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Is Suede’s Third-Person Shtick Just an Act?

Know thyself, SuedePhoto: Courtesy of Bravo


Last night we bumped into blue faux-hawked Suede from Project Runway at Freshpair.com’s National Underwear Day party at Espace. He’s already fashion mingling during the show’s airtime? We had to hold on to our Hanes! The third-person extraordinaire didn’t hit the red carpet, though; rather he stood in the back corner, invited there by his friend, 2(x)ist’s Jason Scarlatti. But surely showing up during the show’s air period is breaking Bravo protocol, since we hear they keep their reality stars on a short leash. But he was a good network pet and abided by their rules, stopping in the middle of all his sentences to remind us that he was not allowed to speak yet. Fine, Suede. Fine. But since his fame is almost entirely based off referring to himself in third person anyway, it’s not like he’d actually be talking about himself. Amazingly, however, when he mentioned his winning dress from episode two — the one Natalie Portman went nuts over — Suede’s third-person tick disappeared. “I was obviously very excited. I mean, it was amazing. It sold out in like three hours.” While in a previously released statement he said “Suede rocked it,” in this real-life situation, no third-person enthusiasm came out. Is the self-referential thing just a shtick as we thought? “No, this is me. This is who I am,” he told us. Shouldn’t he have said This is Suede. This is who Suede is? In fact, within the entire eight minutes we spoke with him, he didn’t refer to himself in the third person even once. Quite the contrary — we counted 31 instances of “I” and/or “me” uttered. We call bullshit. Guess we’ll have to wait to see more on tonight’s episode. —Sharon Clott

Related: Suede’s Winning ‘Project Runway’ Dress Sold Out in Less Than a Day

Is Suede’s Third-Person Shtick Just an Act?