"Sorry, you’re breaking up, Merle.
Oh, sorry. There’s a lot of noise here. I’m in the nail salon getting my nails done."

LOL. LOVE. HER. Thanks for the awesome interview, guys!

fabulous interview! i love that you're actually interviewing her while she's in the nail salon. girl needs to be pretty especially when you are on a show like RPDR.

You know that joke about being busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest? That's Merle. She sounds like a cool gal. Great interview.

Lovely. Nice to have the Marilyn/Coco thing cleared up. I'm still annoyed by Coco, though. Delicate snowflakes make me itch.

Also nice to hear that Ru really is as warm as he seems. I swear he gives off this Ghandi-like peace...Seems like there's a drag name in there somewhere...Ghandi Bar?

And her blog looks interesting. My fashion loyalty is with NY, but it's nice to see that my closet full of clogs will be trendy now.

She sounds like she's having fun, and little is more appealing than people who really enjoy what they do.

Merle is beautiful, intelligent, funny and genuine. Oh, and talented and amazingly respectful to artists of all sorts. If I wasn't so sleepy(waiting for my coffee to brew), I'd have more adjectives to throw out there. BTW: Jay McCarroll is on Celebrity Fit Club this season.

To quote TLo: LUV HUH!!!

Check out "Fashion Rules" web site. It is worth the click.

TampaBay

She's fabulous!

Great interview! I loved her and Thai on the show. They were perfect together. Glad she's still working with him.

Fabulous!

Love Merle, fabulous interview!
I'll be checking her blog!

"Sorry, you’re breaking up, Merle.
Oh, sorry. There’s a lot of noise here. I’m in the nail salon getting my nails done."

That sounds so totally Merle! I loved her collection on LML, and enjoyed the interview.

A girl would catch pneumonia wearing his clothes in New York.
She should be more worried about crotch rot.

Thanks for my first laugh of the day!

She sounds like such a cool lady! What a great interview!

LOL @ "Crotch rot"

Great interview! Merle comes across as very real and approachable. I think she should have won LML, but perhaps the way things worked out she won a lot more. Glad you guys got to talk!

Great interview, TLo. I appreciate how candid she is.

I'm so glad I "got to know" Merle in RPDR season 1. She is a very interesting and savvy lady.

But if she mentioned her blog site one more time I swear I wasn't gonna click over!

"A girl would catch pneumonia wearing his clothes in New York.
She should be more worried about crotch rot."

LOVE her. Couldn't watch LML but I just checked out Fashion Rules, it's great! Thanks for giving me another thing to do instead of work. ;)

This is an awesome interview. She comes across as confident, intelligent, and inspired. I really admire her and wish her every success.

I also think that she happens to be lucky not to have won Launch My Line - ruelala totally dumbed down Kathy's and removed what I thought were the best pieces. Merle is more fortunate to have people approach her to produce her line - she will probably have more to say about it than Kathy did. Not that I don't also love Kathy - Merle just comes across as smart and so totally put-together, and I love her for it.

In my next life, I'm totally writing to Merle and asking her if she'll hire me as her personal bitch.

Her discussion of Coco & Marilyn really underscores that we don't see everything. It's always easy to take sides based on what we're shown. To my eye, Coco came off very badly and Marilyn impressed me, but I know others thought Marilyn was a pain in the ass and sympathized with Coco.

Reality -- even on a reality show -- is that things are never that black and white; very few people are 100% villain or 100% hero.

I concur with that thought Brooklyn Bomber

Even though Merle got on my nerves by the end of the show, she was the most consistent contestant on there and she did have a good foundation for a line and she had ideas. I am glad she is aware enough to credit how lucky she was to be partnered with Thai

Frank

She is FABULOUS!

"Sorry, you’re breaking up, Merle.
Oh, sorry. There’s a lot of noise here. I’m in the nail salon getting my nails done."

roflmao

Love you Merle.

"But I’m a judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race and I know that sometimes the producers make you say really negative things because they have to justify the choices they make. So I had a feeling there was a little maneuvering in there."

WOW. That clears up Project Runway's judging doesn't it? That is disappointing to hear though. Why can't let the judges be judges?

RuPaul is a huge inspiration, but so is Ms Merle. I love this woman's attitude so hard.

LOVE MERLE!!!

Thank you so much TLo for this fabulous interview.
You've made my day!

I was wondering why Jaime Pressley was at the finale, now we know.

Great interview! It's nice to see her speak to the whole LML experience in hindsight. Very candid and refreshing.

She always looks like she's having a blast on Drag Race. What a job.

One of your best interviews. The self she projects is amazing and admirable. I love successful people who don't pretend it doesn't take hard work.

Awesome, candid Merle has redeemed herself in this interview. "Crotch rot" bwahahahaha! At least why Eric was in the finale has been explained.

What a great interview with one of my favorite characters. Thanks, TLo!

LOVE HER

i heart merle!

I love her. LOVE her. I doubt I would have made it thru LML without her.

Complaint tho: she barely pipes up on RuPaul or she is edited out. This needs fixing.

I bow to Merle.


And Brooklyn Bomber & Frank - yes.


What I love about that interview is how smart Merle comes across - very focused but also very flexible .

AND endearingly open - willing to be a little - what's that word I hate . . . oh, yeah - vulnerable.


Thanks for the interview.

Wow--way impressed with this interview what a hard-working gal. You're so much more interesting than what came across on LML. You look better too after the rest.

Merle,I think "the gimmicky thing" came from seeing them all at once on the runway. Every model being busy converting instead of walking the heck out of your beautiful work. One at a time was more palatable. JMO

Love your attitude about improving yourself and continuing your good work, until "Mr. Right" comes along. When he does you will have a great partnership. Thanks for taking time to do this interview--hope you didn't smudge your manicure.

Yeah, her line was pretty good but started out better than it finished. I just don't like brown, so I hated her color story.

Her "theory" about Eric being there is jacked up. "My Name Is Earl" hasn't been a "huge hit" in several years, and was canceled at the end of last season. Plus, Jaime Pressley and Eric broke up some time ago and she is married to another man. Unless this show was taped two years ago, that theory is full of shit. I doubt Jaime Pressley drew many viewers and promoting "Earl" is pointless because it's long been canceled.

I think the judges sort of liked the "club wear" (hooker clothes) he did, and yes, a lot of young women dress like whores when they go clubbing. D-Squared are questionable as designers, and the one judge was looking for "sexy," so that is what they picked. Making it all a big NBC-Bravo conspiracy theory is a bit of a joke.

She is so fab!