Tyra Banks Hails Hillary As 'Polished Diamond' of Perfection, Honesty

January 18th, 2008 3:39 PM

While the news media have focused like a laser beam on what Hillary Clinton said on the Tyra Banks show Friday, MRC's Michelle Humphrey and Kristine Lawrence each suffered through pieces of the interview to find the other angle: How soft and silly was Tyra Banks? Plenty. The show opened with the supermodel bowing deeply and gratefully to Hillary for appearing:

I am so honored that you are here. I am so -- aren't we like happy? (Cheers and applause)... This is a glorious moment, and I gotta tell you, I was intimidated at first, and I was intimidated because I feel like you are this -- there's an image of perfection, a polished diamond and I was like, oh, my gosh, what am I gonna say? And then I started doing all this research, and I started reading your book and just really digging into articles and I found such an honesty, vulnerability that I didn't know was there and I don't think a lot of people know is inside of you.

A few minutes later, Banks pulled out the "tough" questions:

TYRA: What about you? Do you ever get lonely, sit in a room by yourself and just feel lonely?

HILLARY: I don't feel lonely but I do feel sometimes isolated. Because when you are in these positions that I have been in, it can be very isolating.

They also found these gems from Tyra:

– "You guarded her (Chelsea) like a crocodile mama in the jungle."

– Tyra talks about body image, says she looks in mirror, sees ‘new cellulite dimple on my leg. Do you see that?'

– Tyra to Hillary: "I always say a woman who can rock short hair is a truly beautiful woman."

– On a segment called Never Been Asked, the question is "Do you know how to text message Chelsea?" Answer: "Yes."

– If you were a contestant on a reality show, would you rather be on Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, or America's Next Top Model? True to the host, Hillary said Tyra's Top Model "in my dreams," but probably more realistically Dancing with the Stars.

For the real substance of the program, Tyra went to a box of "Issue Tissues," where audience members wrote questions on Kleenexes, and Hillary pulled them out one at a time, but none of them were contrary. They were Democrat-friendly, like how would we fix how other people in the world see America as arrogant.

Hillary talked about sending emissaries around the world, Republican and Democrat, to change the global perception of America. That would include her favorite "roving ambassador," her husband Bill.