NEW PICS: CONTESTANTS FROM 'AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL CYCLE 10' SEASON

Tyra Banks' America's Next Top Model will debut its tenth cycle and fourth season of the series which will air on The CW network beginning Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 8 PM. A few major changes will be implemented this season. For starters, the show will return to New York City after being housed in Los Angeles, California since Cycle 4. This cycle's theme has been dubbed Back to Basics and the entire wardrobe will be completely dressed by mega fashion house, DSquared.

Fans of the show will also notice a change on ANTM judging panel which has gone unchanged since Cycle 5. During the last nine cycles of ANTM, Tyra Banks has gone through many judges. She started in 2003 with Janice Dickinson, Beau Quillian, and Kimora Lee Simmons. It was no secret that Dickinson and Simmons did not get along during filming. Simmons left after season one as did Quillian. By the time season 5 rolled around, Banks seemed to have found the perfect combo. Since cycle 5, Tyra has judged with Nigel Barker, J. Alexander, and Twiggy. However, due to 'scheduling conflicts', supermodel Twiggy has been replaced by Czech supermodel Paulina Porizkova.

BELOW, CHECK OUT THE 14 NEW FACES OF ANTM CYCLE 10 CONTESTANTS. CLICK ON PICS TO SEE ITS FULL IMAGE.

1st ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: Amis, 20, Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Anya, 19, Honolulu, Hawaii; Claire, 24, New York, New York; Aimee, 18, Spanaway, Washington; Allison, 19, Waunakee, Wisconsin.


2nd ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: Lauren, 22, Brooklyn, New York; Marvita, 23, San Francisco, California; Stacy Ann, 22, Miami, Florida; Whitney, 20, Atlantic Beach, Florida.


3RD ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT: Atalya, 18, Brooklyn, New York; Dominique, 23, Columbus, Ohio; Fatima, 22, Boston, Massachusetts; Kimberly, 20, Worcester, Massachusetts; Katarzyna, 22, Roslyn, New York.

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The hit reality series features supermodel turned super mega mogul Tyra Banks and gives real people an opportunity to prove that they can make it in the high-stress, high-stakes world of supermodeling. The series follows a group of young women of various backgrounds, shapes and sizes, who live together and vie for a modeling contract and other elite perks.

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NEW PICS: A.N.T.M. CYCLE 9 WINNER, SALEISHA DEFENDS HER WIN: 'MY PRIOR CONNECTIONS TO TYRA HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH MY WIN.'

Tyra Banks and company tend to make irrational decisions on America’s Next Top Model: “So who goes home? The girl who takes flawless pictures and walks the runway better than anyone we’ve ever seen? Or the girl who has such low self-esteem and such an ugly face that she’ll forever credit me with giving her a chance when no one else would?” But was their decision to award Saleisha the show’s ninth title fair?

After the 21-year-old former receptionist from Los Angeles was named the winner on Wednesday's ninth-cycle finale, the blogosphere was buzzing with reasons why she may have been undeserving of the victory and soon after, sharp-eyed fans dug up footage Saleisha's prior work. One of the apparent conflicts of interest—the fact that Saleisha Stowers participated in one of Tyra’s camps for teenage girls—was disclosed at the beginning of the season. But the rest were not, and E! News reports that those included “footage showing Saleisha walking the catwalk in an ANTM cycle-six fashion show, as well as appearing on the runway in an episode of The Tyra Banks Show (watch it here.).

AFTER THE JUMP, READ SALEISHA'S STATEMENT REGARDING WHY SHE WON FAIR AND SQUARE + PEEP CANDID PICS OF HER LEAVING THE 'LIVE WITH REGIS & KELLY SHOW' IN NYC.

Perhaps more significantly, “Saleisha had appeared in a nationwide Wendy’s commercial (watch it here), that aired in 2006, seemingly in violation of an America’s Next Top Model eligibility rule that states would-be contestants ‘must not have previous experience as a model in a national campaign within the last five years (including, but not limited to, appearances on television and print advertisements).’” The CW said in a statement that Saleisha did disclose her participation in the Wendy's spot, "after reviewing the commercial, it was determined that her appearance did not amount to 'modeling' experience, and therefore did not exclude her from participating in the show."

"Honestly, I feel that everything is done fair and square," Stowers told reporters during a Thursday conference call. "There's more than one judge, and I really think that every judge has their own opinion on the show. If they didn't feel like I deserved to be America's Next Top Model, then I wouldn't. I do feel like maybe [the judges] were a little harder on me. But I do feel I was judged equally and fairly, like every other girl. I did work hard to earn this, and I feel like I deserve it...I think I was chosen fairly like every other girl to be on the show. I really don't think that any connection from T-Zone or the Tyra Show had anything to do with my critiques or judging."

