Michelle

Chaos breaks out at 'America's Next Top Model' audition in Manhattan
BY Dorian Block, Elizabeth Lazarowitz and Rich Schapiro
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Updated Sunday, March 15th 2009, 10:49 AM

Pandemonium erupted outside an "America's Next Top Model" casting call in midtown yesterday when an overheating car triggered a stampede of catwalk-craving cuties.

Screaming as they ran for their lives, hundreds of hotties in heels toppled over barricades along W. 55th St. after several people in the crowd started yelling, "There's a bomb!"

By the time the model madness ended, six women were injured and two women and one man were busted for inciting a riot, authorities said.

"The girls were running like it was 9/11 part two," said Jennifer Brown, 27, of Kensington, Brooklyn. "I feared for my life."

The audition for the show on The CW, which for the first time was open only to women under 5-feet-7, was doomed from the start, several said.
Scores of aspiring models slept overnight outside the Park Central Hotel, hoping to be the first to sashay before the hit show's casting agents.

But shortly after the sun rose, women began arriving and lining up indiscriminately.

Tensions quickly boiled over.

Things only got worse when the dolled-up ladies were told if they stepped out of the line, they couldn't come back in.

"I had to pee in a cup and change my clothes in the street," said Mona Knight, 18, of the Bronx, who arrived at 11:30 p.m. Friday night. "There was no organization whatsoever."

Cops arrived and placed barricades along the street. But by that point, there were already several thousand women lined up. A handful of women started fainting after getting pressed up against the wall, witnesses said.

"Everyone was so compressed, I don't think they could breathe," said Alex Saavedra, 23, who escorted his girlfriend to the audition. "Then they started passing out."

A fight broke out between two men who had been taunting each other for several hours, witnesses said.

Cops intervened and pulled the men off the line. One of them threatened to return with a gun, heightening tensions among the already-frazzled women.

Soon after, a black BMW with smoke pouring out of its hood pulled up in the street near the line, sending the sea of underdressed women scrambling to get away.

"The metal barricade fell down," said Kiara McCarthy, 19, of Levittown, L.I. "All of a sudden we heard this roar from behind us and we looked behind us and there's a wave of people falling on top of us."

Gabrielle Rose, 25, said several women started crying out in pain.

"We all fell on top of each other," said Rose, of Scranton, Pa. "People were squished against the wall, screaming, 'I can't breathe! I can't breathe!' "

A total of six women were injured, authorities said.

Two were transported to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell in stable condition, authorities said.

In the wake of the stampede, cops arrested three people: Clem Clemmons, 40; Vanessa Quiones, 20, and Michael Edwards, 24. All were charged with inciting a riot.

A CW spokesman referred requests for comment to a CBS rep who did not return phone calls or e-mails.

No more women were allowed to audition after the stampede, leaving many diminutive ladies devastated that they missed out on an opportunity to make it big.

"I'm 5-foot-3. There's no way I can make it into a model agency," McCarthy said. "They would turn me away at the door. We had an opportunity and it was taken away from us."

BlueRose

Saw this today, from [Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register]

grr...

Michelle

After an NYC casting call for America's Next Top Model turned ugly Saturday as hundreds of hopefuls were caught in a stampede resulting in three arrests and six injuries, the show's host and executive producer Tyra Banks tells aspiring models that they will still have a chance to compete.

"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 told Usmagazine.com in a statement Monday.

She added: "It is so important to me to redefine beauty and make sure that everyone gets a fair chance to pursue their dream. I am beyond excited for Cycle 13; for the first time ever, young women 5'7" and under have a shot at becoming America's Next Top Model!

"I encourage each girl to come out ready to rock the runway and show off their fiercest pose. I'm rooting for all of you!"

As aspiring models waited in line at the Park Central Hotel, fights broke out as news of a supposed car on fire began to spread.

Police were forced to shut down the casting call, and arrested two women and one man on charges of disorderly conduct and inciting to riot, according to the Times. Two people were taken to a local hospital with minor injuries, while four others refused treatment.

"We are concerned by the events that occurred Saturday afternoon in the vicinity of the New York City casting call for the next cycle of America's Next Top Model," executive producers Banks and Ken Mok told Us in a statement earlier on Monday. "At this time, we still don't know all the details of what happened or what triggered the incident. We appreciate the efforts of the NYPD and will assist them in any way possible in this matter."

America's Next Top Model debuted its twelfth cycle earlier this month.

Precious

If anyone is interested (and not afraid of possible stampedes), there are still a few auditions:

*Dallas
Saturday, March 21st

10:00am to 3:00pm
Dallas W Victory
2440 Victory Park Lane
Dallas, TX 75219
The Casting Director will be in attendance.

*Chicago
Wednesday, March 25
The ANTM Casting Team will be in attendance.

*Los Angeles
Saturday, March 28th
The Casting Director will be in attendance.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but what's going on with your avatar Michelle? It keeps changing with almost every page I read.

Michelle

I was testing a Living Avatar pack I'm making, of a simple face... it doesn't really work with the vision I have for this forum though, so I don't think I'll keep it there. I have some better artwork of shopping ladies I'll be working on.

