antm11

Every once in a while, I like to take a look at the photos from an episode BEFORE actually watching the episode, so that I can form opinions about the shots without being influenced by Tyra, Jay, or how the girls actually acted in front of the camera.  For some reason, it seems to make it more authentic to me, since when you’d see a model in a magazine or ad, that’s all you have to go off of anyways.

So, since I missed the episode Wednesday night, I figured I’d hold off on reading any spoilers until after I was able to check out the pics for myself.  I must say, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with a lot of the photo shoots this cycle… they look more like actual ads than the catastrophes of some of the previous cycles.

So, in order of my favorite to least favorite…
(And on a side note, as a photographer, I hate, hate, HATE how the horizon is tilted on these photos… like, I can hardly look at them without cringing and pulling up my editing software to fix it for them.)

McKey -
I’m not a fan of her outfit, but I’m a huge fan of how she looks in it in this photo.  The face is fierce, the pose makes her legs look ridiculously long (in a good way), and I want those shoes (though I doubt I’d be able to walk in them).  I’m not a fan of the flare, but that has more to do with the photographer than the model, so I can’t really fault her for that.  But, at least the horizon is fairly straight.  Whew.   Overall: FIERCE!

Marjorie -
Lovely.  Simply lovely.  In her dark, hunchbacked way, Marjorie pulled this one off looking fierce and fashionable.  It makes me want to buy this outfit… and go sailing… well, maybe not.  Overall: LOVELY!

Samantha -
She looks good here… not phenomenal, but good.  The way she’s holding the dress seems a bit awkward (in a bad way), but other than that, I have no complaints… she even kind of has one of those ugly-pretty frowns on her face.  Overall: NICE

Analeigh -
The face isn’t doing anything for me, it doesn’t seem like she’s really showing off the clothing, but it isn’t the worst thing in the world, either.  The pose is interesting, though I think that the outfit isn’t very flattering to her, which is probably part of the problem.  Overall: OK

Elina -
I can picture it now… “Elina, for your next pose, I’d like you to swing your arms and legs and pretend to be a marionette doing an Irish jig.”  The scary thing is, knowing ANTM, that might have been exactly what happened.  Regardless, her face is really pretty.  Overall: TOO POSEY

Sheena –
Not a fan.  She’s gone from dull to just plain bor-ing.  Nothing about this photo intrigues me, interests me, or excites me.  She looks like she’s struggling to keep her balance (which isn’t a surprise, seeing how horribly they’ve skewed the photo.  Overall: LAME

For giggles and grins, I actually did go back and straighten the horizons on these… obviously, the cropping’s messed up now, but at least the pics don’t make me seasick now.

First of all, before we get to the recap, I’d like to remind you that you can discuss spoilers and speculation here. Please respect those who wish to remain spoiler-free and keep spoilers out of the comments anywhere but that specified link.

Keep the comments up though!

So this week was Covergirl commercial week! But before the commercials of course there has to be drama. In the bus, Sheena and Elina get into an argument over the whole European vs. American mentality thing that Marjorie had talked about in previous weeks. Sam and Sheena tag team Marj and Elina, asking them whether they want to live in America. They think the whole “I’m this way because of the European mentality” thing is a bunch of crock, and that they control how they think, not their place of origin. I don’t really like Sam at all and Sheena is hot and cold for me, but I kind of have to agree with their general argument, even though the don’t present it in the best way. Sam seems to be kind of ignorant to me.

At home, Elina, Marj, and a silent Analeigh discuss the debate. McKey, Sam, and Sheena talk about it in another room. Sheena interviews that her mother is an immigrant, yet Sheena embraces her culture and is the “normal” American. I don’t exactly believe Sheena embraces her Asian culture. As an Asian myself, the whole Harlem thing and go-go dancing definitely isn’t part of the Asian culture, but I don’t know. During this, Joslyn worries about needing to improve. She feels like she’s breaking down.

Tyra mail! The girls go somewhere, where the Aswirl twins are there! They cracked me up cycle 6, when “Sara were affected by her heighth” and “aswirled with stiffness”. They teach the girls how to showcase accessories. They twirl aswirl. Analeigh interviews that they are like teddy bears. She wants to give them a hug. Me too, Analeigh. I also wanna give Analeigh a hug. She’s adorable. Marjorie does not do well with showcasing garments. Next, they go to a challenge, where a person covered head to toe in green spandex and wearing an outfit is randomly walking around. The green is for a greenscreen, and on a giant monitor, you see only the clothes moving around. It’s actually kind of cool. In the spandex is James St. James, freak show, authorr, and fashion provocateur. Wasn’t he a clubkid whiz or something bizarre like that last time we saw him? The challenge is to perform a fashion show in the green screen spandex for Nony Tochterman, where they have to make the clothing work and seem appealing while being invisible on the monitor. This woman is IDENTICAL to Edna Mode from The Incredibles. I am not kidding, I paused the screen and stared at her, shocked at their resemblance. Ann Shoket comes and announces that the winner gets an photoshoot for Seventeen Magazine, where they get a holiday ad. They look hilarious in the green spandex. Highlights-

Elina does well, and showcases the sleeve very well.

McKey had a skirt, which she pulled to show how wide it was, which Ann didn’t like.

Marjorie’s strapless dress falls down, making her green spandex covered boobs visible. She’s embarrassed.

Analeigh pulled her pearls to the side, which Ann thought was cute.

Sam was clueless.

Joslyn looked like she was a teen that got dared to do a striptease for friends.

Sheena aswirled way too much.

Overall, the clothes were kind of hideous. Elina wins! She chose Marjorie and Analeigh to be in the photoshoot with her.