"I fought for this so hard, and I'm so determined, and I have it now, and I'm not letting it slip out," Saleisha proclaimed after learning of her victory. "I wanted it so bad, and I got it, and I'm never letting it go!"

The catwalk-focused series has been renewed through the 2009-10 season.

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KIMORA LEE SIMMONS NEWS: MOGUL SUED BY MACY'S; WANTS A BRAND NEW BABY FOR X-MAS; MODEL FAKES & FRONTS ON THE FABULOSITY OF HER NEW HOME.

Damn, Kimora! According to the New York Post's Page Six column, Kimora Lee Simmons overcharged Macy's for her beauty products and then refused to pay back the extra profit, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Manhattan Supreme Court. In September 2006, four months after Simmons separated from her multimillionaire husband, Def Jam Records co-founder Russell Simmons, she signed an agreement to provide Macy's with her line of cosmetics. But then she allegedly jacked up the price of her beauty products.

Simmons declined comment.

Rap mogul Russell Simmons' estranged wife Kimora Lee and mother of his two daughters is asking Santa for a special present this Christmas--another baby with her new man, model-turned-actor Djimon Hounsou--and she hopes to have a bun baking in her maternal oven before her divorce is finalized from Russell. Ain't she bolder than a mug?! Anywhoo, when Kimora chatted with a camera crew the other day at St. Vincent Hospital, where she brought daughters Ming Lee and Aoki Lee to visit sick children and spread holiday cheer. A source tells New York gossip column PageSix, "They brought gifts and read stories and played. When she was asked what's on her Christmas list, Lee responded, 'A baby!'" Kimora and Djimon have been dating since the statuesque fashion mogul ended her eight-year marriage to Simmons in 2006.

The former Kimora Lee, whose father is African-American and mother is Japanese-American, was a model, for Chanel and others, when she began dating Simmons, a cofounder of Def Jam Records. The pair met in November 1992 during New York City's Fashion Week. She was 17 and about to finish high school; he was 35 and a self-admitted ladies man. Six years later, Russell, 48, and Kimora, 30 were married by Simmons's brother, Pentecostal minister and rapper Joey "Reverend Run" Simmons of Run DMC, on the Caribbean island of St. Bart's on Dec. 20, 1998.


Meanwhile, reality TV has become more phony by the minute. In a recent installment of Kimora's Style network reality show, Life in the Fab Lane, Simmons appears to pony up $15 million for a gigantic mansion with a glittering view high in the Hollywood Hills. Don't buy it. The blinged-out bi-racial babe did not buy the house on the show. And a little research of public property records reveals that the newly single mother of two actually paid far less for the house she actually bought than her vanity show would would have you believe.

CHECK OUT PICS OF THE REAL HOUSE KIMORA PURCHASED AFTER THE JUMP!

In reality, Simmons paid $5.9 million for a 5,923 square foot Tudor style house in the Beverly Hills Post Office with seven bedrooms, eight and a half bathrooms, and no view to speak of. In a delightful twist of irony, her new next door neighbor is none other than former reality star Jessica Simpson.

Note to Kimora: Check your rear view. You're struggling star power is causing congestion in the Fab lane.

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BITTER COFFEE BEAN: SUDANESE SUPERMODEL ALEK WEK CALLS OUT COFFE COMPANY AS BEING RACIST IN HER NEW AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Sudanese model Alek Wek, who graced the cover of Ebony magazine's September '07 issue along with Tyra Banks, Kimora Lee Simmons and Iman, who to me is the supermodel of all supermodels, is calling out an Italian coffee maker for using her in a photo which she now views as racist in her new biography, Alek: From Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel (Amistad $24.95).

Wek, a member of the Dinka tribe who now resides in Brooklyn, New York compares a calendar photo she did for famed Italian coffee company Lavazza to a number of notorious racist ads.

In excerpts provided by the New York Post's Page Six, the 30 year old supermodel writes how she was photographed naked inside a "gigantic white espresso cup bigger than a car...My skin was to be the espresso."

She says the images were "beautiful," but adds, "I can't help but compare them to all the images of black people that have been used in marketing over the decades. There was the big-lipped jungle-dweller on the blackamoor ceramic mugs sold in the '40s; the golliwog badges given away with jam; Little Black Sambo, who decorated the walls of an American restaurant chain in the 1960s; and Uncle Ben, whose apparently benign image still sells rice."

Lavazza CEO Ennio Ranaboldo told Page Six: "A great artist photographer, Albert Watson. A great model, Alek Wek. A great calendar. That's all there's to say."

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