Vanessa Fontana, 22, of Mount Vernon remains a favorite on the MTV reality show “Paris Hilton’s My New BFF,” which finished filming during the summer.

She is now among the final 10 people; last episode, Hilton called her loyal and useful. Fontana spoke with The Herald about episode 3, which ran last week, and set up tonight’s episode, airing at 10 p.m.

Q: Last episode, Hilton sent you on roller coasters to see how you might photograph when surprised by the paparazzi. Did you think it was a fair test?

A: Well, maybe it was a little extreme, but it was a lot of fun. I myself am not into roller coasters at all. I’m terrified of them. It was a hard one for me to do.

Q: What did you think when you saw only two of the four people Hilton took to Japan return?

A: I was looking for Bryan; he was one of the ones I was closest to in the house, and he didn’t come back. I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.

Q: Some contestants almost got in a physical fight with Corrie after she made a remark about Asians and nail parlors. Will that come up on the next episode?

A: The whole racism thing kind of dies down after all, but Paris definitely doesn’t like any sort of fighting in the house, so she didn’t like the fact that we all ganged up on Corrie. But it was hard for us all. Nobody likes racism.

Andy Rathbun

arathbun@heraldnet.com,

425-339-3455