Australian supermodel Elle Macpherson, also known as The Body because, well, she’s tall and gorgeous and doesn’t possess an ounce of extra poundage, thinks Ireland is full of lithe beauties just like herself. 

And for the next few weeks she’s going to show them off on her top-rated British TV show, which used to be called Britain’s Next Top Model but has since been re-christened as Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model because of the heavy Emerald Isle contingent hoping to be the next Elle.

The host is convinced that the winner of the series could be Irish this time around.  “This year it’s not just about our British girls.  We want to find an Irish supermodel as well, and opening up the competition to the stunning girls across the water has been an amazing, eye opening experience,” Macpherson told the Sunday World in Dublin.

A full-time Londoner now, Macpherson says the Irish girls she’s encountered are ripe for superstardom on the catwalk.

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“Honestly, I think the Irish are a massively untapped resource. There’s very few that have made it big as supermodels, even though they’re some of the most beautiful in the world, which we discovered when we went to Dublin for the open auditions,” she says.

Though we often think of Irish girls as red-haired and freckled, Macpherson was taken by the many varied looks she encountered in Dublin while scouting hopefuls. Their lack of exposure to the sun is also a big plus, she reckons.

“The tan factor is a bug issue. Irish girls don’t overexpose themselves to the sun, simply as you don’t get enough. There’s so many fascinating, unique looks in Ireland,” she feels.

Her tour guide in Dublin was Ronan Keating, a former boy band star in Ireland and Europe who was caught cheating on his wife last year with a dancer.  The Irish media jumped all over that one because of the squeaky clean family man image Keating cultivated – it’s always these fakes who eventually disgrace themselves – and Macpherson was unintentionally funny when she talked about Keating’s assistance.

“When we went to Ireland we met up with Ronan Keating, who helped point us in the direction of where we’d find some great girls on the streets,” she said. The interviewer was quite amused, needless to say.

“No, no, I didn’t mean it that way.  His wife Yvonne, who’s also a beautiful model, was with us too,” she added.