America’s Next Top Model, Cycle 8, Finale: Cha Cha Cha
All the bitchiness, posing, cattiness, posing, snippiness and posing finally come down to this. Of course, it’s Covergirl week and the girls have to do an ad-libbed commercial, each in a different locale. Caridee comes by to offer advice. She seems so much more mature than the goofy girl I remember from the last cycle. Also watching is Brent from Covergirl, who would be working with ANTM.
Natasha wrote out a script for herself that was devoid of personality but her second try was great. Renee started it with “when I had a baby nine months ago I thought my life was over.” Um, do-over. Her second take was stellar and she even managed to toss in “easy, breezy, beautiful.” Jaslene also needed a second try to get her Latina edge out. She busted out the Spanish, which the Covergirl dude loved.
Still the girls were still riding the Covergirl wave at the photo shoot. Natasha was playful and giggly, Renee came out looking too old and Jaslene’s face almost froze from all that smiling.
Panel included the designers of Sass & Bide, who were going to have the top two girls in their fashion show. Twiggy was all about Natasha. Nigel thought that Natasha’s willingness to learn was great. He also thought Renee looked too old and didn’t have a fresh look but he also worried about Jaslene’s lack of commercial appeal. Finally, Renee was let go and you could see that she was in shock. Karma’s a bitch, girl, ain’t it?
The next day brought a Seventeen shoot that would be the winning girl’s spread. They dressed up Natasha in dresses but made Jaslene look ‘round the way. Way to not stereotype, Seventeen. Then Tyra got all talk show and had a private moment with each of the girls. She asked Natasha about Russia and Natasha came out with a very sad, overly dramatic, slightly unbelievable story about having no money which I think was mostly about justifying the whole mail order bride thing. Jaslene talked about how not making it to season 7 made her work on herself and how grateful she was. Even Tyra got teary.
Finally, it was time for the final strut. The theme was evolution and the idea was bizarre. The girls were walking on the curving platform of wooden slats and at first they needed to project early man until they could walk upright at the end. Okay. Natasha started out strong but then lost her vibe towards the end. She did have a wardrobe malfunction when her skirt fell off (she had a swimsuit on underneath) but she handled it like a pro. Jaslen,e on the other hand, was weak in the beginning but at the end she was working her fierce look to full advantage.
At panel, Natasha spoke Russian, thanking the judges for putting two girls with accents in the finals. Jaslene threw in a little espanol as well. And America’s Next Top Model is… Jaslene. When it comes down to it, personality goes a long way. As Nigel said, if a girl like Jaslene brings out her inner Cha Cha with clients, they’ll book her just for that. But I also think that modeling is about babes not babies. The fast and furious life of early call times and jetsetting isn’t going to work with being a mom because the 24/7 commitment and focus that’s required to succeed won’t be there.
Despite this being a rather blah season, it’s good to see both ANTM and Covergirl recognizing Latina beauty. Jaslene es una elección excelente, porque ella representan segundas oportunidades, para todas mujeres.
Mali Perl works in finance but her heart belongs to entertainment. She can be reached at mali@realityshack.com. Here’s to hoping the Cycle 9 is spicier, saucier and bitchier. Have a great summer!
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