Speaker 1: Hi, Curse Up listeners, I know you miss me on
Speaker 1: your feed. Don't worry. We're working on an all new
Speaker 1: season of Curse Of coming out later this year. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, if you can't stop thinking about the shocking
Speaker 1: stories you heard about America's Next Top Model, you'll definitely
Speaker 1: want to check out our new docuseries from E Dirty
Speaker 1: Rotten Scandals. In the series, you'll hear from the America's
Speaker 1: Next Top Model participants you heard from on Curse Of,
Speaker 1: and a few you didn't like. Former A and TM
Speaker 1: judge Janis Dickinson. Dirty Rotten Scandals unveils the dark underbelly
Speaker 1: of the long running TV series through the untold stories
Speaker 1: of former contestants, and shows what happens when a golden
Speaker 1: opportunity for aspiring models unravels into a harrowing saga of exploitation,
Speaker 1: shattered dreams, and resilience. You can find the two part
Speaker 1: docuseries Dirty Rotten Scandals America's Next Top Model on E
Speaker 1: Network check your local TV provider schedule. We've all heard
Speaker 1: about A and TM's controversies, race swapping, challenges, dangers, its photoshoots,
Speaker 1: and we'll get into all that later in the season.
Speaker 1: But I want to tell you about one controversy that
Speaker 1: only the real fans know about, and it's the most
Speaker 1: telling of them all. It happened to one model who
Speaker 1: told me her story.
Speaker 2: I'm Angelie Preston. I am from Buffalo seven, one, six,
Speaker 2: All Day. People may remember me from America's X Top
Speaker 2: Model Cycles twelve, fourteen, and seventeen, the original winner of
Speaker 2: Cycle seventeen All Stars period.
Speaker 1: But if you look it up, Lisa Dematto is the
Speaker 1: official winner of Cycle seventeen. So what happened? Well. To
Speaker 1: understand Angelee's story, the first thing you need to know
Speaker 1: is how hard she worked to even get cast on
Speaker 1: A and TM. It was Angelie's dream to be on
Speaker 1: the show. She auditioned three times before making it. The
Speaker 1: first time, Angelie didn't even get a call back. The
Speaker 1: second time Angelie sent in an audition.
Speaker 2: Tape, the producer called me was like, we want you
Speaker 2: to come to New York New York City. Had never
Speaker 2: been to New York. So I go down there and
Speaker 2: I had nowhere to sleep. I was just a girl
Speaker 2: with a dream, like, come on, let me just go
Speaker 2: down here. This is my chance to see the cast
Speaker 2: and director slip into port Authority and the stall. It
Speaker 2: was so gross. Yes, I was so hungry, so hungry
Speaker 2: for a girl.
Speaker 1: Angelie always knew she wanted to be a model. As
Speaker 1: a kid, she was teased for being tall and skinny.
Speaker 1: She knew in the modeling industry her body type would
Speaker 1: be celebrated. Plus, she experienced a personal tragedy after her
Speaker 1: first audition that made her want it even more.
Speaker 2: I ended up getting pregnant with my daughter, so I
Speaker 2: kind of like put that dream on hold and was
Speaker 2: just like, Okay, I'm gonna just be a mom. Maybe
Speaker 2: the modeling eight for me. My daughter passed away not
Speaker 2: too long after she was born, and this was in
Speaker 2: two thousand and seven, so I kind of took that
Speaker 2: as a sign like maybe I'm not supposed to be
Speaker 2: a mom yet. And then that's when I auditioned again.
Speaker 1: That was cycle twelve. She didn't make it on the show.
Speaker 1: During the auditions, she got into a huge argument with
Speaker 1: another contestant.
Speaker 2: And I showed my ass in Vegas and got set
Speaker 2: the fuck home.
Speaker 1: I got saying, oh, I was smiling. But Angelie was
Speaker 1: determined to make it on A and TM, so she
Speaker 1: auditioned again and finally made it into the house on
Speaker 1: Cycle fourteen, Angelie quickly became a fan favorite. She's one
Speaker 1: of my favorites too. Remember Alicia Keys in the early
Speaker 1: two thousands. Angelie kind of looks like her and has
Speaker 1: her vibe. But if Alicia Keys was loud and outgoing
Speaker 1: and didn't play the piano, but you get it the
Speaker 1: same kind of homegirl vibe and Angelie's hilarious. When I
Speaker 1: interviewed her, it was our first time meeting, but it
Speaker 1: felt like I was talking to an old friend. You
Speaker 1: ever met someone and just felt like they were born
Speaker 1: to be famous? That's Angelie. But all the controversy around
Speaker 1: her All Star season overshadowed her charisma and talent before
Speaker 1: All Stars. When she was on Cycle fourteen, Angelie did well.
Speaker 1: She made it to the final four, but she was
Speaker 1: still a little rough around the edges. She got into
Speaker 1: it with a few girls on her season.
Speaker 2: Bitchated, I'm uneducated.
Speaker 3: I don't know, are you well?
Speaker 4: I'm not educated?
Speaker 5: You know what, I really don't look it up tonight.
Speaker 2: It's really unfair that people assume that I'm uneducated because
Speaker 2: I talked this way.
Speaker 1: You educated and you ignorant, and you really when the
Speaker 1: judges eliminated her on cycle fourteen. They said they were
Speaker 1: worried A and TM would be the end for her,
Speaker 1: not the beginning. But not too long after, producers reached
Speaker 1: out to invite her back on for cycle seventeen. It
Speaker 1: would be A and TM's first and only all star season.
Speaker 1: They invited former A ANDTM contestants to compete against each
Speaker 1: other for the title of America's next Top Model.
Speaker 2: This is an opportunity to do it right this time,
Speaker 2: and they're talking about the format is going to be
Speaker 2: different for all Stars. They're going to be branding us
Speaker 2: as celebrities and you're gonna get paid.
Speaker 1: Angelie decided to do it this time. She was going
Speaker 1: to show a more poised side of herself. At first,
Speaker 1: the judges were like, where's the old Angelie? But eventually
Speaker 1: her new approach paid off. When it came time to
Speaker 1: shoot the finale in Greece, the set was built and
Speaker 1: the cameras were rolling. Angelie and the other two finalists
Speaker 1: stood in front of Tyra and Angelie's picture was the
Speaker 1: final one on the screen. Angelie was crowned the winner
Speaker 1: of A and TM. She burst into tears. Everything had
Speaker 1: been worth it. She'd finally won a win that came
Speaker 1: with one hundred thousand dollars cover Girl contract.
Speaker 2: When I won first, all was had.
Speaker 1: I was like hell yeah, I want yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: My life was changed forever, Like my mom was gonna
Speaker 2: be taking care of I'm gonna take care of her
Speaker 2: how she took care of me.
Speaker 1: I wish I could play you a clip of Angelie's win,
Speaker 1: but I can't because it never aired. Want to Beyond
Speaker 1: some want to Beyond. Welcome to the Curse of America's
Speaker 1: Next Top Model. I'm Bridget Armstrong. Last episode, we did
Speaker 1: a deep dive on cycle one because it's the blueprint
Speaker 1: for what A and TM became, which was a mega hit.
Speaker 1: The production grew, and so did the show's popularity. They
Speaker 1: were filming multiple cycles within the same calendar year, churning
Speaker 1: out winner after winner. They struck TV Goldous and The Three.
Speaker 6: Supermodel Tyra Banks had an idea for a reality show.
Speaker 4: She called it America's Next Top Model, where she and
Speaker 4: a panel of judges.
