Celebs flock to Fashion Week

It's not often that you get to meet the first lady. But if you're Joss Stone, a brush with American royalty at Fashion Week pales in comparison to running into — Ana Ortiz?

"I met Ana from 'Ugly Betty!'" Stone gushed Saturday night. "I just love that show. I don't really watch TV, but I download it and 'Lost' from iTunes," she said.

Stone saw both Laura Bush and Ortiz on Friday at the Red Dress Collection fashion show, the first lady's healthy heart campaign.

"I saw the Bush lady," Stone recalled Saturday evening, sitting in the front row of the Rock & Republic show, just in front of Katy Perry (singer of the not-for-corporate-radio "hit" single "Ur So Gay").

"I care for American politics because it affects the rest of the world so much, but I just don't really care for the Bush family," Stone continued. "I'd actually met her before at the White House and it was like 'Hey how are you,' and then she was gone. I mean, to be fair, I guess she seemed like a nice enough chick, but I don't really know."

As far as her encounter with the catwalk goes, the 20-year-old British soul singer pulled no punches.

"I hated the modeling — it was so embarrassing!" she said. "I'd never do that again."

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REALITY CHECK

The Hollywood writers strike — and the resulting dearth of award show red carpets — may be driving celebrities to woo the paparazzi and rub shoulders at Fashion Week. But after months of TV reruns and reality shows, the non-actors currently dominating the airwaves were the more recognizable folk at some of the shows at Fashion Week on Saturday.

"I watch Tyson and Niki's show and Heidi's show because they're friends," said actress Natasha Henstridge (aka the "Species" girl), referring to "Make Me A Supermodel" and "Project Runway."

Henstridge was in the front row of the Rock & Republic show, sitting on the lap of her very own reality star, 27-year-old Darius Danesh. The finalist from Pop Idol, the British predecessor of American Idol, seemed slightly miffed that an American reporter didn't recognize him.

"I'm a platinum selling singer/songwriter in the UK who just landed the lead role in Trevor Nunn's production of 'Gone with the Wind,'" he said, a recitation that bore an eerie similarity to his Wikipedia bio.

But other reality stars seemed to be getting their due recognition.

Nigel Barker, the fashion photographer who weighs in at the end of every episode of "America's Next Top Model," got seated in the front row at the Rock & Republic show. A frenzy of photographers surrounded him earlier in the day when he arrived at the Verrier show, which wouldn't have been so noticeable if there had been any one else getting half as much attention.

"I keep hearing that they're going to be more celebrities at the shows this year because of the writers strike, but I honestly think that so many people are just freaked out by the strike and are staying at home," he said. "I, on the other hand, work on a non-scripted show."

He stopped to have his picture taken. Then the photographer asked if someone could take her picture with him. Does he get this meta-request often?

"It's flattering to have photographers want to have their pictures with me," Barker said. "I can only imagine it's going to continue — we've just gotten picked up for (six more seasons)."

At the Sass & Bide show later in the afternoon, "Miss J" Alexander, an established model coach who is also a judge on the show, seemed less than thrilled that Barker shared the news. "I think it might kill me. I might die — really," he said.

Alexander's foremost advice for models present and future: "I tell them to eat! So many of them are just too skinny, and then the clothing doesn't look good on them, and they don't get booked."

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THESE ARE THE GOOD OLD DAYS

By modeling standards, 33-year-old Niki Taylor might be kindly called a "veteran" of the industry. And she's just fine with that.

"I feel like a mom to them," Taylor said, sitting a couple seats down from Nicky Hilton, surrounded by a gaggle of young models from her show. "I keep wanting to check up with them and say 'Is everyone OK? Everyone having a good time? What did you all think?'" Taylor said.

Waxing nostalgic, she noted that the fashion industry hardly resembles the one she dominated in the '90s. "Those feel to me like the good old days," she said.

"Today, there's just more of everything. More designers, more magazines — there's more something for everyone. But these days, I'm happy in my role as 'mom.'"

Across the runway, a handful of Nashville natives who'd been to Taylor's Tennessee-based clothing store, Abbie & Jesse's, speculated about the identity of the blonde woman with whom the model spent many of the preshow minutes chitchatting. A passel of cameramen 'fessed up to not knowing who the woman was, either, despite snapping as many pictures of her as they could.

The girl was Katrina Bowden, the perky actress who plays the ditsy secretary Cerie on NBC's "30 Rock" — a show of the variety that existed in earlier times: when writers were working.

The Nashville ladies, however, didn't seem to recall the existence of the pre-strike folk known as "actors."

"She must be one of the models on Niki Taylor's show," said one. "And she is SO kissing up!"