Tossing Salad with Models ~ ‘America’s Next Top Model’ Cycle 17 Blog (‘ANTM’)

It was that time again for the models to pack their bags and head off to a destination the show has never gone to before.  Love or hate ‘Top Model’ you do have to give the producers credit for always going someplace new.  I sometimes wish they would return to Paris, but I like the idea that they go all over the world and in a small way (in terms of reality television) it demonstrates that fashion is universal.  This time they went to Greece.  Of course they had the bit, which I suppose now is a ‘ANTM’ tradition, of showing a mock up plane with pictures of each of the contestants flying to their next adventure.  A friend commented that the ‘Brady Bunch’ traveled much the same way when they went to Hawaii for vacation.

 

                The first challenge for the women when they landed was to meet with foreign press and local dignitaries and tell them a little about themselves along with using Greek words.  My girl Allison won and received a golden bracelet which I hope was made from actual gold because otherwise it would not be very cool (it resembled something you might find on the sales rack of Charming Charlie).  Of course there were the usual gaffes made by the usual suspects, but I’ll discuss all of that later.

 

                The photo challenge was in a word: stupid.  The women were assigned to wear underwear that looked like bathing suits and were required to sit in an actual oversize salad bowl and pose amongst the lettuce, tomatoes, and the world’s biggest chucks of feta while all oiled up.  It really was a WTF thing.  Thinking back I believe Bianca may have been onto something about objecting about sitting in a bathtub.  I don’t think they had separate bowls so one model after another sat in the same oily salad mix as the one before her…yuck.  First, if you are selling underwear are potential buyers really convinced that this is something they need to buy by showing a woman wearing a matching bra and panties with a wayward piece of romaine lettuce stuck to her thigh?  Seriously, something like this could be understandable as a fantasy Olive Garden endless salad advertisement, but don’t pretend that this shoot was about anything else besides testing Shannon who had let it be known in early episodes about what lines she won’t cross for modeling.  Namely she isn’t going to do the underwear thing.  I understand that the underwear looked like a bathing suit, so give her a bathing suit because the audience had no idea what brand of underwear the models were wearing.   

 

                The last general observation I will make is that I’m appalled in regards to complexions of most of the contestants.  Granted Angelea has obviously had problems in the past weeks, but now Allison and Laura (maybe Shannon too if memory serves) seem to have all been plagued with the pimple contagion.  I don’t know if it is the stress of the completion or traveling or even a combination of several issues, I just know that if these problems are apparent on TV so they must be horrendous in person.  In the end it doesn’t seem very ‘Top Model’ at all.

 

                Shannon Ratiff did not do the photo shoot and unlike the first season when she and another contestant refused to pose in the buff and she survived to compete as a finalist, she was sent home for not jumping into the salad sauna bowl.  I have already said, maybe in not in so many words, I think Shannon was set up.  She was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t.  If she posed then she would be violating a line she had said she wouldn’t cross ergo alienating her fan base (I don’t know what sort of fan base these women have but since they have talked about their fans throughout the season I’m going to take their word on it).  I think Shannon proved herself game for many things but she was stickler for the underwear thing.  I can’t help but wonder if the producers kept her around in order for her to dramatically nix this challenge.  Honestly, you couldn’t tell on television if the models were wearing underwear or bathing suits but she was adamant.  As I noted earlier, if they were actually selling a brand of undergarments they probably wouldn’t do so in a faux salad – it is as impractical as it is unappetizing.    

 

                Lisa D’Amato did well this week.  I believe her photo was in the running for first call out.  If anyone has the body to pose in a man-sized salad it would be her.  She could have won the introduction challenge if she didn’t confound the delegation by saying something like ‘Let’s rock-n-roll!’ at the end of her speech. 

 

                Dominique Reighard won first call out, it may have been her first.  She wore her hair natural for judging and it looked very nice, it was suggested that she wear it that way more often, which I’m sure she will.  I liked her picture but it reminded me too literally that she was posing in the middle of a salad. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                Allison Harvard won the press conference challenge almost by default since she was the only one who used Greek words without screwing the pooch in the end.  Her photo wasn’t helped much by her problems with keeping her eyes open.  I wasn’t too crazy for the photographer; something about him just came off wrong.  Her picture was with her eyes shut and it was one of her weaker offering, but since Laura and she are friends she may have caught whatever bug Laura was battling. 

 

                Laura Kirpatrick found herself in the bottom two for the first time in this competition.  She was freaked out by the delegation challenge since she has dyslexia and admitted she has trouble enough with words in her native tongue let alone foreign.  Despite her issues she did come off as charming.  She was ill during the photo shoot but was a trooper.  The judges thought her picture had too much of a sexpot look which didn’t fit into her branding.  In Laura’s defense I found some other pictures of her posted on the ‘Top Model’ site that were much better so why did they select the one in question?

 

 

 

 

                Angelea Preston keeps limping along in the competition.  She did very well with the delegation speech up until the end when she asked where the ‘bano’ was.  Yes, to prove your ease with the environment you should ask where the bathroom is because it charms every time.  Later Mr. Jay pointed out that she doesn’t have a very strong middle and it affects her photos which I thought was an interesting observation and as I watched her pose I could see it was true.  She is thin, but because her stomach muscles don’t seem very strong her middle looks pudgy at some angles.  Regardless of her saggy mid-section, her picture got her through and for the first time in weeks she wasn’t in the bottom.  I will give Angelea this, she always makes interesting observations and this time around she was happy that Shannon stuck to her ‘no underwear’ ethics because Angelea knew it meant that she could model for another week. 

 

                That’s it for this week. For more info on the show check out the show’s official website here.

 

Here are links to previous blog entries.

                   ‘America’s Next Top Model’ Super Duper Cycle 17 ~ ‘ANTM’ ALL STARS Blog 

                   Models on Stilts ~ ‘America’s Next Top Model’ Cycle 17 Blog (‘ANTM’)

                     The Adventures of Elderly Models ~ ‘America’s Next Top Model All Stars’ Blog Cycle 17 (‘ANTM’)

                Honoring an Iconic (Alleged) Pedophile ~ America’s Next To Model Blog Cycle 17 (ANTM)

                Model on Model Violence ~ ‘America’s Next Top Model’ Cycle 17 (‘ANTM’) Blog

                To Model in a Bathtub or Not ~ ‘America’s Next Top Model’ Cycle 17 Blog (‘ANTM’)

                Pot Ledom Means ‘Top Model’ Spelled Backwards ~ ‘America’s Next Top Model’ Cycle 17 Blog (‘ANTM’)

 

 

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