Category — America’s Next Top Model;

I have been very lax on reporting on America’s Next Top Model both Cycle 6 which was on Channel 10 and Cycle 9 on Fox 8, even though I really love the show.

So I thought I would put together some vignettes about the show.

ANTM Cycle 9 winner Saleisha scandal.
It appears Saleisha’s win has been tainted by the fact she has been on the Tyra Banks Show, went to Tyra’s T Zone Camp, and appeared on a Wendy’s commercial.

America’s Next Top Model Invasion forcefully states her view on the Saleisha scandal, Buddy TV has a different view.

Heather Update
One of my favourites from ANTM Cycle 9 was Heather the girl with Aspergers Syndrome, she looked like a brunette Uma Thurman.

Here is an interview by Fans of reality TV just after she was eliminated from the show which is interesting apparently the editing of the showed the conflict in the house worse then it was. Not surprised about that!

Danielle winner of Cycle 6 a success story of ANTM
Danielle Wiki site shows she has had some success with a modelling career post the completion of the show. She was is only one of two winners to have had their Covergirl contract renewed, and she also has received a showcard from her agency, Click Models, for NY Fashion Week. She is only of two girls given showcard of all 11 ANTM alum.

Every model agency has his own showcards. The showcards are a series of pictures of the models they are sending to the fashion weeks, usually with the measures and facts about the models. They send them to Casting Directors so they can decide which models are they going to choose.

Nigel Barker interview
The Epoch Times have an interview with Nigel Barker the ever present judge on America’s Next top model which is quite interesting. As well as being a photographer, he was previously a model, and his exotic looks are from his Sri Lankan mother.

Paulina Porizkova obviously does not subscribe to the theory of don’t shoot the hand that feeds you.

Paulina Porizkova the former model who will be taken over from the sacked Twiggy has said that shows like the ‘America’s Next Top Model’ is not necessarily going to be a supermodel. I wonder what Tyra thinks about that comment regarding her show. It may be true Paulina, but that show is paying your wage, so try and talk it up a bit.

This was the second week models were in Thailand, and what a gig for the judging panel as they would have to just loll around the pool whilst waiting for the judgement days.

Last week Nnenna was booted off the show. I was surprised but not shocked but I am still wondering how Sarah is still surviving so long into this series. She is Miss Bland.

Thank god for Jade for putting in a bit of colour and personality into the series. Or maybe she knows by being controversial or bitchy depending on which way you want to look at it gets you more airtime.

So the episode opens with Jade calling Joanie two faced. “She says one nice thing and then one nasty thing”.

Also Danielle thinks kooky Furonda is choking (not on food obviously at it appears she does not eat) but is being psyched out of the competition.

There first challenge awaits, they are taken to a temple where Patra a thai classical dance teacher will teach them some traditional thai dance moves.

This looked extremely difficult, and through this Danielle was having a migraine and not feeling well. Also Joanie and Jade managed to keep their tiff going.

Jade saying she does not have an ounce of arrogance in her body. Is this what they call healthy self esteem these days?

Joanie accused Jade of always being on the defensive whereas Jade response wa “Joanie is trying to corrupt things for me”. Maybe Jade’s mum needs to come and defluff her again?

At around this point Danielle collapsed and needed to be taken to hospital and a drip stuck in her arm. The diagnosis was exhaustion, dehydration and food poisoning. She later discharged herself to ensure she could stay in the competition but lucky for her she got to miss the individual dance challenge that was going to be judged.

The girls doing their individual thai routines was always going to hilarious, nearly as good as the covergirl commercial!

The two best were Jade and Joanie. Sara was like a praying mantis doing a thai dance, however at least we got to see her. As she is so incredibly dull she gets no airtime. Then Furonda came on and promptly forgot everything she learnt but did this hilarious cross between belly dancing and hip hop. I thought it was great the audience was cracking up. It got the biggest round of applause.

The prize was dinner at a resturant with the editor of the Thai edition of Elle. Joanie won and chose to take Sara as she has never won a challenge. Sara was a bit miffed she was a charity case.

