This week I successfully avoided watching a single second of "American Idol." I've given it up (post to come later today), but I don't think I could ever give up my beloved models. Especially not if they remain as awesome as they are this season.

Thank god for Claire, Whitney, Lauren, Fatima, Katarzyna, Anya, and Dominique. The first four are gorgeous and bitchy; the next two are just plain gorgeous; the last one is just plain bitchy. It's an amazing cocktail. (Stacy-Ann is just...there.) The show hasn't been this much fun since Cycle 6, even if the girls have become increasingly less modelesque.

The photo shoot this week had the girls posing as music genre stereotypes. So Fatima got to portray metal rock, Katarzyna excelled at being emo girl, Whitney channeled Courtney Love for grunge, and so on. Edgy Claire struggled to embrace her inner bumpkin in a campy country shot, and Aimee got the boot for being the most boring R&B diva ever.

The shoot was good (and presided over by big-shot photographer Russell James, most recently of VH1's "The Shot" - which, coincidentally, is also produced by the "Top Model" people. Don't think you're so tricky, Banks!). Tyra's posing teach was insanely brilliant ("When you're stuck, think pain! But also beauty!" This woman gives us such gifts...) But the best part of the episode was the girls repeatedly dog-piling on Dominique.

It's all so high school; Dominique is completely self-absorbed (I mean, the woman refers to herself in the third person. What do you expect?) and, after last episode's blow-up over the phone list, this week we got the story of Dom's alarm clock. Which apparently goes off at all hours of the morning. Repeatedly. And which she refuses to fix. At first this gets Claire (Claire!) in a tizzy, and she precedes to cuss out Dominique, calling her a "shady bitch" (Ha!). Things escalate, and Whitney (of course) and Lauren (gaining huge amounts of respect from me) get into it, climaxing with Lauren literally climbing on top of a chair and screaming at Dominique "You are f**king CRAZY!" Amazing. Just amazing. Later in the episode the feud erupts again. The cattiness! This is what I've been telling them to do!

I won't really miss Aimee. Pretty girl, totally unmemorable. The other interesting tidbit this episode is that the panel loves the short-cut ‘do Katarzyna wore in her emo pic, and Tyra informs her that she'll be getting that haircut for reals next week. Kat seems less than pleased, but she should buck up: this might be the totally useless thing that makes Tyra go from clearly hating her (as the seasons have drawn on, Tyra's ability to fake enthusiasm has dried up; thus far she has given Kat nothing but that hooded-eye "Girl, screw up once and you're out of here" stare) to suddenly thinking she's the best thing EVER. Let's hope so! I love that dimpled Polish goddess.