Ugh. More drama! Sheena and Sam get angry because Elina is atheist and doesn’t believe in holidays. They think it’s unfair that the girl that doesn’t believe in holidays gets the holiday shoot. See, this is just stupid. This time I have to side with Elina and Marj. The fight is refueled when Sam does one of her extremely stupid stereotypical Asian accents when somebody mentioned Terikayi sauce. Analeigh, who is probably watching out for Sheena’s feelings, tells her that her slightly mocking accent could potentially be offensive. She tells Sam to be careful, but Sam disagrees. Sheena says that SHE’S Asian and she doesn’t find it offensive. Because what Sheena believes, the rest of the Asian community does. One of my personal pet peeves is when people do the stupid accents, so this really gets on my nerves. Plus, Analeigh was really just trying to be respectful and nice to Sheena here. Sheena doesn’t realize that. Marj shoots Elina one of those bemused glances, and Sam notices. Sheena gets pissed over this. Sheena is pulling the mega-b**** out here. She brings the whole holiday thing in. Shut up Sheena.

Anyways, behind all of this drama Joslyn is sick. She doesn’t look too great. The girls go to a fancy house, where they meet Mr. Jay and Whitney. Analeigh notes “Whitney Cycle 10 winner pops up. This is huge!” If Analeigh wasn’t such a sweetheart, I’d say that her double-entendre was awesome.They are to do Covergirl commercial with the help of a teleprompter, but are expected to be able to be conversational and not seem like they are reading lines. They get 5 takes. Highlights-

Sam sounds really bizarre when she talks and sounds kind of drunk. Diction, Sam. She brought some energy, according to Jay.

Elina is too controlled as usual. She looks nice though, and I don’t think she does that badly.

McKey gets kind of lost around the room and sounds kind of funny. She fumbles over words and is generally slightly clueless, despite having a teleprompter.

Analeigh starts out by having the eyeshadow out and is “applying”. Smart move! She does EXTREMELY well. Her voice sounds really good, and it seems like she’s conversing in an everyday conversation, whereas the other girls are blatantly putting on fake voices. She looks, sounds, and does phenomenal. No way is she going home.

Joslyn feels horribly sick. She gets up and throws up in a trashcan for awhile. The editors decide to gross out viewers by showing her throw up and include the gagging noises and all. Fun. Poor Joslyn though.

Marjorie is twitchy and nervous as usual. She cries after her first take, but improves a little bit afterwards. She’s still awkward though.

Sheena does well, except she seems a little bit fake. She says she believed in the product. “I did! I love turquoise!” Ha. The director liked her.

Joslyn still isn’t well, but puts on a smile and fake giggles excessively. She also adds a bunch of winks in. Not good.

At home the girls are nervous. Sheena wants Marj or Elina to go home. Marjorie knows she’s on the chopping block. Analeigh just calmly tells her to chill.

Panel. Prizes, Judges, yadda yadda. But wait! Judging tests return! Tyra reminds us of that awful test in Cycle 6 when they had to wear the Vivienne Westwood heels of death and Danielle sprained her pinky toe. Tyra says that Top Models have to be able to wear any type of shoe, and this time, its wooden clogs! In general, they do okay. Marjorie looks really funny, McKey is just stonefaced, Sheena shakes it and breaks it so now the boys won’t take it, Joslyn does well but winks, and Sam just epic fails. She looks like a drunk person trying to do the line test when pulled over. At the end when she goes around the entrance, you hear a massive tumbling crash thing. Ha.

Anyways, the point of the wooden clogs were to represent that they are going to AMSTERDAM! Hooray for The Netherlands! The Aswirl twins come out with windmill things and aswirl around.

Tyra ruins the party. One girl will go home.

Sam is first, and like I said before, she sounds drunk at the beginning. I really don’t like it. The judges don’t really like it.  They note that she sounds like she’s reading a teleprompter and that she does not enunciate.

Marjorie does this chicken thing with her head, where she keeps shoving it back and forth. She is twitchy and just flies through it.

Analeigh NAILS it. She starts out with the product at hand, and highlights her mile long legs while sitting. Her “Easy, breezy, beautiful, Covergirl” part was great too. This is the first time that a girl’s commercial has been truly worthy of being a commercial. Tyra is excited. She says that it is the greatest commercial in the history of America’s. Next. Top. Model. Tyra is blown away.

Joslyn is a bit over the top in some places and really robotic other places. She was really fake, notes the judges.

Elina’s commercial was ok, but didn’t maintain eye contact, which is important. They also say she is too controlled.

Sheena’s commercial is really good too. She does a lot of homegirl head-sways, but the judges like it.

McKey looks kind of crazy up close. Her commercial is not very good at all. The judges think that she should stick to pictures. I agree.

Callout-

Analeigh

I agree 100% that Analeigh should’ve gotten the first call out. Her commercial was amazing.

Sheena

I agree with this too, even though I’m not Sheena’s biggest fan. Her commercial was pretty good.

Sam

I’m not really feeling Sam or her commercial to be honest. She is definitely not one of my favorite contestants.

Marjorie

McKey

Bottom two was Joslyn and Elina. Tyra really pulled out some inner b**** here.

“Both of you have such a strength…for someone to be so sick and still perform, thats a survivor. And you’ll be able to survive this.”

You’d think she got through right? Nope. Elina did. That is just mean! Also, let it be known that for the first time in Top Model history, the girls on the sideline (well, Sheena and Sam) were actively pushing for someone to stay. They both chanted “Joslyn Joslyn” quietly on the side, which I don’t think we’ve seen before.

Elina’s commercial

Joslyn’s

So what do you think of the top 6? I think this is the first time they’ve gone abroad without any token black girls. I’m fairly pleased with this top 6, but I really don’t like Sam.

Next week, Amsterdam! The girls have to pose in store fronts in the Red Light District and have a photoshoot on a boat. Per usual, Sheena is hoochie.

Leave your comments about the episode!

By popular demand… I finally got a chance to look through some of The Screen Cap Chick’s fab caps and find our best model faces for cycle 11!  In honor of the recap episode, we’re rewinding all the way back to episode 1 to take a look at our favorite models and their lovely, fierce faces!

Everyone remembers the girl who insisted that she is America’s Next Top Model, right?  Ah, ShaRaun… maybe now you’ll have time to study English grammar and proper verb tenses.  Her model face: Crazy?  Piggish?

The next girl eliminated couldn’t close her mouth, either.  It’s Nikeysha, Scandaleisha’s long-lost twin!

