America's Next Top Model: A Preview

Beauty, glamour, girlie stuff... everything I love! America's Next Top Model, beginning May 20 on UPN, seeks to find the next golden girl of the modeling industry. The premise is 10 real women living in a New York penthouse being filmed 24 hours a day as they learn the ins and outs of the business, including complicated cat walks, fashion shoots, honing their publicity skills, and undergoing rigorous fitness regimes. Who will show the inner and outer beauty necessary to move on and who will be eliminated? And how important is inner beauty in the modeling world? These are the questions. Another question is just how complicated a cat walk can really be. The girls, ranging in age from 18-26, will face weekly tasks determining who will be eliminated and who will move on to the finals where they will undergo a modeling "boot camp." Which begs yet another question: What on earth is a modeling boot camp? The winner will have the opportunity to receive a Revlon modeling contract and representation by Wilhelmina Models, and will be guaranteed an appearance in Marie Claire magazine.

An interesting aside, it was reported on Dateline a couple nights ago, April 19, 2003, that Wilhelmina Models scouting practices are being investigated due to joining forces with former Trans Continental Talent, Inc. (TCT) to form Wilhelmina Scouting Network March 21, 2003. You can find more information at http://modelingscams.itgo.com/news.html. I wonder if the "opportunity" to be represented by Wilhelmina Models is an bona fide contract with the legitimate agency started in 1967 by model Wilhelmina Cooper, which is unquestionably one of the top modeling agencies in the world, or merely to be featured in the searchable online database of the scouting network. There is a world of difference.

Enough of my hard-hitting investigative news journalism - back to the shallow waters of pretty girls on reality TV...

Judging the participants are:

• Tyra Banks, supermodel herself and creator and executive producer of this show.
• Janice Dickinson, one of the world's first supermodels from the '70s and '80s, who now owns her own make-up line.
• Beau Quillian, fashion editor for Marie Claire.
• Kimmora Lee Simmons, CEO of Baby Phat, "former muse of Karl Lagerfeld for the house of Chanel," model, and hip-hop socialite.

The last brings up another question, doesn't it? How does one become a muse to the degree you can put it on your résumé? Does that pay well? There will also be a weekly guest judge bringing specific expertise from various facets of the beauty industry.

Let's meet the would-be supermodels...

Adrianne Curry, age 20, from Joliet, Illinois. Stats: Long brown hair, green eyes, 5' 10 1/2", 123 lbs., occupation - waitress. She loves '60s music including Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix. I do too so I already like her. She has a pink toed tarantula in addition to more run of the mill pets like her two dogs and a cat. Do tarantulas come with pink toes? I hope so, since if the pink is due to her giving her spider pedicures that's a little more eccentric than I am comfortable with.

Ebony Haith, age 24, from the Bronx, New York. Stats: shaved head, brown eyes, 5'10", 125 lbs., occupation - make-up artist. She describes herself as comical, charismatic, beautiful, and religious. I hope by comical she means she has a sense of humor since I think you would need one to be critiqued regularly on television. She lists The Real World as one of her favorite shows and I wish she had named her favorite season so I could judge her. I think you can tell a lot about people by their pick for top Real World cast. The best would be first season New York or second season L.A., and if you say Miami you should never be allowed to own a television, much less appear on it.

Elyse Sewell, age 20, from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Stats: Short brown hair, blue eyes, 5' 10", 120 lbs. occupation - clinical researcher. She has a BS in biology and a BS in Spanish and it is of note that she completed both degrees in three years. Her life motto is a quote from Perutz: "How could the search for ultimate truth have revealed so hideous and visceral-looking an object?" So she is beautiful with an intimidating intellect. (I consider myself a fairly well-read and intelligent woman so I hate anyone whose life motto is a quote that whooshes over my head. Actually I hate anyone who has a life motto.) Will her braininess help or hurt her in this basically superficial contest? She does watch Elimidate, however, so that has to take the edge off the intellect somewhat.