The following day it was the photo shoot. Danielle barely made it out of her bed and her stomach must have flipped when she saw she would have to have her photo taken on an elephant. Considering her illness she did very well.

Jade was stiff, and Furonda was not great either.

Joanie tried to be different and stood on the elephants leg which had Jay Manuel gushing at her originality. Though he did refrain from saying ” this is something Tyra would do”.

Sara who has been told previously that she needs to work on her poses, sees what Joanie has done and copies her badly. Joanie was peeved, and it did not really impress photoshoot director Jay Manuel either.

The next day was judgement day with the usual suspect judges who were looking pretty happy about their sojourn in Thailand.

The judging challenge was to show emotion through your body whilst having a mask on your face. The emotions were sensuality, despair, and compassion.

Time for the jugdement.

Furonda was first her best photo was great but the alot of her photos were bad.

Sara – told she was best at portraying emotions in the challenge, and they liked her photos but was told off for copying Joanie’s moves.

Joanie- great photos and judges loved her, but would like to see her look more like a model when she is in front of them.

Danielle- great photos also they were impressed she modelled through the pain.

Joanie was called first. She is definately coming good at the right end of the competition.

Then Sara which confused me when she she going to be eliminated?

Danielle was very relieved when her name was called, but told she has to work on softening her Arkansas accent.

The last two standing were Jade and Furonda. Furonda was eliminated, and Joanie looked pissed that Jade had survived another week.

Tonight’s episode veered into a episode of Extreme Makeover when the viewer had to watch in way to much detail the pulling out of Joanie’s teeth to make the perfect smile.

It was excruciating – she had multiple teeth pulled out, other ones filed back, and 12 hours in the dentist chair with more to come.

The other girls only had to put up with wearing retro glasses as their teeth were getting whiten.

Just as well Joanie was buoyed by being number 1 last week to help her get through the trauma.

It was to be the episode of Ebony – it started and ended with her.

Ebony at the beginning of the episode said she was sick of being criticised constantly. The judges have been particularly harsh and said they want to see a change in attitude in the previous episode.

(Reality Raver apologises for not doing a recap on last weeks episode, Ambreal and Janet were bottom two with Janet given the punt. The only other memorable highlight was Ambreal freaking out when going out onto the roof of the Omni Hotel.)

Ambreal was thinking the only way up was to seek some spiritual guidance and asked her daddy to prayer for her.

Heather, who is coming more and more out of shell each week, was concerned that she is only taking profile shots, and has been told she needs to do face on in photos.

However all this contemplating was interrupted by a knock on the door, and who should be there but Tyson Beckford model/actor. He was there to teach the girls how to be spokes models.

I don’t know who he is but obviously famous in the US as the girls were squealing and grinning like cheshire cats.

Though I am not sure about his teaching skills he was just telling the girls to be sultry, but then sex does sell. Thank god the editors spared us Sarah with the banana, it was bad enough watching Bianca manhandling the spout on a watering can.

The girls who were used to the drill by now, knew that their challenge would require some speaking.

Cue to having to do a Public Service Announcement for Keep A Child Alive a charity for children with HIV and AID’s in Africa. So a very worthy cause.

Elizabeth the representative from the charity would pick the winner of the group of girls who made up the best 30 second ad.

First up were Lisa, Chantel, and Bianca who did a see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil in their 30 second segment. Their problem was they mucked up the name of the charity. Not something that is going to endear them to the judge.

Next up were Heather, Jenah and Ambreal who did a holding up signs and reciting African AID’s stats at the camera.

Last were Saleisha, Ebony, and Sarah who did a sisterhood type message. There problem was mucking up the facts saying the charity did prevention as well as treatment other then that it was great.

So the most boring but correct ad of Heather, Jenah and Ambreal won. There prize was sponsored by Carol’s Daughter, a cosmetic company, two of the girls would get a $500 hamper, and one girl whose name was pulled out of the hat would get a photo shoot to promote the products.

Heather was the lucky one to win and to top it off the photoshoot was to be directed by Mary J Bilge.