Speaker 1: Set out to find out the next it girl on
Speaker 1: the runway.
Speaker 3: Fifteen years and twenty four seasons later, the hit show
Speaker 3: has become the longest running reality function series.
Speaker 1: Airing in seventy three, Country You.
Speaker 4: Go, Girl and the Boss's back.
Speaker 1: As the show's success also meant it had a reputation
Speaker 1: to protect, they had more to lose. That's a big
Speaker 1: part of how Angelie ended up having her win revoked
Speaker 1: by A and TM executives. A and TM never told
Speaker 1: viewers the real story behind Angelie's disqualification. Fans have wondered
Speaker 1: what really happened and how the show was even allowed
Speaker 1: to take the title from a winner. And I'll tell
Speaker 1: you now, the reversal was completely within the show's rights
Speaker 1: because of the contract Angelie signed. I've talked to more
Speaker 1: than a dozen former A and TM models and their
Speaker 1: contracts came up a lot. So on this episode, they'll
Speaker 1: take you back to who they were when they signed
Speaker 1: on the dotted line, tell you what they thought they
Speaker 1: were signing up for and what it actually turned out
Speaker 1: to be, and you'll hear the story behind one of
Speaker 1: A and TM's most shocking controversies from the two models
Speaker 1: at the center of it. Despite Angelie being the first
Speaker 1: winner of A ANDTM All Stars, Lisa Demado's win is
Speaker 1: what actually aired on the show. There will be one
Speaker 1: final shot which will announce who America's next Top model is. Lisa.
Speaker 1: It's absolute replacing. You deserve this, Lisa, you are the original.
Speaker 1: You are a star. I called up Lisa Demato, the
Speaker 1: official winner of A and TM All Stars, to hear
Speaker 1: her side of the story.
Speaker 7: I have got receipts, i have got research, I've got names,
Speaker 7: I've got stories these days.
Speaker 1: Lisa lives in Portugal. She's a mom of two sons
Speaker 1: and a caregiver to her father. She seems to be
Speaker 1: going through a nasty divorce. Lisa started a company that
Speaker 1: makes a food storage bib for toddlers. It was featured
Speaker 1: on Shark Tank. When she joined me, she was sitting
Speaker 1: outside on a noisy patio, possibly at a rental house.
Speaker 1: She was saying it while her castle was being renovated. Honestly,
Speaker 1: it's a little hard to follow because our interviews started
Speaker 1: out on a chaotic note which felt on brand but
Speaker 1: true to model form. Lisa looked great. Her hair wasn't
Speaker 1: that different than when she was first on A and
Speaker 1: TM On cycle five, she was rocking a dirty blonde,
Speaker 1: asymmetrical bob. In fact, Lisa pretty much looks the same,
Speaker 1: same deep set eyes, same big wide smile. But from
Speaker 1: the moment Lisa joined our call, she let me know
Speaker 1: she did not come to play. She's probably one of,
Speaker 1: if not the most publicly critical former A and TM contestants.
Speaker 1: We talked for almost four hours across two days. Lisa
Speaker 1: told me about what she sees as a pattern of
Speaker 1: manipulation from Tyra Banks and the A and TM producers.
Speaker 1: She said the show completely ruined her professional reputation. Lisa
Speaker 1: is one of the most infamous contestants to ever grace
Speaker 1: an A and TM set. The first time she appeared
Speaker 1: on the show in cycle five, she was chaos personified.
Speaker 1: There was her perceived drinking problem that alienated her from
Speaker 1: a lot of the other contestants.
Speaker 5: Lisa drinks.
Speaker 8: She's going through like bottles of wine, like whole bottles
Speaker 8: in less than forty five minutes.
Speaker 1: Is sick.
Speaker 9: Definitely think that Lisa's drinking is hurting.
Speaker 1: Her the Josh, You're not gonna want.
Speaker 7: Someone who's an alcoholic to represent America's next hot model.
Speaker 10: Her attitude and like her drinking and everything that she's
Speaker 10: doing here is just bizarre to me.
Speaker 1: And the time she peed in a diaper during a
Speaker 1: photo shoot with the guy from MTV's jackass.
Speaker 8: No woman of class, especially a supermodel and making is
Speaker 8: gonna do something as disgusting as p on herself at
Speaker 8: her job.
Speaker 1: She managed to shock Stevo, which is an amazing feat.
Speaker 1: Lisa didn't seem to get along with most of the
Speaker 1: girls on her season. She came off like a drunk
Speaker 1: no at all. She was definitely one of that cycle's villains,
Speaker 1: but she made such great tv A and TM brought
Speaker 1: her back for cycle seventeen All Stars. Despite the controversy
Speaker 1: around her win in that season, Lisa believes she was
Speaker 1: actually predetermined to win the whole thing. She thinks this
Speaker 1: because of something she says was in her contract.
Speaker 7: I actually signed the winning contract before even going.
Speaker 2: On All Stars.
Speaker 11: My manager was told by production not every girl signed
Speaker 11: the winning contract, and I asked some of the girls
Speaker 11: why we were filming, and they said dump. I was
Speaker 11: set up to win from the very beginning. That was
Speaker 11: all planned from the very beginning.
Speaker 1: For the finale, She thinks the whole thing was an
Speaker 1: elaborate plot and that they never intended to give Angelie
Speaker 1: the win they did.
Speaker 2: Angelie so dirty.
Speaker 1: Lisa says producers manufactured a fake win for Angelie. She
Speaker 1: said the finale, said in Greece, didn't even look complete.
Speaker 1: Lisa believes they leaked the alleged fake win to stir
Speaker 1: up controversy around the season and hopefully boost the ratings,
Speaker 1: which had dropped. It is true that news of Angelie's
Speaker 1: win had leaked before the finale aired. An A and
Speaker 1: TM producer told me that was the real reason the
Speaker 1: show picked a new winner and reshot the finale. They
Speaker 1: were worried no one would watch the season if they
Speaker 1: already knew the outcome. But Angelie told me neither of
Speaker 1: those stories are correct. She told me she leaked the
Speaker 1: information about her win after it was revoked. According to Angelie,
Speaker 1: the real reason A ANDTM producer stripper of her win
Speaker 1: is much more disturbing. She says, shortly after filming ended,
Speaker 1: she got a call.
Speaker 2: A week or two later, somebody from the network production
Speaker 2: called me. I was like, you know, they want to
Speaker 2: have a meeting with you, and they basically told me
Speaker 2: we can't air you as the winner because you violated
Speaker 2: your contract.
Speaker 1: There's a rumor that Angelie was disqualified because she spoke
Speaker 1: publicly about her win before it aired. The contract explicitly
Speaker 1: forbids contestants from doing that. But Angelie says she didn't
Speaker 1: violate this part of the contract because remember, she says
Speaker 1: she didn't leak her win until after it was revoked.
Speaker 1: Angeline says producers told her she breached the morality clause
Speaker 1: in her contract. The morality clause basically says producers can
Speaker 1: strip the winner of the prizes and title of America's
Speaker 1: Next Top Model if at any point before or after
Speaker 1: their win, they are caught or expelo doing something that
Speaker 1: causes public disgrace, outrage, embarrassment, or otherwise constitutes an act
Speaker 1: of moral turpitude. The examples the contract gives are getting arrested, charged,
Speaker 1: and or convicted of a crime, or appearing in sexually
Speaker 1: explicit material. I know you're wondering what exactly did Angelie
Speaker 1: do to violate the morality clause, and I promise you
Speaker 1: we're going to get there. Whether you believe the rumor
Speaker 1: or Angelie's story, what you need to know now is
Speaker 1: the outcome is the same. The contract states if a
Speaker 1: winning contestant breaches any part of the contract, antm producers
Speaker 1: have the right to strip them of their title and
Speaker 1: the winnings. So either way. She couldn't fight it, and
Speaker 1: she was heartbroken. Remember, Angelie really wanted this. She auditioned
Speaker 1: for A and TM three times before getting cast on the.
