It's quite a strange juxtaposition going back and forth between the US Open women's final (Yay Justine!) and the cycle 4 (not 8 - oops) marathon of America's Next Top Model. Furthermore, I cannot believe how much space I've dedicated to a season of a show that is so two years ago.

However, I'm glad it's cycle 4 as now I can see the whole journey of Keenyah the crazy, victorious Naima, and crushworthy Kahlen. However, it's a bit like eating too much chocolate (which I've also done) and now I feel rather sick. (Holy cow, I've become the David Cross joke about the weird lady with the Yankee Candles, Grishams and hunky firemen calendar).

I won't even discuss the Courtney Love-esque train wreck that is Janice Dickinson. Brittany turned out to be quite a... well... Britney, flashing her Paris-parts out the van window after drinking too much. I learned more about Michelle, a wrestler from Indiana whose face nearly fell off halfway through the season. And then there was Tiffany who auditioned the year before but got into an alcohol tossing fight with a girl at a bar and uttered the line of the cycle, "That skank poured beer on my weave!"

Being immersed in fashion and trashy TV like ANTM (and reading an interview with Bobbi Brown where she said the beauty industry makes women feel bad about themselves) made me revisit my own opinions on this. I remember when I stopped reading women's magazines because I got tired of being bombarded by a freaky "ideal". When I started looking at them again I was amazed at how strange and unreal the models looked (and I still think they're way too thin). It sucks that women pressure themselves to conform to anything and that our culture can be so youth obsessed, but I'm glad I'm finally at an age where I can be amused by the silliness (lots of that) and occasionally enchanted by well-made clothes and accessories that are way out of my reach.

I can't believe I'm about to go all Oprah on you and bring this up but I read a recent interview with Brooke Shields (credibility - mine - lost, right?) where she said (on being older), "Why couldn't I have been this happy in my 20s? Why couldn't I have been this content with my body, my relationship or whatever it was? But I think you kind of have to earn it." Ain't that the truth, girls?! Boys?! I don't know a single woman who wants to go back. Turning 30 was just swell. I'll get back to you on the 40 thing. Not as sure about that one.

Politics and more fashion tomorrow. Been a quieter week (with the exception of Mos Def on Real Time with Bill Maher. That dude is funny (but crazy)!

Bon nuit,
Ms. P

ps. Yankee Candle that goes best with with a fashion overdose: Yew're So Fabulous!

Labels: america's next top model, celebrities, tv