Project Runway’s Kenley Beats Beau with Cat, Laptop, Apples

TV’S WACKY EX AND THE KITTY
‘RUNWAY’ GAL IN PUSS-TOSS BUST
www.nypost.com  |  By JAMIE SCHRAM, AMBER SUTHERLAND and JEREMY OLSHAN  |  Last updated: 8:44 am, March 19, 2009, Posted: 3:00 am, March 19, 2009

Kenley Collins, the catty, batty finalist on “Project Runway,” really let the fur fly when she assaulted her now ex-fiancé with their pet feline in their Williamsburg apartment, authorities said yesterday.

The fashion designer, 26, was charged with assault and criminal possession of a weapon the weapon being the cat itself for her crazed attack on Zak Penley, 28, prosecutors said.

“It was a miscommunication,” Kenley told The Post after getting released without bail from Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday morning. “Fights happen, and that’s that.”

On the plus side: She will not be changing her name to Kenley Penley.

According to sources, the fur began to fly at 7 a.m. when Collins cocked her arm and threw one of the couple’s two cats Arlo or Sandra at Penley, who was sleeping at the time.

She then threw her laptop as he fell and crawled on the floor, cops said. She also allegedly slammed a door on his head.

As Penley dialed 911, Collins threw three apples at him and doused him with water, cops said.

“You’re lucky, it could have been worse,” Collins told Penley after the blow, according to sources.

On the show, Collins had talked back to the always cordial Tim Gunn and sparred with hostess Heidi Klum. Fans of the show reviled her 88 percent in a Bravo poll said she was rude to Gunn.

Still, she placed third in the competition last year and now teaches sewing as she pursues her design career.

Penley, a musician in a punk band called Shred Bundy, penned a song called “CAT?” for Collins’ “Project Runway” finale. He proposed earlier this year, and the couple planned to get married this October.

Neighbors on Herbert Street said the couple had been fighting for weeks.

“Lately, there has been a lot of yelling,” Ken Edge, 31, said. “I can hear Kenley much louder than I can hear Zak. When she speaks, she yells. Since she moved in around September, there have been a lot of noise problems.”

Collins has now been told to stay away from the apartment. But she was permitted with police escort to retrieve her belongings yesterday. Penley was in the apartment at the time.

As cops carried her luggage out the door, Collins gleefully posed for pictures,

“Zak blew this out of proportion in the police report,” she said. “It was a break-up that went badly. He got what he wanted. I broke up with him. I just thought that we weren’t ready to get married.”

City animal-control officials said that as long as the cat was not injured in the attack, they will not pursue cruelty charges.

Additional reporting by Alex Ginsberg

jamie.schram@nypost.com