Miss J. finds Toronto’s next top runway model

“Would our first model please come out?” cooed Miss J., the statuesque America’s Next Top Model runway coach, in the Bloor Street Holt Renfrew this weekend for a “celebrity walk-off” slash promotion for his new book, Follow the Model.

Breakfast Television’s Dina Pugliese was first up. “Girl, I think if the shoe fits, wear it,” critiques Miss J. “If the shoe is a little too small, sweetie, you have to make it work.” Pugliese took off her stilettos for her second attempt. “I’ll have to take off a point ’cause she took off her shoe,” he told the panel of judges: gossip king Shinan Govani, MTV sweetheart Jessi Cruickshank and Canada’s answer to Tim Gunn, model agent Elmer Olsen.

The other celebrity participants—meaning local media types like Pugliese; Fashion Television’s Christopher Sherman; Ciara Hunt, editor of Hello! Canada; MTV’s Dan Levy; ET’s Kim D’Eon; the Globe’s Amy Verner; and self-proclaimed international drag superstar Sofonda Cox—were subjected to Miss J.’s signature sassy words of wisdom.

The judges were polite for the most part, since these are their colleagues—except, of course, when it was Cruickshank’s turn to evaluate her After Show co-host. “Dan, it’s been a lifelong dream of mine to sit back and judge you,” she said with a smile. “Your walk is very impressive, but your face looked like you were trying to solve a math equation.”

In the end, it was Hello!‘s Hunt (someone give this woman a burger) who won the title of best walker, along with the tiara and pink sash that come with it (Levy was runner-up). Of course, no one walked away empty handed: everyone got a good anecdote and visuals for their upcoming stories.