6. Dominique still looks like a drag queen. This could be filed under the category of Judges Need to Stop Talking About It and Fix It. After the girls got their Tyra mail on what I'm calling the Tyra Ticker, they went to Elite Model Management to get some first-impression feedback from the agency's North American director, Neal Hamil, and Paulina Porizkova, who was introduced as the replacement for Twiggy as a judge on the show. I wish we would've seen Paulina's critique of all 14 girls, but those evaluations we saw were spot on and, as she promised, ''truthful but hurtful.'' Taking one look at Dominique, she said, ''You remind me slightly of the actress Robin Wright Penn, except like a transvestite version of her.'' Neal's jaw dropped, but he recovered in time to add, ''We both just want to take a Brillo pad and just clean you up.'' I'm tired of hearing that Dominique is ''draglicious'' and watching the judges laugh at her (though, granted, that pause at the top of the panel catwalk was absurd). If she's that much of a joke, don't make her a finalist. Or, here's a crazy idea: Help her. I have some faith that Paulina might be a hands-on judge. She gave Marvita a tip about relaxing her jaw to avoid a square face. She was rather expressive when she explained to Kim that she should bring forth her dark side with an accompanying pull-it-out-through-your-throat gesture. And she stood up to Nigel, who tried to bust Lauren for being too nervous. (I have such a love/hate relationship with Nigel: I see myself doing one of those slap-him-then-kiss-him routines. You?)
So, what do you think of opinionated Paulina? Will she be a better judge than Twiggy? Can she teach awkward Lauren and ''inexperienced model staring into the light'' Amis how to pose? Have you figured out what kind of game Fatima is playing? Do you find the loft decor (giant photos of Tyra with past winners promoting their favorite causes, the oddly punctuated quote, ''If you stand for — nothing, — you'll fall for anything'') as inspiring as you're supposed to? And did you happen to catch the uncanny resemblance between the homeless photo Tyra posed for and the ''naked hobos in the city'' picture EW.com's Michael Slezak staged for his America's Next Top Doll blog series? Slezak had no idea Top Model would be doing a homeless-theme shoot. Great minds and reality-TV hosts think alike.
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