Cheryl Shops

America's Next Top Model recap
Due to presidential debates and stupid-ass baseball playoffs, Ameria's Next Top Model was not shown in the NYC metropolitan area until Saturday night, which was when I finally saw it. (I made MW watch it with me, and it was 60 minutes of sheer torture for him. Tee-hee.) So it was the big makeover episode and, as always, there were mixed results. I love Norelle's new girly bob (and the braces removal), Toccara's and Kellie's weaves, Nicole's short red hair, and Jennipher's shorter, lighter 'do (they hacked off at least a foot). In the not-so-much department, however, they gave Ann some very New Jersey ash-blonde highlights, they gave Yaya a crazy 'fro (ten bucks says that at some point they tell her she's "too ethnic"), and they gave Amanda this butt-ugly yellow weave that thank god she's too blind to see correctly (she thinks it's gorgeous, the poor girl). The girls were given an education in makeup application, then were tested on how well they could apply it in a limo in 10 minutes, en route to a party. My girl Norelle won! Yay Norelle! Then the girls had a makeup-free photo shoot, where they were "modeling" hand cream. At the elimination, we were showed the retouched photo and the unretouched photo, and the girls were judged on both--i.e., the final product vs. how much retouching they needed. Now, I realize the winner of this contest gets a contract with Cover Girl, so they don't want someone with bad skin, terrible eye bags, scars, etc. And Tyra said, "Retouching is expensive," which I can assure you is quite true. However, you can save a hell of a lot of money by putting makeup on the models! Yes, makeup can't fix everything, but, coupled with good lighting, it can save you a lot of time on the Photoshopping. So, I thought that was really ridiculous. Anyway, Julie, the Indian chick, got the boot for admitting what she really wanted was to have her own clothing line. This pissed me off for several reasons, the most obvious of which being, what an ass-backwards route to take! If you want to design and manufacture clothing, go to friggin' fashion school! If I were a contestant who really wanted to be a model but got cut in an earlier round, I'd be pissed. And on another level, I thought Julie was just very pretty, and I thought it was cool that they had an Indian girl in the competition. Well, so much for that.

Next week (or, rather, Wednesday--thankfully the show is on at 8, before the debate starts), the girls learn how to walk with J. Alexander (always entertaining), and last year's winner Yoanna makes an appearance. She's not Shandi, but she'll do.