Finalewatch: 'America's Next Top Model'
Well, ladies (and Gus), the time is nigh. The time when the heavens open up, choirs of angels sing, a plume of white smoke rises and the voice of God - you thought God would sound more like Charlton Heston than Tyra Banks? silly of you - proclaims 'America's Next Top Model'. And if it's not Anya, so help me Tyra...
Viva Roma, and all that, and our three ladies traipse along the cobblestones. Anya, wearing that same rabbity eye makeup as last week, says that she is a lot more confident than she was when the competition began. Personally, I think it's the hair. Mona Tyra gives the girls their lines early so she won't have to put them "on blast." So relevant with the lingo! Is it eight years ago already? Sigh. Everyone is completely thrilled that this commercial will be in English.
The next morning, Mr. Jay and Brent Poer (they're like a box set of pocket gays!) reveal that the girls will be shooting both a tv commercial and a print ad for Cover Girl, and that the winner's ad will adorn a billboard in Times Square. Ok, that's pretty cool. Even cooler, Tootie's here! Oh, no, it's just Saleisha. Saleisha reveals that, when she was in the top three, she was both - wait for it - nervous and excited! You don't say! While in hair and makeup, darling little Anya starts crying, concerning both her friend Whitney and Saleisha. Whitney seems unsympathetic but is actually just stunned - Anya is always so optimistic, this is really uncharacteristic of her. If she pulls a Marvita, I will be so, so disappointed in her incomprehensible little butt.
Fatima is up first to film her commercial, and she has the words memorized, but she just shoots right through the lines. You know how she can't stop at the end of the runway? How she plows right through that pause? This is essentially that, in verbal form. Whitney (unforgivably sleeveless) has more trouble with the lines but is a born pitchwoman. Anya can't pronounce words. Period. But she's so bubbly and happy and adorable. She is so fricking excited about this mascara, it's amazing. The photo shoots are next. Whitney and Anya rock their shoots, while Fatima borrows from Stacy-Ann's old Modeling 101 playbook.
Back at the flat, Mona Tyra tells her girls that tomorrow is panel. Wait, we're only 20 minutes into the episode! At panel, Anya is wearing a sweater dress I would kill for. Whitney's commercial is up first, and she clearly stumbles over a few words, and does that thing where she shakes her head like a horse. Paulina thinks it's incredibly pageant, which of course, it is. Whitney's print ad is amazing. Absolutely amazing. I would buy mascara from that woman, as long as she was in a still photo. Up next is Fatima, who completely flubs the lines and just says words, without meaning behind them. Her picture is pretty but her eyes are focused too high, which - praise the Lord - Tyra uses as an opportunity to demonstrate smiling with her eyes. YES!!! I live for this crap. Anya's commercial is so freaking cute, but she's impossible to understand, and she doesn't know her lines. Tyra says, rightly, that it was A. a total train wreck and B. the best commercial of the three. Interestingly, there's one camera on Nigel watching the commercial, and he's beaming and blushing and looking like a 14-year-old boy. Yep. He even admits that Anya's charming. Her print ad is lovely but Paulina thinks Anya looks stupid in it. Tyra disagrees. And girlfriend clearly knows from dumb. Oh, so we're just eliminating one girl for now and...oh my holy crap there's a runway challenge, and Donatella Versace is involved, and I really want to be her when I grow up, and I just had a teeny tiny heart attack. Donatella PLUS eye-smiling? Amazing. J'adore. Anya is called first - no surprise there. And then Whitney, which...you know my Donatella was not pleased about this, ah, sizable development.
So, America's Next Top Model will be a blonde! Anya thinks that it was beautiful when Whitney cried, and you know that all Anya wanted to do was hug her and tell her she hopes Whitney wins, which in an odd way she genuinely does. The girls arrive at the studio for their Seventeen photo shoots with Ann Shoket (hi Ann!) and, notably, Nigel Barker. Wow, has Anya lost weight or was she always this thin? Her legs don't look like they should hold her up. Les Jays meet the girls at the runway site, where they learn that they will be walking with real models. And Saleisha! Who was plucked from her day job at the Cover Girl factory. The male models are in speedos, painted with gold leaf. I really, really want to see Mr. Jay sitting next to Donatella. Who is oranger? Who is blonder? Who can tell? The judges make their way down the runway, and then the models go: Saleisha leads out in an incredible glittery gold column with a ruched taffeta bodice. Anya has a little skip to her step, but her posing at the end of the runway is awesome, and she rocks her train. Whitney stomps down the runway - girlfriend gives good walk - and doesn't flinch when her strap slides off her arm. Her second walk is equally good, even though her dress keeps flowing into her shoes. Anya's second dress is very difficult to walk in, and looks it. She's a little bit Lauren, actually. Both girls have an appropriate amount of wiggle to their final walk, and they both look gorgeous. Wait, where was Donatella?