Speaker 2: Show That was ball And I was crying right obviously,
Speaker 2: because you guys just put a dagger through my heart.
Speaker 2: Iden had all this plans for this money. This was
Speaker 2: to be my second, my third chance to make it right.
Speaker 2: I was going to do right this time, and now
Speaker 2: you're basically telling me, Nope, you just did all this
Speaker 2: for nothing. Again.
Speaker 1: I got my hands on a copy of that contract,
Speaker 1: and after the break we take a look and find
Speaker 1: out what A and TM considered a moral violation. Contracts
Speaker 1: on reality TV are a pretty standard thing. The contracts
Speaker 1: ensure that the rights and obligations of talent and producers
Speaker 1: are clear. On the talent side, on a very basic level,
Speaker 1: it spells out the payment terms, and on production side,
Speaker 1: the contracts ensure cast members don't gossip and spoil the
Speaker 1: show before it comes out or divulge the behind the
Speaker 1: scenes production secrets. They also want to make sure the
Speaker 1: cast members can't sue if they don't like their edit
Speaker 1: wants to show airs. Sophie Sumner is the model I
Speaker 1: talked to from A and TM's British Invasion season. That
Speaker 1: was the season where models from the UK competed against
Speaker 1: American models. She was the winner of that season, but
Speaker 1: before coming on A and TM, she competed on Britain's
Speaker 1: Next Top Model, and she told me the A and
Speaker 1: TM contract was a whole different beast.
Speaker 5: I do remember the America one being like WHOA. I
Speaker 5: swear the American one was literally like we own you
Speaker 5: for the rest of your life and everything you.
Speaker 1: Do, honestly like what they said.
Speaker 2: And I think Britain was like you gotta be on
Speaker 2: camera and baby, like you might make money after him,
Speaker 2: We'll take it for a year.
Speaker 1: I've read an A and TM contract, actually a few
Speaker 1: of them, including one from cycle seventeen, and I agree
Speaker 1: with Sophie, it's WHOA. When I talked to the rest
Speaker 1: of the models about their contracts, this idea of A
Speaker 1: and TM owning them kept coming up. Here's Uvi Gomez
Speaker 1: from cycle four.
Speaker 2: I was like, barely twenty one, just signing my life away.
Speaker 1: And hannahcat Jones, who was the second runner up on
Speaker 1: cycle sixteen.
Speaker 12: I felt like I was signing my soul away, and
Speaker 12: I thought about how the opportunity would be life changing.
Speaker 1: So life changing that Hannah looked the other way on
Speaker 1: a particularly concerning clause in the contract.
Speaker 12: And another thing that was in the contract that I
Speaker 12: always remember standing out was if something happened to me
Speaker 12: on the show, if I got insured or even died,
Speaker 12: my family wouldn't be owed anything.
Speaker 1: If you're thinking, well, that probably just meant Hannah couldn't
Speaker 1: sue the show should something happen. I'm sure ANTM had
Speaker 1: insurance to cover the contestants if they were hurt, you
Speaker 1: would be wrong. The contract made the contestants acknowledge that
Speaker 1: they were personally responsible for maintaining accident and health insurance
Speaker 1: to cover any bodily injury they suffered on set, while traveling,
Speaker 1: or in housing provided by producers. Contestants had to acknowledge
Speaker 1: they were responsible for insurance to cover short and long
Speaker 1: term disability, and any insurance that would cover their deaths.
Speaker 1: They also had to irrevocably waive their right to sue
Speaker 1: the other contestants, the producers, the production company, the network,
Speaker 1: and its subsidiaries should physical, emotional, or mental injury occur,
Speaker 1: or should they die because of something that happened on
Speaker 1: an A and TM set, which is kind of wild
Speaker 1: when you remember that on Hannah season they did a
Speaker 1: photo shoot with live bees, a photo shoot in an
Speaker 1: actual landfill, and a runway wearing gloves that have been
Speaker 1: set on fire. Sarah Hartthorn competed as a plus sized
Speaker 1: model on Cycle nine. She recently wrote a tell all
Speaker 1: book about her experiences on A and TM. She has
Speaker 1: a lot of perspective about A and TM now, but
Speaker 1: when she signed up for it, she didn't understand what
Speaker 1: she was getting into.
Speaker 4: At the time, we knew we were signing our life away,
Speaker 4: but I'm not sure I had the prefuntal cortex to
Speaker 4: really understand the ramifications of that.
Speaker 1: Sarah told me she wasn't the only one who had
Speaker 1: to sign. Anyone she planned to talk to while in
Speaker 1: the house also had to sign a contract.
Speaker 4: If you want to be able to call anyone on
Speaker 4: the phone while you were there, you had to have
Speaker 4: them basically sign their life away too. My boyfriend, my friends.
Speaker 1: I talked to my.
Speaker 4: Grandpa every week and he was like, I can't sign this,
Speaker 4: Like I can't and I was like, no, I know,
Speaker 4: you're signing your life away and he's like, no, you're
Speaker 4: signing your life rights away.
Speaker 1: Do you understand that? And I was like, I do not.
Speaker 1: Sarah's granddad was referring to a part of the contract
Speaker 1: that gave A and TM the right to depict Sarah
Speaker 1: any way they wanted to, wherever they wanted to, or
Speaker 1: whenever they wanted to. Here's something strange, u V remembers
Speaker 1: in her contract.
Speaker 13: It said something wild like we cannot talk about it
Speaker 13: on this planet or any other planet.
Speaker 1: It was something so odd. I was like, do they
Speaker 1: know something though we don't know. Actually, I want to
Speaker 1: read you the part of the contract you V and
Speaker 1: Sarah are talking about. Here are some verbatim quotes, and
Speaker 1: bear with me, y'all, this might be one of the
Speaker 1: longest sentences you've ever heard. I irrevocably grant and release
Speaker 1: Poddle is Tyra and Kim Max's production company, in perpetuity
Speaker 1: and throughout the universe, the exclusive right to depict, portray,
Speaker 1: and represent me in my life and all episodes, exploits, events, incidents, situations,
Speaker 1: and experiences contained in or associated or related to my life, including,
Speaker 1: without limitation, my experiences and connection with the program, my
Speaker 1: life story. And yes, it actually says life story in
Speaker 1: the contract and the material in theatrical motion pictures, television
Speaker 1: programs and series, theatrical stage, presentation, radio, internet websites, programs
Speaker 1: and presentations, other audio visual, audio visual and or print productions,
Speaker 1: books and other print publications, the production, reproduction, exhibition, broadcast, distribution,
Speaker 1: adveratarse promotion, and other exploitation of the productions in any
Speaker 1: and all media, whether now known or hereafter devised. Who Now,
Speaker 1: this didn't mean that after the show, A and TM
Speaker 1: could barge into the contestants home and film them eating dinner.
