GOING HAIRLESS TO ATTRACT WOMEN? YAH RIGHT

DIVA SECRETS AND TIPS: HOW TO LOOK GREAT ON A DIME

Diva On A Dime brings fashion makeovers to a whole new level when hosts Julia Grieve and Adrian Mainella set out on their weekly mission to help someone solve a fashion crisis. Their goal is to find the perfect designer look at a drastically slashed price and they do it all by shopping at discount and consignment clothing shops. Got that big wedding to go to with nothing to wear and almost as little to spend? No problem. Got a new executive job but your work clothes look like they belong in the mailroom? Relax. For as little money as possible Julia and Adrian are going to have you looking like you just got back from the ritziest shops in Paris. In short - you are about to become a Diva On A Dime!...

Idea sprung from a leak

"By the time you see the damage on the outside, the problem has been brewing inside for years,"Leaky homes do not a career launchpad make, unless the owner of that home happens to be a fibre-optics engineer with a flare for invention. Dave Vokey, with his wife Patricia Vokey, built a waterfront retreat along the shores of Satellite Channel in 1991. The house was the culmination of a years-long search for an island refuge. "We came to the Island over and over again looking for the right property," says Patricia...

Eveningwear takes a romantic turn

COLORS, FABRICS AND DESIGN. Cocooning's out. Charity balls are in. The gala season is underway, a time when even the most desperate housewife wants to be a diva. For the past couple of years, that's meant "red-carpet dressing" -- trying to emulate the glamour of Hollywood awards shows with big sexy gowns, lots of skin and gobs of glitter. Why settle for looking like Audrey Hepburn when you could channel Charlize Theron? But seasons come and go, and this year even the red carpet is toning it down -- fewer slits, rife romance, more modesty. Some blame the war in Iraq, most blame sheer boredom with famously overexposed boobs, pecs and abs...

NEW YORK FASHION BIG EVENT

Celebs find architecture sexy; that's the reality

Sexy! Provocative! Larger than life!

All words used by producers to describe the players on a new "documentary-style series" -- one dares not invoke the 'reality show' label -- offering a snapshot of the divas and drama inherent to retail architecture.

No, really.

With design dilettantes the likes of Brad Pitt, Lenny Kravitz and Hayden Christensen among their ranks, architects have been anointed by the snake oil of celebrity and are enjoying new pop-culture status. Opening Soon: By Design, which debuted Tuesday on HGTV, aims to capitalize on this unexpected interest by spotlighting upscale store openings. From Fendi's flagship store in Rome, to Louis Vuitton on the Champs Elysee in Paris, the titan clash between art and commerce will play out in destinations across the globe. Opening Soon's executive producer Rachel Low says the promise of showing viewers some fabulous design will be the draw. "You get drawn into the story of the episode but at the same time, we want to tease you with some fabulous design," she explains.

Pitt, for one, seems to be most attracted by the tease. The actor -- now collaborating with Frank Gehry on a $450-million redevelopment in England -- likens the uncertainty of architecture to "the life of the artist."

Merklinger hopes Opening Soon will shed some limelight on that connection. "Celebrities have always associated themselves with designers," she says. "That's because [architecture] is very sexy, it's very visual, it's very avant-garde."

Andrew Gruft, author of Substance Over Spectacle: Contemporary Canadian Architecture, isn't yet convinced that Canucks are ready to embrace his ilk as dynamic professionals, let alone reality-TV stars. But he's optimistic. "I think amongst young people, there is more interest -- they know what an architect is, they think it's an interesting field of work and they're into design," says Gruft, professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia. "Hopefully it's a beginning and not a blip." By Mitty Harris.