One thing I will give Brittany — she was very pretty… so much so that it was quite difficult to find a proper “model face” for her.  I suppose this one will do, though.  Speaking of verb tenses… anyone else find it funny that we tend to refer to the eliminated girls in the past tense, as if they cease to exist the moment Tyra kicks them to the curb?

Hannah had so many fantastic model faces that I couldn’t choose just one.  Couldn’t you just see these on the cover of Vogue Alaska?  Oh, wait…

Besides looking quite masculine and — what was it Elina called her?  psychotic hyena? – Isis also managed to look downright frightening at times.

Clark was another “pretty girl,” and besides that, they really didn’t show her very often in the earlier episodes.  I did manage to find a few “high-school yearbook-worthy” shots like this one.

And, finally, we have the most-recently eliminated “beauty,” Lauren Brie.  Although, frankly, I think her “falling-down-the-stairs” shot was worse than even this one.

And so, that brings us down to our final seven.  Who will be America’s Next Top Tyra Banks?

Will it be Analeigh, the graceful ice-skating beauty?

Will it be Elina, the exotic PETA animal-lover?

Will it be Joslyn, the girl whose face scares me more than any other? (WARNING: Scroll at your own risk!)

Will it be lovely French Marjorie?

Or the photogenic tomboy McKey?

Could it be the California blonde Samantha?

Or the bold, outgoing Sheena?

Of course… we all know the answer… there’s no winner besides our own beloved Ms Tyra Banks herself!

Since some of you guys seem to be really into spoilers, I thought that you could all talk about them here and ONLY here to save some unwitting readers from having the cycle ruined. So feel free to share your opinions and knowledge in the comments!

Since a recap of a recap isn’t exactly necessary, I figured I’d just highlight some interesting moments for those who don’t want to spend their time watching the episode.

-They show the Top Model Institute of Technology again. Man, that was a total bust. I totally forgot about the awfulness of it all until this.

-New stuff! Hannah is from Alaska! And was chased by a moose! OMG THAT’S SO AMAZING.
…ugh. Drink!

-They did the whole “one girl doesn’t get a bed” thing. Sam lost out and ended up with a lovely little nest on the floor. She took it okay. Hannah has never seen beds like this in Alaska. For old times sake, drink!

-My name is ShaRaun and I AM America’s Next Top Model. Don’t bother with the shots, just finish drinking an entire bottle.

- Ooh never seen drama! Elina vs Sheena about animal rights. They fought in the bus about eating meat. Elina- “Why would you want to put a dead body in your mouth, thats disgusting!”. Sheena actually makes a point about the whole foodweb hierarchies thing, but then ruins it by saying that plants have feelings too. I respect Elina’s decision to be a vegan but I don’t think she should shove it down peoples throats.

-Nikeysha can rap! The girls were in the hot tub (this was around the same time as the whole Elina-Clark thing) and Nikeysha rapped while same beatboxed. It was pretty sweet actually.

-Brittany vs. Isis! Except this one wasn’t mean. Apparently Brittany and Isis were like sisters, and they got into a baby powder war. That’s pretty awesome actually. They run around and tackle each other and chase each other, throwing baby powder on each other.

-McKey vs. Brittany! Not as cute. Brittany gets pissed for some reason because McKey puts on a tomboy front. McKey cries it bed. Aw. Brittany is so mean.

-McKey is quite the chef. She kind of sucks up to the girls by cooking them food, and the girls see that. The food looks yummy.

- Asian hair and hairdye do not go well together. Clumps of hair were falling off the back of her head, which, ouch. She even states before they start to color her hair that she’s afraid hair will fall out.

- Haha! Elina says that her hair is huge and decides that it’s practically an animal on its own. She decides it is a cat named Sherry. They put cat bodies on her head on what looks like Microsoft Paint, which is pretty entertaining. The girls thing Sherry is hilarious and interview about her.

- Hannah has Alaska Pixie Dust, which she sprinkles in her envelopes. My first instinct was that FedEx needs to check it for anthrax. It’s kind of odd, and the girls all talk about it behind her back instead of asking her, which kind of sucks. I think it’s just glitter. Turns out its just a Hannah’s mom thing.

- Elina calls Isis a possessed Hyena. She continues to say how little Isis looks like a model and mentions Isis’s height, which is only 5′7. Marjorie very astutely notes ” There’s just an inherent arrogance with Elina. Elina just wants to be taken seriously…but all teenagers want to be taken seriously.”

-Clark, Sam, and Lauren Cheese all sit in the bubble bath together and play, and it’s actually kind of cute.

-A bee gets in the house and they all try killing it with blankets and hairspray. McKey gets defensive over the bee and when it’s dead, she takes it outside and dabs it with water. The girls snark inside and ask her if the bee is thirsty. “I don’t know…”. Aw, that was kind of weird. McKey in her confessional says that all serial killers start out small. O…kay.

- Elina calls Clark her girlfriend. I think Elina is slightly not right in the head.

-Marjaleigh!! They get a montage of them in all of their Marjaleigh goodness. Sam notes “Marjorie and Analeigh…they are really close! Like, weirdly close!”. I think she’s trying to infer that they’re lesbians. Pfft. During Sam’s interview we see the two play paddycake, get excited about having adjacent beds, bathing together (nekkid and all), hugging, admiring Analeigh’s hair, having confessionals together, and all that is cute.

-McKey has a really entertaining fitness regime.

So who will be ANTM?
Marjorie, the awkward, yet incredibly photogenic girl from France?
Sheena, the sassy and sexy girl from Harlem?
Elina, the stoic stunner from Seattle?
Samantha, the spunky and fun loving girl from California?
Analeigh, the pretty and peace loving girl from Sacramento?
Joslyn, the sweetheart with the unmistakable voice from Lucky, Louisiana?
Or McKey, the statuesque beauty from Lake Forest Illinois?

From this, McKey, Samantha, Elina, and Sheena got the most attention. Sheena and Elina both seemed to have pretty negative edits here though, ranging from hoochie to just kind of crazy and bitchy, respectively.

