Clash of the divas! MSNBC is reporting that Tyra Banks and her “America’s Next Top Model” co-star, makeup artist and art director Jay Manuel, are not speaking to each other, making the taping of the show extremely uncomfortable for the rest of the cast and crew. Insiders are reporting that Tyra is totally phoning in her duties on the newest cycle of the hit reality show, and may even abandon it after this season in favor of her talk show and other projects.

There’s been no shortage of tales about Tyra Banks’ personality conflicts on the set of “America’s Next Top Model,” but the latest might be the most interesting since it could have a lasting impact on the show. OK! magazine reports that Banks isn’t getting along with photo shoot creative director Jay Manuel, and her days on the show could be numbered.

“It’s gotten so bad that Tyra and Jay aren’t speaking,” an insider told OK! magazine. The selective silent treatment isn’t limited to Manuel, either. “Tyra barely interacts with the contestants and only wants to show up on judging day,” the source told the magazine.

Net result? Banks (who wouldn’t comment on the rumors) might be looking for a new supermodel to helm ANTM. “She’s really throwing all her weight behind her talk show,” according to a source familiar with “The Tyra Banks Show.” “She’s putting lots of pressure on her staff to keep her show on the map. She had Barack Obama on, she had Hilary Clinton on — she got a taste of playing with the big boys and now ‘Top Model’ seems to detract from her big plans.”

[From MSNBC.com]

My assessment: there could be a feud going on with Jay and Tyra. Tyra and Jay have known each other for a decade- Jay has been working with Banks since she was an up-and-coming runway model, and the two have always appeared to be close. They are both opinionated and have big personalities, and two people like that are bound to have disagreements. It’s no secret that Tyra and former supermodel Janice Dickinson had personality issues on set, but Janice is a crazy bitch. Who wouldn’t want her to shut up after five minutes?

And what about the idea of Tyra leaving “Top Model,” the show she created? I highly doubt it 0 the show put Tyra on the map and it’s her baby. There’s no way she’d leave the show and let Jay stay on! In a recent Entertainment Weekly interview, Tyra admitted that her presence on the show, now in its tenth “cycle,” has somewhat diminished, but she still attends every production meeting and is just as involved behind the scenes as ever.

Former supermodel/reality star/talk show host Tyra Banks has definitely hit the big time- she even has her own extra-creepy stalker. Homeless nutjob Brady Green, who has been sending Tyra weird letters and packages and calling her for the last couple of months, actually started showing up at the studio where she tapes her talk show.

Cops finally busted the burly ex-con drifter Tuesday for allegedly stalking Banks from coast to coast, but he was released without bail - an act that has added to her anxiety.

Brady Green, 37, has hounded Banks with multiple letters and phone calls since early January, cops and prosecutors said.

He then started sending her flowers and showing up in person at her Los Angeles TV studio, they said.

The Dublin, Ga., native then took a bus to New York with the idea of visiting the studio where “The Tyra Banks Show” is taped. He arrived in the lobby at 4:23 p.m. on Tuesday, asking to speak to the former supermodel, the authorities said.

Green was carrying a large duffel bag stuffed with magazine write-ups about Banks and notes to himself about his various attempts to reach her, they said.

Cops were called to the scene, where Banks said she feared for her safety. Green was cleared from the premises.

But at 7:22 p.m., Green was back - sitting across the street in a window seat at a McDonald’s, drinking coffee and flipping through one of his magazines…

Green told police he was homeless, although he appeared clean and dressed in neat, casual clothing, they said. Cops arrested him in the restaurant and charged him with stalking, harassment and criminal trespass.

The next morning, Green appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court and pleaded not guilty to the charges. No bail was requested, despite Green not having provided a New York address. Judge Anthony Ferrara released him on his own recognizance - but issued an order of protection for Banks…

Staff at the Chelsea studio are worriedly anticipating Green’s return. “There’s no security at this building,” said a producer at 225 W. 26th St., where photos of Green were still being handed out on Friday with a warning to stay away from him. “It’s very scary.”

