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Another talk show? Shut up!

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Times Staff Writer

As a fan of TLC’s “What Not to Wear” -- the best of all makeover shows, because it’s the least sentimental and the most empowering -- I find myself taking an almost proprietary interest in “Fashionably Late With Stacy London,” a new project by one of its stars. I like the idea of seeing London and “WNTW” fellow host Clinton Kelly in other contexts, though in my mind they’d be paired in, like, a spy movie or a musical comedy. But here is London at the head of a talk show, for which her other show will act as a lead-in, and that will have to do for now.

Predictably enough, tonight’s premiere comes on waving its arms and making a lot of noise. Stuffed with features and activities, like a fashion-forward “Captain Kangaroo,” it strains more than necessary to be noticed. London is already hard to miss; she is given naturally to big expressions, her body language is legible from way over yonder. Her repertoire of exclamations includes “Holla!” and “Oy!” and her usual expression of approval or surprise, “Shut up!,” which for better or worse has become a kind of catch phrase. (A pilot version of “Fashionably Late” that aired in April was titled “Shut Up! It’s Stacy London.”)

On “WNTW,” Kelly, who is tall, droll and composed, slows her down a little, keeps her grounded. They’ve managed to create a relaxed space there, a formula that facilitates real communication with their regular-folk guests, as they strive to remake the world one A-line skirt, one empire-waist top at a time. Standing up alone in front of a crowd as a cheerleader, a ringmaster, is a far different assignment; London’s challenge will be to create not just a sense of occasion but of intimacy, a feeling of being at home, without which this can play like an infomercial. She needs to try a little less.

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“Fashionably Late” means to place London herself at the nexus of fabulousness, a friend to celebrities, and a celebrity herself (though she is scrupulously modest when comparing herself with inaugural celebrity guest and old pal Rebecca Romijn).

The TLC elves have built her a big wall of shoes for a backdrop and installed a wet bar manned by a handsome young bartender. (Actual drinking occurs.) The mostly female audience -- the few men on hand look so markedly bored I’m surprised they weren’t edited out -- sits at cafe tables, as if attending a cabaret.

Certain elements of “What Not to Wear” are miniaturized and reworked here: A young woman in a Coast Guard uniform is given a makeover, but we get only the before and the after; the process takes place offstage. Three women submit to having old items of clothing voted on as “chic” or “shred.” (Losers are run through a wood-chipper.) London eases their pain with gifts: a jacket, a bag. There is a lot of gift-giving on talk shows these days; even Romijn gets a new pair of shoes, but it is hard to get excited about that. But there is something cursory about these segments; they don’t really engage her expertise, which is, really, the most fabulous thing about her.

The best parts are the ones in which London seems most completely in the moment and so what we might hopefully regard as “herself.” (Although the Phi Beta Kappa Vassar grad with a double degree in philosophy and German literature is not the Stacy we will meet here.) On a visit to a Lancombe factory, where London gets to create her own shade of lip gloss, she is made to put on a lab coat and a hair net and surrender her heels -- it is actually jarring to see her in flats -- but she seems authentically excited by the whole business.

Everyone gets a tube, naturally.

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robert.lloyd@latimes.com

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‘Fashionably Late With Stacy London’

Where: TLC

When: 10 tonight

Rating: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children)

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