Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Meredith Vieira's 'Today' Departure No Surprise/'Dresscue Me' Puts Vintage Fashion Stylist Shareen Mitchell in the Spotlight

News that Meredith Vieira is unlikely to re-up at "The Today Show" when her contract concludes in September did not come as a surprise to this column — as Vieira told us last summer she'd make no predictions about her future with the program.

"A part of me looks at how hard I've worked and realizes I'd like to spend more time at home,' admitted the charming, erudite broadcast host. With her and husband Richard Cohen's three children all off to college and adult lives this year, "I'd love to be able to be more flexible with my time ... I work two kinds of crazy jobs now with lot(s) of tension, and the fact is I actually like solitude — and sitting alone with my husband enjoying a bottle of wine isn't all that bad.'

Funnily enough, the interview was met by complaints that we'd made it sound as if Vieira was going to leave the show. Shame on us.

Vieira is certainly one of the class acts of television, through the years handling her multiple roles in work and life with grace, as her Emmy-award-winning journalist husband has dealt with medical maladies including multiple sclerosis and colon cancer. She'll be missed on "Today," which, with Matt Lauer also reportedly leaving, will be a brand-new show, one way or another, come fall.

GETTING SNIPPY: So now it's NBC getting into the fashion reality show world, with its planned "Fashion Star" hosted by Elle Macpherson. (It's sort of "Project Runway"-like except focusing on mass-market department-store-level clothes viewers can buy online, which makes it different — right?)

With the plethora of fashion-related reality shows of various kinds populating cable — TLC's "What Not to Wear," the Sundance Channel's "All On the Line" — one might wonder just how many fashion reality series can be squeezed onto the tube before exhausting viewer appetites?

That asked, Planet Green's April 19-debuting "Dresscue Me" is worth a look. It's a thing unto its own. It follows the work and life of Shareen Vintage stylist and store owner Shareen Mitchell, who has a giant, ferocious, emotional, charming, artistic personality and whose clients include Katy Perry and Cat Deeley.

The latter compares Mitchell's downtown operation to "Fight Club" in that what goes on inside is secret. That is, of course, until now.

Mitchell sweeps through a warehouse so full of old clothes, workers use forklifts to move them around. She ticks off rejects at a quick clip — "no, no, no, no." She ferrets out two or three garments worthy of saving amid the mountainous piles. She gets teary as she worries about how she is going to make all her customers feel properly beautiful. She frightens her worshipful staff, condemning inferior thrift store finds as "boring," "matronly" and "I'm so not into that." She re-tulles, shortens and hoists. Clients come in, and she performs enthralling transformations.

Planet Green isn't the first place one would expect to find her. She says she's been approached several times about doing a reality show, but nothing before felt like a good fit.

"I wanted to work with a company that is high-minded in its perspective of the world, the highest standards in terms of consciousness," she says. "Planet Green is looking for people doing interesting things in an innovative way. My perspective, in fashion and in life, is that you can have it your way, like the old Burger King slogan. If you want a dress without the pleats, take out the pleats."

Words to live by.

A MAN'S GOTTA DO WHAT A MAN'S GOTTA DO: With all his shows about manly men risking life and limb to get the job done, super producer Thom Beers acknowledges the question, "Do I have nightmares about this stuff? Oil wells blowing up, ice roads failing? Yeah, all the time, man."

Now, along with his "Deadliest Catch," "Coal" and other current shows, "I've got guys all over the world right now, doing 'Around the World in 80 Ways," notes Beers, referring to his upcoming History Channel entry, an extreme travel show utilizing unconventional modes of transportation. "We're doing the history of transportation in 10 one-hour episodes."

Asked about how much he goes out to meet with his show subjects, Beers laughs and says he travels all the time.

"Ask my wife — she can only handle about two weeks of me before she starts asking, 'When are you going out of town?'"

To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2011 MARILYN BECK AND STACY JENEL SMITH

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