Ted Allen Loves Poussin, Hates Bush

These are just two of the revelations in the latest edition of Ted Allen's Bravo blog. After being raked over the coals for making a crack about conservatives on last week's blog, Ted lets it be known that "most of [his] relatives voted for Mr. 'Mission Accomplished,' and some of them don’t even regret it yet." Must be a sticky situation.

Speaking of which, Ted also reveals that the people who make Right Guard anti-perspirant were thrilled to have gotten around Bravo's impenetrable sponsorship wall for a free on-air plug (no doubt Pier 1 Imports is a little unhappy about being an anonymous fling):

"[T]wo days ago, what should arrive on my doorstep in Brooklyn? A year’s supply of the stuff [Right Guard], dispatched via messenger by the grateful (if cheesy) PR people who handle the brand. They also sent it to Brian, I’m told (who, in fairness, smelled perfectly nice)."

And speaking of Strong stuff, Ted mentions that, though he likes last week's undercover blogger, Andrea Strong, and thinks "she’s smart and cool," he "found her awfully sarcastic, a little too eager to tear people down with good (but show-offy) writerly chops."

This in turn reminds us of our favorite unremarked moment in last week's episode--Padma Lakshmi's kindness to Andrea, who complains this week that Bravo's viewers were harsh to her, so much so that she "had to stop reading the comments," finding it "a huge bummer to read the comments on the Bravo blog and how many people just hate [her] and think [she is] a hack...."

So what was Padma's act of kindness? Well, Andrea commented on how The Garage's black tablecloths were "very Billy Idol," and, as she says on her blog, The Strong Buzz, she has "no interest in dining off of Billy Idol." Padma kindly corrected it and removed the offending "of" after "off" when she read it on the air, albeit in a slightly different form, "Who wants to eat off Billy Idol?" It may not be the equivalent of helping an old lady across the street, but it was a kindness nonetheless, and we appreciated it.