This was just what the doctor ordered for Heather, a bit of one on one time with a good photographer to help her with her face forward posing. Matthew the photography thought she had a future in modelling.

In tonight’s episode there was an actual eating shot of the girls in the closet. Ok some of the girls were eating. Then again there was a segue of Ebony saying she was sick of it there and wanted to go back to her old life – whatever that was probably on minimum wage. The other girls thought she had lost her mind when she said she wanted to go home.

The next day it was the photoshoot, it was to be a high fashion editorial shoot about recycling (remember this is the green series).

Heather was first as aluminium cans – Jay thought she looked great shooting straight on.

Jay Manuel was disappointed with Ebony he said “Give something less severe,” “She looks trampish” and “lacklustre”.

Ambreal was paper and Jay again said ” she was boring”, “uninspiring” and “when did she forget how to model”.

It was judgement day with usual suspects of Nigel Barker, Miss Jay and Twiggy on the panel. Just an aside but Twiggy needs to watch the low tops as she has a wrinkly cleavage.

The special guest was Tyson Beckford who Tyra informs me is the most famous male model. Still not ringing any bells for me.

Saleisha photos were given the thumbs up by the judges, and they thought she was improving. Tyson liked what she did with her lips – in the photo that is.

Jenah in cardboard – looked fantastic and all the judges gushed over her best photo.

Ambreal – “looked dead in the eyes”

Lisa as plastic bottles the judges said it was like “modelling 101″ but in contrast Jay Manuel had loved her at the shoot. Also Tyra kept on having a go at her about her hair, however they had made it over as short now it was growing out. Considering she has curly short hair it is always going to be difficult to contain at this length.

Bianca – “Body too stiff” but “face good” they loved the smile in the eyes look she had been practicing all week.

Sarah – in recycled garbage bags was getting a grilling from the judges about losing weight. She denied she had however a week 1 shot showed that she had. The judges think she needs to put on weight as they think she will be successful in the plus size niche market. Other then that they loved her shots.

Ebony shot was dreadful and her lip was snarled, it cannot have been her best shot. She got tears in her eyes at the judges criticism.

Heather again got the big thumbs up from the judges.

Saleisha was the first model given her photo so the judges thought her photo was the best this week, closely followed by Jenah and Heather.

Then it was down to a predictable bottom 2 Ambreal and Ebony. A big surprise for me was that Ebony was handed the photo, and Ambreal was to be eliminated. But wait there is more.

Ebony then tells Tyra she wants to go. Tyra then gives her a Tyrade, by saying the thing you don’t like about this show is the criticism, and not being told you are perfect. Then she said you can go and dismissed her like a school girl.

Ambreal could not believe her luck to have been given a reprieve and thanked God as all that praying must have saved her this week.

At the end of the show the producers cut in Ebony’s audition tape, with her pleading to Tyra please pick me I won’t let you down. I wonder if Ebony regrets leaving now she is back in her minimum wage job. You get the feeling even if she did she would not admit it.

Jade was having a crisis of confidence at the opening of this episode, as last week she had the ignominy of being in the bottom two. Lucky for her it was the pixie like Mollie-Sue that was given the bullet.

(Raver apologises for not giving the episode recap last week the highlight being the girls having to do a Covergirl commercial – hilarious, and the ongoing saga of Nnenna’s boyfriend who she was going to dump, but the manipulative Jade was trying to mindfuck her by telling her to stay with him).

A sobbing Jade said that this competition was a “trip” whatever that means. But with Jade you know nothing is going to keep her down for long.

Anyway while Jade was taking a hiatus from being house bitch – Brooke decided to take over that mantel.

Brooke is the model with the bee stung lips that Melanie Griffith is trying to achieve by putting large amounts of filler in hers. If you really need to look at a bad photo of Melanie Griffith click here.
Brooke does not like Nnenna, for the reason she hogs the phone to talk to lame arse boyfriend (fair enough), and also they appear to have some friction between them.

I note they have phone cam, but no toilet cam to show the bulimic contestants!

Brooke at the end of her tether goes into the phone room, and explains to Nnenna that other people may want to use the phone. Nneena ignores her and starts to dial a number while Brooke is talking to her (now that was uncalled for).

