It's no secret that Tyra Banks like to play dress up – whether it's on the fashion runways as a supermodel, or in disguise while going undercover as an obese woman or stripper for her daytime talk show. Her latest endeavor, seen within the pages of September's
Harper's Bazaar magazine, has the entertainer sporting hair, makeup and wardrobe designed to make her resemble would-be First Lady Michelle Obama. In one photo, Banks wears a slinky black shift dress, pearls, and poses next to a Barack Obama look-a-like in the White House Oval Office with a little black girl playing under the desk. "When Barack won the nomination, I just started bawling," Banks, 34, says in the issue (out August 19). "I started calling all these people, and everybody was talking to me like I was crazy. They’re like, ‘Well, he hasn’t won yet,’ but I’m like, ‘Yes, he has, because he’s gotten this far. So what gives me tears is if Barack Obama wins, kids are going to say that a black man can be president, too," she continues. “I think it will give so many people – black, Latin, Asian, even white people that feel forgotten – hope. I did not think I would see it in my lifetime, and I’m only 34.”
Calling Michelle Obama "one hot mama," Banks says: "With Barack Obama, his becoming president is them becoming president because Michelle was there from the beginning. Without Michelle, he wouldn’t be there.” Banks' prescription for a modern first lady? “Oh, I want her to not take herself too seriously," she says. "She’d need to know how to take a fierce picture, but at the same time be able to eat fried chicken, have grease on her fingers, and be okay with getting photographed like that, too. I’d want her to feel like every child in America is hers – to have a true connection. I would also want her to know how to beat her own face. That means do her own makeup. In the end, the first lady should be her man's rock and his boulder and his mountain. And she should be calling about 50 percent of the shots!"”
Click on each picture in this post to see its full image.
Tyra also shared details of her first run-in with Obama which was back in 2005 at Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball: "My friend Kimora Lee Simmons and I were walking around the ball," she remembers. "We had on these big Cinderella dresses — hardly anyone wore white tie, but we both did — and then we see Senator Obama. He goes, 'Hi, ladies,' and I told him, 'I want to congratulate you on that speech. It was gorgeous.' At the time, there was just a hint of him running for president. But then Kimora starts talking crazy, just totally embarrassing me. She walks away, and I'm like, 'Senator Obama, I have to apologize for my friend. She's almost like family, I've known her since I was 17 years old, and with family, you love them but sometimes you want to say that you're not related to them.' And he said, 'What are you talking about? You don't think that I could be down and talk crazy like that? You think politicians are all stiff and can't relate? Come on, girl.'" Banks says if she were First Lady, her Secret Service acronym would be "KMFA: Kiss My Fat A**."
To read Tyra's interview,
click here.
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