The Problem With Top Model...
Jaslene Gonzalez is very skinny, attractive, and photogenic. She seems quite sweet as well. But she's of average height (5'7") and has the accent of a South Bronx hash house waitress. Does this spell supermodel to you? Absolutely not. Such is the problem with America's Next Top Model, where Benetton demographics and feel-good stories get in the way of the show's stated goal: to find America's next top model.
Through seven cycles, it's yet to happen. And letting 12-1 shot Gonzalez cross the line first in the 8th cycle's Melbourne Distaff last night isn't going to help matters. More troubling, the judges passed on one of the most distinctive faces to ever grace the show: favored filly Natasha Galkina, a Russkie immigrant whose rags to rubies past and Joliesque lips really could have captured the hearts and hard-ons of America. But no, Tyra Banks & Co. succumbed to the creator's increasingly Oprahtic tendencies and tapped Gonzalez, the comeback kid who was a season premiere semifinal cut in cycle 7.
So what's ANTM to do if it wants to fulfill its lofty mission? Maybe replace Banks with a stone bitch. Of course, it would have to be executive producer Banks who makes the decision to replace Banks, so this isn't likely to happen. But with her show's 0-7 (soon to be 0-8) record of producing viable supermodels, Banks is fast becoming the Todd Pletcher of catwalk svengalis.
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