ACHTUNG! NEIN! VERBOTEN!

Ezah you in or you auf! Looks like Project Runway won't be able to sneak out the back door of Bravo any time soon... Ach du lieber Gott!

The deal to move the hit cable reality show “Project Runway” from the Bravo network to the Lifetime network was thrown into uncertainty on Friday when a New York State Supreme Court judge granted NBC Universal, the owner of Bravo, a preliminary injunction stopping the deal. The judge, Richard B. Lowe III, ruled favorably on NBC’s claim that it should get relief because the Weinstein Company, the owner of “Project Runway,” closed a deal with Lifetime without granting NBC a last opportunity to match the terms of the deal, a right NBC claimed its contract guaranteed. The decision stunned parties on all sides of the deal because such injunctions are so rarely granted in entertainment industry disputes. NBC executives said the decision meant the judge had concluded that NBC would win the case on its merits. In the short term the decision means that “Project Runway” cannot be presented on Lifetime, nor marketed and promoted by that network. Nor can Lifetime offer any spinoffs of the show, as it had planned.... All parties in the case are expected to convene with the judge again on Oct. 15 to set a schedule for the trial. There is always a chance that NBC and the Weinstein Company will come to some settlement out of court that will resolve the dispute. [nyt]