Speaker 1: What it meant was that any footage A and TM
Speaker 1: got of the contestants, whether it aired or not, could
Speaker 1: be used. However, and whenever A and TM wanted, and
Speaker 1: here's something disturbing, they could even use footage of the
Speaker 1: contestants partially clothed or naked, whether they were aware or
Speaker 1: unaware of such videotaping. To this day, Tyra and Kim
Speaker 1: Max's production company could use old A and TM footage
Speaker 1: and edit it in any way they wanted to, and
Speaker 1: the contestants can't sue. Signing this contract gives the production
Speaker 1: company the right to inaccurately portray the contestants to convey
Speaker 1: whatever story they wanted to to. Here's what the contract
Speaker 1: actually says, Pottle and producers may depict and portray me
Speaker 1: in my life story, either accurately or with such liberties
Speaker 1: and modifications as producers determined necessary and their sole discretion,
Speaker 1: for the purposes of fictionalization, dramatization, or any other purposes,
Speaker 1: including without limitation, to achieve a humorous or satirical effect,
Speaker 1: and by means of actors who may or may not
Speaker 1: resemble me. Remember now, this is a reality TV contract.
Speaker 1: I asked a few crew members about this actor clause,
Speaker 1: and to my knowledge, the show never actually passed off
Speaker 1: an actor is one of the contestants. But let me
Speaker 1: explain a situation in which they could have used this
Speaker 1: clause on Cyclephour. According to a contestant, she had a
Speaker 1: loved one in a car accident and she wanted to leave.
Speaker 1: The show asked her to stay for a few days
Speaker 1: so they could make a plan for writing her off,
Speaker 1: So she stayed until the next elimination, where of course
Speaker 1: she would sit home. Now, one of the things the
Speaker 1: contract doesn't allow the show to do is physically restrain
Speaker 1: contestants or keep them on set when they're asking to leave.
Speaker 1: So if she had insisted on leaving the minute she
Speaker 1: got the news, legally the show could have replaced her
Speaker 1: with a look alike or a look similar. Now, signing
Speaker 1: this contract might sound worth it if you wanted to
Speaker 1: use your new found theme to become a public figure,
Speaker 1: But there was a catch. A ANDTM contestants told me
Speaker 1: they couldn't derive money from the show for at least
Speaker 1: ten years. They couldn't do a paid interview about A ANDTM,
Speaker 1: couldn't write a book about it, an article, make a
Speaker 1: YouTube video, anything for ten years. The All Star season
Speaker 1: seemed to have a shorter window, but most of them
Speaker 1: were still under their contract from their first appearance, and
Speaker 1: there wasn an NDA. If you violated it, you could
Speaker 1: be fined up to five million dollars. In Sarah Hartthorn's
Speaker 1: memoir You Want to Be on Top, she would count
Speaker 1: Top practically threatened her with this NBA. They told her
Speaker 1: that if she talked about her experience on ANTM, her
Speaker 1: wages would be garnished, and her children's wages would be garnished,
Speaker 1: and her children's children's wages would be garnished until that
Speaker 1: five million dollar penalty was collected. Here's Gina Turner, who
Speaker 1: made it to the final two on cycle twenty four
Speaker 1: after being eliminated and brought back.
Speaker 9: A lot of people are given hush orders. A lot
Speaker 9: of people are forced to shut up. We have a
Speaker 9: contract that states if you breach it, if you speak out.
Speaker 9: I don't know about other past contestant cycles. Mine was
Speaker 9: a contract breach of four point five million dollars, Like,
Speaker 9: where do you think I'm going to put four point.
Speaker 1: Five million dollars?
Speaker 9: Barely any supermodels to this day even make that amount
Speaker 9: of money. But it's like they use more of scare
Speaker 9: tactics and threatenings via the contract to I think convince
Speaker 9: people not to talk and not to speak.
Speaker 1: You may be wondering who in their right mind would
Speaker 1: sign this contract, and the answer is kids. These were
Speaker 1: naive teenagers and twenty somethings who were being offered the
Speaker 1: false promise of a career in the modeling industry. Sharon
Speaker 1: Brown was the first person eliminated on cycle eleven. She
Speaker 1: was really cute, with big, bright eyes and an infectious smile.
Speaker 1: She looked super young because she was she was eighteen,
Speaker 1: but she hadn't even graduated high school. When she was
Speaker 1: on the show, I.
Speaker 6: Missed from my graduation, all the seen year festivities and everything.
Speaker 1: To the ale Americ City Hall. It actually the day
Speaker 1: that I got eliminated was the day of my graduation.
Speaker 1: Sarah Hartstorms was in college, but she'd barely watched television
Speaker 1: when she signed up for A and TM.
Speaker 4: I was eighteen when I auditioned and nineteen when we
Speaker 4: shot the show. I am from a town of seven
Speaker 4: hundred and sixty five people. My graduating class was fifteen kids.
Speaker 4: There is no TV in my hometown still to this day.
Speaker 4: You can't get regular cable because the cables don't reach
Speaker 4: it's too high up the mountain. So I didn't know anything,
Speaker 4: you know, I had never seen any reality TV.
Speaker 1: Sarah went to college in Boston and that's when she
Speaker 1: was introduced to TV and A ANDTM. She remembers going
Speaker 1: to the casting call and being told to do her
Speaker 1: best runway walk.
Speaker 4: They were saying, well, you've all seen models walk the runway,
Speaker 4: and I realized that the only models I'd ever seen
Speaker 4: walker runway was like the one season of Top Model
Speaker 4: that I'd watched before I was on the show.
Speaker 1: Kenya Hill was a finalist on cycle four. I remember Kenya.
Speaker 1: She was my pick to win when I was watching
Speaker 1: her season. I was sixteen, and to me, Kenya looked
Speaker 1: like a sophisticated adult. She had that sharp jawline and
Speaker 1: thousand watts smile that made her look like she belonged
Speaker 1: on a college brochure. I didn't realize it back then,
Speaker 1: because to a high schooler, a college student looks like
Speaker 1: a sophisticated adult. So when Kenya was on the show,
Speaker 1: she was barely older than me.
Speaker 13: I was seventeen years old. I was a freshman in
Speaker 13: college and I was living on campus. I actually auditioned
Speaker 13: for Top Model twice. I did the first audition while
Speaker 13: I was living in my dorms at school, and I
Speaker 13: had to go rent a VHS recorder. Okay, we're talking
Speaker 13: ancient times, so I had to go rent one from
Speaker 13: like the campus's radio section and self tape like me
Speaker 13: walking on the runway, which was like the dorm at
Speaker 13: my school. And I remember having someone take some photos
Speaker 13: of me on a disposable camera. Because I had zero
Speaker 13: modeling experience, I just knew from watching America's Next Top
Speaker 13: Model the first like two cycles that I needed to
Speaker 13: be on this show.
Speaker 1: Kenya wanted to be a model because it was one
Speaker 1: of the few places where she saw people who look
Speaker 1: like her, and she thought the best way to get
Speaker 1: into the industry was to go on A and TM again.
Speaker 1: She was seventeen.
Speaker 2: I had always wanted to model.
Speaker 13: However, I was bullied pretty badly in junior high and
Speaker 13: in high school. In my community where I was living,
Speaker 13: it was cooler to be thick and curvy, and I
Speaker 13: was not that can.
Speaker 2: We curse on this thing?
Speaker 13: I didn't have no ass okay, and I felt like
Speaker 13: modeling is the one area where I'm accepted, Like, Okay,
Speaker 13: I'm really slim, I'm tall, and I would be able
Speaker 13: to thrive in this area.
Speaker 1: If you're like me, you would probably never go on
Speaker 1: a reality show. So it might be hard to understand
Speaker 1: why anyone would sign such a one sided contract. These days,
Speaker 1: the answer is generally fame and money. Nini Leaks of
Speaker 1: The Real Housewives of Atlanta reportedly made two point eighty
Speaker 1: five million dollars a season at her peak, but numbers
Speaker 1: like that are usually for the biggest stars in reality TV.
