Maybe the live turkeys and the pig intestines are a slight exaggeration, but not much of one: Each week it's a new challenge, from hanging 10 stories up to trying to look beautiful in an enormous fish tank. And, like any talented reality producer, Tyra knows just how to milk every ounce of drama out of this slow unraveling. Even after Amanda announced that she would soon be legally blind and Toccara couldn't find a single piece of clothing to fit her plus-size body and Eva hinted at some darkness in her past and Ann had a panic attack on a plane trip, there was more to come -- much, much more. Sure, nothing quite compared to last year, when the models jumped into a hot tub with a bunch of hot Italian boys and it turned into a full-on orgy, with poor Shandi phoning her boyfriend in tears the next day and admitting that she'd slept with one of the guys (she didn't mention that he was hotter than God, which was charitable of her). But between snobby, Brown-educated Yaya, who only pauses between self-righteous monologues to condescend to her fellow models, and Ann, who can't make her face into a discernible expression to save her life, but still shuns the unfaltering emotional support of her loyal friend Eva, this season has been rife with battles and weepy outbursts and nail-biters.

Of course, when you feature the sorts of sadists and masochists that populate the fashion world on your show each week, fur is bound to fly. Where do you even begin? With the fashion designer who took out a measuring tape and measured the hips of one of the models -- the one who also happened to be a bulimic? Or how about the Japanese designers who, upon hearing that Amanda was 25, sniffed and said, "Too old, too old!"

Such punishing conditions are all a part of the world of high fashion, you see -- or that's what Tyra says, anyway, and who's going to argue with Tyra? If this show is any indication, any supermodel worth her salt should be able to:

1. Read Japanese phrases off cue cards while reflecting her true, original personality
2. Weep on cue in acting class
3. Race up 10 flights of stairs, then pose for the camera without vomiting
4. Confess her deepest darkest fears to strangers while the cameras roll
5. Maintain a wide-eyed, soft, seductive look while a tarantula crawls across her face
6. Create convincing Tokyo street fashion from assorted separates
7. Listen with great interest as Janice Dickinson rips her a new asshole

And that's really just the tip of the iceberg. Predictably, by the end of the show, each of the girls seems to have misplaced her pride, her dignity, her self-esteem, even her will to live. Last week, when Ann was eliminated, and left Tokyo without hugging her supposed friend Eva goodbye, Eva looked hunched over and wilted, but blinked bravely like she would somehow find the strength to carry on in the face of rejection and loneliness thousands of miles away from home. Amanda even seemed a little bit deflated -- the fashion designers didn't love her street fashion, the judges didn't dig her anime-on-a-motorcycle photo shoot, and everyone keeps telling her that she only looks like a model in pictures, not in person (and that's supposed to help her how, exactly?). Ann's crisis of confidence basically got her kicked out of the running, since her constant frustration and whining further impeded her ability to make an expression, to the point where you'd swear she had a face full of Botox during her last shoot. All of the girls have been coming apart, piece by piece, week by week, except for...

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