Well at this point Brooke lost it with her – just prior to this Brooke is talking straight to the camera about how she is normally so nice and sweet, and then this clanger comes out of her mouth.

In a disparaging tone “She’s from Africa” and “If it is so great why doesn’t she go back there”. At this point I was wondering which Klu Klux Klan club Miss Brooke was member of.

Also she stormed up the hallway and called her a “fucking Bitch” of course Channel 10 bleeped out the swear word, but I am presuming that was what she was saying.

Nneena was like care factor – zero.

Anyway after all that it was time to get on with the modelling.

First Miss Jay looking very unglamourous – I get the feeling he is not a morning person – gave the girls a training session in how to deal with accessories on the catwalk eg how to take off gloves and coats.

Most of the girls are struggling with the catwalk, with Danielle, Jade and Joanie probably the best at it.

Then they were off to meet the “aswirling” twins, these were two camp black twins who were going to teach the girls how to swirl on the catwalk.

Do they really get paid for this? Is their some kind of welfare to work program in America where you pick some extremely specialised role in the fashion industry and are able to make a living?

In Cycle 9 currently on Fox 8 there is another guy who is a posing instructor – how much work can there be for those people?

I think my new career will be as a makeup artist for fashion shows – “But I only do the lips darling”.

Anyway the aswirling twins taught them how to swirl and swirl and swirl. Sara who is so stiff was dreadful.

Then it was onto a challenge.

It was a fashion parade in a church. Apparently in the time of black segregation in the US, fashion shows in Churches were very popular. It is a big tradition in the black community.

The designer was Lloyd Klein – loved his clothes, and also diamond designer Sol Rafeal. The winner of the challenge was going to get a $25,000 diamond ring.

Joanie and Jade were the two best and appeared to have actually learnt something from the aswirling twins. In fact I thought Jade went a bit over the top with her swirling, but then again a fashion parade in a church is a bit OTT.

Leslie, Brooke, and Sara were all dreadful.

Anyway Jade won the challenge, and once again the confidence and ‘tude was oozing from her. The thing I wonder about Jade is why did it take her until cycle 6 to audition for America’s Next Top Model? As she is 26 which is like 80 in modelling years.

Jade got the ring on her finger, and she was then asked to pick another girl to get a $10,00 ring she picked Furonda, and then Furonda was asked to pick a girl to get an $8000 ring, and she picked Nneenna. So it was good to see the sisters sticking together.

Is Furonda anorexic? She is so scrawny.

Brooke had a meltdown to her dad, as had Sara earlier that day to her boyfriend. It was the episode of tears.

Next day it was photoshoot time. They were doing a shoot for Payless Shoes. It was all about the shoes, but they were going to get some help from some Krumpers. For those of you who watch So you Think You Can Dance, you will know that Krumping is a derivative of hip-hop which originated from South Central LA.

It is pretty energetic.

So the girls were going to have to get down and boogie.

Jay Manual was fashion director for the shoot, and Trevor was the photographer.

Joanie was up first and she was good, however Jay was concerned about her mean face.

Scrawny Furonda was limp like a rag doll.

Danielle was pretending she danced like a white girl, but she got down and grooved.

Sara predictably awkward.

Nneena just kept on posing, I thought she would be able to get into this one better.

Leslie’s posing was repetitive and dull.

Brooke was awkward but her hair looked wild it was done as an afro.

Jade just sizzled, and at the end of the shoot poured water on herself. Jay Manual was squealing with delight. “That is something Tyra would have done” he gushed.

It was judgement day.

The judges were Nigel, Miss Jay, Twiggy, Tyra, and Roy Campbell special event producer.

First their test was to show the panel their signature walk, then do a smooth turn like a doll on a carousel. Tyra of course gave an example on how to do it perfectly.

Most of the girls bummed out on it – except for Joanie.

Then it was time to go through the photos.

They loved Joanie, and Jade (apparently she looked young in her photo – clearly her age is going to hinder her going all the way).