Speaker 1: The cast of Love Island USA season seven allegedly got
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred dollars a week. Now, no one's getting rich
Speaker 1: off that, but it is something to help with expenses
Speaker 1: back home while the show is in production. For most
Speaker 1: reality TV personalities, the big paycheck comes after the show.
Speaker 1: These days, they can roll their new found fame into
Speaker 1: influencer status, and that means lucrative brand and endorsement deals.
Speaker 1: But here's what you have to remember about A and TM.
Speaker 1: The first twenty seasons of that show were shot before
Speaker 1: Instagram became popular. I mean, King is sentent a VHS
Speaker 1: tape for her audition. This was before reality TV contestants
Speaker 1: could cash in on becoming influencers, and back when A
Speaker 1: and TM was on, there were no standards for how
Speaker 1: much reality stars should get paid. There barely are today.
Speaker 1: The contracts the A and TM contestant sign outlined a
Speaker 1: per diem, a small daily stipend meant to cover a
Speaker 1: like personal items and food for when they were in
Speaker 1: the Model House. The amount ranged from season to season.
Speaker 1: Sarah remembers hers being so low she had to choose
Speaker 1: between eating and saving money.
Speaker 4: Most days, we weren't getting paid except for a stipend
Speaker 4: that we had to use to pay for our own food.
Speaker 4: It was thirty seven dollars a day.
Speaker 1: The exact amount differed from season to season. In fact,
Speaker 1: it laid that out in the eligibility requirements the contestants
Speaker 1: saw before auditioning. It said they would receive a per
Speaker 1: DM allowance, with the amount to be determined by the producers.
Speaker 1: Sarah was paying her way through college. She'd lined up
Speaker 1: a summer job at a blueberry farm before she got
Speaker 1: on A and TM. She of course chose the show,
Speaker 1: but that meant she wasn't going to get those blueberry earnings.
Speaker 4: And so I got very obsessive about saving money and
Speaker 4: eating as cheaply as I could, and eating as.
Speaker 1: Little as I could.
Speaker 4: If I like bought food that wasn't good, I had
Speaker 4: to throw it away like that would be the end
Speaker 4: of the world.
Speaker 1: Here's cycle to a winner. You want a house.
Speaker 5: We were not paid. We were given a per dim.
Speaker 5: I believe it was like fifty dollars. And I saved
Speaker 5: the per diem because I stayed till the end of
Speaker 5: the show, so I never blew through my per dim.
Speaker 5: I saved it. And that was actually the money I
Speaker 5: used to move to New York.
Speaker 2: Was the per dims by.
Speaker 1: The time Gina Turner came around on the last season,
Speaker 1: the budgets were a bit tighter.
Speaker 9: Our per diem started at like twelve dollars a day,
Speaker 9: and then if you made it past the next following elimination,
Speaker 9: it got bumped up to like nineteen twenty dollars a day,
Speaker 9: and then if you made it past another one and
Speaker 9: it was twenty four dollars a day if the so
Speaker 9: it was like gradually increasing the more that you made it.
Speaker 9: But it's not like you can pocket any of that money.
Speaker 9: We live in the hills in La Everything is expensive,
Speaker 9: and then people don't understand we're paying for our own food.
Speaker 9: And then not only that, we didn't have a washer
Speaker 9: and dryer in our.
Speaker 1: House, so they even we had to pay to get
Speaker 1: their laundry done. There are people who would say, well,
Speaker 1: this is what they signed up for. Their payment was
Speaker 1: the opportunity to be on the show. In fact, Farahart's
Speaker 1: one got this very comment from someone.
Speaker 4: On Twitter, and I was like, no, we got forty
Speaker 4: dollars a day and we had to use that to
Speaker 4: pay for our own food. That was the tweet and
Speaker 4: people were like a surprised to hear that, but also
Speaker 4: they were so.
Speaker 9: Mad at me.
Speaker 4: There were so many people who were applied to that tweet, like,
Speaker 4: you knew what you were getting into, you got paid
Speaker 4: in exposure. You're just bitter that you didn't win, And
Speaker 4: I'm like, I'm not bitter that I didn't win. I'm
Speaker 4: bitter that there were a lot of girls who couldn't
Speaker 4: afford the mental help that they needed after the show.
Speaker 4: I've been so surprised by the backlash when I have
Speaker 4: said that I think.
Speaker 1: We deserve to be paid.
Speaker 4: It feels so not controversial to say I think people
Speaker 4: should be paid for their work.
Speaker 1: That's interesting because according to A and TM, the contestants
Speaker 1: weren't employees. That's how they were able to avoid paying
Speaker 1: them a real wage, even though they showed up on
Speaker 1: set for twelve plus hour days. It made Tyra in
Speaker 1: the network a lot of money. They signed a contract
Speaker 1: that only entitled them to a minuscule per dim Now,
Speaker 1: to a teenager in the early two thousands, a few
Speaker 1: hundred dollars might seem like a lot of money. Kenya
Speaker 1: Hill made it to the finals on her season, which
Speaker 1: meant she went on the international trip to South Africa.
Speaker 6: We're best believed by the time we got to South Africa,
Speaker 6: I spent all that money shopping. I definitely spent that money.
Speaker 6: But later on, like a couple of years after doing
Speaker 6: the show, I remember feeling like this sucks. Like this
Speaker 6: show now is blowing up and it is in over
Speaker 6: one hundred and seventy countries, and we don't make a
Speaker 6: dollar off of this, And so it just at that point,
Speaker 6: like after I saw how big this show really was,
Speaker 6: like it felt like they get to make money off
Speaker 6: of my likeness forever.
Speaker 1: Just a little context. In two thousand and nine, two
Speaker 1: years after Sarah went on the show, Tyra Banks was
Speaker 1: on the Forbes Top Earning Women in Primetime list. She
Speaker 1: reportedly made thirty million dollars between A and TM and
Speaker 1: her talk show in one year. Of course, ANTM was
Speaker 1: Tyra's idea and she was the star, so she deserved
Speaker 1: to make the most money from it, but damn she
Speaker 1: couldn't break the models off a little thousand dollars or something.
Speaker 1: You might be like the people who clap back at
Speaker 1: Sarah online and disagree with me. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of people who say, per the contract day signed, the
Speaker 1: only contestants who deserved to make money from A ANDTM
Speaker 1: were the winners, except there are a few winners who
Speaker 1: also didn't get paid. You want to house one cycle two.
Speaker 1: If you google A andtm's best photo, her iconic helmet
Speaker 1: photoshoot where her hair is swept up and she's just
Speaker 1: serving face still comes up to this day. She's definitely
Speaker 1: one of the faces of A and TM. But you
Speaker 1: may be surprised to know she didn't win any money
Speaker 1: from the show.
Speaker 5: It was just a contract, and then there was a
Speaker 5: contract with Suppora and that was only for a short time.
Speaker 5: There was no financial reward. There was nothing as far
Speaker 5: as monetary compensation. Nothing you want.
Speaker 1: This agency representation did meet. It was easier to book jobs,
Speaker 1: but she couldn't use any of her top model portfolio
Speaker 1: photos because they were too unrealistic, which meant that after
Speaker 1: her win, she had to move to New York and
Speaker 1: immediately start booking test photoshoots.
Speaker 5: I had to test that day, go to some incredible
Speaker 5: photographers that have been doing international vogues and start testing.
