The Herald Sun has an article where Australia’s Next Top Model runner up Cassi Van Den Dungen gives her reasons for not taking up a modelling contract in New York.

She said it would have meant she would have had to lose weight something her manager Candy Powell backs her up on. However Ms Powell also says she is sure Cassi could be a success in New York when she is ready for it. So won’t that mean she would have to ‘lose weight’ then?

Anyway the article said:

I know the international market would want me to lose more weight,” Van Den Dungen said.

“I don’t want to lose any more weight. I’m happy with the way I am and I actually want to put the weight I lost from the stress of the show back on,” she said.

“I am already in between a size six and eight but I would like to be a more average size, say between eight and 10.”

She said it was worrying to see the lengths some models went to to reach industry standards.

“It freaks you out to see how skinny these girls can get. They have got to be unhealthy and not eating properly and if they are eating properly then they are not eating enough.”

Van Den Dungen’s Melbourne modelling agent Candy Powell believes her teenage model made the right choice.

“The international market would want Cassi to lose weight,” Powell said.

“I wouldn’t feel comfortable trying to press a 17-year-old girl to slim down from size six or eight to size four,” she said.

She felt the Australian modelling industry was more flexible about models’ weight.

“It’s one of the good things about working with local designers, they want to show clothes in more realistic sizes.

“I’m sure when she feels ready, Cassi can make it in New York.”

I am still trying to work out whether ‘losing weight’ is code for ‘I am not leaving my boyfriend Brad’.

The Herald Sun has an article saying Australia’s Next Top Model runner up Cassi Van Den Dungen will marry her bricklayer fiancee Brad Saul next year.

She also says that it was her decision not to go overseas to futher her career.

Van Den Dungen said it was her decision to mature first before heading overseas.

“It wasn’t his fault,” she said. “He was actually telling me if you want to go over there, it’s fine with me, do what you want to do.”

Photo above of Cassi at the David Jones launch courtesy of Zimbio.

Cassi modelling for Portmans

Frockwriter  has this excellent blog on how Alex Perry and Charlotte Dawson were caught out bitching about Cassi Van Den Dungen, the “bogan” who was runner-up on the latest Australia’s Next Top Model.

Apparently on Alex Perry’s Facebook page he said this amongst other things:
“YES ITS TRUE, SHE WONT SIGN ELITE CONTRACT… WE’RE TALKING ABOUT A GIRL WITH LOW INTELLIGENCE, GOING OUT WITH A MAN TEN YEARS OLDER OF A SIMILAR IQ…THE COMBINATION IS POWERFULLY STUPID … THE ICING ON THE IDIOT CAKE IS THAT SHE WANTS HIM TO BE HER MANAGER SO SHE DOESNT HAVE TO PAY AGENCY COMISSION (IM ASSUMING THEY WOULD ALSO HAVE AN ISSUE WITH PAYING TAX!!!) BUT CONSIDERING THAT HE DOESNT WORK, AND SHE’S TO STUPID TO, EVERYTHING MUST BE PEACHY KEEN IN SUNBURY!!!”

Charlotte Dawson also wrote stuff including “too true. Enough about the bogan … she’s someone elses nightmare now.”

When the Dawson was asked by Frockwriter author Patty Huntington whether these comments were true she said:

 ”Absolutely. I could not give a rat’s ass. They’re the sort of things I would say on the show. What’s wrong with them being on a Facebook page? That’s what I’m paid to do. I’m paid to call it as I see it.

“They’re not defamatory, they’re said with humour, not vitriol, and honesty. It was a situation that I was very much involved with.

“Her boyfriend, during the live finale, was grabbing his crotch and sticking his tongue out at me. You don’t know what this girl has gone and done to evoke the ire of a lot of people.

“We don’t give a shit. We’re coming from a place of personal experience and Cassi has very much frustrated and angered and disappointed a lot of people…. She’s upset her family terribly, she’s been a real nightmare and spat in the faces of people who supported her”.

Christ if the crotch grabbing is true that Brad Saul must be a huge tool. What is the story about making his own business, he does not even have his own job! I thought the whole point of her not going overseas was because he was building his own business.

So what do you do if you come runner up in a popular modelling TV show called Australia’s Next Top Model and you get mega bucks international contracts thrown at you? You turn them down and sign with a very small modelling agency in Melbourne the Courier Mail reports today.

Cassi Van Den Dungen has said she would prefer to just model out of Melbourne so she can stay with her 25 year old fiancee brick layer Brad Saul.

She has signed with the modelling agency she did child modelling with when she was five called The Tanya Powell Modelling Agency. They advise she will be doing a shoot for Portmans this weekend.