Brooke after her dud shoot, did take the best shot I had seen of her. For weeks I thought she had been overrated and couldn’t see what the judges saw in her, but she looked great. Maybe the angle of the photographer shooting from the ground allowed her huge chin to be disguised.

Joanie was first to go through, followed by Jade and Furonda.

Brooke, Sara and Leslie were predictably bottom three.

Brooke skimmed through leaving a nervous Sara and Leslie awaiting their fate.

They decided to give Sara another shot and disappointingly Leslie (who I thought took great shots) was eliminated.

After promoting loudly that this cycle was the green cycle America’s Next Top Model seems to have gone quiet on the whole issue.

Yes they still drive around in the claustrophobic green winniebago which runs on bio diesel. They are meant to limit their showers to 10 mins. The girls are not allowed to smoke – wouldn’t it have been more environmentally friendly if they had told them not to eat meat. Cows probably produce more CO2 then a few cigarettes. However I will leave that for the climate change experts to debate.

I did notice the girls drinking out of plastic water bottles at the model house. Which I thought this was very strange for a green episode, considering there has been a consensus that it is better to drink tap water rather the detrimental effects all those millions of plastic bottles being placed in landfill.

Anyway bugger the environment it was make over time for the girls and they were off to Jessica Simpson’s bestie Ken Paves salon.

However before they got there Tyra had showed them the before and after shots of what she had chosen for them to have done with their hair. Most of the after shots looked like mugshots.

Particularly Bianca’s who looked suspiciously like Divine Brown of the infamous Hugh Grant BJ fame. More info on that scandal click here. In fact Bianca quite aptly said “I look like a street walker.”

The shock was that Ebony hair was a wig glued on. It was taken off to reveal very short hair. They kindly gave her a weave of long black hair ala Naomi Campbell.

Bianca’s hair was to go hookers blonde, however on closer inspection her hair was so badly damaged from perms and hair tints, the only solution was to shave it off. She had a complete meltdown, however I thought she looked 10 times better. They also gave her a wig as well, but that was not great.

Chantel also got hair extensions which I did not like it was too much hair.

Heather got lucky and basically received only minor changes to her long chestnut brown locks.

Saleisha was given a high fashion look of what was a cross between a bob and bowl hair cut, her curls had gone and it was dead straight. This was to try and see if she would be marketable outside the catalogue look.

After the make up there was a Cover Girl challenge. Nigel Barker, photographer and ANTM judge, his gorgeous wife Crissy Barker, and Brent Poer from Cover Girl were the judges.

Cover Girl were launching a new interactive tool on their website where you can upload your photo and then try and match make up with it. It sounds great.

The winner of the challenge would have there photo uploaded on the Cover Girl website and also they would shoot a video telling people how to use this new tool.

They had 5 mins to make themselves up and create a Cover Girl look, then find a dress that was hanging up for them. All very rushed. The girls who knew how to use make up were always going to have the advantage in this one.

Victoria flopped out very early. Sarah the supposed plus size model won the challenge going with a wing tipped eye shape.

Everyone was just glad that Saleisha did not win the challenge.

The next day there was Tyra Mail – Do you want to be Deflowered? All the girls appropriately tittered. No they were not going to be going to visit Hugh Hefner at the playboy mansion but were going to be artfully posed dressed as different types of flora.

Jay Manuel was again photography director at the shoot. He also was showing nipples through his jumper, was it cold, was he thinking of his new boyfriend or were they just
nipple rings? Either way it was slightly off putting.

Heather had to dress up as weeds as she said ” Everyone looks like a princess, and I look like a witch”. Not that it mattered she took some fabulous photos.

Victoria who for most of the episode was wishy washy about whether she wanted to be a model cracked me up when she said she looked like ” Princess Leia who had wrestled with a cactus”.

Chantel, dressed as baby’s breath had a shocking shoot where both the photographer, and Jay were yelling out conflicting instructions. Chantel cried, and said if they had shut up she would have been able to do it by herself. NOT.

It was judgement day – with the usual panel of Twiggy, the hilarious Miss Jay, Nigel Barker, Tyra and special guest judge the photographer from the shoot.