Speaker 5: And I was getting builled for everything. I was getting
Speaker 5: built for every car, for every pres event, I was
Speaker 5: getting built for the testing. I was getting built for
Speaker 5: the dresses that I thought were given to me, and
Speaker 5: that was me not asking, thinking oh this is so cool.
Speaker 5: They're making sure i'm dress. No, everything was builled. So
Speaker 5: after a month of doing a press tour, you know,
Speaker 5: having these interviews and having to look like a million dollars,
Speaker 5: then comes the bills. So now I'm having to pay,
Speaker 5: and I'm in debt, and I don't have a place
Speaker 5: to stay. I'm living on a couch from a makeup
Speaker 5: artist who extended their couch for me, and yet I'm
Speaker 5: like famous, and everywhere I go people are wanting my autograph,
Speaker 5: taking pictures with me. And it was a very stressful time.
Speaker 1: And not only that, her win meant she had to
Speaker 1: continue to promote A and TM after her season ended.
Speaker 5: I also had to do a lot of continual press
Speaker 5: for the show, and it was not paid, so that
Speaker 5: would take precedence over any sort of jobs or castings
Speaker 5: that would pay. Tyra owned me for that year. The
Speaker 5: network owned me for that year. That's where the frustration came.
Speaker 5: I started getting angry. I started kind of almost not
Speaker 5: liking the show anymore. And it was really hard to
Speaker 5: not get kind of in that headspace of being better
Speaker 5: towards the show because I'm like, okay, you spit me
Speaker 5: out as a winner. I won it rightfully so and
Speaker 5: now I'm having to look and be a million bucks
Speaker 5: but I'm not making any money right now.
Speaker 1: On cycle three, the cycle after Yawana's Top Models started
Speaker 1: awarding one hundred thousand dollars prize, Eva Marcel, who went
Speaker 1: by Eva Pickford back then, was the first winner to
Speaker 1: get it, but ANTM was not contractually obligated to give
Speaker 1: any winner anything even if the prize was announced on
Speaker 1: the show. As we heard last episode, Cycle one winner
Speaker 1: Adrian Curry says she didn't get what she was old.
Speaker 1: The contract was very clear that these prizes were given
Speaker 1: at the producer's discretion and they didn't have to live
Speaker 1: up to what was promised on the show. Here's another
Speaker 1: thing in the contract. Producers could take a win from
Speaker 1: a contestant award it to someone else, even if they
Speaker 1: take the finale episode, crown the model the winner and
Speaker 1: sent them home to wait for their prizes. There were
Speaker 1: clauses that protected the producers if they decided to strip
Speaker 1: the winner of their title and the contestant couldn't do
Speaker 1: anything about it, which is exactly what happened to Angelie
Speaker 1: Preston during the all star season of Top Model. Coming up,
Speaker 1: you'll hear the disturbing truth about Angelie's revoked win.
Speaker 2: When I won first, all was had. I was like,
Speaker 2: hell yeah, I want yeah, yeah, my life has changed forever,
Speaker 2: Like my mom was gonna be taking care of I'm
Speaker 2: I'll take care of her. How she took care of me.
Speaker 1: That's Angelie Preston talking about how she felt after winning
Speaker 1: A and TM. I told you the story at the
Speaker 1: top of this episode about how Angelie was originally given
Speaker 1: the crown at the end of season seventeen. My team
Speaker 1: has talked to contestants and crew who were there when
Speaker 1: Angela was named the winner. Even the official winner, Lisa Demato,
Speaker 1: remembers Angelie's face after Angelie won and they were heading home.
Speaker 7: I remember in the airport, Angelie looked finally at peace,
Speaker 7: like her chin was held so high.
Speaker 2: She was so proud of herself.
Speaker 1: But Angelie being the original winner is about the only
Speaker 1: thing they agree on in this story. Here's what Angelie
Speaker 1: says happened after she went home.
Speaker 2: I got a phone call from somebody associated with the show,
Speaker 2: maybe like a week or two later, and was like, hey,
Speaker 2: have you been telling any of the girls about what
Speaker 2: happened to you?
Speaker 1: Here's what happened to Angelie, the thing that got her
Speaker 1: disqualified after her first full season, cycle fourteen, Angelie was
Speaker 1: trying to start her modeling career. She had trouble booking jobs.
Speaker 1: She done well in the competition, but the edit made
Speaker 1: her seem difficult to work with, like a loose cannon.
Speaker 1: She couldn't get signed with an agency. She also had
Speaker 1: trouble finding a regular job. Things got bleak and she
Speaker 1: got desperate. One day, she was in Queen's walking with
Speaker 1: a model friend she'd met in New York.
Speaker 2: We were just walking out Jamaica ab the av just
Speaker 2: two lost models, not knowing where to go, what to do,
Speaker 2: and this guy pulls up. He pulled up in this
Speaker 2: nice Mercedes and I was just looking real regular and
Speaker 2: he got out the car, had nice shoes, silk shirt, like,
Speaker 2: he looked like somebody and he was like, you know,
Speaker 2: a cap trying to talk to me.
Speaker 1: He got her number and they started talking, but Angelie
Speaker 1: said something felt off. He started asking her about how
Speaker 1: she made.
Speaker 2: Money, because I was telling him, yeah, I got money problems,
Speaker 2: like I'm a struggling model, and he like mentioned something
Speaker 2: about like going on dates, and I was like, what
Speaker 2: the fuck? This is like some models inc shit, Like
Speaker 2: I heard about models, you know, being escorts or whatnot,
Speaker 2: but I don't think this shit was real. So that
Speaker 2: kind of turned me off.
Speaker 1: She stopped talking to him for a while, even booked
Speaker 1: a modeling job that paid her five hundred dollars, but
Speaker 1: when that ran.
Speaker 2: Out, curiosity just peaked and ended up texting him. I
Speaker 2: was like, are you a pimp? And he was like,
Speaker 2: are you a hope? I was like what No, I
Speaker 2: was so offective and he was like, look, the girls
Speaker 2: I have, they just make money. So I'm like, but
Speaker 2: is there like sex involved? And he was like, no,
Speaker 2: you don't have to sleep with anybody if you don't
Speaker 2: want to. My dumb ass elite believe in it, Like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, a world where you go on dates
Speaker 2: with guys and they just give you money because you're beautiful.
Speaker 1: Angelie was twenty five at this point, but she told
Speaker 1: me she was really naive. Buffalo was a small compared
Speaker 1: to New York City, and she was about to become
Speaker 1: a cautionary tale.
Speaker 2: I ended up meeting two of his girls. They were
Speaker 2: like in this like ritty Manhattan hotel. One of the
Speaker 2: girls had a cute little dog, dad Louis bags.
Speaker 8: Oh.
Speaker 2: They were giving makeup, hair, Lubaton, shoes, roles, and I'm like, dang,
Speaker 2: these girls ain't got to sleep with these guys to
Speaker 2: get on this.
Speaker 1: I could do that.
Speaker 2: I could be pretty and go on dates and get
Speaker 2: the bag.
Speaker 1: She told Silk Shirt she was down.
Speaker 2: We ended up flying to North Carolina and I had
Speaker 2: nothing to tell anybody like what I was doing, you know,
Speaker 2: because I was like, well, I'm just I'm just going
Speaker 2: on a modeling trip, you know, because I don't want
Speaker 2: nobody to worry, because at the time I wasn't worried myself.
Speaker 2: And when I got there, the girls, the same two
Speaker 2: girls I had met, They were like, they're going to
Speaker 2: the strip club.
