Nakia eliminated from American Princess
This week’s episode of American Princess had the contestants focusing on two things: charity and the media. After watching the press conference challenge of tonight’s show I think that both go hand in hand. More later.
First, the remaining seven girls are given a lesson about a specific charity Big Brothers & Sisters by the director Wendy Hill. She wanted to teach the girls the importance of mentors for children and had the contestants pair up to role play situations in which they could be a good role model for a child. I’m not too sure that some of these contestants would be my idea of a good role model (bad attitudes, being kind of conceited), but then again I’m only a viewer of the show not the producers who selected them to be contestants.
To put their mentoring skills to the test, Jean Broke-Smith and Paul Burell had the girls host a garden party for a group of children (both boys and girls). They assigned the girls specific responsibilities for the day, as follows:
Clarissa and Cassie – food
Letoshua and Kirsten – decorations and puppet show
Crystal, Jasmine and Nakia – provide entertainment as clowns
As I’m watching this portion of the show I had to ask myself “how does throwing a party play into being a princes?” Don’t they have party planners to take care of these types of things, where someone else does the grunt work and you take the credit for it? Just a thought.
For the most part the kids enjoyed themselves. The puppet show was very odd – it was supposed to be based on a traditional story of Punch and Judy that all the children should recognize but it had a strange story line. The food was a flop – the girls wanted the kids to make pictures with raw veggies, and did not know that children in England do not like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I have to admit that I might have done the same thing, but with all the talk of peanut allergies nowadays I might have not done that dish.
The girls were judged on their mentoring skills, and overall the children named Kirsten as their favorite princess in training. She was able to take along a guest (Clarissa) to her reward, a trip to the Holland Park Opera. The rest of the girls were punished by having to stuff two thousand or so envelopes for a homeless shelter mailing.
Next the girls were subjected to media training by James Whitaker, who is also going to serve as the third judge. He’s quite impressed with himself I must say, but then again so is everyone on this show be it judge or contestant. He gave the girls some advice and pointers on how to handle themselves during their next challenge – a press conference where they would serve as the public face of Big Brothers & Sisters and would need to get their message across about the charity.
But before the press conference Jean takes the girls to a salon to get new hairstyles. The new looks are big improvements for most of the women. I really liked the new hair styles for Jasmine and Letoshua. I know Letoshua really did not like her hair and was quite rude to the hair stylist but I thought he knew what he was doing and gave her a really modern style. She stated that the stylist should give her what she wanted, not what he wanted to do to her. I agree and I disagree – I disagree here because she signed up to participate in this show, and if a celebrity stylist wanted to give me a free makeover I’d be all over it. (Letoshua later admitted to being kind of harsh and said she would apologize if she met up with the stylist again.) Many of the girls were pretty sure of themselves and the fact that they were just fine the way they looked, but once they saw their new styles I think they were won over.
The press conference was hysterical. Many of the girls didn’t even mention the charity. I think that the press didn’t give two hoots about their speeches, they wanted to get to the question and answer period to find out dirt on the contestants. When I said the press and charity went hand in hand, I think that the British press was very kind to the princess contestants. I think they could have been a lot harsher and a lot more personal but kept it kind of in check. They kind of approached the whole thing as a fun diversion. If they could get someone going, that would be good, but if not oh well. Personally I don’t think any of the contestants really stood out during the press conference for having an outstanding performance.
During the eliminations Nakia and Crystal were named the bottom two, but Crystal was given a second chance. I think it was just a matter of time for Nakia. I don’t see how the producers and judges would give the title of American Princess to a retired pole dancer. But then again, from some of the questions asked of the contestants I think we have a very colorful and diverse group of ladies with very interesting backgrounds. We found out that Crystal had some sort of accident involving her drinking that put her in a coma. We also found out that Jasmine, Nakia and Letoshua have children. Letoshua calls her child a “souvenir” from Korea. Cassie just recently lost her virginity. Kirsten designs clothes for dogs as a profession after her dog “told” her that the outfit she was wearing was ugly (the dog, that is). Nakia said that the girls were there to clean up their image. Silly me, I never realized that applying to be the next American Princess could make me more of the squeaky clean kind of girl. Going on a television show to do that never occurred to me. And that’s why I’m sitting in front of my computer at 11:22 pm on a Sunday evening while these women are living the high life in London.
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