Victoria and Twiggy had their usual argument when Twiggy said it was apt Victoria got to do cactus as she was so prickly.

Victoria said “But I am not prickly”. All the judges then laid into her. It was not going to be a good night for her.

Saleisha for the first time this cycle got some criticism which she obviously did not like nor was she used to.

Heather was given the thumbs up, as was Jenah, and Sarah. However they were concerned that Sarah was losing weight which was not a good thing for her as she was more marketable as a plus sized model. As usual we needed a “feel good” message and Tyra of course provided it. She said wasn’t it great for once to be thinking it was a negative thing that they were concerned she was losing weight which was unusual for this industry.

Chantel was criticised as well. But she managed to survive not being bottom 2, this honour was to go to Victoria, and Saleisha.

Saleisha cried with relief when Tyra gave her the picture, with a non-plussed Victoria being eliminated.

The episode opens with the audience being shown what the girls do in their spare time. Clearly they don’t eat so other entertainment must be found like practising your catwalk.

Bianca the bold, and brassy black chick from Queens was telling Kimberley that her walk was good when it was awful.

Bianca said ” She was just being competitive“.

Other girls were giving Heather, the contestant with Aspergers who looks like a brunette version of Uma Thurman, a make over. Needless to say they made her look a cross between a tranny and a hooker, quite an achievement.

However it was time to go to their first task, so into the claustrophobic eco bus they climb.

They are taken to a ‘haunted’ house were Miss Jay greets them, and tells them they are in a fashion madhouse.

Clearly last week’s butch look for Miss Jay was an aberration, and he was kitted out in a nurses uniform. The universe felt normal again.

The task for today was for the girls to wear a straight jacket with high heels and catwalk, and Miss Jay would critique them.

Heather who has trouble with her walk normally was always going to have trouble with this task. Saleisha probably had the best walk, but apparently she has had prior modelling experience, which I think is making the girls jealous.

This jealously boiled over when Bianca and Saleisha had a huge catfight back at the house.

By the end of the series Bianca will have fought with everyone!

The next day the girls were taken to see Roy Campbell fashion producer (gay – are there any straight guys in fashion apart from Wayne Cooper, and Alex Perry?) and Colleen Quen a designer who would be showing for the first time in Paris shortly.

The girls were going to have to model her couture gowns and the person who she judged to bring the spirit of the dress she would be inviting the winner to be one of her models at her show in Paris.

The girls at this point got very excited.

Some of the girls were great like Ambreal, however Victoria looked petrified. The winner of the challenge was Saleisha, which of course went down like a lead balloon with Bianca.

Their photo shoot this week was called “Learning the Ropes of High Fashion” The girs were to wear beautiful evening gowns whilst hanging from a rope rock climbing.

Jay Manuel was the fashion director. I really like this guy he gives constructive criticism without being bitchy.

The elimination was going to be based on these photos.

This weeks judges were the usual Twiggy, Miss J, their leader Tyra, Nigel Barker, and special guest Roy Campbell.

Tyra did this fake french accent which was just embarrassing. However they then got down to critiquing the girls.

Heather – did great the shots were amazing. You know as soon as their is some sort of catwalk elimination she will go, however she is stunning when photographed.

Ebony – still to stiff. This girl has to be anorexic she has bones sticking out everywhere.
Kimberley – Disappointing photos.
Saleisha – liked the photos, however she looks like the girl-next- door.
Bianca – looked angry.
Jenah – Big tick they loved.
Lisa – her legs are amazing.

The bottom 2 were Bianca, and Kimberley.

Bianca – the judges did not like the photos. Kimberly they see a gorgeous girl, however only a pretty girl in the photos.

Kimberley was eliminated. So Bianca gets to fight on and in the house for another week.

If the only thing that Nneena gets from Next Top Model is breaking up with her boyfriend, then she has won. Having that hot male model brushing up against her would be a good consolation prize.

Between the terrorising of Gina by Jade, poor Nneena was taking harassing phone calls from her boyfriend John.

