Archive for December, 2006
The former stepfather of supermodel Maggie Rizer is allowed to leave his Buffalo prison during the day as part of a work release program.
John Breen Jr. pleaded guilty to stealing up to $7 million from Rizer. He is serving a 1 1/3- to 4-year prison sentence at the minimum-security Buffalo Correctional Facility in Erie County.
Breen, who will eventually be allowed to stay away from the prison overnight, is participating in the state Department of Correctional Services’ work-release program.
“He is being permitted to go out each day when his hours of employment make it necessary,” said Linda Foglia, a DOCS spokeswoman. “He also can go out on Saturdays and Sundays for a period of time.”
Breen has been looking for a job in the Buffalo area and has applied for permission to live at his sister’s Watertown home. Parole officials rejected that request.
Breen had power of attorney over Rizer’s bank accounts. He claims to have spent much of the money playing Quick Draw at local bars.
Rizer, a 1996 Watertown High School graduate, has appeared on the covers of Mademoiselle, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Allure magazines. date in November, she said.
December 14th, 2006
Supermodel Naomi Campbell will not be charged over allegations she assaulted a woman in London earlier this year.
The Crown Prosecution Service has decided to take no further action after a woman alleged she had been attacked by the British fashion model in October.
Campbell, 36, reportedly learned the case was being dropped while giving a rare television interview, speaking of her “annus horribilis”.
“It’s been really like a tough year in terms of the accusations and stuff that’s been very hurtful and blown out of proportion and you know I can’t stop getting on with my life,” Campbell told Sky News.
“I can’t pay too much attention to this negative stuff. I don’t like to live in negativity. I like to stay in the present moment and stay positive.”
In the past year, Campbell has faced allegations of assault on both sides of the Atlantic.
In New York, she appeared in court after a maid accused her of throwing a mobile phone at her.
Then she was arrested and questioned over the assault allegations in London.
Sky News said the Metropolitan Police had confirmed they would take no further action over the matter.
Campbell said she had come to see herself as a “target” and the allegations had made her wary of the company she keeps.
“It was so hurtful, almost to the point of depressing, and that’s what’s awful about it,” she said of the London incident.
“Where does this come from, why? I just feel like I am a target. People have told me for months and years `you’re a target’ but it’s only just sunken in that I am a target.
“I have to be very careful who I’m around, what I say … I prefer not to be round someone on my own any more because I just don’t know the agendas that people have.”
Campbell said she had learned from her mistakes and was looking forward to the new year.
“I don’t harbour grudges,” she said.
Campbell found herself in the spotlight for less-than-enviable reasons again this week when she won the Plain English Campaign’s annual Foot in Mouth prize.
The London-born catwalk star scooped this year’s award for her patriotic observation on British cuisine: “I love England, especially the food. There’s nothing I like more than a lovely bowl of pasta.”
December 13th, 2006
Publicity ploy or not, the engagement rumors Paris Hilton sparked just days ago by wearing something which looked like an engagement ring, are all bogus according to her publicist, Elliot Mintz.
The on-off couple, Paris Hilton and Stavros Niarchos are apparently back together but not engaged as many tabloids reported. Hilton’s representative said the on-off fashion model wears rings on all her fingers from time to time and the ring she was spotted wearing is not the one and they’re not engaged.
Munitz told People, “Paris is not engaged. She does wear rings on different hands and fingers and depending on what’s comfortable, but she is not engaged.”
About a week ago, Paris Hilton showed up at Stacey Bendet’s “Black & White” dinner for her clothing line alice+olivia at Katsuya in L.A. wearing a sparkler on her left hand, shocking attendants. Her sometime boyfriend, Stavros Niarchos accompanied her. However, the ring looked suspiciously like the fake “diamond” solitaire she once claimed former fiancé Paris Latsis gave her. Hilton was engaged to Latsis for five months in 2005. Still, the starlet was pretty quiet when dinner guests asked her about Niarchos and the ring.