Final panel, which apparently means that Morticia Addams did Tyra's makeup, and there was an industrial-strength flatiron applied to that weave. Miss Jay feels that Anya's walk wasn't as strong as it could have been, but Paulina really stands up for her - her dresses were far more difficult to move in. Whitney looked so good she reminded Tyra of Tyra. We go into a side-by-side retrospective of each week's photo shoots. The panel deliberates. Paulina really hits the nail on the head, to me, when she says that Whitney's the girl you want in the bedroom, but Anya's the girl you buy a dress from. The models enter in their Versace dresses. America's Next Top Model is....Whitney. Shut UP! Oh, Tyra really really wanted this. You know she wanted this. Anya is going to go home and cry, but she is proud of herself and she really should be. And, honestly, Whitney better represents an American woman, an American beauty, than Anya. So congratulations. And thank you, Whitney, for taking Saleisha off my freaking television screen forever.
Check out Whitney's America's Next Top Model Portfolio.
Thoughts? Complaints? "Anya was robbed"s? No matter how we all feel about the results, there is comfort in knowing that there are approximately seven cycles of this show a year...so nobody's on top for long...
i'm actually very pleased with the decision, and was more so pleased after hearing whitney's closing words - absolutely she represents the "real" girl, and will give encouragement to all those girls out there with the beautiful faces and the full-figured bodies - to feel confident and know that they can do anything they set their mind to...way to go whitney!!
i love love loved that final pink dress that whitney wore. i honestly thought anya was going to win....until this episode. she just fell apart. i am really glad that whitney won. and i dont think she was advanced to the finale without earning it. she has been consistent all season...and the potential is there. her walk was so good. anya just needed more personality.
I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. While sure, there were some things about Whitney that could definitely use some training, she really did have what it takes to be a successful model...looks, enthusiasm, personality, ability to take critique and direction, and well, (that make-up guy said it best) "the first juicy booty on the runway". Yeay! I'm sure Tyra did have an agenda from the beginning - she wanted a plus size girl to win - but Whitney brought her A game and that's what got her the prize. And, like Kelley, I was very impressed with Whitney's closing words.
Anya, I do feel sad for you because I know how much you wanted it. You gave it your very best. There...now I can be *****y. Anya, you were driving me crazy with that nasal, monotone voice!!! (Hearing her drag out the end of the word "competition"...arghhh!) Also, after watching her the whole season, I JUST realized that she never, ever shows her bottom teeth. Even when she speaks or smiles. Something was strange about her look to me and I couldn't put my finger on it until almost the very end. She shows upper teeth all the time...her upper lip doesn't move, just the bottom. (Like a muppet!!) That said, I'm not too worried about her, though. She will certainly get picked up by an agency and will get plenty of work.
Fatima, on the other hand, I don't think will get work in the industry. Too much going on there. And she needs to put on at least SOME weight. She's just not healthy.
So, bravo to Whitney!! Her commercials next season will be SO MUCH BETTER than Saleisha's boring prattle.
Bye!
Whitney didn't deserve the title. The constant reference of skinny woman not being real woman upsets me. Being full figured doesn't mean you are a real woman in my book. Fatima and Anya will be signed to an agency in a matter of time. But seriously do they think Whitney will ever get another major campaign besides this cover girl contract she will be lucky if even gets book for a job from a serious fashion designer. The fashion industry won't change because Tyra now wants to make a statemnet that will be forgotten in the coming weeks.
Whitney will never make it.
Nope I don't think they got it right this time!! Anya was never in the bottom two, we lost count of the times Whitney ended there! To take that final walk as the test that sinched the win is ridiculous. How many challenges did Anya win & wasn't one of them a walk in a desighner dress that she got to keep. Way to go Anya!! You rock girl!!!
Anya looks great- can't talk, 'nough said
First of all, Whitney's pink dress was AMAZING.
Second, it seems obvious that Tyra was trying to make a statement by letting the full figured model with merely mediocre pictures walk away with the title, but I'm okay with that. I just wish Tyra would actually look at all of the pictures from the season when she makes that final decision. Paulina is a voice of reason on the panel, but Tyra doesn't really care. That's a little depressing.
Both Anya and Whitney should be proud of themselves, though. I hope they both prove to be successful!
I actually gasped when they called Whitney! I am so excited! GO WHITNEY! She was real on this show. She rocked her pictures and took the judges advice on everything. She never cracked under the pressure either. She is awesome and will be a great covergirl! It is crazy to think she won't get booked either. Toccara (sp) is a very successful model after her stink on Top Model so there is no reason that Whitney can't be either.
Loved that Whitney won! That pink dress was gorgeous. Going down the runway in it made me think of the Victoria's Secret runway shows. And, yes, Jewel, skinny girls are real women too but Whitney's figure is the one people see walking down the streets everyday.
I agree with YES! Whitney didn't crack under the pressure that ruined the other larger girls' chances. Going into it, she knew who she was and what she wanted, and kept her focus in the right place. Even when the other girls gave her sh*t about it, she kept her cool. (Remember when Stacy outright called her fat? Ummmm, where is Stacy now?)
BTW, for anyone to complain that skinny women are treated unfairly here - that's just ridiculous. "Being full figured doesn't mean you are a real woman in my book."??? There are so many different shapes and sizes of women in this world, and they can ALL be beautiful. This show has had some of the skinniest, least-curvy women I've ever seen, and they've done quite well. There's no reason why a woman with some shape to her figure can't reach those same levels of success in the industry.