The Producers had a great shot of the loser(ie. John) saying goodbye to Nneena at the airport. You could see the anxiety in his voice and face, as he knew that as soon as she got away from him she would realise what a control freak he was.

“Your not telling me what I want to hear”, and ” I don’t know what you are up to” should be used in the the Australian Government’s next domestic violence campaign.

Honey I would be changing my mobile number and address and NOT telling him where I had gone. Lets hope he is not a gun freak as he had that ‘If I can’t have you noone else can’ vibe about him.

The episode commenced with Jade being like the mean girl at school and picking on the meek Gina. Gina just not realising how to deal with those type of people did not just stand up to her.

Tonight Gina’s lack of self esteem really got to me. She just interprets and reacts to every scenario wrongly. She really needs to pull herself together.

First up for the models is a tutorial by Janice Dickinson (is she really a female?) on the difference between commercial and editorial positions. Was Janice on Extreme Makeover prior to being on this show? Her face is horrendous. Anyway I think this will be the last we see of Ms Dickinson on this show after she called Tyra Banks fat last week.

That controversy is still raging on in the states.

Gina’s lack of self confidence again came through, with a “I don’t know if I can do it” remark. For that Janice made her stand up the back and hop on one leg and laugh.

They then all went to lunch at a Japanese restaurant, none seem to be eating much.

Janice was there bonding with Jade. Jade reckons her and Janice click.

Then Janice says who is hassling you in the house, and Gina rats out Jade. Jade looks shocked – not sure if she was faking that out of embarrassment. But she need not have bothered feeling bad, as Janice went for Gina and said “Don’t rat out others,” and ” Just zip it.”

Predictably Gina had a meltdown in the car on the way home.

The first task was to go to a photo shoot to test their commercial posing. It was sponsored by Sears, and all girls had four changes of clothes for the four seasons. There would be a prize for the best photos at the end of the day.

Jade was first up, and most of the girls did good shots, Brooke, and Gina’s were probably the worst.

Nneena won the task, again she has won three, and got to keep all the clothes from the shoot. You would need a room to keep them all in.

Next they went and met Tyra in her dressing room between shows.

Tyra gave her usual pep talk about how she followed her dreams, and then asked them what they wanted to do after modelling.

Everyone gagged when Jade said she loved kids and wanted to be a Kindergarten teacher. As Dani said if my kid were in her class I would home school them. Agree.

Tyra also revealed how much she wanted kids. Maybe she needs to let men stay over the night, and not worry about her weave and wig then she would have a better chance of achieving that goal. For more information on Tyra’s sleep over policy click here.

The model’s next shoot was for them to show their editorial posing, whilst acting out their career goals. The fringe benefit of this shoot was modelling with a cute male model.

Jade with a long blonde wig and cane looked like a cross between Alice in Wonderland and a french maid.

The majority of the shots taken of the girls were great, but both Brooke and Gina struggled with the poses. I think as the competition is hotting up these girls are just not cutting it.

Nneena had a blast on her shoot, cosying up to her hot male model. They were sizzling. It culminated in her having to run away as Joanie quaintly put it “he pitched a tent”. Nneena surprisingly did not report that in her daily phone call to her boyfriend.

It was judgement time, and their little task today for the judges was to do three commercial poses, and then using fireman uniform props do three editorial poses. Gina fluffed them.

However the most bizarre thing about the judgement time was Twiggy’s two plaits. How old is she? Maybe she was auditioning for the Spice Girls as mutton spice?

Furonda, Dani, Joanie all sailed through to the next round, and predictably Brooke, and Gina were the bottom two.

I thought they may keep Gina for another week, just for the friction in the house, however I was wrong, and it was time to leave for Gina. I have a feeling Brooke won’t be long in following her.

The Sydney Morning Herald today announced its annual Couch Potato awards for 2007

This year they allowed the public to vote for the first time.

In the reality TV category the critics said that Dancing With the Stars (Channel 7) and Next Top Model (Fox were the best shows.

However the voting public had a different view and voted for So You Think You Can Dance.

