Restaurateur-chef David Fhima and his newest venture, FACES in St. Paul, are being pitched to the Food Network.

"Isn't he one of the hottest men you've ever met?" asked Kara Wayne, a producer at Magnetic Productions, formerly Edelman Productions.

Fhima possesses all of the elements that embody an extremely hot man: charisma, a cheeky vocabulary spoken with an accent, exotic good looks (he's Moroccan-born to Spanish-Sicilian parents), and a wife, Lori, now that David's mastered that whole monogamy thing.

The Fhima pilot has been shot, and the pitch is being made in a couple of weeks, Magnetic Productions owner John Kitchener told me Friday at a private opening for FACES.

Kitchener's already working on a Minnesota-based reality show for DIY Network featuring Edina Realty's Nicole Curtis. "She buys old houses in the inner city and south Minneapolis, fixes them up and tries to sell them, and we are documenting her whole process for the DIY Network. We just got an order for 13 episodes," Kitchener said. "It's going to be really fun -- the first legitimate, home-grown reality show here in the Twin Cities. [Curtis] is a major character. She just did a house at 37th and Lyndale we've been shooting the last two and a half months."

Asked if he was going to be as rich as Steve and Sharon Edelman, who left KSTP-TV when "Good Company" got canceled and went on to establish an immensely successful production company, Kitchener said, "From your mouth to God's ears. If I can get a fraction of what he's made. ..."

Kitchener said he thinks the Twin Cities area is ripe for the production of more TV shows based on people here.

This appears to be the perfect time for Fhima to have a successful national TV presence. He has had enough well-publicized business reversals to respect and appreciate nationwide adulation without letting it go to his head (or other body parts).

Although Fhima was minding his words while my camera was around -- see him and his "restaurant babies," as Lori calls their kids at startribune.com/video -- he is capable of the kind of profanity-laced kitchen meltdowns that make TV chefs so entertaining.

Overheard at the jungle "Billy Beson is one of David's business partners," mused a guest at the FACES opening, who then added, "So where is the animal print?"

Unfamiliar with designer Beson's work -- he caters to a beyond-upscale clientele -- I was unaware of his alleged fondness for animal prints. "There it is," said the woman, who finally found what she was looking for in the rug not far from where she was standing. It didn't look obviously animal-patterned to me, but I guess I can see it.

Banged up nose Billy Beson is still sporting a banged-up beezer.

Beson walked into FACES' enormous glass atrium doors -- when they were closed. He was stone sober, too.

"Oh, yeah, it was like 10 o'clock in the morning, " said Beson. "I have a big bruise. I ran into [the glass] so hard, nobody laughed. And, of course, you feel so stupid. If I [had been] naked, I wouldn't have hit my nose first."

Think about it.

Now think this: Sounds like the old boy's endowed with some imagination.

Bangs, hair division Billy Beson's so in love with his heavily manicured bangs, I wouldn't be surprised to see him with Justin Bieber's haircut any day now.

The bangs have become Beson's signature look. His friend, Lola Red PR founder Alexis Walsko, is so accustomed to Beson's bangs, she couldn't put her finger on why he resembled a figure in a piece of art she bought that was painted by a kid from Russia. All she knew was that the painting looked like Beson might have been the subject.

Same ridiculous thing going on with the bangs, I told her.

"Oh, God," she said.

Maybe the kid from Russia saw the Spring 2010 Mpls.St. Paul Home magazine with Beson on the cover with designer Kerry Ciardelli?

"No comment," Walsko said. "He doesn't like that picture, I'll tell you that."

Beson's boy band bangs are spawning interesting gossip about what he's hiding there.

C.J. is at 612.332.TIPS or cj@startribune.com. E-mailers, please state a subject -- "Hello" doesn't count. Attachments are not opened, so don't even try. More of her attitude can be seen on Fox 9 Thursday mornings.