America’s Next Top Model 10, Episode 5: Painting By the Numbers

In the corner, while the other girls are getting their hair and makeup done, Marvita is sitting with a turtleneck covering her mouth, sunglasses, and a toboggan over her head. She looks sort of like Kenny on South Park where all you can see is a sliver of face. Jay tries to coach her into doing what the judges want her to do and not let last week’s downfall get her down.

Lauren, Aimee, and Stacy-Ann go through their shoots and all look incredible. These girls are stepping up their games. I can’t wait to see how the actual photos come out. Katarzyna struggles at first, then turns out a great photo. Whitney keeps opening her mouth, which makes her look almost too pinup. Jay says that she has an effortless, timeless beauty that she needs to harness.

Anya’s shoot is a little odd, and she’s followed by Claire, who rocks it. Dominique is back and Jay says that he’s scared of her. He’s afraid she is going to come off too harsh. Amazingly enough, this shoot softens her. You can see how beautiful she really is and how much her eyes pop while she’s taking these photos. Jay says that it’s her best shoot yet, and at this point, I agree.

Fatima struggles through her session as she poses and overanalyzes her moves. She doesn’t smile nor does she do much different with each shot. Oh, and she’s way too skinny, to the point she looks emaciated.

Finally we have ghetto-girl Marvita. Jay cringes through the whole shoot, then stops the photographer for a moment to tell Marvita to do something other than the tough-girl. He thinks she’s checked out of it. And to me, I think he’s onto something. She’s lost her fight. This isn’t a good sign, and I’m sure Jay will bring something up about her shoot to the judges.

Finally, it’s panel time. Tyra looks beautiful in a gold woven dress that looks as if it could’ve been designed by Rami from this season’s Project Runway. First up is Dominique. She comes down looking as if she’s stunned to be called first for judging. Her photo is just beautiful and soft. She doesn’t look like the drag queen she usually portrays. The camera just captured a stunning side of her today.

Anya and Katarzyna are next. Both have beautiful shots as well, but the subtlety between the two is in the eyes. Katarzyna’s photo has just a slight squint in her eyes that makes you draw your own to her photo more.

Fatima the train wreck comes down to the judges and they tear into her as soon as her photo comes up. The picture itself is good, not great, but everyone is completely distracted by the armpit hair! The girl doesn’t shave! What the heck? Models are supposed to have huge, voluminous hair only on their heads, not sprouting from everywhere else. They tell her that a one-dollar razor is a heck of a lot cheaper than the thousand it would cost a client to edit out her pit hair. Oh, and her photo isn’t bad.

Lauren plops down to the judges and seems to be embarrassed. The camera pans down to her shoes and she’s wearing high-top Converse. How funny! She apologizes to the panel, saying that she can’t find her shoes. The panel laughs, saying that they were probably stolen at the pose-off, and once they find out she’s a size 10 shoe, they know they were probably stolen. At least they take it well.

Lauren, to me, just doesn’t look like a model if you were to just look at her on the street, but she takes amazing photos. This one is no different. It just grabs your eye and makes you want to look at it.

Whitney saunters up there and the judges don’t say much about her photo other than she looks like she was self-conscious. Vendela thinks that during the challenge she didn’t take it seriously, but Whitney says that she does want to win this competition. She was just mimicking what she saw of Benny’s street dancers.

Claire always looks so poised as she comes down. I think her maturity in being a mother and wife show through on this show as she seems the most “adult” of the bunch. She looks a bit like a soft version of the singer Annie Lennox in her photo. It’s edgy, but radiant. The judges’ only comment is that she should’ve lengthened her neck a bit more as it seems hidden in this photo.

Marvita schlumps down, coming across as defeated. Her photo is sad looking, but not all bad. The judges don’t tear it apart. They did hear back from the shoot that she wasn’t doing as well as she could.

Nearing the end is Stacy-Ann, whose photo really pops. The makeup she has is bright turquoise; with her skin tone, it’s very exotic. The judges like her photo, but say that there were many in her series that she had difficulty in using her hands and neck.

Rounding out the group is Aimee. Her photo is nice and average; nothing really good or bad. The judges’ only comment is that her skin is luminous, and one judge says that she’s really a chameleon. This must be good for her portfolio.

The judges deliberate. They’re not as impressed with Katarzyna, Anya, and Fatima. They really don’t think Whitney has more than a beautiful face shot. They see through Marvita’s lack of confidence. They really like Stacy-Ann and Lauren.

Tyra goes through the same breathy dialogue she does every week to build up fake tension about who will be staying and who will go. She pulls the photos of Stacy-Ann, Dominique, Claire, Anya, Lauren (to whom Tyra whispers an apology for stealing her shoes), Aimee, Katarzyna, and finally Fatima. Dang! This leaves Marvita and my favorite, Whitney.

Please don’t take Whitney, Tyra! She has some character and spunk in that house. Tyra tells the girls that both are getting feedback about not taking the competition seriously and seeming as if they want it. She pulls the final photo, which belongs to Whitney, who seems to want it a little more. Whew!

Marvita tells us that she has overcome plenty of fears while being at the house and through the experience. She’s leaving a changed person. What a classy exit.

Next week, Tyra has the girls in red leotards and striking poses with emotion. And everyone, including calm, cool Claire, has had enough of Dominique. Whoa, it looks like we’ll have another catfight on our hands. We’ll see you next week!

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Kari’s favorite photos are taken spontaneously in photo booths. Which were your favorite girls for the week? You can send her comments at flystorms2@yahoo.com.

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