Playing at being first lady

Last Modified: 06 Aug 2008
By: Felicity Spector

Is Tyra Banks posing for a photoshoot as Michelle Obama proper politics, or just dressing up?

I take it all back. There is no level of surreality which Election '08 cannot reach.

It's clearly John McCain who's to blame for starting this whole thing off - and continuing to run with it long after the legs have fallen off.

Today's latest campaign ad still dubs Obama "the biggest celebrity in the world" before asking if he can be trusted to help you around your home, or something.

Keep calling him the greatest celebrity ever and it might just happen. Be careful what you wish for, John.

But hot on the high-heels of that Paris Hilton video comes a photoshoot by America's Next Top Model host Tyra Banks in Harpers Bazaar.

It features Tyra dressed as Michelle Obama, complete with a looky-likey Barack and identikit Oval Office - in a series of First Lady style poses. Her political endorsement is gushing: "Michelle Obama, you're one hot mama." And take this for a compliment: "I love that she's tall!"

And Tyra has some hot tips for those elevated to the highest office in the land. "I'd wear a V-neck shift and a two-inch heel. Even if the president were taller, I would keep them low. Otherwise it gets a little too sexy."

But bizzare though this whole photoshoot is, there is - just - room for a serious point: the symbolic possibility of electing America's first black president - the promise of hope for those too long forgotten and left behind.

Proper politics, then, after all. But why the need for fancy dress to prove it?

Pictures by Alexi Lubomirski forHarpers Bazaar.