Designing clothing can apparently be a dangerous endeavor, particularly when you're HIV-positive.
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A Project Runway fourth-season contestant was reportedly ousted from the Bravo reality competition series due to an injury suffered while filming the show, a source told the New York Daily News in a Monday report.
(SPOLIER ALERT: If you don't want to know Project Runway 4's possible order of elimination, please stop reading this article immediately!)
Jack Mackenroth, a 38-year-old from Seattle, WA who is HIV-positive, was reportedly eliminated from Project Runway 4 not because he was the poorest performer, but due to a staphylococcal skin infection he suffered, the source told the Daily News.
"He is saying he got kicked off not because he lost a challenge, but because he got a staph infection and said his face blew up like the kid from Mask," the source told the Daily News.
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Staphylococcus is group of bacteria that can cause illness through infection, and while it can be contained, it can also become widespread by infecting the blood. In addition, staph infections spread more easily in people with abnormally suppressed immune systems, such as someone who is HIV-positive like Mackenroth.
"He says he was the fifth designer voted off," the source told the Daily News about Mackenroth. "He is claiming that this [staph infection] was at least part of the reason he was booted."
Project Runway 4 will premiere on Wednesday, November 14 at 10PM ET/PT and Mackenroth -- who signed a confidentially agreement with Bravo -- denied the source's claims.
"People will say things about me whether they know me or not," Mackenroth said in a statement released via Bravo. "Those are not my words and are fictitious."
While Mackenroth's face allegedly "blew up," the same apparently cannot be said for his designing career if he was the fifth contestant cut from the competition.
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However his acting career is on the rise, as the Daily News reported Mackenroth filmed a cameo for the upcoming Sex and the City movie on September 21, in which he catches the girls' attention on the street only to end-up in the arms of his boyfriend.
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio