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The Knives are Drawn: Marcel from "Top Chef" Attacked

While I'm pleased as punch about the Oscar nominations revealed earlier today, I couldn't let the morning go by without sharing a piece of news from yesterday that I found completely shocking.

I'm talking of course about Top Chef's Marcel.

For those of you who don't watch Top Chef (and really you should be watching), Marcel Vigneron has become quite the littlest villain Bravo's culinary competition has ever known. (Yes, he tops even last season's flame-haired Svengali Tiffani.) With the exception of Elia, every remaining competitor (and a few eliminated players) seem to loathe his very existence.

Apparently, so do the viewers at home.

According to the Las Vegas Weekly (found via Reality Blurred), Marcel was recently attacked by an unknown woman at a nightclub:
"The girl came up to me at a nightclub and asked me if I was Marcel from Top Chef. The next thing I knew, this bottle struck me, and my friends had to rush me to the hospital. I needed 30 stitches for this."
(And, no, before you ask, it wasn't fellow contestant Ilan Hall's girlfriend.)

As a result of the brutal face-meets-glass-bottle smashing, the pocket-sized chef now has a one-inch scar that has all but shattered his dreams of being a Food & Wine cover boy.

In all seriousness though, I can't imagine that even Marcel would engender that much vitriol from the viewing public. After all, he's just a reality TV contestant and not Idi Amin or anything. That someone, a stranger even, would go to the lengths to savagely assault him is just terrifying. Not for anything that he did or believed or because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but because he's on a reality TV show.

Wow.

While I must admit that I had more sympathy for Marcel after Cliff's full-nelson head-lock from last week's episode, it hasn't made me like him any more than I did. And while I am sure that much of the perceived negativity towards Marcel is a result of editing, there must be a reason that the other contestants just hate him with such a fiery passion.

Still, Marcel claims that he wasn't scared of Cliff and the others. "I don't believe violence solves anything," he told Las Vegas Weekly, "but when I broke free from them, I saw this lamp and I just wanted to smash it over one of their heads. That freaked me out. At that moment, that had me playing their game. And it kills me that these are the guys that question my maturity. I mean, pinning me down to shave me head, that's what drunken frat boys do, not a top chef."

Scarily, I have to agree with Marcel. That's the first time I'd even imagine myself saying something like that.

Part One of Top Chef's second season finale airs tomorrow night on Bravo at 10 pm ET/PT.

Comments

Anonymous said…
"shave me head"

It makes me giggle to think that Marcel talks like a pirate - especially since he also has assumed a surfer & rapper persona to date.
I don't care for Marcel but no amount of dislike would justify smashing him over the head with a bottle. Kind of makes me feel sorry for the guy. Almost.
Jeff Goldstein said…
I have to stand up for Marcel..., alot of the villiany that has befallen him IS from editing, and HEY PEOPLE... this is a competition! The editors are giving the public exactly what they want... drama! Think how boring it would be if everyone went to the same church.

Look I'm not saying he's as nice as Katie Couric (Katie...nice?).

But he is a good Chef and he's trying to win. So what if he's more arrogant, and has more self esteem than a slot machine that was programmed not to win.

People go to varying degrees to win, some more than others, some with no values or morales, but they are in it for themselves, and they are in it to win. Unfortunately, I think Marcel will be cut before the winner is established.
Anonymous said…
I loved last season's TC, but, I haven't seen anything that justifies the way Marcel has been treated, other than people are getting meaner and more vicious. The cast this year are so low-classed and repulsive that I don't want to watch any one of them be rewarded. Marcel deserves it more than the other retards, tho. The incident with the bottle-wielding nutcase demonstrates how degenerate people are becoming. I won't be watching TC any more if Marcel doesn't win. The others, especially that two-faced baldy Elia. She's a two-faced psycho bitch from Hell.
Anonymous said…
Marcel should of won fair and square. Hes original and extremly smart!!! Who cares if he made people mad along the way. Im sure that we would do the same considering the sie tuation that he was in. He never slammed anyone along the way eaither. His name will be huge one day, but it will mean alot more since he wasnt handed it all to him.
Anonymous said…
It's true that editing plays a big role in your perceived character on any reality-based tv show.... but you CAN also offer them a lot of material. Marcel obviously lacks majorly in "people skills", and could probably benefit from increased humility. In any case, being hit over the head by some reality tv fan/nutcase is a bit harsh, but it definately still makes me giggle a little bit. His ridiculous hair will ALWAYS overshadow any facial scars he has so far...(with his attitude, I'd say there's more to come).

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