andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

As the summer of love comes to a close, a few celebrities have squeezed in romantic updates and even one delicious scandal.

First of all, everyone’s favourite tall-awkward-funny-guy John Krasinski (The Office) announced his engagement to actress girlfriend Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada). The couple have been dating since November, but keep their relationship under lock and key, including any details about an upcoming wedding.

Another potential celebrity wedding was spotted in Los Angeles this weekend: America’s Next Top Model Tyra Banks was caught sporting an awfully large stone on her ring finger, possibly meaning an engagement to longtime boyfriend, businessman John Utendahl. Banks hasn’t revealed any details, but she sure isn’t shy about carting the ring around town.

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The show will go on for “America’s Next Top Model.”

Following a Manhattan casting call that erupted in chaos over the weekend, host and executive producer Tyra Banks says auditions for the reality series will go forward.

“To all the ‘Top Model’ hopefuls who were affected by the New York casting, we are doing everything we can to make sure that ALL the girls who weren’t seen, get an opportunity to audition – we’ll update you on our plans very soon,” Banks said in a statement issued by the CW network Monday.

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Competition is even more (as Tyra Banks would say) “fierce” this time around.  

According to E! online, New York police arrested three people following a massive stampede that erupted during a casting call for the new season of the Banks-powered reality contest – a melee that involved hundreds of people outside a Central Park hotel.

Reports are stating that at least six people were injured, two of whom were hospitalized in a frantic scene that shut down the NY auditions.  This season is focusing on model prospects under the height of 5-foot-7.

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Tyra Banks is trying to spice up this season of America’s Next Top Model.

UsMagazine.com is reporting that this year one of the contestants on the widely popular show is a transgendered model named Isis.

In a recent interview with UsMagazine.com, Isis told Us, “I like to help people, but I’m here to follow my dreams.”

Banks is known for trying to shake up the modeling world.

Last season, Whitney Thompson became the shows first plus-sized winner.

Do you think she’ll be grounded? Tyra Banks is in big trouble with the Parents Television Council.

The controversy comes after an episode of Banks’ reality contest show, “America’s Next Top Model.” During the episode, one contestant’s assignment was to recreate Marilyn Monroe’s naked photoshoot in a bed. All private parts were blurred or obscured for the show.

But that’s not enough for the Council. Its president, Tim Winter, told TV Guide the photoshoot “crossed the legal threshold for broadcast indecency.”

“This is not simply a matter of artistic freedom, as some might claim. Rather, this is about a television network intentionally pushing the envelope to establish a new acceptable nudity standard for the broadcast medium.”

Winter also believes that the length of the photoshoot scene – more than a minute – proves that it was “wholly gratuitous and undoubtedly intended to titillate,” he said.

She’s very generous to her audiences, but Tyra Banks appears to be a Grinch when it comes to her staff!

According to Janet Charlton’s Hollywood.com, Banks treated her “Top Model” employees to a less-than-festive Christmas party at a “lower East-side dive bar [where] her employees drank a lot because there was no food.”

That is, until Banks arrived long enough to say she was off to Italy, and give the staff their gifts – Santa’s toy bag filled with McDonald’s cheeseburgers. This adds insult to injury, as the crew relocated from Los Angeles to New York for the show.

Banks reportedly has a $30 million contract for “Top Model.”

The Internet has been buzzing with negativity ever since Saleisha was crowned this cycle’s America’s Next Top Model. Dedicated viewers and conspiracy theorists alike have been blogging against the victory, claiming that it was an unfair win for Saleisha. Of course, every viewer is entitled to his or her favourite, and sour grapes are common to those whose favourites don’t take the title, but these bloggers have much more to offer than simply ill will.

From the beginning, it was made no secret that Saleisha’s relationship with Tyra did not begin at the ANTM auditions. The model had met Tyra back when she was 14, when she attended Tyra’s model summer camp. However, the producers, Saleisha and Tyra were all allegedly keeping some details of the relationship to themselves.

Furious bloggers began posting footage of Saleisha on the runway as a guest model for Tyra in cycle 6 of ANTM, as well as one of the models on The Tyra Banks Show from a few seasons back. In short, Saleisha has already done some work for Tyra – but the question remains, was Tyra now making things work for her?

Disappointed and cheated bloggers also revealed that Saleisha had appeared in a nationwide Wendy’s commercial back in 2006, which violates one of the eligibility rules of the show. According to inside sources on the show, contestants are not allowed to participate if they have had previous experience as a model in a national television ad campaign.

Neither Tyra, nor anyone else from the ANTM camp has responded to these allegations at present.

America’s Next Top Model had its season seven premiere last night and it was met with plenty of controversy.

Host Tyra Banks had the top 13 models recreate popular model stereotypes, ranging from anorexia to crazy bitchiness.

The anorexia and bulimia photos done by twins Amanda and Michelle have received backlash, however, from the public who say they have gone too far.

Activists have spoken out saying these are real diseases that kill young girls everyday and shouldn’t have been glamorized on a TV show.

Nicole Linkletter was named the top model of America’s Next Top Model’s fifth cycle in the season finale Wednesday night.

As the Top Model, Linkletter takes home a $100,000 contract with CoverGirl cosmetics, an ElleGirl cover with Top Model host and producer Tyra Banks and a photo spread inside the magazine, and a contract with Ford Models.

In the season finale, the top three — Linkletter, 19, Nik Rhodesea, 21, and Bre Howard, 19 — shot a CoverGirl commercial and a national print ad. Though Linkletter stumbled over her lines (and then blamed it on the lighting) it was Harlem native Howard who was sent packing.

Linkletter and Rhodesea were then each photographed with Banks for an ElleGirl cover by photographer Gilles Bensimon. Linkletter’s winning photo will be on ElleGirl’s February 2006 issue.

The final two models took to the runway with past Top Model winners Naima Mora and Eva Pigford in one last fashion show for London designers Vanya Strok and Nargess Gharani.

The judges felt Linkletter was a stronger competitor than Rhodesea, who was criticized for having a bland personality and just one pose.