Well, it was asked that I go back to some of my stats comparisons (and I see one reader has already beat me to it – you guys rock!). Since we’re halfway through the cycle, I think it’s fair to look back at the stats at this point and compare them to some of our previous model-wannabes. So, I picked out the two previous cycle girls with the most similar stats. In the event of a tie, I chose the two models in the most recent cycles, since – let’s face it – Tyra’s strategies really have seemed to change since the earlier cycles.

McKey – 3.8 call out average

Most similar to: Danielle c6 (winner) and Eva c3 (winner)

So does this mean McKey’s going in for the win? Well, I certainly wouldn’t mind! However, in the past three cycles, the eventual winners’ averages at this point were less impressive (4.3 Jaslene, 5.7 Saleisha, 4.5 Whitney). What does this tell us? Tyra’s looking to see improvement, which may make a rocking call-out average at this point in the game a disadvantage.

Marjorie – 4.0 call out average

Most similar to: CariDee c7 (winner) and Nik c5 (2nd place)

Again, is our beloved Hunchback of Notre Dame perhaps too good at this point to win America’s Next Top Tyra Banks?

Other recent girls (c8-10) with call-out averages of 4.0 or under at this point in the game:

Anya c10, Jenah c9, Heather c9, Lisa c9, Brittany c8

Elina – 4.2 call out average

Most similar to: Yoanna c2 (winner) and Jaslene c8 (winner)

Elina’s been doing pretty well in the competition thus far, with a few fabulous and mostly “pretty decent” photos. She has her issues like everyone else, which is fine in Tyra-land because that gives Tyra and the Jays something to work on so that they can take credit for transforming the poor girl to a supermodel. Or something. Point being… she’s got a lot going for her.

Samantha – 4.8 call out average

Most similar to: Renee c8 (3^rd place) and Melrose c7 (2^nd place)

Renee and Melrose — as well as Christina c4, who had the same call out average at this point – were girls that I felt got really gypped in their eliminations, so I hope the same doesn’t happen to Samantha. At this point, I’m not really a huge fan of hers, but I did really like her bikini shot and fierce eyes shot, so I could see how she could grow on me.

Other recent girls (c8-10) with call-out averages of 4.1-5.0 at this point:

Whitney c10, Lauren c10

Joslyn – 5.7 call out average

Most similar to: Fatima c10 (3^rd place) and Saleisha c9 (winner)

One thing I found interesting when looking at girls with 5.7 averages at this point (which another reader already noted) is that in the earlier cycles, girls like Toccarra, Tatiana, and Kyle were eliminated in the next episode. However, later on, girls like Jade, Dionne, Saleisha, and Fatima – who ALL had the same call-out average! – were kept on until at least the top four. So does this mean that we’re doomed to listen to Joslyn’s obnoxious voice for another four episodes? Knowing Tyra… probably.

Other recent girls (c8-10) with call-out averages of 5.1-6.0 at this point:

Katarzyna c10, Stacy-Ann c10, Chantal c9, Natasha c8, Jael c8

Analeigh – 6.2 call out average

Most similar to: Michelle c4 (6^th place) and Jael c8 (6^th place)

Ah, Jael… one of the most interesting ANTM contestants yet. Somehow, I don’t think Analeigh will get herself thrown into a swimming pool in a drunken lapse of judgment, but the fact that these girls with similar averages didn’t make it far after going overseas could be a bit distressing for all the Analeigh fans.

Sheena – 6.3 call out average

Most similar to: Norelle c3 (5^th place) and Bre c5 (3^rd place)

Well, she definitely has room for improvement, and isn’t that what Tyra loves best (besides smiling eyes and talking about herself, of course)? However, she really had better start picking up on that “improvement” stuff pretty soon if she wants to stay in the competition.

Other recent girls (c8-10) with call out averages of 6.1-7.0 at this point:

Dominique c10, Bianca c9, Ambreal c9

Tyra? Snarky and vengeful? Say it isn’t so!!

News on the ‘net is that Analeigh’s photo shoot may have been “inspired” by an actual event at the Fiercees when Kim Stolz had a less-than-doting attitude towards our dear Queen Tyra. (CHECK IT OUT)

Favorite to least favorite, as always… presented by antm10wordpress

But before that, an interesting observation brought up by one of our readers and my predictions based on this theory.
1st eliminated – c10 Kimberly / c11 ShaRaun – Both girls whom it was argued were greatly misunderstood by the judges, who had two-dimensional personality edits.
2nd eliminated – c10 Atalya / c11 Nikeysha – Both girls whom, a few episodes later, we’re wondering “who was that again?”  They both are remembered for few things, none of which have anything to do with modeling.  Can we say “filler?”
3rd eliminated – c10 Allison / c11 Brittany – Both girls were “pretty” girls who thought they knew about modeling.
4th eliminated – c10 Amis / c11 Hannah – Both girls were the “newbies” who knew nothing about modeling, but were more in it for the fun experience, which annoyed others in the house
5th eliminated – c10 Marvita / c11 Isis – Both girls were involved in the cycle previous, which caused the judges to have high expectations of them, which they didn’t live up to.
6th eliminated – c10 Aimee / c11 Clark – Both were very feminine girls who had a hard time translating their beauty into photos
7th eliminated – c10 Claire / c11 Lauren Brie – Both were very highly praised for their photos early on and considered forerunners in the competition before they were eliminated.

Following that pattern, here are some predictions about what COULD happen…
8th eliminated (7th place) – c10 Stacey Ann / c11 Samantha – Both are the cute ones with the funny personalities
9th eliminated (6th place) – c10 Lauren / c11 Marjorie? – Both are the awkward and uncomfortable types whose fabulous pictures kept them in the game this long.
10th eliminated (5th place) – c10 Katarzyna / c11 Analeigh – Both are the fan favorites whom the judges don’t particularly seem impressed with.
11th eliminated (4th place) – c10 Dominique / c11 Joslyn – Both are the girl that should NEVER have gotten so far, but for some reason the judges love.
12th eliminated (3rd place) – c10 Fatima / c11 Elina – Both are the exotic beauties with strong features whose personalities tend to rub people the wrong way.
13th eliminated (2nd place) – c10 Anya / c11 McKey – Both are fan favorites who produce fantastic photos throughout the competition, but – frankly – get robbed.
Winner (1st place) – c10 Whitney / c11 Sheena – The girls are the minorities of the cycle (Whit b/c of her size, Sheena b/c of her ethnicity), who had an obstacle to overcome (Whit b/c of her size, Sheena b/c of her “hoochie-ness”), but have a confident, positive demeanor throughout.

