Ebony, America's Next Top Model
Think it takes guts to audition for America's Next Top Model? Don't make me laugh. That's child's play compared to the nerve it takes to remove oneself from the competition. And that's exactly what 20-year-old Ebony Morgan did in last week's episode — a series first that left Tyra Banks spitting mad. "There's nothing less attractive than a quitter," she hissed. But if you ask me, there are few things more inspiring than a young woman with the strength of character to not only realize that what she thought she wanted isn't what she wanted, but to stand up and say, "No offense, but this just isn't for me." Here, TVGuide.com lets Morgan explain herself at lengths that her bullying benefactor seemed wholly disinclined to.
TVGuide.com: How did you reach the decision to remove yourself from the competition?
Ebony Morgan:&nb
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Janet, America's Next Top Model
You'd think that giving a mock bikini wax to Tyra Banks would buy a girl some love from the head judge on America's Next Top Model. But Lady T showed carrot-top-turned-Liza Minnelli look-alike Janet Mills no mercy last week, kicking the 22-year-old aesthetician to the curb with some of the weakest words of encouragement we've yet to hear. How's Janet handling being, er, ripped from the lineup? And scarier still, how does she imagine her slovenly housemates faring without her around to play den mother? To find out, in anticipation of tonight's episode (8 pm/ET on the CW), we put in a call to the Georgia peach.
TVGuide.com: Sorry to be speaking to you under these circumstances.
Janet Mills: Did you love me or what? You didn't even watch!
TVGuide.com: I did
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Victoria, America's Next Top Model
Can't say I was stunned that America's Next Top Model (Wednesdays, 8 pm/ET, CW) didn't keep 20-year-old Yale scholar Victoria Marshman to the end. As bright as she is, and as appealingly vulnerable as she was in photos, she freely admitted that only recently had it occurred to her to make a career of sitting around and looking pretty — which, in Tyra Banks' estimation, puts her on par with, say, Satan. She also did the unthinkable and snapped at dear, sweet Twiggy — repeatedly. What was up with that? To find out, TVGuide.com gave her a call and dove in… cautiously.
TVGuide.com: How scared should I be to be interviewing you?
Victoria Marshman: Why would you feel scared? I'm, like, the least intimidating person ever!
TVGuide.com: Come on, if
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Kimberly, America's Next Top Model
Regular readers of TVGuide.com's America's Next Top Model Q&As know that ordinarily I'm pretty polite. Since the contestants are, by and large, young and naive (translation: um, OK, often kinda dim), I try not to give them too much rougher a time than Tyra Banks and the judges already have. But when Kimberly Leemans was eliminated last week after talking smack about poor, defenseless Heather, I was ready to rumble. Then the bright-eyed sweetheart from small-town Ocala, Florida, actually got on the phone with me, and poof! All my animosity disappeared. Turns out she isn't at all the wannabe I most wanna rake over the coals — she's the girl I'd invite first to any cocktail party: smart and sincere and funny as all get-out. And if Heather's down with her, by god so am I.
TVGuide.com: First things first: the
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Mila, America's Next Top Model
Going into America's Next Top Model, Mila Bouzinova thought she had it all. She was pretty, poised and had an attitude we'd all do well to adopt: If you focus on the positive, the negative just fades away. Unfortunately for her, the judges read her sunny disposition as vacuous, she lost it while playing a chemo patient in a before-and-after photo, and Tyra Banks' criticism... that's a negative that no motto can diminish. Smarting for the 20-year-old Bostonian, TVGuide.com rang her up to feel her out.
TVGuide.com: Gotta tell you, I really like your motto.
Mila Bouzinova: Thank you! It comes in handy!
TVGuide.com: Was it hard to keep it in mind when you became the first girl cut from Cycle 9?
Mila: I don't think so. I focus on the positive and on my strengths versus focusing on, "Oh, that's so nuts that I
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Chantal, Lisa and Heather, America's Next Top Model
Maybe it's because I still go on and on about how Cycle 1's Elyse was robbed. Or maybe it's because I can point to at least half a dozen photos that were worse than the Pisces shot of Cycle 4's Lluvy, which was dubbed "Worst Picture Ever." Or maybe it's because I turn red with outrage over the way Tyra Banks told contestants out of one side of her mouth to be proud of what makes them unique, then out the other, warned Cycle 6's Danielle to fix the beloved gap between her front teeth or else. But for some reason — pick whichever one you prefer — I've come to be thought of as something of an expert on America's Next Top Model. As such, I guess I am as qualified as anyone, and perhaps more qualified than most, to weed out from Cycle 9's raw recruits the five who have the best chance of going all the way. Herewith, my picks:
Li
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Sarah Burgess
At this point, you may not be able to tell Chris Richardson from Chris Rock, but chances are, you still vividly remember American Idol 6's Sarah Burgess — and she didn't even make the top 20. As soon as she'd tearfully told Ryan Seacrest that she'd lied to her disapproving dad in order to get away long enough to audition, the vocal powerhouse had every teenager who'd ever rebelled in her corner. And now they really have a reason to cheer her on: Although she was cut just shy of the top 20 finalists, she's landed herself a record deal, and this week she's released her first single, a so-catchy-it-oughta-be-criminal R
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Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson
Inconceivable as it is, given her larger-than-life... um, presence, there just isn't enough of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, to go around. So Cassandra Peterson, who's filled the übervamp's, um, pumps for more than 25 years, has finally hung out the "Help Wanted" sign. This Friday (the 13th, natch) at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, she is holding an open "casket call" as part of her upcoming Fox Reality series The Search for the Next Elvira (which debuts Oct.13). Is this the stuff that Peterson's "unpleasant dreams" are made of? To find out, TVGuide.com simply punched in her figures... er, digits.
TVGuide.com: Please, in the name
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Natasha Galkina, America's Next Top Model
Watching America's Next Top Model this season, I often wanted to dislike judges' darling Natasha Galkina as much as her backstabbing rivals did. It wasn't just that her photos were sometimes lacking. (Tyra called Cycle 4's Lluvy's Pisces pic the worst ever, and I loved her.) And it wasn't just that right off the bat she clashed with my personal favorite, Renee. (In the end, even I had to admit that my girl was as nasty as she was hot — and that was before she stood me up for our Monday interview). No, embarrassed as I am to admit it, I think I had a hate-on for the most desirable Russian import since vodka because
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Dionne Walters, America's Next Top Model
You had to feel for America's Next Top Model contestant Dionne Walters. First Tyra Banks and her prickly panel of judges didn't like the way the 20-year-old Alabaman dressed. Then they didn't like the way she posed. Then, finally, since they didn't even like the way she smiled, they gave her a reason to frown: They booted her... in favor of bizarre, bubble-headed Natasha, no less. Still, the single mom sees the constant criticism she received almost as a compliment — and not in an "I don't understand what you mean, so I'm just going to smile and nod" Natasha kind of way, either. Here, she explains her reasoning to TVGuide.com.
TVGuide.com: Well, I gotta tell you, I lost 20 bucks last night. I had
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