ANGEL / FOOD

For a truly sublime experience, try having dinner with a Victoria's Secret Angel. It's fun; they're sweethearts; and there's always good wine.  On the other hand, asking a supermodel to pass the mashed potatoes can be a little bit intimidating for any girl who's wondered why she's not taller / skinnier / fill in the blank.

So it was with a mixture of excitement and cynicism that I found myself seated next to Candice Swanepoel and Erin Heatherton at the Gramercy Park Hotel.  After taking a deep breath and banishing the "Damn, I hate you and your perfect straight, shiny f*?!-ing hair" impulses, I asked Candice some questions about the upcoming Victoria's Secret show.  Then I showed Erin her NYLON blog homage, she freaked out, and we spent the next thirty minutes gossiping about boys - but you wont get a transcript of that.  (Sorry!)

Candice, how did you get your name?  It's a French name, and my mom's French.  Thank god for her, because my name would have been Susan if my dad had his way.  Can you imagine?  "Susan Swanepoel!"  It's too much.  A lot of people call me Candy, and my mom calls me Lucie, and my boyfriend calls me "little cat" in Portuguese.

What's your go-to karaoke song?  Disney!  The Pocohontas song "Colors of the Wind."  Or something emotional that you can really get into.  Aladdin is good for that, too.

The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show is next week, and you'll be in a bikini being filmed for millions of people.  What are you doing to prepare?  That's the question of the day.  I'm working out as much as I can in the time I have.  People think Victoria's Secret Angels have some sort of training camp, like the baseball teams, but we don't all work out together because we all have different bodies, so it's a solo mission.  We each get a different body "prescription."  Me, I'm always like, "Make the butt look good!  Make the butt look good!"  My trainer thinks I'm crazy.

The look for VS angels seems to always include lots of eyeliner...  Christopher Arnoff does my makeup and we always go for a cat eye.  It's mostly because I'm obsessed with cats, but since we start shooting so early in the morning, I need a look that can go from morning to night.  The kind he uses on me is M.A.C and it stays on all day. 

What's on your iPod right now?  I have a lot of Brazilian music and a lot of reggae. 

Are you nervous for Kanye to perform at the show?  Oh, you have no idea how excited I am.  I'm really interested to see how Kanye's going to interact with the girls on stage, because you never really know until the show is happening.  Akon was really good at it and Usher was so nice to us - I loved him!  He had such a chemistry onstage with us.  I'm so curious what Kanye will be like.

What's your spirit animal?  A Cheetah!