Yho! How's this ... today e.tv officially released the news about the premiere of Nicky Greenwall's new series The Style Report and it turns out that Lindiwe Suttle isn't hosting it.
Instead it's being hosted by newcomers Loryn Higginson (previously known as Van Wyk) and Lutho Somdyala - Loryn's a model of 13 years and Lutho's a model, actor and writer who's studying film and performance at UCT.
When I first spotted Lindiwe filming for the show at the Cosmo Sexiest Men's shindig there wasn't a hint that things weren't confirmed that she'd be hosting and now she's not involved at
all.
If you missed the story, here's a blast to the past:
Coming Soon - The Style Report.
Word from the show is that she was in running to be host but it wasn't confirmed, she didn't get the gig and "her comments to the media were premature". She was offered the role of being a reporter/ field correspondent and couldn't do it because of other committments.
The thing that seems so strange about the whole thing is that the filming didn't give a sense that it was an audition and not for real - e's cameras were there with her and everything.
All in all I suspect a
lot of juice has gone down behind the scenes.
As for whose been cast, I'm disappointed - they aren't intrinsically "oooh I want to know more". I was very quizzy to see what Lindiwe would be like (would we love her or loathe her?? it made her edgy) and also, neither of them have any sort of other reputation when it comes to style besides being "beautiful people" type thing.
Loryn's a model so she's been on magazine covers etc but you want to get a sense that the presenters are involved with style from a more objective/almost outsiders perspective - which Lindiwe had because of hosting her own style show on the African Channel.
As someone said to me on the phone today "C 'est la Vie." That's life. (Was cool I thought - forgot that it exists and now I'm fully into it.)
In terms of The Style Report itself - it's being written, produced and directed by Nicky Greenwall and it's a spin-off to The Showbiz Report. It's only going to be on the eNews Channel though unfortunately - on Thursdays at 21h00.
It's a 23-minuter that's covering style news from around South Africa and the world including trends in fashion, interiors, art, architecture and beauty.
It makes it's debut on Thursday, 30 April.