Speaker 1: They were going there to pick up clients, and I.
Speaker 2: Was like, oh, I was like, I don't know what
Speaker 2: was at the strip club, and so they looked at
Speaker 2: me like I was crazy, Like I didn't have a choice.
Speaker 2: The one girl was like, I don't know what you
Speaker 2: think this is, but he is going to expect you
Speaker 2: to work, and I'm like work and they were like yeah,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, so y'all, y'all be having sex with
Speaker 2: these people for money? What the fuck did I get
Speaker 2: myself into? So I'm like, okay, well, I don't got
Speaker 2: no money. I'm already here. I can't get signed, and
Speaker 2: I gave up on modeling. I had given up on
Speaker 2: my dream. I thought it was over for me with
Speaker 2: the modeling, and I'm like, shit, I need money and
Speaker 2: I'm here why not? And I don't want to tell anybody. Look,
Speaker 2: I done got in this situation because it was embarrassing
Speaker 2: and I didn't want people to be worried, and I
Speaker 2: didn't want people to be like, I'll pay for you
Speaker 2: to get home, because I'm like, well, I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: back to New York. And then I got nothing. I'm
Speaker 2: back to square one anyway, so I might as well
Speaker 2: try and make some money.
Speaker 1: Angelie was so lost and dejected she didn't even think
Speaker 1: about the danger she was in.
Speaker 2: Not even just putting my body on the line, but
Speaker 2: just meeting up with strangers, you know, no protection, Like
Speaker 2: I could have been killed.
Speaker 1: The fear only started kicking in when they went to
Speaker 1: Vegas and she was worried about getting arrested.
Speaker 2: I didn't of course, want people to know. I didn't
Speaker 2: want to go to jail. You know this girls on
Speaker 2: Top Model and out looking around here doing this crazy shit.
Speaker 1: Right, She told Silk Shirt she wanted out.
Speaker 2: He said, I'm gonna pay for your flight to go
Speaker 2: back to New York, but you have to work.
Speaker 1: Angelie didn't have the money to leave on her own. Plus,
Speaker 1: she was scared because he'd threatened her and he'd been
Speaker 1: physically abusive before. Two of her friends eventually found out
Speaker 1: what was happening to her. One of those friends lived
Speaker 1: in Vegas. Angelie had actually met her on Top Model
Speaker 1: she won Angelie season. That friend got Angelie to call
Speaker 1: her sister and tell her what was going on. Her
Speaker 1: sister thought she was on drugs. Angelie was still too
Speaker 1: afraid to tell her best friend.
Speaker 2: He kept me away from New York because there were
Speaker 2: people like my best friend that cared about me, and
Speaker 2: he didn't want me to go and have some sense
Speaker 2: being knocked into my head.
Speaker 1: The guy eventually took Angelie to New York, but to work.
Speaker 1: Angelie says it had been a month since she left
Speaker 1: New York to go to North Carolina. Her top model
Speaker 1: friend says it was longer when Angelie got back to
Speaker 1: New York. She finally called that best friend she was
Speaker 1: too afraid to tell.
Speaker 2: I was out in the hotel on Long Island and
Speaker 2: she was like, just meet me at Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn.
Speaker 2: I just want to know you are okay. I said, okay, cool,
Speaker 2: I said, I got my bag here at all. She said,
Speaker 2: just Lee get back, just to get back. I'll take
Speaker 2: it over, get it. So I took the long railroad
Speaker 2: went to go meet her and she said, bitch like.
Speaker 2: I gave her the longest hug and she's like, bitch,
Speaker 2: you ain't going back.
Speaker 1: And that's how Angeline got out, through the kindness of
Speaker 1: a friend who wouldn't take no for an answer. The
Speaker 1: whole ordeal was short, but she learned a lifetime of lessons.
Speaker 1: A few months later, she got that call from A
Speaker 1: and TM All Stars. It was the lifeline sheet needed
Speaker 1: months before Angeline signed on to do the season, but
Speaker 1: she was worried the producers would find out about that
Speaker 1: chapter in her life. That fear was confirmed when she
Speaker 1: met up with casting director Michelle Mack.
Speaker 2: Ended up having to go to la to meet with Michelle.
Speaker 2: So when I met with her, it was filmed there
Speaker 2: was a camera there and she's like, so, what have
Speaker 2: you been up to. I was like, oh, you know, nothing,
Speaker 2: just modeling, and she was like, that's it.
Speaker 1: In my life.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, she knows something. She knows something, and
Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, that's it. And she asked me, she
Speaker 2: flat out asked me, was I being penned?
Speaker 1: Angelie lied told her no because she thought if she
Speaker 1: told the truth, they wouldn't let her back on the show.
Speaker 1: But her mind started racing to figure out who snitched. Remember,
Speaker 1: I said two of her friends knew about the situation
Speaker 1: when she went to Vegas. Well, the one who'd been
Speaker 1: an A and TM contestant with Angelie said she reached
Speaker 1: out to top model producers, crew members, Tyra's assistant, and
Speaker 1: Tyra herself to try to get Angelie out of that situation.
Speaker 1: The friend said she didn't get much of a response.
Speaker 1: So this was Angelie's first time hearing that anyone from
Speaker 1: the show other than her friend knew anything about what
Speaker 1: she'd been through. She thought for sure she was going home,
Speaker 1: so she said, in her hotel, waiting for a plane
Speaker 1: ticket back to New York.
Speaker 2: Before we went in the house, we were in the hotel.
Speaker 2: Michelle came by with someone else and was like, I
Speaker 2: just want to tell you I know what happened. I
Speaker 2: just want you to take this opportunity and run with it.
Speaker 2: She gave me a hug and I was like, okay,
Speaker 2: this is our little secret.
Speaker 1: Angelie believes she genuinely wanted to keep it between them
Speaker 1: so she could have another chance, and it almost worked.
Speaker 1: Angelie won. Then the whole thing blew up.
Speaker 2: A week or two later, somebody from the network production
Speaker 2: called me. I was like, you know, they want to
Speaker 2: have a meeting with you in New York City because
Speaker 2: at this time I was back in Buffalo with my family.
Speaker 2: They want to have a meeting with you to discuss
Speaker 2: sponsorships because you are the winner.
Speaker 1: I said, okay.
Speaker 2: When I got down there, Amanda or our Inte Hotel,
Speaker 2: I'll never forget Columbus Circle. I'll walk up in that room.
Speaker 2: The attorney was there from CBS, Laura Feuse was there,
Speaker 2: Michelle Mock was there, Doctor Zachary was there.
Speaker 1: That's the show psychologist.
Speaker 2: Can Mock wasn't there, but they put his ass on
Speaker 2: the phone and they basically told me we can't air
Speaker 2: you as the winner.
Speaker 1: Angelie says the execs told her being trafficked violated the
Speaker 1: morality clause. Of course, they didn't use the word trafficked,
Speaker 1: but that's what I'm calling it, and her violating that
Speaker 1: part of the contract meant she wouldn't be getting the
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand dollars or any of the other prizes.