So, for this week…

Marjorie – Let me say, I certainly am a fan of the “Hunchback of Notre Dame” look on her.  The awkwardness of the pose coupled with the lovely delicacy of the face makes this shot superb in my eyes.

McKey – Lovely!  Talk about ugly-pretty.  She had by far the toughest emotion to portray, and she looks quite stunning here.

Analeigh – She had one of my least favorite “themes,” but pulled off a really decent pic, with attitude and elegance.  My only complaint is that it’s a bit “actressy,” which may or may not be a good thing, I guess, considering the photo shoot.

Elina – Though pretty, her facial expressions aren’t very convincing to me.

Samantha – Another “pretty, but not convincing.”  I did think the close-up was gorgeous, but I’d have never been able to tell what she was supposed to be portraying.

Joslyn – I think that she’s the girl I’m just going to dislike regardless of what she does.  Her pose looks too posey and her face was boring.  Plus, the other “actress” looks better in the dress.

Sheena – I really wanted to be wowed by her this week… I really did.  But her shot just ended up reminding me of Dominique’s creepy black-and-white classic movie star shot.

Lauren Brie – By far the worst photo this week… I’m a bit suspicious of some kind of sabotage on the part of Tyra, since I find it hard to believe that this particular shot was her best.

Man this cycle has flown by!

Anyways, it’s Amy here recapping this week and next week.

The girls are eating breakfast, with pancakes and salad and tofu. Wait, what? Sam makes stupid Italian Chef accents, and Elina doesn’t seem entertained. Sam talks about how super strict parents that deprive their children of social freedom end up with crazy children. Case in point, Elina. Elina admits that her mom did exactly that, and now Elina has control problems because she was always controlled growing up. Elina came from Ukraine when she was 8 and mentions Marjorie’s point from last week that Europeans are different from Americans in their mindset and accepted behavior.

Lauren Cheese interviews that she needs to show more personality because the judges find her to be boring. Yeah, so does the rest of the world, no offense. Marjorie comforts her, and Sheena tells us how Lauren Cheese is smart but boring. No offense, but I’m not so sure about the smart part of that statement.

The girls (well, Elina, Lauren Cheese, and Marjorie) are sunbathing outside and talk about Analeigh. They don’t think that she will go abroad, and they think she doesn’t look like a model. Lauren Brie says that she doesn’t scream “model”. Aw. Poor Analeigh. She walks outside and lies on a towel with Marjorie and asks the girls if they see her as competition while eating a lollipop. Is the lollipop a recurring theme in the top model house? Every episode there’s at least one girl sucking on a lollipop. I guess Analeigh doesn’t want to hear what the girls think, because she tells them not to answer. Elina confirms that she doesn’t look like a model. Hee, I like this next part. Analeigh confesses that ” It’s frustrating because McKey and Elina have these strong faces, Marjorie is a fantastic natural model, Lauren Brie can’t take a bad picture.” I hope she purposely left out Joslyn, Sheena, and Sam because they don’t seem all that model-ly to me. At all.

The girls get on the bus to an undisclosed destination and end up in a building with designer close. There’s a Tyra mail with just a picture of Tyra, and then Tyra walks in with her tiny mail outfit. Analeigh is wearing her peace sign necklace again, which makes me happy. Does anyone know where you can get those? I really want one. TYRA MAIL!!! Tyra reads this outloud.

“Neither rain or sleet, or my achy achy feet will keep you away from my Tyra mail this week. It’s time you learned your signature style, so you’ll be a fierce model, chiiild. I’ll show you my tricks, but lets be frank, you’ll be thanking Ms. Tyra when you’re making big bank.”

Oh Tyra, so modest.

Anyways, the girls are asked to get into their little black dresses and heels. They head into a studio, where Tyra is doing kind of dumb poses while Jim DeYonker photographs her. Seriously, DeYonker is the best last name EVER. Tyra tells the girls that just like needing a signature walk, you need a signature pose. Tyra was known for the signature eyes. The girls are going to be taking 20 pictures, the first 10 are on their own. Then they’ll look at their pictures, and take 10 more while Tyra coaches them. Quick breakdown-

Analeigh’s signature thing is figure skating. More specifically, “rebel skater”. What? Tyra tells her she’s too literal with the figure skating. Haven’t they been irritated because she hasn’t been showing enough figure skating in her pictures? Lauren Cheese interviews that Analeigh is average, and they’re just trying to force something. Shut up, Montery Jack. Tyra doesn’t think Analeigh worked it.

McKey’s signature is “boxer”. She pretends like she’s getting punched to extend her neck into elongated poses. Tyra likes it.

Sam’s signature is her hands. She looks like a massive idiot here, she’s just knd of floating her hands around.

Lauren Brie doesn’t know what her signature is. She guess “awkward?”. She ends with “Surfer chick”. Sheena interviews that Lauren Brie’s personality is pretty much the color of her hair, bland and translucent. Word. LB does not do well. Sam think’s she’s boring too.

Sheena think’s her signature is “diva-esque”. The “hoochie” music plays in the backgroud. Her signature ends up being “cultural dance”. O…kay.

Joslyn just likes to “pose….like kinda wide….”. Everyone looks confused, and rightfully so. They tell her that her signature is being in profile to hide her 40 year old-ness.

Elina’s signature is “top model of the world”. Elina is too controlled.

Marjorie instantly know’s her signature. Hunchback of Notre Dame, and she says it in her awesome french accent. I’m so xenocentric. She nails it and takes all of her nervousness and things and works it.