(Living Avatars is a system that lets you select elements and assemble them into your own customized avatar. You can check it out in your User Control Panel if you like)

Michelle

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chicagotribune.com

'Top Model' call draws thousands

By Wendy Donahue
Tribune staff reporter
Rosemont was ready for its "America's Next Top Model" close-up Wednesday.

After keeping candidates in suspense about the exact location of the Chicago casting call, the CW reality show announced Tuesday that it would screen prospects for Season 13 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday.

For the first time, the nationwide auditions are seeking women who are 5 foot 7 inches and shorter.

Models traditionally must reach or exceed that height.

So when the show decided to reverse that standard for the season that airs in September, an estimated 10,000 women descended on the New York casting call earlier this month. Pandemonium broke out, resulting in three arrests and six injuries.

With plenty of police on hand, Rosemont produced no similar "Cops"-caliber scene. More than 3,000 prospects maintained peace as the line stretched down the block, constantly replenished by fresh faces, each subjected to the elevator eyes of her predecessors--scanned from head to toe and back again.

Making sure they got their flip-flopped foot in the door, girls already had begun lining up at 3 a.m. when the casting crew arrived, even though new rules, revised after the New York debacle, officially forbade assembling prior to 6 a.m. The casting wasn't scheduled to begin until 10 a.m., but doors opened by 6 a.m., and by 10 a.m., hundreds of contestants' caffeine-and-saltine-fueled dreams of becoming the next "Top Model" had been crushed.

On three hours of sleep, Shannon Cunningham skipped a psychology test at Eastern Michigan University for the opportunity. Trine Hatzenbuehler drove 12 hours from Gainesville, Va. Shalonda Council flew in from Orlando.

Despite the glimmer of hope, few harbored lifelong dreams of becoming a supermodel. "Obviously, I was too short," said the 5-foot-6-inch Shelise Hufstetler, 19, who flew in the night before from Las Vegas, where she's studying fashion design. "I checked the 'Top Model' requirements every season to see if they changed. And finally... !"

And few starved themselves in stereotypical model fashion.

"In fact, I had six Eggos this morning; I had to settle the butterflies in my stomach," said the 5-foot-7 Melinda Lafrey, 24, an interior design student from Orland Park.

Nine banks of mirrors in one restroom were occupied with women adjusting cleavage, swapping shirts or subbing flats for 5-inch platform heels, like the 5-foot-6 Jacquelyn Guider, 18, who lives near the University of Illinois-Chicago.

"I want to be a media mogul," she said. "Even if you don't make it to the end of the show, you're going to touch hands with a lot of significant people."

She and her friend, the 5-foot-6 Renita Williams, 18, of Matteson, wore jeans and barely a pat of powder on their faces.

"They don't like you to come in with a full face of makeup," said Williams, who started modeling when she was 3 years old.

Anna Ames, a Lake Forest massage therapist who turned 24 that day, worked her 1940s pinup girl style to the hilt with a red Jessica Rabbit-worthy dress, porcelain complexion, scarlet lips and soft-wave hairstyle. "I decided to just come as myself," she said.

The 5-foot-2 Erin Silker, 27, of Rogers Park, called herself "the grandma of the competition" and remained in her red ballet flats as her bloc of numbers was called. "I'm short and they know it, who cares?" she said over her shoulder as her group was hustled along.

A day earlier, 5-foot-4½ Jennifer D'Adamo, 26, an electrician at the convention center, was changing lightbulbs in the same ballroom where she now was waiting when she heard that the casting call would be here.

Then she heard that they were welcoming shorter women.

"It was too eerie--kind of like fate," said D'Adamo, who has a distinctive beauty mark above her mouth, reminiscent of Cindy Crawford. "I thought, it would be silly for me not to try. Eva Longoria and Kate Moss are not the required height but they are supermodels and actresses."

That was one reason that show producer and former supermodel Tyra Banks cited for opening up the show to lower heights, a decision that has swollen the turnout for auditions across the country.

Applicants who make the cut will compete for a $100,000 CoverGirl contract and representation by Elite Model Management during the televised boot camp.

Chicago already has claimed an impressive share of "Top Model" fame. Lake Forest's Brittany McKey Sullivan earned the title in Cycle 11. Jaslene Gonzalez, who grew up in Humboldt Park, won Cycle 8. Joliet's Adrianne Curry brought home the very first crown.

After surviving two rounds during Wednesday's tryouts, Renita Williams, the former child model, reported that she got cut in the third round.

"I used to be really adorable," she said, smiling. "I quit modeling because I was really into cheerleading, which wasn't a smart move. It's really hard to get back in!"

As she waited her turn before the judges, the 5-foot-7 Sara Luebke, 18, a Loyola University student who lives in Rogers Park, occupied her thoughts with a Simone de Beauvoir book, written in French. Asked for a translation of its title "Une Mort Tres Douce," she ventured, "a very soft death."

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Michelle

Consider this a reminder (or a warning?): America's Next Top Model will [Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register]at The Penn Plaza Pavilion located at the Hotel Pennsylvania (401 7th Avenue, 18th Floor) tomorrow. "This time, cops met with organizers and will station officers outside to help keep order." The cops are also assigning a detail to the event. Remember: "No lining up overnight and no lining up prior to 6:00am. Registration will begin at 7:00am" and "Be courteous to others around you." (The [Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register].)