Entertainment Briefs Feb. 17, 2010

Bourdain, Ripert to launch program

With a little help from Martha Stewart, Anthony Bourdain wants to expand America’s notion of food porn.

Bourdain, the celebrity chef whose habit of slinging strong opinions and foul language has earned him a culinary bad boy rap, next week launches a no-holds-barred satellite radio program on Sirius XM’s Martha Stewart Living Radio.

Among his goals? See just how uncomfortable he can make co-host and friend Eric Ripert, chef at Le Bernardin in New York.

“We’re going to be doing a segment that we call food porn,” he said in a telephone interview, referring to the excessively sumptuous and sometimes sexualized words and photography often used in food media.

“We’re going to challenge each other to describe in as purple a language as possible some food we’ve had,” he said. “I’m trying to see whether we can expand the food porn genre into radio. And I think we can do it.”

The show, called “Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert: Turn & Burn,” will run for five weeks starting Feb. 18. It will cover numerous food subjects; listeners also can call in with questions.

The idea for the show developed after Bourdain and Ripert appeared together last year on Stewart’s radio program, “At Martha’s Table.”

“My feeling is if Martha Stewart asks you to do something, you do it,” Bourdain said of the new program.

Osbourne takes to fashion runway

NEW YORK — Betsey Johnson took a tour through the Wild West on Sunday, showing off a newly model-slim Kelly Osbourne as her head bandito.

Some of the looks — inspired by saloon girls, vagabonds, gamblers and other ne’er-do-wells — will be available immediately in Betsey Johnson stores, a nod to the reality of fast fashion. Other looks showed in eight days of previews at New York Fashion Week won’t be available until fall, though customers — and copycats — are eagerly watching online.

Osbourne emerged as the first model of the evening with a bandanna mask, playfully wielding toy pistols before revealing her face. She later emerged in a handlebar mustache.

Johnson had luck with some of her looks inspired by bank clerks, gamblers and robbers — perhaps tapping into the adapted menswear trend popular on other runways. Girlier looks with prairie patterns, tiered skirts, corsets and bunching on the behind were less wearable.

But for Johnson, it’s all about the show. Sunday’s had nods to the death of Alexander McQueen — a model in a bodysuit held a “Long Live McQueen” sign — and a more playful tribute to Valentine’s Day, with models spelling out “LOVE” in sequins on their behinds.

Johnson herself came out for her final cartwheel in a striped union suit with a sequined heart on the rear, wearing a mustache that seemed to scare her granddaughter when she went to grab her hand for the final bow.

Johnson cartwheeled alone, undaunted, followed by a parade of models carrying giant inflatable hearts.