‘America’s Next Top Model’ recap: Off to Morocco

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The ladies were experiencing life in a foreign land this week on ‘America’s Next Top Model,’ which means shots of confused Americans in spice markets, borderline-offensive accent reenactments and at least one uncomfortable animal moment. Molly remained a total sourpuss, kicking off the Morocco episode by complaining that she had to pretend to be cheerful and excited about camels even though she would rather sulk in a corner somewhere. Alexandria’s old control-freak habits reared up again, and Hannah finally came up with a good picture.

Before getting settled in their new condo in Marrakech, the ladies were greeted by a turbanned Ms. Jay, who pointed them toward a delicious lunch. But not, of course, before requiring all of the contestants to take pictures with street performers’ monkeys, and getting the models well and truly culture shocked. ‘I feel like Aladdin!’ Hannah said at one point. Sigh.

After lunch, which was mostly an opportunity for the editors to splice in all the confession camera smack talk the ladies have been spouting, the modeltestants went to the showroom of designer Noureddine Amir to try on some half basket-half dresses. Poor Kasia’s fiercely real figure fit into only the drabbest of the outfits, and the body image complaints she had so successfully avoided this season came tumbling out. Andre Leon Talley named Brittani the best walker and allowed her a good 30 seconds of gloating before whisking the girls away to their next challenge.

I guess it wouldn’t be Morocco if there wasn’t a vaguely Bedouin-inspired desert photo shoot. Plus camels! The ladies were all styled in a confusing high-fashion-meets-what-Tyra-imagines-nomads-to-look-like manner, though truth be told they all looked like refugee extras from an ‘80s music video. Alexandria’s Veruca Salt impression was on full blast during her shoot, and she came away with a grumpy photographer and a pretty bland picture. Brittani, Hannah and Molly were the breakout stars of the shoot, thanks mostly to their willingness to make totally awkward-looking poses atop a camel.

Kasia, poor dear, was still in deep fretting mode thanks to her fitting incident and couldn’t quite get a handle on the shoot. Guest judge and Italian Vogue editor Franca Sozzani took one look at the photo and said ‘No.’ The judges loved Molly’s picture, thanks to what Tyra termed her ‘body awareness’ and what Talley called the narrative of the photo, though I doubt Molly was really controlling either of those things. (‘That’s why models make awful actresses. We’re so aware,’ Tyra informed us.) So Molly of the rage issues got first picture, followed by Brittani, while Kasia and Alexandra landed in the bottom. As we’ve already seen this season, being a snot will get you reprimanded but not actually sent home so the far more affable Kasia got the boot while the wicked witch of L.A. stayed. My bet’s on Brittani for the win, but I think it’ll come down to her and Alexandra. What do you think, ‘ANTM’ lovers? And any guesses on who’s going to be on the all-stars season?

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-- Margaret Eby