America's Next Top Model

I moved here for the FREEDOM TO CHOOSE.

Or was it burritos and Amoeba?

So Adrianne won?

She was on Regis and Kathy Lee this morning!

*starts polishing rifle*

Damn caching of pages!

http://www.upn.com/shows/top_model1/images/home_season2b.jpg

Oh really?

http://wwwimage.upn.com/shows/top_model5/images/models/bio_pic_kim.jpg

I hate Twiggy. Way too middle-aged proper Brit.

Lisa is hot. She will be top three.

I'm not upset to see her go. I thought she was a nice person, but average looking at best. Also, Cassandra can suck it with her Roxette hair. She's SO MOD. Anyone else see it?

I thought Ebony was gorgeous but didn't know what she was doing. Right now it's a three-way race between Kim (YAY), Lisa (boo) and... Cassandra (BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO). Nicole (?) and Nik (YAY) are the dark horses.

met kahlen from cycle 4 last night (not that i recognized her; it's kinda how she introduced herself). she was talking shit about tyra, which was hilarious. she also mentioned that every year, she sends tyra a christmas card full of dolphin stickers, since tyra is apparently scared to death of dolphins.

hahahahahahahahahahahaha that is so fucking awesome

i forgot to post the best part of the exchange!

my boyfriend: you should drop a live dolphin on top of tyra and crush her
kahlen: oh no... i could never do that to a dolphin

Midget Edition starts in a month.

Also, ♥ Kahlen.

wait seriously?
xpost

starting from the beginning....

still love Adrianne xxx

some all-time favourite moments:

Jade's "wonderful, fabulous" Covergirl advert
everyone in Season 10 struggling with the Covergirl advert in a foreign language
Alexandria vs Brittani and Tyra's "I don't want you here but I'm outnumbered so whatever" speech
the autocue challenge that led to Tyra yelling at Tiffany
Cassie refusing a second haircut despite having already had most of it hacked off
Kahlen's grave photoshoot and Keenyah being given "gluttony" as a theme
"what is your name?" "naime" "your name?"
Dionne - "what the fuck is on my baby's head?"
"I just want to let you know that some people have war in their countries"
Angelea, doing anything

this show was the greatest before All Stars. The show doesn't need men, or gimmick themes, or a new host in Rita Ora: it needs to go back to the basics. Find a dozen young pretty women willing to argue on camera for producers, and let them find increasingly creative ways to humiliate them through the medium of photography.

everyone in Season 10 struggling with the Covergirl advert in a foreign language

DOMINIQUE. i can't. rofl.

also agreed with a big fat NO to anyone but Tyra hosting

wait Rita Ora is the new host? how many different ways are they going to try to make her into A Thing?

RIGHT

My wife and I watched this last night. They set up a bunch of obvious callback-to-previous-cycles drama (combative trans woman insulting everyone around her, two cast members fall in love) and then promptly didn't put the people fueling it into the top 14, which was kind of hilarious. Also hilarious was Tyra showing up to give a "you must be a brand, like ME" pep talk and then ending it with "my brand is so fly now that I don't even have to be here so PEACE" and Rita Ora acting like she is a household name.

They did get Ashley Stewart on the judging panel, which is cool. Also, all 14 of the finalists actually look like models this cycle, which may be the first time in the show's history.

Ashley Graham is so likeable and fun and seems to be able to offer useful, constructive, critiques. Rita Ora is a mix of useless and irritating: her brand seems to be "I am famous because it was decided I should be famous" and her dilletantism is so apparent. She can't even deliver a NotTyraMail without reading it from a cue card.

The highlight of this season so far is Marissa pouring milk down her couture dress in the name of avant-garde fashion. The constant fighting is so boring and predictable, even if the inferred idea that Courtney threw herself down the stairs was hilarious. I will be shocked if Courtney, Cody and Tatiana aren't the final trio.

so the new season has aired a few episodes and it is DEFINITELY a return to form - and by form, I mean, unnecessarily cruel and hilariously so. We've had a girl with alopecia be given a makeover which consisted of binning her wigs. We've had a Trump voter given a terrible dye job - "you voted red, so you get red." We've had a girl quit because she thinks the other girls are sociopaths engaging in deep psychological warfare (her words!) because... they stayed up at night and then wouldn't let her skip the queue for the shower. The photoshoot themes have included one with a prosthetic baby bump where the girls had to fiercely glow.

also in a similar vein I can't recommend "Making A Model With Yolanda Hadid" enough. It's basically ANTM for 13-15 year olds, helmed by Bella and Gigi's mother, and the contestants have their own mothers stay with them too. Highlights so far have included Yolanda actively causing confrontation at every possible moment, a girl crying on a gymnastic set being told "it hurts? well... that's fashion", and a mother asking if anyone would like to be her surrogate at some point.

Omg I'm so happy to be watching this show again

It's just the best isnt it

has anyone been watching the Jays on Instagram spilling secrets from the early seasons?

Y‘all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64eaReTHCgc

"you wanted more" yes I definitely did want multiple episodes of race-switching photoshoots

Jokes aside, I'm not really sure how I feel about this historical critique of the show that seems to have sprung up in the past few years. When you apply to be on a reality show - any reality show, and especially something like this after the first few seasons - you cannot be naive enough to think they're not going to try to manipulate and humiliate you for entertainment purposes. The payoff is that you get the fame, the recognition - and in this show's case - the modelling work, even if it's not quite the cover of American Vogue or whatever.

I don't think that cosplaying racial stereotypes was ever acceptable even with Tyra's "I just want to show all races are beautiful!" angle. And there's some really uncomfortable moments in the early seasons where e.g Jaeda and Keenyah are subject to some very innappropriate behaviour from male models that should have been handled differently. But giving them absurd challenges that feel difficult doesn't seem unfair when you consider how the fashion industry, and modelling in particular, is so cut-throat and ruthless.

The best bits of this show didn't involve outlandish stunts though. They involved ridiculous people being given enough space to be themselves. Cycle 6 gave us Jade and Furonda, Cycle 8 gave us Natasha, Renee, Jael, Dionne, Brittani and Kathleen, Cycle 16 gave us Alexandria and Brittani. I can hardly remember the photoshoots but "I just wanna let you know, some people have war in their countries" lives in my head rent-free still.

This show remains my problematic fave, basically.

looking forward to the doc!

idk i cannot get enough of behind the scenes dirt now that the show is in our rear view mirror. however bonkers it seemed at the time, it feels like the truth was worse bc Tyra is NUTS

those contestants truly went thru it in ways that were deeply fucked for TV let alone fashion and i am here for everyone knowing that

the Shandi stuff in the documentary was exceptionally grim.

Mr Jay came across as particuarly disingenuous, and the narrative changed to suit his needs a lot. "I wanted to leave" but then stayed for another nine cycles.

Miss Jay broke my heart but it was great to see those facial expressions tell a full story at the end.