Model Behaviour how are ye: ANTM audition riots

Did you hear about this madness? Here's the skinny (ho ho): rioting broke out last Saturday in the street outside a Manhattan hotel, as an estimated 10,000 model wannabes queued for the New York casting call of America's Next Top Model: Cycle 13, which is exclusively for women 5' 7" and under. Some of the girls had stood in line overnight, forgoing food, drink and toilet breaks to hold their place; however, things started to turn nasty as newcomers started to join the queue indiscriminately. Bad idea. There was lots of arguing about people's true height too, with allegations that many were far taller than 5' 7". When the doors opened, people rushed forward to try to get in.

Police eventually arrived to put out barricades and try and impose some order on the situation, but at that stage several people had fainted in the crush and sporadic bitch slapping fighting had broken out. Tensions were further heightened when a fight broke out between two men who had apparantly been taunting each other for several hours; when police intervened one of the men threatened to return later with a gun. When an overheated BMW turned onto the street with smoke pouring from the bonnet all hell broke loose, with panic about a car bomb causing people to trample one another in an attempt to get away. Afterwards, the street was strewn with shoes, clothes and bags which had been discarded as people desperately attempted to escape the melee.

A number of women sustained injuries which required treatment, and two of those had to be hospitalised. Three people were arrested for disorderly conduct and inciting a riot. (Were they trying to get a competitive edge by getting other applicants to freak out and run off, I wonder?) And, unsurprisingly, the auditions were shut down following the incident. This reality TV is one helluva ugly business.

Tyra is said to be “concerned" about what happened, which makes all the difference really. However, New York authorities including Mayor Bloomberg have remarked that if the auditions had been properly organised and supervised, they would likely have passed off without incident. 

Which I could believe if I hadn't ever seen an episode of the show: most of these “just-want-my-chance-I'll-do-whatever-it-takes" girls are really freakin' scrappy!