[From NY Post]

Yikes! I sure hope they’ve stepped up security at that building given the situation. I wonder if Tyra will do an episode on stalkers on her talk show now? Celebrity stalking has become a serious problem- as recent cases like Steven Spielberg’s and Catherine Zeta Jones’ have shown. John Lennon’s killer, Mark David Chapman, reportedly stalked him for months before shooting him dead in front of his home. And with instant access to celebrities’ favorite hangouts, it’s easier than ever for unstable people like this to track their victims.

Tyra Banks is shown at the Daytime Emmy Awards on 6/15/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

We just got an e-mail from a guest on The Tyra Banks show who said that she was treated very rudely by Tyra’s staff and had an awful experience. She said:

Just found your Webside and read about how cheap Tyra Banks is…..and I have to agree…My 11 year old daugher and myself have been on her Show last week,and we got lied to and humiliated….Tyra is a fake and very mean,she is so cheap we did not get to meet her befor or after the Show and my Child who idolises her did not even get an Autograph!!!!! How rude.

[Sent via e-mail. We will not publish the sender’s first name until we get confirmation that it’s ok.]

This guest of Tyra’s isn’t the only one who was left feeling used and humiliated after an appearance on Tyra’s show. Despite all the female empowerment Tyra preaches, there are other guests who also felt hurt and betrayed after an appearance on her daytime talk show, one of whom was a cancer victim who was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement when she complained to staff.

39 year-old single mother of two, Jodi Hughes, has stage 4 cervical cancer and Lupus. She was on Tyra’s show for a scheduled makeover set up by her children. Her kids were not allowed in the studio when she was getting the makeover, and were left to sit on the curb for hours without ever being fed or checked up on. Her ten year-old boy is even legally blind. Hugh’s makeover was just a new dress, makeup and very painful hair weave that left her with severe complications. She was told exactly what to say about how Tyra made her feel like a woman again, but all she felt was tired and used. Then she got dropped off at the airport with her kids eight full hours before her plane left.

Jodi, who lives in Bettendorf, Iowa, says things went bad the minute they stepped off the plane in Los Angeles to tape the show.

Jordan, 17, and Nick, 10 - who is legally blind - were left sitting on a curb outside the studio lot for hours with no food, no phone and no money while Jodi underwent her “transformation” - which included nothing more than the services of a professional makeup artist, a new dress and a cheap, painful hair weave, she says.

Tyra’s producers scripted her lines for the show, Jodi says. “The producers told me to say: “Thank you, Tyra, for making me feel like a woman again.’ That was the most humiliating part.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, February 18, 2008]

Hughes had to get the extensions surgically removed in the emergency room when her scalp became infected. She said she spent months growing out her hair after chemo and that the extensions ruined it. She may not have had it the worst though, there was another makeover recipient on the show with her, a woman with handicapped arms. Her prize for going on the show was a purse! Hughes is quoted as saying “All they kept telling her was: ‘You should be grateful - that’s a $500 purse!’”

Hughes was a guest on Tyra’s show in 2006, but she wasn’t able to tell her story until now. When she complained about it, she was served with a gag order from Tyra’s lawyers that kept her from talking about her terrible experience for a full year.

This makes me so mad I cannot tell you. It only takes some common courtesy to make sure people are fed and comfortable before they go on your stupid television show. Just talk to the kids, make sure they get subs or some soda and sandwiches, and let them sit inside. Ask the guests if they want extensions in their hair before you do it. And for God’s sake don’t give a purse to a woman without arms! That’s asinine.

Tyra Banks is shown at fashion week on 2/4/08, thanks to PRPhotos.

