WARNING: SPOILERSLast night's America's Next Top Model finale crowned the ninth winner of the modeling competition, but in its wake,
a slew of controversy.
The final three--Chantal, Saleisha and Jenah--participated in the customary Cover Girl commercial, this time for CG's new Wetslick Fruit Spritzers. Try saying that three times fast, because none of the girls could even say it once.
Though they all looked gorgeous, the commercial takes were disastorous. Chantal, who took on the role of "Lemon Splash," looked like she actually took a bite out of a lemon with her left all all squinty and awkward looking. Jenah took the Jael approach and looked like she was mocking the Cover Girl image, which definitely didn't get by Tyra at the judging panel.
Going into judging, there was no clear frontrunner, but Jenah completely fell apart and her cynical criticism of models who "spew rainbows incessantly" sent her packing, which left the blond Barbie doll Chantal and the Rhianna look-a-like Saleisha to duke it out in a Chinese fashion show.
There has
never been a final performance more awkward than Chantal tripping up the stilted background dancer and landing him straight on his ass with a 'THPLUNK'--yes, that's the noise he made [
watch the clip]. Her already stunted energy completely deflated and Saleisha stomped all over her in the runway challenge.
The judging panel was odd: Instead of running through and comparing a number of photos throughout the competition, only three were selected (probably because neither of them were very photogenically strong, unlike Jenah or Heather). The main debate was Saleisha being too commercial versus Chantal being too amateur, and in the end, Tyra and company
selected Saleisha as America's Next Top Model, cycle 9. She was awarded a $100,000 contract with Elite Model Management and a spread in Seventeen Magazine, and she proceded to jump around like a little kid on Christmas morning.
Now for the juicy stuff...In casting, Tyra noted that Saleisha had attended Tyra's T-Zone Camp as a young girl, and it was clear that Saleisha had more modeling experience than most of the other girls. What was left out was Saleisha's had recently participated in a national campaign
and starred in a fashion show on the Tyra show.
According to ANTM rules, contestants "must not have previous experience as a model in a national campaign within the last five years (including, but not limited to, appearances on television and print advertisements)." Though she has no speaking role in it,
Saleisha appears in a Wendy's television ad that some of you may remember, mostly because it's only like a year old.
And if that's not shoddy enough for you,
check out this video from Tyra's talk show. It's a fashion show for Rami Kashou (yes, that's Ramo from Project Runway, more shifty-ness there, ehem). This show as a whole is really creepy, from the music to Tyra seductively moving with the models, but fast forward to about 3:50 if you're just interested in Saleisha.
Yes, that's some shady business there, but between the two, Saleisha is a better model. Then again, maybe that's why she already had a career pre-ANTM.
The Hollywood actor with the most pornstar-like name has been named People's 2008 Sexiest Man Alive.
There were also a few blasts from the past, namely Mark-Paul Gosselaar and ex-Dawson Creek-er Joshua Jackson, who have both reinvented themselves in primetime dramas "Raising the Bar" and "Fringe," respectively. Hey, what about Mario Lopez?
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