So it was Project Runway’s only straight guy, Joe, who ironically pulled it off in the delicious drag queen challenge by ingeniously “hiding the candy” with his strategic buckle belt wrapped around a skin-tight pink sparkly catsuit.

It has to be said that Joe owed a lot to his model, Varla Jean, who steered him away from his orginal space suit concept and towards the Ann Margret style sailor suit look. And that cheeky little sailor hat really topped it off.

You had to feel sorry for Terri, however, whose arresting avant-garde Samurai-Kabuki outfit seemed like a shoo-in the minute her model strutted down the runway.

And judging from Terri’s face after Joe was crowned winner, she felt she had been robbed too — and not for the first time. 

Daniel finally got “Auf’d” after weeks of proclaiming his good taste yet finishing in the bottom three,  and  making matters worse by arguing with the judges.

Keith — and his crazy bandanna — looks to be in danger too, not only with the judges but with some of his fellow contestants who are getting increasingly snickering at  his “signature” tattered look. Keith might call it a collage but Michael Kors was right on the money on Wednesday when he quipped that Keith’s model looked like a “sad chicken”.  

What were they thinking?

Not the designers (for once) but the Project Runway judges who sent Kelli packing on Wednesday but kept tanorexic Blayne on board for another week.

Kelli, the episode 1 winner,  was certainly not at her best with her lace and jungle-inspired design for the challenge involving an outfit for Brooke Shields’ character on the TV show “Lipstick Jungle”.

Michael Kors called it “slutty, slutty, slutty” while Nina Garcia pursed her lips disapprovingly and called into question Kelli’s overall lavel of taste.

But one wondered whose taste was at issue when the judges decided to save Blayne, whose bermuda shorts outfit was deemed totally unsuitable for the challenge and who has yet to impress the judges with anything more than his passion for tanning and his ability to add “licious” to any word.                                          

Yet Blayne sure provides entertainment, and maybe that’s what kept him from being “Auf’d” at least until next week, when his penchant for neon should do well in the challenge — to dress a drag queen.

In what was probably the least-surprising offing so far this season, 27-year-old designer Jennifer was “Auf’d” from Project Runway on Wednesday night for sending a girly, old-fashioned design down the runway after she was charged with dreaming up an outfit for the U.S. Olympic team to wear at the Games’ opening ceremony.

Jennifer said the gold and white striped skirt and navy blue cardigan sweater were in keeping with her vision as a designer (her design theory is “Holly Golightly attends a Salvador Dali exhibit,” according to her bio), but the show’s judges criticized her for not being able to separate her personal fashion taste from the demands of the athletics-inspired challenge.

“This is missing it completely,” judge Nina Garcia said of Jennifer’s design. “She almost looks silly.”

Host Heidi Klum was also brutal: “Jennifer,” she said, “You are stuck in the past as a designer.”

Jennifer wasn’t the only one who failed to deliver an athletics-inspired look. Judge Michael Kors said Daniel’s blue-and-red dress looked like his model was representing “The Republic of Cocktail-land,” while Jerell’s model, in her wide-brimmed hat and plethora of loud prints, was dubbed “Mary had a little lamb” by Nina.

In fact, only a few of the outfits looked remotely like something that would be worn by an athlete. One was Korto’s wide-legged white linen pants and matching white-and-red vest, which led her to win the challenge.

“I was a big fan,” guest judge and Olympic speed skater Apolo Ohno said of Korto’s design.

Korto, who is clearly in it to win it, was relieved by her victory. “It’s about freaking time,” she said. 

A dress that was called an ”explosion of ruffle” was deemed worse than another one that looked like “toilet paper caught in a windstorm” by Project Runway’s hyper-discriminating judges this week, “Auf”-ing 27-year-old California designer Emily over rival Keith in the third episode of this season.

Emily’s offing was somewhat surprising after the judges ruthlessly panned Keith’s dress — a shapeless silhouette covered in squares of varying fabrics meant to look like fringe. Designer and “Runway” judge Michael Kors likened Keith’s dress to toilet paper more than once.

“Seriously the toilet paper dress is in??” wrote one viewer on the Project Runway message boards.

Even Emily herself was shocked at the decision, defiantly stating in her exit interview: “Hell no, this was not the losing dress for the challenge. That dress was beautiful.”

But the judges would beg to differ. Nina Garcia called the bright pink and orange ruffles inspired by New York’s neon lights “a Carmen Miranda moment” and later told her fellow judges that she had “no comment” about the dress.

“The worst review is no review,” countered Kors.

The challenge’s winner was also somewhat controversial. Kenley, a 25-year-old from Pompano Beach, Florida, took the top honor with a high-waisted green and purple printed dress inspired by a New York City tiled wall.

The judges loved the design, but nevertheless poked fun at the fact that it reminded them of the 80s.

“It’s very 80s, Joan Collins, Powerbitch dress,” Kors said, adding that “a girl who was not around in the 80s would really appreciate this dress.”

The judges also gushed over the other top two designs — a black “architectural” skirt and top by Leanne and a backless blue printed dress by Terri. 

The shiny brown dress never had a chance.

Last night, 23-year-old Wesley got “Auf’d” from Project Runway after a dress made out of a satin fabric he detested got panned by the show’s judges. You had to feel a little bad for him, given that the environmentally-friendly fabric was chosen by his model and not him.

Still, the judges pulled no punches.

“Shiny, tight and short is the quickest way to look cheap,” judge Nina Garcia said of the dress.

Judge Michael Kors also criticized Wesley’s construction of the dress, saying it looked like it had been handled by 20 sets of hands.

Poor Wesley also got slammed on the show’s message boards for his own outfit — shorts paired with a blazer.

“Wesley looked beaucoup looney in those shorts of his onstage — what was he thinking?” wrote one viewer.

Suede, a 37-year-old designer from Ohio, won the week’s challenge — to create a cocktail dress out of environmentally-friendly fabric chosen by a model. His dress made of red and white fabric strips layered on top of one another really stood out for the judges — including guest judge Natalie Portman.

But it’s Suede’s penchant for talking about himself in the third person that makes him stand out among the contestants.

“Suede is a bisexual Sagittarius,” he said while making his garment.

And, after winning the challenge:

“Suede rocked it!”

Fashion Design TV show “Project Runway” got off to a cracking start for its new season Wednesday night, swiftly sorting out the good, the bad and the just plain ugly among clothing designs that featured way too many tablecloths and shower curtains in its Season 5 premiere.

Even oh so polite Tim Gunn, the show’s star along with Heidi Klum, could barely restrain his horror at the number of contestants who opted for the easy way out in the grocery store challenge by choosing to make outfits out of tablecloths, shower curtains and garbage bags.

 ”I think the judges are going to  say you guys are a bunch of slackers,” Gunn said, dismayed.

And indeed, Gunn was right. Stella, who threw her outfit together in the last few minutes after complaining all day about the ”ugly, cheap-ass garbage bags’ she had selected, only narrowly avoided getting “Auf’d” by Heidi.

It it was Jerry’s white plastic shower curtain horror raincoat topped off with yellow plastic gloves that really freaked out the judges.  Judge Michael Kors said the dress underneath the coat looked like “a handiwipe gone wrong”. But when Nina Garcia termed it “what you wear when you’re killing someone” you just knew it was curtains for Jerry.