The fashion blogger Frockwriter gives an indepth analysis on what she thinks of this move by the 17 year old model, and gives further information about the agency.

Also Adele Theile who came fourth in the competition continues to be bitter towards Cassi for by accusing her of stealing other girls chances in this article in the The Herald Sun.

Photo from: www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph

Cassi Van Den Dungen’s financee must be great in the sack or there must be a lot of money in brick laying, as apparently there is a $2 million contract at her fathers place ready to be signed, and she is still not interested.

Cassi’s father has even asked her employer at the cafe she works in to have a chat to her.

Her former boss Eric Nania said her father Jack had asked him to talk to Cassi about the modelling offers.

“He thinks she will listen to me,” he said. “There’s a contract for $2 million sitting on his fax machine at home.”

Mr Van Den Dungen said last week that he was not putting any pressure on his glamorous daughter.

“The decision is up to her. I am very proud of what she has done on the show,” he said.

A production spokesperson told Hush, “I have spoken to Cassi and she told me that, although she might not sign with one of the bigger agencies and instead stay with one in Melbourne, she hasn’t turned her back on modelling.”

This is becoming a farce, and I would love to know why Brad is not encouraging her to take up an international modelling career. Jealousy perhaps?

Full story here.

Cassi Van Den Dungen has chosen her 25 year-old boyfriend over a modelling career. In today’s article in news.com.au it says she has turned down contracts with Priscilla’s and Elite in the US to stay in Sunbury with her fiancee.

Obviously Brad seems to feel there is more potential in his brick-laying business than encouraging the love of his life to have lucrative career. Cassi who was clearly mixed up and extremely emotionally immature on Australia’s Next Top Model is probably making the biggest mistake of her life. The fianacee is extremely dumb, uncouth, and how her mother thinks it is ok that she is engaged to him is a mystery.

Charlotte Dawson sums it up nicely:

“After seeing him (Saul) in the audience of the finale, I thought ‘That guy is going to ruin her life’,” she said. “We gave her so much love and support, maybe even more than the other girls, but at the back of my mind I knew she would do this and that’s why I couldn’t vote for her.”

Charlotte knows a lot about losers her ex-husband Scott Miller is currently facing jail for drug dealing.

Photo courtesy of news.com.au

Brad Saul in an article in the Daily Telegraph said it is unfair that his fiancee Cassi Van Den Dungen is called a bogan. He also said they had lost friends because she went on Australia’s Next Top Model.

Cassi who has said she would put her older fiancee’s brick laying business ahead of her own potential international modelling career. However he said she is now considering offers from the US.  Hopefully she will take them up.

Cassi, Sarah Murdoch, and THE FIANCEE...

In today’s Daily Telegraph there is an article that shows why Cassi Van Den Dungen should not have won the the title of Australia’s Next Top Model.

Apparently Elite Models New York are keen to sign Cassi and get her across for New York Fashion Week. However she feels it is more important for 25 year old fiancee Brad Saul’s bricklayer business gets going.

Here is what Cassi said about her priorities:

Elite are obsessed with Cassi,” said model agent Priscilla Leighton-Clark, who was also one of the judges. “If she makes the decision to do this – this could change her life,” Leighton-Clark said adding the agency was eager to see her in New York for the Fashion Week in September.

The 17-year-old stunned the industry this week when she said her priority was her 25-year-old brickie fiancee Brad Saul.

“Brad has just started up his career down here and I want to wait until we are both ready if we are going to go overseas,” she said. “I want to have a bit of money backed up behind us so we can get a house or something but setting up the bricklaying business is our priority.”

If Brad has any regard for Cassi he would tell her to go, and if the relationship survives then they can go for it. Clearly he is immature as he is going out with a 16 year old, and a pretty emotionally immature one at that.

I hope Cassi’s mother steps in and gets her to go to at least investigate her opportunities, or at the bare minimum refuses to give the permission to marry, which is required by law if she marries before she is 18.

Brad proposed to try and keep her, or use her a meal ticket. Harsh I know and flame me if you think I am wrong.

I just hope we will not see a story in Woman’s Day in four years time of Cassi with two kids talking about lost opportunities.

Just found her interview on http://tvweek.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=835521 when asked what her next step is she says this:

The next step is working in Melbourne and maybe coming up to Sydney but hopefully not too much. I don’t like travelling too much. After that, when I’m ready, I’m not in the headspace right now but in six months or so, I want to go international.

Fingers crossed she goes.

Also here is Tahnee’s TV Week interview.