New York magazine sent readers of all stripes into a fits of hysteria by claiming that both Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton set women back a few decades by reinforcing reductive stereotypes -- specifically, the ditz and the bitch. But similar pundits are also waxing philosophical on the link between Barack Obama's election and the potential upswing for more diversity on TV. So if television is indeed the window into the American psyche (and let's be honest, who can contest otherwise?), then what sort of change are the ditz/bitch forces of Palin and Lady Clinton supposed to embody?

Take that, fashion beeotches! We knew she had it in her. Those "Ugly Betty braces" and Coke-bottle glasses couldn’t obscure the glamour gal smoldering just below the surface. An icon of empowerment, on the show and off, America Ferrera is fully owning her golden moment. Be sure to check out our behind-the-scenes gallery from America's photo shoot.

It’s a gorgeous Sunday in downtown Manhattan, and Ugly Betty star America Ferrera, wearing Converse sneakers, jeans, a T-shirt and a blue sweater, blends into the crowd as she strolls up the Bowery on the Lower East Side. Just outside the Patricia Field boutique, a former restaurant supply store converted into a temple of candy-colored fashion raunch, Ferrera stops dead in her tracks as the flame-haired proprietor who styled the "Ugly Betty" pilot and created costumes for "Sex and the City," the series and the movie, strides toward the curvaceous young actress. Styled, meet unstyled. Stylist, meet star. Emmy winners, talk amongst yourselves. Ferrera lets out a yelp of recognition: “Is that you? Pat!”

Okay, so it's more like Third Look! since we came across these pictures of Lindsay Lohan filming the season finale of "Ugly Betty" on NYMag.com, who found them on Just Jared. But that's just the way this zany superhighway works. And, on the plus side? If Lindsay's there, it means she's not stealing your fugly coat.