So shocker! But not. It was a challenge. The winner gets to go get diamonds. Ooh. And the winner is…Marjorie! Yay. She picks Analeigh to go with her to get diamonds too. Lauren Brie tells us that Analeigh and Marj are the little couple of the house. Cut to them walking into the diamond store holding hands. Aww. Marjaleigh forever. They try on jewelry, and at one point Marj is wearing a diamond bracelet. Analeigh asks how much it was, and the owner tells her it’s $200,000. What?! That’s like, a house. Analeigh is rightfully awed by this. Analeigh tells us that neither of them wear a lot of jewelry. In the end, Analeigh picks a gold peace sign necklace (ha) that cost $3200. Analeigh get’s the greatest “Score!” face. Marjorie get’s a square necklace with a bunch of little diamonds embedded in it. This was $8700. Day-um. They should’ve gotten the really expensive bracelet and just sold it.

The girls all head off to the Grand Orpheum theater. Sheena says that whatever they do will be off the “hizzle”. They have a photoshoot there, where they will be doing different themes from the Fiercee Awards. The photographer is Mike Rosenthal, who I love.They ask what Marjorie’s theme is. “I gotta go pee and I can’t get out of my gown”. Ha, for two seconds I actually thought she had to pee at that moment and got really confused. They make her wear a turbin, which, ew.

Marjorie poses in a bathroom stall, and kills it. She accidentally flushes the toilet. She turned it out.

Sam does another stupid voice. Sam’s theme is that she reads cue cards, but is blinded by the lights. She doesn’t seem to do well, but has a few good photos.

Elina gets the overemotional crybaby when she wins. She has to lose control and actually cry. Okay, they totally did that on purpose. That sucks. Elina manages to break down and lose some control. I really wish she still had her dark hair.

Lauren Cheese’s theme is that she tripped up the stairs when trying to get her award. She says that it’s a hard concept to grasp. She doesn’t do well, and looks like a mannequin.

McKey is the girl who really expected to get an award, but lost. She does well.

“Booby time!” Ha! Sheena and Marj bump boobs and Sheena gets oddly interested in poking Marjorie’s boob padding. Sheena talks over Marj a bit here, but you can here bits and pieces, and you hear Marjorie say “…concave!” Hee. Sheena squeezes Marj’s fake boobs and cracks up.

Sheena’s theme is that Marjorie steps on Sheena’s dress train. Jay didn’t like it.

Joslyn’s theme is that LB wore the same dress as her. She does well.

Last is Analeigh, who is a condescending bitchy interviewer. She looks pretty here. She commits and does really well. Mike tells her that she does bitchy really well.

Elimination time! Sheena worries, Sam does a rubiks cube, Analeigh worries, and Lauren Brie dries her hair while worrying.

Oh god, it’s a dementor! Expecto Patronum! Oh sorry, that’s just Tyra. What is she wearing?

McKey is first ,and everybody loves her picture. Paulina is super excited.

Sheena’s photo is ok. They think she looks really classy at panel, but in her photo her eyes are pulled too far to the left and make her look possessed. Not bad.

Analeigh’s photo gets raves. She looks good, and even puts some concave back into it.

Sam is wearing American Eagle. Not modelesque, sweety. Her photo isn’t great.

Joslyn’s photo is the prettiest that the judges have seen from her. Joslyn admits to being insecure about her nose and starts crying about it. What?

Marjorie’s photo is amazing. Her poses are always amazing. But, she had a turbin on.

Lauren Brie’s photo was pretty mediocre, and didn’t let go. They don’t think she’s progressing.

Elina’s photo looks good, but doesn’t look like she’s crying. It’s kind of like the black and white crying photoshoot that they did in Cycle 6 with Tyra. They don’t think she pushed the emotion enough. They make her cry again.

Callout order is-

Marjorie- I think she deserved it. Her photo was stellar.

Analeigh- I also think she deserved this, her photo was great too. I’m glad that the house couple took the top two.

McKey- Once again, she deserved this. Her photo was really good.

Samantha- I personally didn’t like her photo that much. Maybe I’m just biased because I dislike Sam though. And she has a huge rat tail.

Elina- I thought her photo was really pretty despite not being overemotional.

Joslyn

Sheena- Her photo wasn’t that bad though!

And to the outrage to a lot of people it seems, Lauren Brie is sent home because of her personality. I definitely saw that coming. I know a lot of people are comparing this to the bullcrap elimination of Katarzyna, but I think Lauren Brie didn’t even really try that hard. She didn’t hug any of the girls, so she probably wasn’t all that close to them. The other girls thought she was boring, and LB even admitted to giving up in her final interview. I don’t think she was really happy in the house.

I am truly surprised that Analeigh has stayed this long. Every week I’ve guessed that she would be the one to leave, and I’m always wrong. I’m glad that she’s been called second 3 weeks in a row now. The editors and crew seem to love her too because she always gets edited into the episode, no matter when she gets called.

Next week, they do Covergirl commercials! McKey doesn’t look like she does well. The top model house erupts! Drama between  Sheena and Elina! The argument looked pretty funny from the 3 seconds we saw. “You finished?”. “Are YOU finished?”

Talk about an eruption.

Make sure you leave your comments and tell me what you thought about the episode!

For the first time in a long time, it feels like the judges are making the appropriate decisions for which girls are going home and which ones deserve to stay. Let’s see if this episode entailed that rarity.

The episode starts by the girls going in and seeing Clark’s awesome picture from last week on the digital screen. I know not everyone liked Clark from the beginning (and there’s good reason why), but to me she warmed up, and I still liked her quite a bit. She interviews that she could do better than the first couple of weeks, and I’m thinking, “Hell yeah, you can!” However, she got a little bit arrogant. “I don’t know, it’s a little lonely at the top!” Sam’s cute and talks about her bottom-two experience, and picks herself right back up, and at the end says “I’m hoping to stay here for a very long time” like an adorable little girl who’s trying to be a super-sleuth.

