Andy DehnartVillains are a necessary part of reality shows, because strong narratives need antagonists. But Marcel Vigneron, the supposed villain on Top Chef 2 is rapidly becoming a sympathetic protagonist, the kid who the popular kids pick on just because they can. He may be an annoying ass, but doesn’t deserve the increasing amount of vitriol aimed his way from his fellow competitors–and now, it seems, stupid members of the public.
Marcel was recently attacked an injured by a Top Chef 2 viewer. “This girl came up to me at a nightclub and asked me if I was Marcel from Top Chef,” Marcel tells the Las Vegas Weekly. “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.”
He now has “a 1-inch scar over his left eye,” the paper reports, as a result of her hitting him in the face with the bottle.
The person who’s verbally assaulted Marcel the most this season, Ilan Hall, tells the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, “We’re all good friends now that the show is over. I keep in touch with a lot of people … Marcel and I talk a lot.”
But according to Marcel, that’s not exactly true. “He has been calling me every day. He wished me a merry Christmas and says he’s just checking in. (But) I haven’t returned any, because he was such a (jerk) on the show,” Marcel told the Las Vegas Sun.
John Katsilometes on the spicy ‘Top Chef’ competition and two Las Vegas chefs who are bracing for the finale [Las Vegas Sun]
Packing their knives for Hawaii [Honolulu Star-Bulletin]