"Hot mess" meaning and etymology

A phrase has started to be used somewhat frequently over the past few years: "hot mess".

I have heard it in professional journalism (albeit, admittedly, mostly entertainment and/or gossip journalism).

There seems to be some confusion over what it means, though. Here are some of the varying commonly held definitions:

• A person who is seemingly emotionally or mentally unbalanced who yet remains alluring, esp. one whose unbalance derives from social debauchery (excessive partying)
  • Or one such who does not remain alluring
• A person who is disheveled who yet remains alluring
  • Or one such who does not remain alluring
• An item that is dizzyingly chaotic in appearance
• A situation or incidence that is extraordinarily bad

Is this an older phrase that has gained new life, or has it come into being in the last decade? If the latter, what was the original definition?

According to Wiktionary, the "figurative" usage of hot mess is...

(slang, idiomatic, chiefly southern US) A person, thing, or situation in a state of pitiful disarray.

Which I think is fairly transparently derived from the literal sense...

(military) A warm meal, usually cooked in a large pot, often similar to a stew or porridge; or, service of such a heated meal to soldiers.

It may not be too fanciful to suppose it also has overtones of...

mess of pottage - something valueless or trivial or of inferior value
used esp. of something accepted instead of a rightful thing of far greater value

Hot mess has been in the British vocabulary for at least 40 years as a slang term for diarrhea. I remember my father using it when I was young.

There was an episode of Arrested Development where the term "hot mess" was created with the currently popular US meaning. You even learn why the term was made. And around that time, this was not a popular term in the US. So, there is the possibility that episode is the root. Other TV shows have also been trying to pump new terms into pop culture. I think 30 Rock got a few wins there.

EDIT - from Arrested Development wiki: "The Bluth family frequently use the phrase 'hot mess' to describe each other in Season Four. [Although the term was defined and used in a previous season.] It gained popular usage after the designer Christian Siriano used the term on the fourth season of Project Runway."