I have to agree with the voting public – So You Think You Can Dance is much faster paced, professional, and entertaining then the drawn out pedestrian nature of Dancing With the Stars. Maybe the critics have been watching a different season then I was.

Watching skinny girls on America’s Next Top Model two nights in a row is enough to make you either starve or comfort eat. Unfortunately I have been doing the latter.

But that is exactly what Janice Dickinson has accused Tyra Banks, show creator, and also the mini Oprah (in more ways then one) of. Janice told high rating morning TV show Today that Tyra Banks is fat.

Janice obviously does not subscribe to the saying “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you” as Janice has been a semi-regular guest on Next Top Model. I expect this will be the last we will see of her on this show.

Last week after a week in the Caribbean on a cruise ship the girls were whittled down to a final 13, and flown to model house in LA.

The interesting ones appear to be Heather with asperger syndrome, which throughout the program they told us 10 times what it was. I think we got it the first time. For those who missed it it is a mild form of Autism ie difficulty in following appropriate social norms and interactions.

The interesting contestants at this stage are Ebony tough girl from Chicago who the girls have taken a dislike to. Victoria a Yale student who I think has a eating disorder, and Lisa an exotic dancer from New Jersey.

The episode starts with Jay Manuel, fashion shoot director, telling them that this cycle is going to be “the green season”.

So there mode of transport will be a winnebago that run on 100% biodiesel. If you had claustrophobia it was not going to be helped by this van as it had no windows. Also for the safety conscience no seat belts.

The other green initiative they were implementing was keeping the showers to a maximum of 10 minutes. These girls would drain the Sydney dam in a week with those showers. How long were their showers in the first place?

The first shoot was to promote anti-smoking. To make it seem non glamorous. I am not sure if this was a green policy or to do with the fact over 90% of models smoke. They have to do something with their mouth if they are not eating.

The aim of the shoot was to do one before shot that was glamorous with a cigarette, and then one after shot with the hideous effects of smoking shown. Eg chemo, lost baby, ulcers, premature ageing, coughing up blood.

Saleisha and Heather had to do a two person shot to show the effects of second hand smoke – it looked like a lesbian soft porn shot.

Bianca a girl from queens and Lisa the New Jersey girl were fighting backstage, which resulted in tears when Bianca said what type of role model are you because of your exotic dancing. Jay Manuel had to come back and tell them to settle down and be nice to each other.

After the shoot they were back at the house in the pool, and I thought it was ironic in one of the scenes behind a girl was a packet of cigarettes. Mixed messages for the young fans out there.

Heather with her aspergers was having difficulty mixing with the other girls. This of course was not helped by the girls talking loudly about her so she could hear.

The next morning out on the balcony out popped Miss Jay looking decidedly butch and preppy, telling them they were off to an Old Navy store.

There Benny Ninja some midget posing instructor who has been on previous cycles of the show was there to tell them they had 10mins to find an outfit and they would be judged on it by the panel at elimination time.

Benny’s only other role was to time the 10 minutes with a stopwatch and bob about the store like a munchkin going “only 3 mins” left and then his cameo was completed. I wonder how much he got paid for that!

I pity the poor people who had to clear up after the mess of clothes the girls left on the floor.

The judges were the usual suspects Twiggy (apparently this is her last season), Miss Jay again looking butch, what is happening to him has he had some sort of epiphany or did he just look at past episodes and see how ridiculous he looked.

Nigel Barker, british photographer, and judge, and of course Tyra.

It is then announced that whoever picked the best outfit would win $1000, and be in an Old Navy shoot. So Saleisha was understandably stoked that she won. She also had been quite sensible with her choice of just a simple sun dress. She did not try to over accessorise.

The it was elimination time. Bianca needed more life in hers. Ebony was just too stiff. Heather looked stunning, as did Lisa.

After a fierce debate where Nigel said that Ebony was his favourite look, the bottom two were Ebony for bad photos, and Mila, a giggly white girl.

In the end Mila was eliminated as she was just a pretty girl not a model. She was shocked as she told the cameras she had thought she was going to win this season’s Next Top Model.

The girls went back to there now nicotine free house to prepare for another day.