'Top Model': Yup, Size Does Matter
Two models came under the microscope last night -- one for being not so micro.
But first, a quick catch-up: Before we were SO rudely interrupted by last week's totally unhelpful recap episode, "America's Next Top Model" hooked us pretty good with a judging twist: With nine girls left, Ebony up and bolted from the show a couple of weeks back, moments after being deemed the girl in the bottom two with the most "potential" (as they say on "ANTM").
What she left behind was "She of Lesser Potential" Ambreal, who returned this week to fret endlessly about how she "isn't supposed to be here."
For the other models, it was more like a problem solved. Wednesday, they offered snide statements of the "If she couldn't handle it, she shouldn't have been here" variety (as well as a few not-so-well concealed anxious looks), and then erased all thoughts of Ebony -- *poof* -- just as fast as she was gone from the group shot!
All of which brings us to the "UN-micro" Sarah, who is neither stick-thin nor plus-size -- but who IS feeling the figurative pinch of being bigger than the other girls. They shake their jelly for the camera and obsess over "fat" body parts and having to wear size 3s, and we want to pelt them with doughnuts. Imagine how Sarah feels, living in the same house as these Walking Eating Disorders.
The cracks in Sarah's confidence show as the ladies are prepped -- by Tyra, who, in yet another twist, decided to show up before the typical 45 minutes had passed -- to look sexy, not hoochie (in the world of music videos). To accomplish that, she hands them the official uniform of every non-hoochie: flesh-colored body stockings and knee pads.
And did you catch Tyra huffing and puffing her way through her model walk? Girlfriend was channeling Britney's sluggish "dancing" at the VMAs! Word to Tyra: Even Katie Holmes ran a marathon; we're sure the paparazzi would follow you if you could deftly make it across a hundred-foot room!
Heather was the other girl feeling a lot of heat. The fan fave was singled out for her complete and absolute perfection. "Heather has a Tim Burtonesque sexiness," says Tyra, with a straight face and everything.
Heather wowed music-video director Jesse Terrero in the challenge, vamping it up for Enrique Iglesias's "Tired of Being Sorry" video. Of course, all this before she took a dramatic tumble after a long day of shooting in a heated room with no food. Dramatic being relative, we have to note we felt so much more sorry for her than we did for "DWTS's" Marie Osmond when she hit the deck. Heather, who has a mild form of autism called Asperger's, needed an ambulance. And oxygen. See how it's done, Marie?
Heather's fall doesn't count against her, and in the end, it's Sarah and blond bombshell Chantal standing before Tyra as the bottom two contestants, "coasting" through the competition, they're told.
Ultimately, it's Sarah's face missing from the last picture, and she has to pack it in. She cried harder than we're used to seeing, gasping for air between sobs. Those tears seemed to have more to do with relief than disappointment; the pressure in the house over body image, much of it in Sarah's own head, seems to have gotten to be too much to bear.
Lavanya Ramanathan
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November 8, 2007; 8:32 AM ET
America's Next Top Model
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Posted by: BC | November 8, 2007 1:24 PM
Yeah, the editing is superobvious. I felt soo bad for Sarah this week - like she came into the show a perfectly normal, pretty, pleasant person, and had her spirit torn up and stomped on by Tyra and her minions.
Posted by: h3 | November 9, 2007 4:01 PM
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Is it just me or do they virtually telegraph who is going to be in the bottom two and who is going to eventually lose out nearly every week... it is getting a bit boring to watch the whole show these days.