Liveblogging the "Project Runway" finale

That's right, folks: Our debate fatigue has gotten to us and we're liveblogging the big finale of Project Runway Season 5 ... so that we can be good and pickled by the time we watch Obama and McCain on our DVR.

Seeing as how none of Team Gay made the final 3, this may seem like an anticlimactic year. And in some ways it is ... but we're die-hard PR fans and if nothing else, tonight we'll get to see everyone's favorite mentor and Dapper Dan Tim Gunn sit in the judge's seat for the first time. I'm just looking forward to seeing some of the words Tim will come up with to describe Leanne, Korto and Kenley's final looks. (Resplendent? Mellifluous? Onomatopoeia?)

Join us after the jump and refresh often to join the fun, as-it-happens (updates will appear at the bottom of the page, real-time). Make a cocktail and make it work!

And away we go...

9:01PM EDT: Okay, who's already soused? Do we have a prediction as to who's going to win this thing? If it gets too dull I may just start liveblogging the debate in picture-in-picture for the hell of it.

9:05PM EDT: Leanne points out that it's the first finale with all ladies. This really is the Lipstick Jungle season!

The ladies are ushered by Mr. Gunn to model auditions. Korto wants girls with lots of hair, and Leanne wants "alien-looking girls". Takes one to know one? Oh, that was mean...

Leanne also isn't all about Kenley telling her which girls she should pick.

Oh hey - that was Shannon from Make Me a Supermodel. A season 1 model named Morgan comes in and apparently everyone knows her. 

9:09PM EDT: Tim comes into the workroom and starts with Kenley. He's still concerned with the tugboat Tessie rope thing, and when she tells him that her final look is her wedding dress, he's concerned again considering that the judges basically called her a thief at the last judging. She doesn't care and she's "sick of" all the "insulting" the judges are doing. Oh, whatever...

Korto is losing the bridesmaid's dress but she wants to have the wedding dress in the finals because she loves it. The wedding dress that almost got her eliminated, remember. And she's making two new dresses. Damn!

Leanne might be whippin' up some pants.

And as Tim's on the way out Kenley hollers after him that he may be right and she may have her "signature model" in a different dress so it ends up on the runway. Oh, and hell freezes over and a flock of pigs fly past Parsons. 

9:14PM EDT: Next up the ladies meet up with Collier Strong in the L'Oreal Paris Product Placement Room to work out their makeup concepts. 

Back in the workroom, the girls check out each other's stuff and in the diary room Kenley says Leanne doesn't know how to use color and Leanne says Kenley's stuff looks "Holly Hobbie" and like a child drew all over her dresses with crayons.

Korto doesn't enter the fray, because she's busy crying. 

Okay, I need some blood or something fast, because this is boooooooooring.... 

9:24PM EDT: Oh, a hair consultation! Uh, not exactly what I was hoping for... 

Korto brings in the models that will be wearing her new dresses for fittings, and she's feeling good about it.

One of Leanne's models brings one of those tiny dogs that old ladies have (Shih Tzu? Sharpei?) into the workroom and the dog poops on the floor. Leanne tells the dog to poo on Kenley and Korto's outfits, nyuk nyuk.

Tim tells them their order (Kenley, Korto, Leanne) and they have their last group hug.

They leave for the tents very early in the morning, and it looks like Leanne left in such a hurry she forgot to put on a bra. They take a minute to bask in the emptiness of the giant tent and have a Wonder Triplet Power fist-bump before heading backstage.

Kenley bitches about nobody touching her dresses because nobody knows how to iron, and then drops a dress off the ironing board. Ha!

The tent floods with people and I'm looking for myself in the crowd but don't see - anyone catch a bald head? I do see Ronnie Kroell (with whom I chatted for a bit) talking on a cell phone ... maybe calling in a restraining order on me?

One of Leanne's crazy monster-scallop looking things is all of a sudden too big on the model, which concerns both her and Tim. She may put her girl in a blue dress instead. 

9:37PM EDT: So what are the chances that Top Chef New York won't suck? Runway, Top Design ... has the age of reality competition just passed or should we be looking forward to this? 

