The Starlet: Big Dreams, Dim Futures
These quotes in the NY Times from the contestants/future White Lotus waitresses on the WB's Apprentice/ANTM knockoff The Starlet make it seem like their casting staff merely coaxed some wannabe actresses from the porch of the Coffee Bean on Sunset Blvd into a van and called it a day:
The young women express soaring ambition. Donna, a 20-year-old African-American model (the young Tyra Banks), tells the camera, "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind, and there never was, that I will be famous." Cecile, 20, a tall South African blonde (the young Charlize Theron), is even bolder. "I've always thought of myself as larger than life," she says serenely. "I've always known I was going to be a legend."
Some of them also have poignant up-from-the-trailer-park stories. Michelynne, 18 (Keri Russell in the first season of "Felicity"), was raised in poverty by a single mother and recalls a childhood Christmas when her presents came from the Salvation Army.
Pity poor Michelynne, who seems not to realize that there's only room for one "up-from-the-trailer-park" actress in this town, and she's busy getting ketchup all over her Oscar. See ya back at the Coffee Bean!