AusNTM 5.10 “The Final Three” Recap
July 1, 2009 by Erin Balser
Last week on Australia’s Next Top Model, the final four headed to London for go sees and a sexy fashion shoot. Statuesque Adele was sent home leaving us with the final three! Who will make it to the final round? Find out below!
Full recap below the jump!
Original Air Date: June 30, 2009
Challenge: Australian Fashion Week casting. Bookings: Clare 4, Cassi 3, Tahnee 2
Challenge Winner: Clare
Photo Shoot: Raw beauty on the beach
Guest Judge: Jez Smith and Doll Wright
Called First: Tahnee
Eliminated: Clare
It’s Australian Fashion Week and I must say, I love how AusNTM does this. Priscilla, who will represent the winner (and often signs the girls who don’t win) booked a bunch of castings for the final three. They have to run around like real models trying to get into shows, just like every other model in Australia right now. Sure, it’s a big staged because they need designers to agree to be filmed and what-not, but it’s a step up from how other Top Models do it.
However, it does mean there’s no dramatic final catwalk show, it’s the live finale. And I’m not the biggest fan of the live finale. I do like how more than just the judges get a vote, so it’s a toss-up.
Clare books Ginger & Smart, but Cassi and Tahnee don’t. They tell Cassi it’s because of her walk, but don’t give Tahnee a reason at all. I wonder if it’s because of her size because her walk is pretty good.
The next casting is at Wayne Cooper and Clare is easily cast. Tahnee gets a pass because of her body type and Cassi gets the second spot, with some reluctance. Wayne warns her about her walk but is confident with some practice she’ll be a great model.
Nicola Fenetti was the next casting. He’s looking for sexy ’80s style girls and Tahnee fits the bill perfectly. Cassi doesn’t and Clare picks up her third booking of the day.
Okay, at this point, isn’t it obvious Clare should win? She’s 3/3 on her castings and Cassi’s only getting booking based on her potential. Tahnee has a niche market and she’ll do wonderfully in that, but as an overall top model, she’s toast. That being said, none of the judges seem lo like Clare, and that will be a big strike against her. Stupid biases.
The fourth casting of the day is at Anna & Boy. They really know what they want and give the girls a lot of direction. Their look is very specific and they only book Cassi. The competition is heating up and the confessional remarks are getting snarkier and snarkier!
At Diet Coke Little Black Dress casting, and all three girls are booked for the show. I’m getting the impression this was the plan all along (Jonathan was the casting director for the shoot, after all. And it’s a sponsored show!), but it’s still nice to see they’ll all get at least two shows to be in.
The shows all go well, but Clare is declared the winner. She should, she was cast in the most shows and rocked them all. Tahnee was a complete sex kitten on the runway and I love her, but she only booked two shows. Cassi was awkward on the runway and I love how Charlotte called her “slightly demented.” She does have a great look, but she really needs to work on her walk.
The photo shoot is on the beach and the wind is nearly treacherous. It’s a group shot that’s all about raw beauty and the girls have to pretend that they’re best friends in this photo. Ha! I love it!
At panel, Sarah makes them talk about their strengths and weaknesses as a model. Tahnee gets her strengths and weaknesses bang on, but Sarah’s all “your body is beautiful, don’t change!” While this is true, it will limit her work. Tahnee just needs to decide if that’s worth it. It’s not Sarah’s job to project her ideals on Tahnee or on the industry. Cassi pisses me off when she calls out Clare and Tahnee who supposedly want to win this only for the prize money. WTF? Clare kills her answers for me when she starts with a quote. It’s not even cute, it’s very preachy and kind of weird. She breaks down over the prissy princess label and I think she misses the point of the question – and of the prissy princess label.
I’m so torn. Clare’s presentation turned me off. I love Tahnee, but question her ability to actually work. Cassi kills me, but I understand her edge and appeal. At least the deliberation surrounding Cassi reflected that.
Sarah demands that everyone declare their favorite. She chooses Tahnee and I’m not surprised. Alex chooses Clare and I’m not surprised. Doll, the guest judge chooses Cassi and I’m willing to be Jez and Charlotte do too, even if they don’t show it.
Tahnee gets first call out and Clare is sent home. It’s disappointing but understandable, especially considering how the judges’ deliberation went.
I think Tahnee’s going to win it all.
Sarah is not doing Tahnee any favors telling her not to change her body. No way an agency doesn’t tell Tahnee to either lose weight or sign her as a plus model. She can’t do VS or SI at her current size. Those models are usually “regular” models with a bigger cup size. Once again, Alex is the only one making sense out of the regular judges. I loved how he was annoyed Cassi cried and drew the focus to herself after the fashion shows. As for how Charlotte will vote, I don’t know. There’ve been at least two articles where she gives the impression of liking both girls. If this show was actually doing things based on performance, Adele and Clare would be final two. I get Cassi is supposedly the second coming but I question whether she’s ready to deal with an environment where she’s not being coddled. She’s mistaken if she thinks an agency is going to babysit her. Her walk and teeth can be fixed but can her overall attitude?
Alex is the most bang-on judge. He was the one who loved Alice from the beginning and look at her career. He gets how these girls will fit into the context of fashion beyond this how and recognizes his biases when they cloud his judgement.
I think the top four was right, but would have eliminated them: Cassi, Tahnee, Adele then Clare for the win.
i hope cassi wins. i think clare just barely got eliminated because the judges appeared to each vote for one girl and the odd one out was clare because either the photog or the other judghe chose cassi and tahnee. i agree its crap she got eliminated cus watching her walk the runway, i could have mistook her for a real supermodel. i think the catwalk is her niche, photos are casssi’s and the more men-centered mags will go crazy over tahnee, VicSec fer sure. i dunno how australia feels about cassi, nor how much say they get in the overall vote but i def see cassi winning, i think the show wants another alice burdeau, since demelza was kind of a flop. they want to impress us again with a great winner which is probably why all the contestants as a whole were so amazingly modelesque. and they know cassi will get soooo much work. go cassi!!
oh and BTW, TYRA (if ur reading this), the finales of ausntm are wayyyyy more fun than ANTM. i love the live audience, and esp the runway with all the models walking and everyone cheering for their favorite that is sooo fun to watch. so we should so do that here. Gawd u could even do it on ur talkshow, just do it its wayyy cooler to watch and leaves viewers with a less “that was wayy biased” feeling.. ya know *cough* allison *cough* Anya *cough*