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Tim Gunn Unloads! Calls Taylor Momsen "Sad and Pathetic," Real Housewives "Wild Animals"

Fashion guru give Gossip Girl star and Housewives women some hard advice

By Marianne Garvey Sep 14, 2010 9:55 PMTags
Tim Gunn, Taylor MomsenAP Photo; Jemal Countess/Getty Images

Taylor Momsen, step away from the BlackBerry!

Our favorite straight-shooting fashion maven Tim Gunn is offering up some unsolicited advice for the Gossip Girl actress, saying if she paid more attention to her lines and less to her phone, she'd be much better at her day job.

And she's not the only one in Gunn's crosshairs...

Gunn is also blasting away at the various Real Housewives and addressing that Anna Wintour feud. But first, let's talk Taylor.

A few weeks back, Gunn, who's making the rounds at Fashion Week to tout his new book, Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for Making It Work, shot a guest spot as himself on the fourth episode of this season's Gossip Girl. And he found Momsen to be "sad" and pathetic."

"What a diva!" he told E! News of the 17-year-old. "She was pathetic, she couldn't remember her lines, and she didn't even have that many. I thought to myself 'why are we all being held hostage by this brat?"

Gunn said he is all about taking the high road, but that if he was a show regular, he'd take her aside in her dressing room and give her a good talking to.

The main problem, he says, was her constant BlackBerry use.

"I'd say, 'You know young lady, there are hundreds of thousands of girls who are just as attractive and even smarter than you. Why are you acting like this show is a huge burden on you?' She was on her phone during every break, I wanted to tell her, 'If you weren't on your BlackBerry, you can retain this stuff.' ''

Gunn says that he's not trying to assasinate her character, but that she annoyed the director and the entire crew.

"I learned from teaching to stick with the topic, I don't get involved in character appraisals," Gunn explained. "I'd just ask her 'do you want to share with me why you're always on your phone?' At one point the director leaned in and whispered to me, 'this is day in, day out, my life.' She annoyed the entire crew."

The Project Runway mentor did have kind words for Momsen's costar Penn Badgley though, calling him a "delight" to work with, along with the rest of the cast.

As for that battle with Vogue editrix Anna Wintour, Gunn laughs it off.

"Of course I'm scared of her, who isn't?" he chuckled. "But life's too short to navigate through like that."

Gunn also admits he's reality-TV junkie and weighs in on the The Real Housewives of D.C.'s most-hated couple, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, along with the batty cast of The Real Housewives of New Jersey.

"The Salahis are sociopaths! They believe their own lies," said Gunn. "And It's like we've gone back to ancient Rome," he says of the near-nuclear fistfight between Danielle Staub and Teresa Giudice during the RHNJ reunion show.

"We've gone back to the Colosseum where we watch people rip each other limb to limb. I want a DNA test—how far are these women from wild animals? What do they take from this behavior? My advice is to take the high road. You'll never regret it. I've been pushed, but I discipline myself and an hour later I'm so grateful."

Right on, Tim.

(Originally published Sept. 14, 2010, at 1:49 p.m. PT)

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