Marjorie and Analeigh go off to one room, and then Marjorie freaks out because she’s tired of all the girls being positive and her feeling like she’s the only one that’s intimidated by the whole situation. She speaks of how she feels it’s a cultural difference, these views of being positive and negative. At this point I’m a little turned off, but can understand where she’s coming from.

TYRA MAIL! “Just because it doesn’t fit doesn’t mean you should be close-minded. Love, Tyra.” Nothing special or corny, but I do love the picture of Tyra as a mailperson with her leg lifted up. Joslyn goes to the booth to talk to her sister who sounds exactly like her. Hey, there’s two of her, what a delight! She starts interviewing that she hasn’t taken a good photo in weeks (although in my mind, I think, “When have you ever produced a good photos?”), and starts talking about how she’s going downhill and she doesn’t know what’s going on. I like the family support she has, but the entire time I saw her talking, interviewing, and just for the entire show, I’ve seen nothing relatively close to a model. I’m sorry, for those of you who love her, but I really, really, really don’t see anything with her and wouldn’t have considered her for the show at all.

The girls get to their challenge destination, which looks like a very desolate and abandoned warehouse, where Paulina comes out of an elevator! I’ve noticed we never really see any judge besides Ms. Jay outside of the panel too often. She comes in this light-blue office wear which doesn’t look to good (and Clark comments it’s hideous), and Paulina raises the shirt and pretty much flashes the girls from the chest down, which I found to be extraordinarily unlike her. Paulina goes on to talk about catalogs (and I found it wonderfully blunt how she stated, “90 percent of the time, if you’re lucky, you’re going to be doing catalog,” we need that realism on the show more), and how you’ve got to make clothes that aren’t so prestigious look good by taking your surroundings and making it feel better.

Girls go up with a tool hat and tool belt, and here are the rules. Five minutes for them to take a catalog article of clothing, use their surroundings to make everything work, and then be evaluated on how well they’ve made the outfits look good on them. Marjorie explains that she doesn’t see the judges as people that she ordinarily speaks to, thus why she doesn’t act like she normally does. Although I love Marjorie, I’ve to say, “Hello? Are you there? None of the other girls really speak to seasoned, experienced people who critique them and send them home either, you’re not alone.” She’s not annoying me, but she’s perplexing me a little bit. So, challenge evaluation went like this:

McKey had this purple top with professional pants, and clipped the back of everything to make it work. She got a lot of praise, and her shirt had cool colors, although the design was a bit cliché. Clark’s clothes were bad, but her body was scorchin’. Being interviewed quite a bit, she wisely says “Here, I kind of approached this challenge keeping my grandmother in mind. You know, if a 56-year-old woman looks in a magazine, they don’t want to buy a piece of clothing that’s sucking the model in.” She obviously has knowledge and common sense, and I expected her to portray those types of tips in her photos. Joslyn didn’t look too bad. I realized that orange is used a lot with her (swimsuit shot, air balloon shot, Jeremy Scott fashion show, this challenge). Lauren Brie puts water bottles in the back of her jeans, which isn’t a little bizarre. At all. I mean, she had a shirt that had ruffles in the back, so she didn’t need to do that. Sheena…didn’t look very good. Elina looked like a mother of a child that was strolling through the park, quite pretty, but nothing extraordinary (although I don’t expect anything like that with this challenge). Sam looked cute, but Paulina didn’t really approve of the way she pulled everything up to make it look shorter. Marjorie actually looked pretty cute, but Paulina didn’t like her look too much.

Paulina’s about to announce the winner and the prize, but stops herself to ask if Marjorie’s okay, who is leaning on a pole looking like she’s going to throw up. Apparently, she doesn’t get this bad around the house, and then sweet, lovely, old (emphasis on the “old”) Joslyn interviews that “Marjorie just boo-hoos all of a sudden (she laughs), and I’m like, (she said it with her annoyingly piercing voice,) ‘DID SHE PINCH YOU?!’ What hap- (laughs again)” Well, at least she’s not sucking, dear Jos. As Marjorie explains her negative demeanor, she’s nervous and Paulina relates and gives her advice, saying that she should just do it for herself, and that her personality is socially acceptable in Europe. She’s being the mommy of Marjorie, which was great to see (since she’s never really shown that warmth). Then Sam goes on to say that Marjorie is being a baby, she “has” to come out of her shell, and “Welcome to America,” which certainly didn’t fit well with me as an immigrant. So, long story short, McKey won the challenge and got 50 extra frames for her photo shoot.

Girls get back home, and it’s TYRA MAIL! “Are you a force of nature, a devastating beauty, or a total disaster? Love, Tyra.” I think that it’s one of those rare episodes when the mail is giving away the challenge/photo shoot immediately (and that’s been happening a lot this cycle…I kind of miss seeing the girls guess frantically and get everything very wrong). The girls get together in the living room, and Marjorie’s obviously the center of attention, talking about how hard it is for her, and how her performance is hindering her. Then Joslyn interviews, just as annoyingly as before, “Poor Marjorie. Marjorie has had a pretty tough week. But with Marjorie’s nerves, she’s probably had several tough weeks. (laughs)” Then Marjorie said “I started off as the weakest in the beginning.”

…WHAT?! She had the first call-out of the entire cycle! Her picture was the first displayed as digital art, and she’s been improving! Like I said, she’s not annoying me, but she’s confusing the hell out of me. She interviews how it’s her upbringing that has made her so, and then Sam stupidly asks, “So do you think you’re America’s Next Top Model, then?” Again…what?! So Marjorie starts flipping out and is being scolded by her for being negative, and Marj get stressed out. Night ends in a pretty bad note.

On to the photo shoot destination (the episode seemed to move real quickly, didn’t it?). There’s a set with what looks like cardboard (although well-executed) buildings. A monster that looks like it came straight out of Alien vs. Predator came out, the lights were flickering violently, and the girls all screamed only to find out it was Mr. Jay. As he was talking in the costume, I really wanted to be his friend for some reason. Anyway, photo shoot highlights:

-Brian Edwards is the photographer. He’s absolutely amazing, I’ve checked his website out. Check him out!