Janet Charlton reported that Tyra Banks didn’t give her talk show staff any kind of Christmas bonus and that she had the holiday office party at a dive bar. Instead of serving food, she showed up with a guy dressed in a santa suit toting cold McDonald’s cheeseburgers and then took off. Staff got predictably wasted, and an ambulance had to be called after a woman was injured falling on the street. There was also a drunken brawl. The National Enquirer has more details, and they confirm Charlton’s story.

The night got off to a bad start after the employees arrived at the [Christmas] bash, held December 6 at Pianos, a Manhattan dive bar.

“First there was no food and guests began drinking heavily. Soon everyone was drunk,” another insider said.

Tyra showed up late, saying she was on her way to Italy.

“She told staffers, who relocated from LA to NY for her: ‘I want to thank you guys for working so hard. I have a special guests - here’s Santa!’”

According to an insider, the staff rushed over to Santa expecting to be handed a Christmas bonus. Instead, they were served dinner - burgers from McDonald’s!”

Things went downhill from there.

“People were getting sick on the dance floor. Then drunken fights started breaking out! It was a complete fiasco!” the source said.

A Pianos bartender told The Enquirer: “After Tyra left, some guys had a fight in the room and then a female member of the group fell outside and broke three of her teeth on the sidewalk. An ambulance had to be called for her.”

“When we went upstairs to clean up, there were McDonald’s burger wrappers all over the place.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, January 7, 2008]

In case you wonder if either of these stories is fabricated, In Touch has confirmation from Tyra’s PR person that McDonald’s was served at the Christmas party. Not that there’s anything wrong with that:

A rep for Tyra says the [McDonalds] burgers weren’t meant as gifts. “It is not true,” the rep tells In Touch. “Cheeseburgers were provided as a late-night snack for the staff at the party.”

[From In Touch, print edition, January 7, 2008]

So Tyra Banks’ PR person doesn’t say she did give staff bonuses, or that they didn’t have their Christmas party at a bar, just that the burgers weren’t intended as their Christmas gifts. It sounds to me like Tyra showed up with McDonalds as reported and that she stiffed her staff on Christmas. Janet Charlton also reported that Tyra received a whopping $30 million for moving from LA to NY. You think she could arrange for the people who moved to keep working on her show to get a small piece of that.

Boy the weight criticisms are really getting out of control in Hollywood lately. Ever since pictures of Jennifer Love Hewitt emerged where she had the nerve to look less-than-skeletal, everyone has been jumping on the bandwagon and trying to get their say in. Though it seems like most celebs have the common sense to only say positive things, clearly some people are thinking otherwise, or this wouldn’t be an issue and we wouldn’t still be hearing about it. Cindy Crawford got some critiques from the Daily Mail for her less-that-airbrushed (ie totally normal) stomach the other day, and now Janice Dickinson is calling Tyra Banks fat.

Tyra weathered her own fat storm a few months ago, when she was photographed looking a little “thick” during a beach vacation. I still don’t think she looked fat, per se, and a lot can be attributed to poor camera angles, harsh light, and a bad choice for a swimsuit. Tyra fought back by wearing the offending bathing suit on her show, showing she looked fine, normal, and healthy. She also compared how she looks now to how she looked as a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model years ago, and was photographed in the same bathing suit, showing that she’d changed a little, but not all that drastically. In all fairness, she was clearly retouched to within an inch of her life in the recent photo she did. She almost looked drawn. I’m not criticizing her body and I whole-heartedly appreciate her promoting healthy, realistic body images. But if that’s what she was really trying to do, she should have been secure enough to release the new photos with a normal amount of airbrushing. Showing us a cartoon and asking us to believe that’s how you really look is insulting, and it kills your argument.

Janice Dickinson – who I believe has inherited the Queen of Mean title from the recently deceased Leona Helmsley – was on the Today show yesterday to promote her reality show “The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency.” At one point, Al Roker asked her how she felt about the Jennifer Love Hewitt controversy. Dickinson was actually fairly kind.

