And America’s Most True Beauty Is . . .
The final three beauties on True Beauty are about to get down to the end. The challenge today is to have an interview and photo shoot for People magazine. The interviewer, Jess Cagle, the Executive Editor of People, is secretly judging them on their answers and personalities. Joel failed the interview test, but that was almost a given, cause he’s so very vain and competitive. Julia shares a story about having to give up the title of Miss Teen Texas at 17 because she was ticketed for public intoxication. It was terrible and embarrassing for her and it messed up a great opportunity all because of a stupid mistake.
Jess calls it this way. Joel is authentic, but has no modesty whatsoever. Julia is incredible but her delivery during an interview sounds like she is still up on the beauty paegant stage. Billy somtimes sounds too rehearsed, but he gave a good interview.
Next they have a Matthew Rolston photo shoot. They are nude and wrapped with a towel, and all wet with thick oils poured all over them. Julia is a little concerned because a nude shoot is not a good role model for someone who wants to be Miss America. I have to say I don’t get all the dripping oil, but then I haven’t seen the final pics yet.
OK, now I have seen them. Interesting. But I still don’t get the oil thing. So they get judged on the pics and then they each get to tell the judges why they should be the True Beauty. Billy says he’s done all he can and if he doesn’t win, he still hasn’t lost because of the experience. Joel says he didn’t come there to be second place. Julia says that this was the most fantastic opportunity that she’s ever had and that she blew one chance and doesn’t want to blow this one. (You realize that I am paraphrasing, right?) Then she cries for a while about it. Well, you know, cries and talks at the same time.
The winner of the photo challenge is all three of them. They could not pick a winner from the three photos. But now they will all meet in the Hall of Beauty and two of them will go home.
The final three get a note that says this is their chance to see things through the judges eyes. It’s a plate with several pieces of chocolate. Five in a pile in the middle and one on each side of that pile. The back side of the note says, “head downstairs.” So they go down and into the room that they have been told not to enter before. This is the room with all the TV monitors, where the judges have been sitting and watching them for all these weeks.
Then they get to see themselves in action. It’s not pretty. But honestly the worst they show about Julia is her being pageanty. The first week, I picked Billy as the winner. Or at least as the one I wanted to win, but I think it might be Julia. I’d be surprised if it was Joel, but maybe that’s what they want, to surprise us.
The judges deliberate and Vanessa says, “one of them has more inner beauty, one of them has more outer beauty, and one of them is the whole package.” Hmmmm. Maybe I was right from the beginning after all.
So they all head off in the limo to the Hall of Beauty. Vanessa tells them that for the past eight weeks they have been watching their every move and that there is some good and some bad in each of them. They then ask them why they should win over the other two. Julia says she may not be the most beautiful, but she found the person behind the wall that she had been behind her entire life and she thanked everyone. Joel said he’s the best mix of looks, personality and positive energy and has said so from the beginning, and he now owns his flaws. He then thanks them for helping him to become the definition of the most beautiful person in America. Billy said that they have been telling him this entire competition that he was doing great but he was missing something. That was his confidence which he has now found (little bit of teary eyes) and that he can continue his quest to help people find the beauty in themselves.
The winner gets $100,000 cash and their photo in People Magazine. Third place is Billy. Awww. I’m really sad about that, even though I saw it coming.
The winner is Julia! Joel smiles and seems happy for her, but it’s got to kill him, since he said he wasn’t going to be second place. He actually handled it well. They tell Julia that she was the only person who passed every one of the secret challenges. That is true. She is very pretty, but I think she does wear a little too much makeup.
