8/27/2008

in

Supermodel Janice Dickinson is back . . . and she's moving in!

Ivana Cheong

When Season 3 of the *Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency* closed, viewers were left with heated drama and a whole lot of questions. "Everything is going to change," Janice kept repeating. After trying out Miami, firing ex-business partner Peter Hamm, and getting a new partner with Otto Models, what's there to see in Season 4?  
  
Well, it's not like Janice never has anything up her sleeve. It's only the beginning and models are already pissed. The premiere begins with what else but a casting, as Janice is always looking for new ways to add in competition. Quite shockingly, there were no "drop trou!" orders from Janice as she photographs wannabe models. Abs only and no major butting heads made for a pretty mild beginning.  
  
From the open call, Janice found nine models as her latest project. She says that she's taking a chance with Martin Ritchie-a gay and deaf model who has his interpreter with him everywhere. "I'm a bitch . . . and you can't hear. It's perfect!" Janice said.  
  
Other newbies include Xian Mikol, who Janice thinks is pretty but a little heavy (think of her as the new Crystal or Nyabel); and Hazuki Kato could probably be the new CC Fontana, as Janice plans to take her under her wing.  
  
As for the veteran models, Janice planned to keep a watchful eye on them. She felt like the perfect way to do it was to open a model house-with her living in the master bedroom of course. When she found a place in Beverly Hills, complete with 15 beds and a pool, she immediately wanted to buy it, but her business partner said it wasn't financially possible. Like that'll stop her.  
  
So she decides to close her Hollywood and Highland office and transfer it to the house. Now, the house itself is like a tacky, Vegas'd up brothel. Especially gag-inducing is the master bedroom. So to fix it, Janice brings in Chris Ciccone-who happens to be Madonna's brother-to redesign the bedroom.  
  
After Ciccone and his team were done, the bedroom looks viable and quite chic. For the Janice Dickinson touch, Ciccone installed cameras all around the house so Janice could spy on the models-from the comfort of her own bedroom, with a hidden control panel in the wall. James Bond's M would be so proud.  
  
After Janice invites all the seasoned models to come into the house, they immediately plopped their bags to decide whose bed is whose. After they settled in quite comfortable, Janice drops the bomb that only a select few will stay in the house. At the same time, she brings in the new models, giving away to pissed-off faces from the old models who think that the new ones will not fit in.  
  
Kehoe of course is the first to voice his opinions. Unsurprisingly, he is also the first to get naked, flip off people, and act like an ass. Even the object of his affection, Traci Moslenko, is getting quite fed up with him.  
  
Drama aside, the agency gets to work. The first client that the house brings in is a casting for Nicolita Swimwear. The final picks came down to newbie Chandler Maness (who's the object of Kehoe's hate), new Russian model Polina Tretiakova, and veterans CC and Traci.  
  
Of course, the fact that the new models are quite successful does not sit well with the oldies. But that is not true for some. Veteran model Maurice Townsell is quite taken with Polina; he thinks girls with accents are sexy. During the Nicolita casting, Maurice tried to comfort nervous Polina during the interaction testing by whispering things in her ears. When Polina was chatting poolside with another model, he tried to come in-quite unsuccessfully, in my opinion.  
  
But no worries. This is only the beginning. The previews show the two getting along well with Polina also returning the affection. "Love is in the air," as model J.P. Calderon says.  
  
After the casting, Janice threw a housewarming party in order to further see which models she should invite to live with her. As all the models gather around, Janice says she's only inviting nine and starts listing off names. By the fourth or fifth name, everyone's starting to get antsy and realize that she's only called new models. Turns out that all nine models are all the new models. After that, in Janice-fashion, she says hasta la vista to the rest of them. Uh-oh. . . .  
  
Everyone looked pissed and quite rightly. They were confused with the decision and angry because they were the ones who deserved to live in the house; after all, they are the ones who brought business for the agency. A percentage of the models dropped F-bombs while the rest just stormed out.  
  
However, Janice says that soon the models will know the method behind Janice Dickinson's madness. I for one am dying to find out, because I do think that for now, the decision to only invite the new models is weird and unjustified.  
  
From the afterwards "This season, on the Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency . . ." previews, I can tell that viewers are in for an amazing time. Not only do we see romances develop with Polina/Maurice and Chandler/Xian, we also will see that Janice will have personal problems of her own: one financially, it seems, and two with her trusted makeup artist, Gabe.  
  
I wonder what's up? It doesn't matter, I suppose, for Janice Dickinson always brings good entertainment to the TV screen that I am not missing for one minute.  
  
New episodes of *Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency* premiere on Oxygen channel Tuesdays at 10 p.m.