They continued the streak today by inviting Janice Dickinson, the self-described first supermodel, and discussed whether a size 2 is fat. Janice defended Hewitt, called her “healthy” and “not emaciated.” She continued, “You want to see someone who’s fat, I’m sorry, Tyra, Tyra Banks is fat.” Banks used to be Dickinson’s boss in the early seasons of “America’s Next Top Model” and has herself been the subject of unflattering bathing suit photos.

After she was confronted by Al Roker about the remark, she sort of backed off, but it’s unclear if she was being genuine.

[From the Huffington Post]

It seemed like Dickinson just said that because she knew she’d be in a world of hurt if she didn’t. Though frankly she’s getting a ton of negative press for saying it at all. Even in the worst photo published, I think it’s unfair to call Tyra Banks fat. Our perception of how celebrities are supposed to look gets altered over time, and eventually we see a stick as normal. I imagine Tyra Banks looks perfectly healthy in real life. Last week I wrote an article about Carrie Underwood and her “healthy diet” tips. I noted that she had lost a lot of weight, but seemed okay as long as she didn’t lose anymore. Several commenters pointed out that she looks normal in pictures and normal for Hollywood, but that she would probably look alarmingly skinny in real life. And looking closer, I definitely agree. Once in a while you’ll see a photograph of a celebrity next to a regular person, and it’s shocking how tiny they are. It’s just that our points of reference get messed up, and you become accustomed to seeing a certain thing.

I appreciate Janice’s decent take on Jennifer Love Hewitt, but I hope she’ll come out and officially correct her statement regarding Tyra Banks. It’s for her own good; I would not want Tyra on my bad side.

Dickinson: ‘Hewitt is a healthy girl’

Note by Celebitchy: Someone is jealous of a former supermodel with a successful talkshow when they have to resort to reality shows and cheap tactics like this to get attention. Janice Dickinson is shown on 10/02/07 at the Fox Reality show awards. Tyra Banks is shown looking great at Fashion Week on 9/10/07 and at the CW Network Upfronts on 5/17/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

Nicole Richie has been seen out with toned legs, suggesting she’s been eating a little bit and using the leg press at the gym. She’s also been photographed with two different mystery guys, one semi-hot and one weird.

Now comes news that she got wasted at a party with an out of control Mary-Kate Olsen and proceeded to puke all over the floor. Nicole didn’t miss a step, though, and continued right on as if nothing had happened.

At least have the decency to go into the bathroom to puke. The few times in college I drank to the point of no return I somehow managed to make it into the bathroom in time. Of course I had more body tissue to absorb all that booze. Nicole probably has the alcohol tolerance of a child. (I was going to say toddler, but thought that sounded sick.)

Here is lovely Ms. Skin ‘n Bones filming a segment with Tyra Banks for her talkshow. Commenters on JJB note that her head looks huge and it seems to be “carrying all 80 pounds of her,” that she’s “gonna have so many health problems in a few years,” and that “she’s already bald.” What with drinking so much and not eating, it’s not much of a stretch to think she’ll have health problems. At least she gained a smidgeon of weight.

Thanks to Hollywoods Best for these pictures.

Oprah held her “Legends Ball” last night to honor the achievements of African-American women. Celebrities pictured include Oprah Winfrey, Janet Jackson, Jermaine Dupri, Tyra Banks, Mariah Carey, Spike Lee, Diddy, Smokey Robinson, Pam Grier, Dionne Warwick, Gayle King, Cicely Tyson, Deborah Roberts, Antonio LA Reid , and Nate Berkus.

A two hour special featuring highlights from the 2005 Legends Ball will air on ABC this Monday:

In the pictures of the event, Janet Jackson looks fit and happy, and Mariah Carey looks pretty good even though she’s wearing a stripper cut-out dress. 70s siren Pam Grier looks pretty bad, but I looked her up and she suffered from cancer in 1998 and was given 18 months to live. She was gorgeous in Jackie Brown in 1997. Hopefully she’s on the road to recovery and will get a makeover soon.