-Elina didn’t do too badly. She looked nice too.

-Sheena looked cute to me. A lot of people hate the styling that was done with her, but I think it did quite a bit of justice.

-Clark struggled quite a bit, but she looked really amazing. I think she has one of the best bodies ANTM has seen in a long time. It’s perfect for high-fashion, in my opinion.

-Lauren Brie looked weird, but very Swedish. She looked lackluster as she was shooting, except for the last frame. I wish we were able to see what the models’ films looked like. Or that ALL of the judges would decide what photo should be chosen, not just Tyra.

-Joslyn did horribly, but I liked her clothes. Everyone keeps going back to her first photo shoot, but I absolutely need glasses if it’s the truth that she did wonderfully. Judge favoritism, anyone?

-Analeigh did real well, and I liked seeing her being shot by the camera.

-McKey did wonderfully, and carried an awesome androgynous feel to her. Mr. Jay commented that it was like she did two amazing photo shoots in one, for she didn’t need the extra 50 frames.

-Samantha did very well, and while seeing her shoot, I was anxious to see how the water would turn out.

-Marjorie struggled, which was amazingly predictable. Mr. Jay felt that he basically contorted her throughout the whole shoot. She looked really weird and different, but I love that she wouldn’t look the same in her photo. She never does, does she? She interviewed another negative expectation, claiming she felt like a fool.
We’re back home, and Clark is really being erratic this episode. Wise, but arrogant. She says she’s number one in the competition right now (apparently your stance in the competition from the week before determines where you are throughout rather than your performance in the entire experience), and how she’s checked out her photo quite a few times. Joslyn gets negative on herself, and Sam talks about how the photo’s look depends on the judges’ overall view on it.

In panel, Brian Edwards was the guest judge (and I love when the photographers are there to talk about their performance). Clark’s face looked horrible, and I think it’s because she was showing too much forehead. It looked bigger than ever. The judges (at least Tyra and her favorite pet, Nigel) go on to show favoritism on Joslyn and talk about how her first photos were amazing, blah, blah, blah. Stop, everyone. They’re not Yoanna’s finale picture or Amanda Swafford’s beauty shot, it’s nothing worth mentioning more than once, if at all. McKey had a good photograph, and although there were better ones, Tyra did that devilish thing where she deliberately didn’t choose the best photograph because it wasn’t telling the story enough (which I can understand, as someone who wants to be a photographer. The clients and photographer are getting out a story, and it’s not entirely about the model looking amazing). As they’re judging and Paulina sticks up for Marj, Nigel sort of barks at her about how she’s on the defense for her every week. What a hypocrite. He only likes the girls that he feels are hot enough for him to hook up with anyway, and the week before, Paulina deliberately disliked Marjorie’s photo, so I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about. Nothing else was really special.

Call-out order:

-Sam. I’m going to end up saying something brief about this at the end, for that rare handful of you who are really, really spoiler-free. Anyway, I thought she’s entitled to it. I’d have called McKey for winning the challenge and being a great model in the shoot, but whatever.

-Analeigh. Runner-up two weeks in a row! I actually noticed that Tyra gave her a sort-of-dirty look in panel, and I have this theory that she’s just going to build Analeigh up to bring her down. I just know she doesn’t like Analeigh.

-McKey. Again, I would’ve made her first.

-Elina.

-Marjorie. With all that screen time, one would think that she’d be in the bottom. But wait…she’s one of the few that doesn’t suck, so that’s why!

-Lauren Brie.

-Sheena. She did NOT deserve bottom-three. What was that all about?

-Joslyn (ARGH!)
-Clark is eliminated. I didn’t think she was winner material, but she could give amazing photos like the one last week, and she showed an amazing body in her swimsuit (and even pre-show) shot. This was a waste. And over Joslyn?! Ha! My very favorite part was when Tyra said “But Joslyn’s personality got her by.” We’re back to this, now. Replace the judges.

The photos (in order of my personal favorite to least-favorite):

Sheena. I’ve realized that this girl’s photos are getting better and better and better. Nothing negative about this, and the thing that caught my eye was that ever since her makeover shot, she’s been looking like she changes her Asian nationality. I love it.

Sam. The photography is amazing. The tidal waves make for a spectacular photograph, and some of that is due to Sam’s good modeling. Her face looks horrible close-up, but the fact that she nailed the retro style (tell me this isn’t reminiscent of our dear Twiggy), and her body looks great. She’s not selling the garment, but who cares?! Oh, wait, the client and people who are paying her.

Marjorie. She looks like an evil Barbie doll. I love her chin and jawline, and the fact that although she didn’t look too great on film, she can make any look work on a photo.

McKey. Even if this wasn’t the best photo on her film, it’s still awesome. She has a great body, and there’s always that unique element of McKey in all of her photographs. Plus, the shoes are awesome.

Lauren Brie. This is pretty amateur for her, isn’t it? She looks a little bit weird, but I think that’s due to the styling. She can, has done, and hopefully will do, much better.

I actually like this photograph quite a bit. Her face brings back Tyra’s ever-famous “ugly-pretty” shenanigan, and I like it. However, her feet and legs are bothering the heck out of me. If she jumped and kept that face, it would’ve contributed to the theme better, I think.

Clark. This isn’t the best photograph of her, I know that. However, her body is fantastic, and her jawline is perfect. I think she looks perfect, and although it isn’t a good photo, I don’t sincerely believe this is a bad one either. She should’ve been given another chance, in my opinion.

Analeigh. I like it, but it’s rather forgettable. If the face was more intense, and the left hand wasn’t so weird, it’d be higher.

Joslyn. There really isn’t much to say about this. Horrible face and horrible body, and she’s making the clothes (which I liked) look bad. This photo would’ve looked better with an invisible person, really.

What I wanted to point out at before is that Sam was on the bottom two last week, and the top this week. Clark was on the top last week, and eliminated this week. As I said before, this cycle is making some really right decisions, but I’m starting to become afraid that this will become Cycle 9…or worse…Cycle 10, all over again.

-Posted by Dorian. Thanks for reading.