America’s New Zealand’s Next Top Model is coming to TV3 and launches tonight. Not much reason to watch it unless you are interested in a bunch of pretty, vacant, stick insects walk down a runway. Except… tonight, the launch night, there may indeed be a small reason to watch: the NZ launch appears to have been filmed at the fantastic Peregrine Winery complex in Queenstown, by local architectural supremos: the Architecture Workshop. The bare, simple, skeletal, largely vacant, and yet somewhat beautiful structure of the winery should make a perfect backdrop for the women parading up and down, who themselves are largely bare, simple, skeletal, vacant, and yet somewhat beautiful…. oh, I see now. Yes, there is a connection after all. In fact, lots of connections: marvel at the way the roof material oversails the concrete slab, and fixes lightly to the base. Ogle at the lightweight material suspended over the skin of the building. Marvel at the way everything (and everyone?) goes from straight to bent. Will they have the last (only?) NZ top model Rachel Hunter in the role as supreme Tyra Banks bitch-alike? Swoon with passion at our sophistication (in producing a nice drop of Pinot).

Tonight, 7.30, TV3. Only advice: turn the dialogue off. Bound to be Banal.

And perhaps this may just be the perfect place for a link to a classic Dilbert from July 1989….Dilbert.com