Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg is looking forward to her 10th season on “The Masked Singer,” Fox’s hit competition series featuring anonymous celebrities singing in whimsical costumes.
She joins fellow panelists Nicole Scherzinger, Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke, who all take their best guesses to name the stars behind the songs — and behind the quirky looks. Rita Ora will fill in for Scherzinger for season 11.
“The new costumes level up each year,” said McCarthy in an exclusive interview with WWD ahead of her return on Sept. 27. “You’re going see a doughnut, you’re going to see an anteater and you’re going see a hibiscus.”
On Sunday, Demi Lovato performed incognito in a mouse costume to tease the upcoming season 10 premiere. Other past quirky looks include Bishop Briggs, who won season nine, dressed as “Medusa,” Nick Lachey won as “Piglet” in season five, Wayne Brady was “Fox” in season two when he won, and LeAnn Rimes was victorious as “Sun” in season four. The show has won Emmys for Outstanding Costumes in 2020 and 2021, and a 2020 Costume Designers Guild Award.
McCarthy sometimes joins her counterparts in costume during the show’s theme nights. Among them, she said viewers can expect to see her uncanny makeover as “Harry Potter’s” Dumbledore — a transformation that took her more than three hours, complete with a beard and broken nose.
“I did prosthetics and all,” McCarthy explained. “I went for it because we’re so glammed up on this show.…I think it would be great if I just surprised people went polar opposite.”
Behind the desk, stylist Warren Alfie Baker curates her looks, including Marchesa dresses she’s eager to unveil. Sometimes, she styles herself.
“I spend a lot of my own money for my outfits because I just don’t want to wear sometimes a lot of showroom stuff or storage room stuff,” she explained. “So a lot of times I’m forking out my own cash, but it’s worth it. I have a fantastic wardrobe later on.”
Off camera, McCarthy continues to expand her Formless Beauty brand’s product categories. The vegan, cruelty-free company launched in 2021 with lip gloss. Formless Beauty later added eyeshadow, and aims to release her latest product in late September or October on formlessbeauty.com, “Elevate” mascara. She said its development took longer than the brand’s other offerings.
“I would not release it until it was perfect, and we got it there. I have to brag because it has no hormone disruptors,” she explained. “Almost all mascara on the market has endocrine disruptors — ours doesn’t, so I was like ‘ding ding’ with the trolley on that one.”
The eye-enhancing formula is buildable, paraben-free, water resistant and dramatically opaque. “I made sure is so black that it makes your eyelashes extra pop,” she said. “I put it on and I don’t look like, you know — God rest her soul — Tammy Faye Baker…you know, spider eye lashes. I wanted to make sure that doesn’t happen. You put it on, you apply, apply and reapply. You never ever get the spider look, you just get bumped up — you elevate it.”