9:33PM EDT: Heidi comes out to start the show and tells the crowd that Jennifer Lopez had to cancel last-minute because of a foot injury (uh, didn't she run a marathon two days later?) and brings out the new guest judge: Tim Gunn! When Tim comes out everyone in the audience goes "awwww....." ... except for Kenley, who craps her pants when she remembers what a lousy attitude she's had with Tim throughout the competition.

Kenley's up first, and her stuff looks pretty solid on screen. It teeters into costumey, if you ask me, although the cream dress with the painted vine up the front is amazing, as is her blue bridesmaid dress.

Some of the other stuff gets a bit Vampira-meets-Queen of Hearts, though. Um ... really?

And really?

The ghost of Joan Crawford called, and she wants her shoulderpads back.

Korto's up next. Her music is fun, and she says that she's from Africa and ends with "don't I look hot?" Well there ya go!

Her stuff's pretty chic, especially the greens and yellows. That bronze color she used in the last challenge really doesn't do it for me, though... 

Awww, and this is cute: when Korto walks her collection out she grabs her little girl and dances her down the runway with her. 

Leanne's intro is brief, and we're off to the pleated, wave-inspired races with my favorite outfit of the whole show (all 6 designers!):

Her music is soothing, and her designs are so feminine and intricate and stunning. She was my pick to win coming out of the show, but what do I know.

Oh, and it looks like she did switch out the giant scallop thing for the blue dress. Neat. Her collection gets a booming reception.

9:41PM EDT: After the shows we get the standard misdirection they usually throw at us by giving the reactions of a bunch of previous designers, all who liked someone different. Chris March liked Korto (so did Rami), Nick loved Leanne, and Jillian and Daniel liked Kenley. Case closed!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that before the show Michelle Trachtenberg was introduced to Christian Siriano and was like, "oh my if you aren't the cutest little ball of hair!" or something similar.  

9:43PM EDT: Oh hey, Korto won the $10,000 Fan Favorite prize. Really? Eeyore? Alright, alright...

9:48PM EDT: JUDGING TIME! The judges are impressed by the girls' distinct visions, and when they welcome the girls out they tell them how proud of them they are. Heidi introduces Tim Gunn as a "hottie"! Adorable.

The final judgings are always softballs, with the judges being all nicey-nice as this is the last show and there's no point being critical.

BUT WAIT!

Neenahgarceea calls out Kenley for walking a dress down the runway that is a lot like a Balenciaga dress, and Tim concurs. OUCH! They say that other people at the show said the same thing. Kenley relents and says that maybe she should "do more research" and the cool, even stare from Neena says that she knows perfectly well that she has. Zing!

They are very nice to Korto, and they are very nice to Leanne but they are worried that she might be overdoing the petals and become known as "the petal girl". Michael Kors jokes that she may become known as "Petals Marshall", which sounds like a stripper.

Okay, Korto's gonna take it. 

9:54PM EDT: In deliberations, they are complimentary of Kenley's vision but worry that she's not thinking through her designs. They're apprehensive about Leanne because of the petals. They're all over Korto's stuff for being deceptively simple but deceptively complicated or something, and they like that she can dress women of all sizes. Yeah, because she marched some real porkers down the runway, eh?

Oh hey - a sneak peek of Australia with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. Ooh wet shirtless Jackman! Maybe this was worth tuning in for after all. 

9:58PM EDT: 50% of the text votes think Leanne should win.

And Kenley is the first one out. She says that nobody likes to be called a copycat when they're a true artist and that's what the judges did, "and that's bullsh*t". Well ... happy trails

And Leanne wins. Wow! Okay, they got me with that last-minute Petals Marshall bit. So I was right. Wheeee!

Korto is of course disappointed and says her "heart is bleeding". I feel for her, but her heart was bleeding when she WON challenges, so I have a feeling she'll be fine.

Leanne is stoked, of course. As is Tia, her winning model. Wait, is Tia the model with the pooping dog? If so, that's kinda hot.

Leanne's final words: "A hundred thousand dollahs, drinks are on this brutha!" They give her her Saturn Sky roadster and she's off into the pleated sunset.