Speaker 1: We don't know how the other execs found out about
Speaker 1: what happened to Angelie, but if her top model friend
Speaker 1: called people who worked on the show to get Angelie
Speaker 1: some help, then there were several people who potentially knew
Speaker 1: about her situation. Angelie thinks it was another friend she
Speaker 1: confided in off show. The guy was a photographer and
Speaker 1: knew some of the top model girls. Angelie thinks he
Speaker 1: blabbed them. One of them ended up on All Stars,
Speaker 1: and Angelie says when she got eliminated before Angelie, she
Speaker 1: complained that she couldn't believe top model was going to
Speaker 1: quote let a prostitute win. That's Angelie's theory, and we
Speaker 1: can't confirm that that was the real reason. We just
Speaker 1: know the cat was out of the bag. After they
Speaker 1: gave Angelie the bad news, producers flew Lisa Demado and
Speaker 1: Alison Harvard in to TAPA new finale with Lisa as
Speaker 1: the winner. Lisa says when they flew into La she
Speaker 1: and Alison had a talk with Ken Mock before the reshoot.
Speaker 1: She says he separated them and asked them what projects
Speaker 1: they were working on and what they would do if
Speaker 1: they won the show. Then, she says, he had a
Speaker 1: conversation with them both.
Speaker 10: He goes, don't you fucking say a word about this reshoot?
Speaker 10: And he put his finger in our faces, me and
Speaker 10: a El and we're standing right next to each other
Speaker 10: in the hallway and he goes, both of you, don't
Speaker 10: say a fucking word, do you hear me? Like threatened us.
Speaker 10: Then we got driven to the studio in the valley
Speaker 10: and it was the same set that they were shooting
Speaker 10: Cycle eighteen.
Speaker 1: Lisa says, the next season was already in production and
Speaker 1: they used that set to tape the new finale. The
Speaker 1: whole thing was done in a day, and Lisa was
Speaker 1: the new and official winner of Cycle seventeen. In a way,
Speaker 1: both Angelie and Lisa fell victim to the A and
Speaker 1: TM curse because even though Lisa was given the title,
Speaker 1: she didn't enjoy her win. It had a dark cloud
Speaker 1: over it. When the finale of Cycle seventeen finally aired,
Speaker 1: Angelie's win had already leaked and Angelie wasn't there for
Speaker 1: the reshoot, so the judges had to address Angelie's absence.
Speaker 6: Well, we're back in Los Angeles on the Top Model set,
Speaker 6: and we're here for a special finale that's been conducted
Speaker 6: under unusual circumstances.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it turns out that after shooting was wrapped, a
Speaker 3: production team and the network learned information from Angelie that
Speaker 3: disqualifies it from the competition.
Speaker 1: So what does that mean, Well, it means.
Speaker 3: We're now going to do our final judging with the
Speaker 3: remaining two girls, and in the interest of fairness, that
Speaker 3: producers and the network thought it best to evaluate Alison
Speaker 3: and Lisa on their own without the added competition of Angelie.
Speaker 4: You know, guys, we wish Angelie the best in all
Speaker 4: her future endeavors.
Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely absolutely so. Were ready to proceed with our
Speaker 1: final judging?
Speaker 9: Yes, let's do this.
Speaker 5: Are you ready?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: That statement overshadowed Lisa's victory. Fans were angry because Angelie
Speaker 1: was a fan favorite and Lisa was not.
Speaker 11: I got so much backlash after winning all stars.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 14: Everyone thought that I paid somebody off, that I blackmailed somebody,
Speaker 14: that I just stole her, when that it was undeserving.
Speaker 2: It's like, you don't know my story.
Speaker 10: Nobody knew my story, nobody knew what I.
Speaker 7: Had gone through my whole life leading up to that point.
Speaker 7: It was so devastating to get the backlash again when
Speaker 7: I went on that show to redeem myself, and the
Speaker 7: way that they also weaponized this whole finale that also
Speaker 7: really hurt me as well.
Speaker 1: Lisa was the villain all over again. I think that's
Speaker 1: why she clings to this story that she was always
Speaker 1: going to be the winner. Whether it's true or not,
Speaker 1: it eases the sting of her win being Angelie's misfortune.
Speaker 1: Lisa may have gotten the America's Next Top Model title
Speaker 1: and one hundred thousand dollars, but she never got to
Speaker 1: redeem her image. She still gets hate mail to this day.
Speaker 1: Angelie was devastated for a long time. She tried to
Speaker 1: sue A and TM for three million dollars, but eventually
Speaker 1: dropped the suit when she realized the contract she signed
Speaker 1: was ironclad. She didn't have a leg to stand on.
Speaker 1: She thought signing that contract was going to make her
Speaker 1: dreams come true, but it ended up being her nightmare.
Speaker 1: Angelie eventually gave up on modeling. She was getting older
Speaker 1: and the damage was done, but she found a new dream.
Speaker 1: She went to college got a bachelor's degree in journalism.
Speaker 1: She's the first person in her family to finish college.
Speaker 1: After graduation, she got a job as a host and
Speaker 1: reporter at her local public radio station. Today she's a
Speaker 1: working journalist and a mom in her hometown, the seven
Speaker 1: one six, Buffalo, New York. I don't think Angelie, Lisa,
Speaker 1: or any of the other models I spoke with thought
Speaker 1: their A and TM journeys would end up like this.
Speaker 1: When they sent in those audition tapes and signed the contracts,
Speaker 1: they thought they were getting a head start in the
Speaker 1: fashion industry. They certainly didn't think they would be talking
Speaker 1: to me twenty years later about how the show still
Speaker 1: haunts them. As this podcast continues, you're going to hear
Speaker 1: more from the models if they tell you about the
Speaker 1: experiences that have stuck with them. These contestants weren't just
Speaker 1: tyrist props. They were real people, real people whose NDAs
Speaker 1: have finally expired, and they want to tell their side
Speaker 1: of the story. On the next episode, we're going to
Speaker 1: get into one of the most disturbing parts of A
Speaker 1: andtm's casting process. I'm talking about the psychiatric evaluations. Psyche
Speaker 1: Vowls are standard in reality TV. They're used to make
Speaker 1: sure a potential cast member is mentally capable of handling
Speaker 1: the stress of being on reality TV. But what I've
Speaker 1: been told about ANTM psyche vows raises serious ethical questions.
Speaker 1: Contestants told me about deep personal trauma they shared that
Speaker 1: was later used by producers to manipulate them. I've also
Speaker 1: heard about possible bias that kept certain contestants out and
Speaker 1: let others slip through the cracks, some of whom met
Speaker 1: tragic ends after the time on A and TM. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to the Curse of America's Next Top Model.
Speaker 1: We really appreciate the support. We'd love for you to
Speaker 1: really show your support by subscribing to our show on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, and don't forget to leave us a five
Speaker 1: star rating and review. If you love the show, tell
Speaker 1: your group, chat, your co workers, your friends, your mama
Speaker 1: to check us out, and if you don't, maybe keep
Speaker 1: that one to yourself. Thanks again to all of our listeners.
Speaker 1: The Curse of America's Next Top Model is a production
Speaker 1: of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in
Speaker 1: partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by
Speaker 1: Nancy Glass, hosted and senior produced by me Bridget Armstrong.
Speaker 1: Our story editor is Monique Leboard, also produced by Ben
Speaker 1: Fetterman and Andrea Dunning. Associate producers are Alisha Key, Kristin Melcriy,
Speaker 1: and Curry Richmond. Consulting producers are all Over TwixT and
Speaker 1: Kate Taylor. Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Klincheck.
Speaker 1: Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Callaway and Matt del Becchio.
Speaker 1: The Curse of America's Next Top Model theme music was
Speaker 1: composed by Oliver Baines. Music library provided by mid Music.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to everyone we interviewed for this podcast, especially
Speaker 1: the models for sharing their stories. And For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Also check out the Glass podcast
Speaker 1: Instagram at Glass Podcasts for Curse of America's Next Top Model,
Speaker 1: behind the scenes content and more.