wedding on MTV's "'Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen and Dave."
Several fashion-themed reality TV shows will pose for viewers in the coming months.
The third season of the Tyra Banks-hosted "America's Next Top Model" emerges Sept. 22. This fall, up-and-coming fashion designers will compete on Bravo's "Project Runway," with Heidi Klum donning host duties, while Tommy Hilfiger's amateur designers' battle, "The Cut," premieres on CBS sometime in 2005.
"Manhunt" begins Oct. 12.
Couric fights cancer with fashion week
NEW YORK - "Today" show co-host Katie Couric came to New York Fashion Week to make colorectal cancer screening more fashionable.
Couric, speaking on behalf of the Entertainment Industry Foundation's National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance, said Wednesday that while hemlines go up and down and animal prints go in and out, a woman's body is here to stay.
"You want (your bodies) to look as good on the inside as out," she said at a news conference in the tents at Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan, where many top designers are previewing their spring 2005 collections for retailers, media and fashion fans.
Couric was joined by model Iman, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" star Nia Vardalos and designer Carmen Marc Valvo, himself a colon cancer survivor.
Valvo, Carolina Herrera, Betsey Johnson and other designers created accessories for a new camera by Olympus as a fund-raiser for the alliance. Olympus is Fashion Week's title sponsor. The accessories will be auctioned on eBay through next Wednesday.
Couric's husband, television legal analyst Jay Monahan, died from colon cancer in 1998.
Knowles to release new clothing line
NEW YORK - While models strut their way down the catwalk at New York Fashion Week, a new star has announced her "bootylicious" arrival on the fashion scene: Beyonce.
The singer and her mother, Tina Knowles, announced Wednesday the birth of their new clothing line, to be called "The House of Dereon." The line is named after Beyonce's grandmother, Agnes Dereon, whose work as a skilled seamstress inspired the two generations of stylish women.
"To me, this is the greatest way to enter into the fashion world," Beyonce said in a statement. "Inspired by my grandmother, working with my mother and pursuing a dream we have all had for many years, establishing an important fashion company."
The trademark for the line will be "Couture. Kick. Soul." It will be produced by the Knowles' company, Beyond Productions, and is expected to hit stores in fall 2005.
Kristofferson still mourns loss of Cash
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Kris Kristofferson says he still grieves the loss of his friend Johnny Cash.
"It's hard to believe that it's been a year," Kristofferson said recently from his home in Hawaii. "It's still painful that he's gone. I think about him a lot."
Kristofferson contributes to a new Country Music Television special "Controversy: Johnny Cash vs. Music Row," which airs 8-9 p.m. (EDT) Saturday and again Sunday afternoon.
The show explores the uneasy relationship between the country music establishment and the singer, who died on Sept. 12, 2003.
Cash, one of the genre's biggest stars, had a hard time getting his music on country radio in his later years, despite critical acclaim and Grammy Awards.
After a lull in his career in the 1970s and '80s, he found success with a series of albums he recorded with noted rap/rock producer Rick Rubin. Backed by rock acts such as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Cash reached a new, younger audience drawn by his stark songs and rebellious spirit.
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