PUC Chronicle

Issue date: 3/5/07 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: photo provided

Media Credit: photo provided

The Chronicle will have exclusive interviews with contestants as they are eliminated from America's Next Top Model throughout the duration of the show.



Kathleen DuJour thought she rocked her photo shoot and the walk way.

And Tyra asked her to walk right off it.

Dujour's inability to follow the concept of the photo shoot made judges eliminate her first from the 13 women running to become "America's Next Top Model." In an exclusive phone interview with The Chronicle, DuJour, shared her thoughts of the elimination, there being two plus-sized models and who's most likely to become to become ANTM.

The first photo shoot assigned each contestant to model a different political view. While several contestants had difficultly executing the idea, DuJour failed to understand the concept of the shoot, despite judge/ photographer Nigel Barker and art director Jay Manuel's repeated suggestions.

The contestant's next challenge - and opportunity to redeem themselves - involved thrift-shopping for a charity fashion show at Goodwill. The inexperienced contestants walked the runway modeling their self-selected outfits, with hopes of receiving the highest bid to win the challenge. Despite DuJour's strong confidence in her outfit and runway walk, fellow contestant Jael Strauss won the highest bid, receiving a stylemakeover with stylist Phillip Bloch.

Tyra Banks, key judge for the competition, openly expressed her disappointment with the photo shoots, especially DuJour's. Both DuJour and Strauss faced elimination, but Banks's doubt in DuJour made her the first to become eliminated.

Dujour, 20, expressed her gratitude for being one of the 13 contestants chosen for the competition.

"Oh wow, I felt I was already a winner," DuJour said.

Discovering she faced elimination with challenge winner Strausscame as a surprise. And all DuJour could do was pray.

"Then and there, I was hoping I wasn't going to go home," she said. "I have so much potential. I was just praying [Tyra] could see that in me."

DuJour headed to the contestant's apartment and began packing, shocked and in disbelief. That's when she realized she lost her chance at being a model. Despite Banks questioning her ability to handle the modeling world, DuJour isn't hurt and still sees Banks as her role model.

"I guess this was supposed to happen. Everything happens for a reason," she added. "I was supposed to be the first one sent home."

DuJour, a hairdresser from Brooklyn, plans to audition for the show again. Since the elimination, she returned to being a hairdresser and plans to go back to school.

She said she knows who has the most potential to win the competition.

"Definitely it would be between Cassandra and Jaslene," she said. "Jaslene took a great picture and Cassandra, in person, just looks like a model."

And Whitney is the one with least potential wining the competition, according to DuJour.

"She just doesn't have 'the look,'" DuJour said. "She's not that tall. She just doesn't look like a model."

Yet when questioned what the ideal model looks like, she responded that there is no ideal model and models could be any shape and size.

A plus-size model won't win this year, she said. It was a big step having two plus-sized models in competition and Kathleen thinks the show will slowly take "baby steps." In the near future, a plus-size model is most likely to win, she said.

Prizes for the competition include a $100,000 contract with CoverGirl cosmetics, a modeling contract with Elite Model Management and a six-page spread in Seventeen Magazine.

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