Lifetime Television and The Weinstein Company Sew Up Five-Year Partnership With Hearst Magazines on PROJECT RUNWAY and MODELS OF THE RUNWAY

Lifetime Television and The Weinstein Company Sew Up Five-Year Partnership With Hearst Magazines on PROJECT RUNWAY and MODELS OF THE RUNWAY

MARIE CLAIRE magazine to be Integrated into Season Six of Emmy(R) Nominated Reality Program and All-New Companion Series

NEW YORK, Aug. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Lifetime Television and The Weinstein Company (TWC) have sewn up a five-year strategic partnership with Hearst Magazines' Marie Claire on the much anticipated sixth season of the Peabody Award-winning and Emmy -nominated pop culture phenomenon, Project Runway, and its all-new companion series, Models of the Runway. The announcement was made jointly today by Debbie Richman, Executive Vice President of Ad Sales, Lifetime Networks; Lance Still, Executive Vice President of Promotions and Integrated Marketing, The Weinstein Company; and Cathie Black, President, Hearst Magazines.

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The multi-platform deal will provide significant brand exposure for fashion and beauty magazine Marie Claire in Project Runway and Models of the Runway through a variety of elements, including product integration, the appearance of Marie Claire Fashion Director Nina Garcia and other Marie Claire editors in both series, and both on-air and online branding for the publication. Moreover, prizing for the winners of both competitions includes a six-page editorial feature in an upcoming issue of Marie Claire.

Project Runway will premiere on Lifetime at 10PM ET/PT on Thursday, August 20, and seamlessly lead into Models of the Runway at 11PM ET/PT.

For the sixth consecutive cycle of Project Runway, Garcia will serve as a judge on the series, which features host Heidi Klum, mentor Tim Gunn and Garcia's fellow judge, Michael Kors (top American fashion designer). Together, they will guide 16 new contestants through numerous challenges to see which designer comes out on top during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week and win the Marie Claire photo shoot, a cash prize of $100,000 and a trip to Paris.

Models of the Runway will give fans a behind-the-scenes look at the reality competition - from the models' perspective. Viewers can experience the drama, anxiety, joys, tears and frustrations as the models themselves face elimination each week and compete for a $25,000 cash prize and the Marie Claire photo spread. Project Runway and Models of the Runway are produced by The Weinstein Company, Miramax Films, Bunim-Murray Productions and Full Picture Productions.

"We're very pleased to enter into this agreement with Hearst Magazines to integrate Marie Claire into Project Runway and Models of the Runway," said Richman. "One of the most contemporary fashion magazines in the world, Marie Claire is on target with our audience and a perfect fit for Lifetime. The exposure Project Runway and Models of the Runway will receive from this partnership will greatly benefit both series."

"Project Runway has always captivated fashion insiders and novices alike, and has given us the unique opportunity to incorporate partners from many different categories, who all fit seamlessly into the show," said Still. "Hearst's wide range of iconic titles, specifically Marie Claire, makes it a perfect fit for Runway and Models, and will help us keep connected to our existing viewers and find new fans through the magazine's readers and subscribers."

"Marie Claire's integration into these two winning Lifetime series offers us an opportunity to introduce the magazine to a whole new audience through television," said Black. "We're looking forward to a continued relationship with Project Runway and Models of the Runway in future seasons."

ABOUT PROJECT RUNWAY AND MODELS OF THE RUNWAY

Hosted by supermodel and fashion maven Heidi Klum, the hit series Project Runway provides budding designers with an opportunity to launch their careers in fashion, under the watchful eye of mentor and Liz Claiborne Chief Creative Officer Tim Gunn. The wildly successful competition reality series has proven to be one of television's most talked about shows and was the highest rated unscripted competition on all of cable for 2008.

Models of the Runway, an exciting new companion series to Project Runway, will give fans a behind-the-scenes look at the reality competition - from the models' perspective. Viewers can experience the drama, anxiety, joys, tears and frustrations as the models themselves face elimination each week and compete for a cash prize and photo spread in Marie Claire magazine.

Produced by The Weinstein Company, Miramax Films, Bunim-Murray Productions and Full Picture Productions, Project Runway and Models of the Runway are executive produced by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Co-Chairmen of The Weinstein Company, and Jon Murray and Sara Rea of Bunim-Murray Productions (The Real World). Heidi Klum; Jane Cha and Desiree Gruber of Full Picture Productions also executive produce both series. Barbara Schneeweiss oversees the production on behalf of The Weinstein Company.

ABOUT HEARST MAGAZINES

Hearst Magazines is a unit of Hearst Corporation (www.hearst.com), one of the nation's largest diversified communications companies with interests in magazines, newspapers, digital media, business media and television. As one of the world's largest publishers of monthly magazines, Hearst Magazines publishes more than 200 editions around the world, including 15 U.S. titles and 20 magazines in the United Kingdom, published through its wholly owned subsidiary, The National Magazine Company Limited. Hearst reaches more adults than any other publisher of monthly magazines (73.4 million total adults, according to MRI, Spring 2009).

Through its digital media unit, Hearst Magazines operates 25 Web sites and nine mobile sites for brands such as Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire and Seventeen, as well as non-magazine brand sites such as Delish.com, a food site in partnership with MSN; TheDailyGreen.com, MisQuinceMag.com and MyPromStyle.com. Hearst Digital has also acquired Q&A platform Answerology.com; teen sites eCRUSH.com and eSPIN.com; social shopping site Kaboodle.com, and consumer health site RealAge.com.

ABOUT LIFETIME TELEVISION

Lifetime is a diverse, multi-media company, committed to offering the highest quality entertainment and information programming that celebrates, entertains and supports women. Through its award-winning public affairs initiatives, the Company also advocates a wide range of issues affecting women and their families. Lifetime Television and Lifetime Movie Network - cable's two highest-rated women's channels - Lifetime Real Women and Lifetime Digital (which includes myLifetime.com, LMV.tv, Lifetime Games, Roiworld.com, DressUpChallenge.com and MothersClick.com) are part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, a 50/50 joint venture of Hearst Corporation and The Walt Disney Company.

             Photography is available at www.lifetimepress.com. Project Runway site: http://www.mylifetime.com/on-tv/shows/project-runway.                         Models of the Runway site:        http://www.mylifetime.com/on-tv/shows/models-of-the-runway.  

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PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

Source: Lifetime Television

CONTACT: Les Eisner of Lifetime Networks, +1-310-407-8526,
leisner@lifetimetv.com; or Anjulee Alvares of The Weinstein Company,
+1-646-862-3817, anjulee.alvares@weinsteinco.com; or Jessica Kleiman of Hearst
Magazines, +1-212-649-2545, jkleiman@hearst.com

Web Site: http://www.lifetimetv.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment