Joanna Hunkin: A star is born

Some friends and I were planning a Top Model viewing party this Friday, to celebrate the final episode of the series. We were convinced the final three would see Christobelle, Laura and Ruby battle it out on the runway. Accordingly, we had formed support teams to back our favourites.

I was Team Ruby.

We never saw Hosanna coming. She was simply not a contender, we'd rationalised. Wouldn't even make the top five.

How wrong we were.

It was with shock and confusion we followed the last three weeks of competition, to see Hosanna escape the axefall twice and rise from the ashes to become the dark horse (quite literally, a colleague pointed out she bears a remarkable resemblance to My Little Pony ... ) of the race.

Last Friday saw our worst fears confirmed as Hosanna pipped Ruby to the post and the Hastings teenager was sent packing.

To be honest, I never really thought Ruby was model material. She's too pretty. Real models are all angular and weird looking - like her bauble-headed rival Christobelle.

But I liked her. She was fun and quick-witted - and constructed sentences out of double-, sometimes even triple-syllabic words. Outrageous.

Sara Tetro didn't seem quite so keen on the lovely Ruby, which only made me like her more. Especially as Tetro's criticisms were so completely unfounded.

Early on in the piece, Tetro claimed Ruby had an attitude problem, when the girl had been nothing but sunshine and light.

Later, she accused her of treating the show as a joke (which it is a bit. Name one successful model to have been spawned by any of the Top Model franchises?) even though Ruby had worked her non-sizeable bum off.

And finally, she claimed the non-sizeable bum was too big to model. She might not fit the sample sizes.

This was perhaps the most annoying of all the unfounded criticism. Throughout 12 weeks of competition - of runway challenges, photoshoots and go-sees - not ONCE did Ruby struggle to fit the sample size. If she had, you can bet they would have made an entire episode out of the debacle.

Yet last week's entire show centred around people talking about Ruby's "weight issue", which ultimately led to her demise.

How ridiculous. How utterly, absurdly ridiculous.

In protest, we have cancelled our party. We just don't care anymore.

Chances are, once the initial press and contractual appearances are over, you will never see or hear from the emergent winner again. But I'm willing to place money on the fact you will see Ruby again. The girl has star power.

In fact, C4 should sign her up right now and break up the little boys' club they've got running over there.

Has anyone else noticed the only women to feature on the channel these days are plastic-boobed, faux-haired idiots competing for the affections of some degenerate former rocker/hip hop star/wrinkly old man?

It's about time someone put a cat among the pigeons - or a fox among the chickens - and mixed up the lad-centric viewing.

And Ruby's just the girl for the job. New Zealand's next top talent.