Twenty minutes after the first episode of the third season of "Project Runway," and I can’t tell you whom I’m rooting for.I can tell you whom I’m rooting *against,* however.I’m starting with this guy, MALAN, first only because he was the first guy to show up on the screen, with an oily pompadour-style comb job, a vaguely Eurotrash accent and saying things like, "It’s really, really bad feng shui to have fake plants in your house" and "I’m used to working with better materials." He’s so full of faux, I bet if you scratched him the shiny Euro-veneer would come off to reveal some kid from Hoboken, N.J.(More after the jump.)And THIS guy, with his "I’m so ruff and tuff with my neck tattoos" (and, seriously, what is with that neck? It’s like the same circumference as his skull!) and "I designed for L.A. celebrities and I like to wear my sunglasses indoors" attitude. JEFFREY - hey, there, Jeffrey, real tough guys probably just go by "Jeff" - was interviewed wearing a hoodie over his head, "8 Mile" style to lend him some street cred, which was instantly negated by that lame Vanilla Ice-style shaved eyebrow.Even though he was in the bottom 2 this week, I think the judges will keep him around for a while for Santino-style drama. His "reconstructed" dress smacked of last season’s contestant Santino Rice, too.Meanwhile, VINCENT isn’t long for the "Project Runway" world, I think. He looks like a muppet bred with Elton John, with the least convincing "no, this is my real hair, I swear!" I’ve ever seen on a 49-year-old. His flights of fancy ("I’m digging it!") are going to doom him early on - this episode’s basket hat with lousy chain trim didn’t convince the judges he had any taste to speak of. (Me, either. And the pockets with bad beading were tacky, too.)I hate to place all my bets on one designer now, but I’ve got a few favorites, too:KEITH seems to have his (act) together - he did win tonight’s challenge, which was to use materials found in their apartment to make a garment. Keith stayed true to his original vision - even dismissing mentor Tim Gunn’s advice to add more detailing! - and turned out a winning ultramarine blue dress from sheets with red button details originally used on a duvet. And his own personal style seems pretty tasteful, too - he reminds me of a dark-haired Jude Law in the way he dresses.But my absolute favorite so far is LAURA. Why do I love her? Let me count the ways: (1) She reminds me of a cartoon of a ’40s society dame in Berlin. (2) She’s an architect, which I think means her designs will be clean and linear, like the awesome coat she made with bathroom-rug collar and cuffs (I would have ditched the chandelier mirror paillettes, though). (3) She’s practical, and a mom of five kids, so she’s balanced. (4) She always likes to dress up, so we saw her in an absolutely awesome high-waisted black pencil skirt and crisp white blouse tonight. (5) She showed up with matching hard-case Louis Vuitton luggage. (6) BATHROOM RUG COLLAR AND CUFFS, people!Oh, by the way, this lady got voted off tonight. You’d think after watching poor Marla suffer through last season, STACEY would have learned how to use an industrial sewing machine before she stepped into the Parsons design studios. Is Season 3 too early to start recycling personalities from previous seasons? Because this girl was Marla 2.0 …I did like MICHAEL’s coffee filter dress, and ROBERT’s sassy little sundress with red bows in the back totally looked like something he’d have designed for Barbie at his real job at Mattel.I’ll try to post pictures of each designer’s creations when they’re available, so check back. And I’ll blog my thoughts about each episode if I can, so look for them by the time you roll into work Thursday morning!In the meantime, who are your favorites - and your favorite people to hate?

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