I live in NYC, a place dripping with culture yet I have hardly taken advantage of much of my city’s museums, theatre or art. (Between doing my own shows, my blogging, and simply battling my way through crowds to get from the subway to my front door, I am left with little energy to do anything in my little free time except lie on my sofa and watch endless hours of “The Millionaire Matchmaker” marathon on Bravo). So I was thrilled to spend yesterday afternoon enjoying The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s newest exhibit The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion. The MET site describes the exhibit as “exploring the reciprocal relationship between high fashion and evolving ideals of beauty, focusing on iconic fashion models in the latter half of the 20th century and their roles in projecting, and sometimes inspiring, the fashion of their respective eras.”

I used to have mixed feeling about modeling. I thought as an educated radical strong woman I was suppose to hate the modeling industry, but truth is I love fashion photography. I love looking at photos of pretty people in pretty clothing. And I confess, I love to make pouty kissy faces in the mirror as if I need to practice for my upcoming Vogue cover shoot. (Come on, you have all done that, right?)

The Model as Muse is also the exhibit in which at the after-party for its opening, Kiefer Sutherland head-butted designer Jack McCollough. Apparently Kiefer slammed his head into McCollough’s nose after the designer unapologetically bumped into actress Brooke Shields. While I sooo totally don’t condone violence, call me old fashion but I do find it sexy when a guy stands up for a lady. (Although a booze induced bar fight lowers the sexy factor by quite a few points. Nonetheless, if Kiefer head butted someone in my honor I’d be pretty damn flattered).

The Model as Muse is on view through August 9, 2009.