Some close friends of Paris denied the rumors as well, and said that Niarchos family is rather unhappy of their reunion suggesting that they even gave him an ultimatum to stop the relationship or else lose his Greek shipping inheritance.
“They refused to meet her last year when Paris and Stavros had dated for a while,” a friend claimed. “Paris even followed him and his family to Hawaii, where they go every New Year’s, and they still wouldn’t meet her. They think she’s tacky.”
Stavros’ parents aren’t the only ones worried about their son’s fate involving one of the Hilton sisters. The parents of David Katzenberg, now dating “The Simple Life” star’s younger sister Nicky, feel the same way about their son romancing Nicky. A source said his father Jeffrey Katzenberg, the former Disney executive who co-founded DreamWorks, is against the relationship: “Jeffrey thinks the Hiltons are just lowbrow and that his son is young and should be dating around.”
On Friday night, Paris, her sister Nicky, Stavros Niarchos and their friend, Brandon Davis were seen partying at the South Beach, Fla., nightclub Ink. While the DJ played Billy Idol’s “Mony Mony,” Hilton gave Niarchos a lap dance looking happy and quite possibly in love. A source told People, “Not only are she and Stavros together, but they are in love.” At around 3 am, the heiress was reluctant to her boyfriend’s insisting of leaving home.
Paris and Stavros have been together at the beginning of 2006, broke up in May, got back together for a bit in July, broke up again, and now seem to be back together.
25-year-old Paris Hilton, who recently expressed her desire to have four children by the time she turns 30, has been engaged twice before but never made it to the next level, marriage.
December 12th, 2006
The rumours are strong that English singer James Blunt has proposed to his girlfriend, supermodel Petra Nemcova.
Speculation began when the Czech beauty was spotted wearing a huge diamond ring on her finger. Nemcova, 27, was scene with the ring while she was shooting an ad for Hewlett Packard in New York this week.
A spokesperson for the couple, who have been dating since last June, made no comment on an engagement.
Before falling into the arms of the You’re Beautiful singer, the supermodel was dating photographer Simon Atlee. The couple were on holiday in Asia in December 2004 when the tsunami occured. Nemcova lost her love in the tragedy and she herself was hospitalised.
December 11th, 2006
Tyra Banks has spoken about her plans to adopt a child. The supermodel and television personality has insisted that she isn’t jumping on the bandwagon by following in the footsteps of stars such as Madonna and Angelina Jolie - she has in fact wanted to adopt since she was young.
“I’ve wanted to adopt since I was eight, nine years old, before it was hip,” Tyra told WENN. “I really do think I will. I don’t have to have a child come from my womb to have a connection.
“Children that are already born are beautiful to me. I can definitely be a mother to them.”
December 10th, 2006
… to get banned! As another model dies, the worldwide campaign against ‘unhealthy waifs’ grows. One of the world’s premier fashion centres is to take the lead in driving size-zero off the catwalk. The Italian government and leading couture houses have joined forces in a move that will ban dangerously thin models from Milan’s fashion week.
Milan stands alongside Paris and New York as one of the world’s most important fashion events. Like the other two, it has, until now, resisted demands to stamp out the waif look. The minister and the industry announced that by January they intend to produce a “common plan of action” to induce all players in the fashion business to sign up to a self-regulating programme that will force unhealthily thin models to plump up or get out. And for the first time the industry in Italy is talking about body mass index (BMI), the recognised measure of healthy weight.
The change is part of a growing movement around the world to deal with ultra-thin models and the influence they have on girls and young women. Madrid’s fashion week has already banned models with a BMI below 18, following the death of the Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos, and Brazil and Argentina have joined the campaign. Italy initially refused to take action. Mario Boselli, the head of Italy’s Camera Nazionale della Moda, which represents houses such as Prada, Versace, and Armani, said: “Our models have no need of regulation.” But following the death of a second model, the Brazilian Ana Carolina Reston, in November, the chamber has had second thoughts. The 21-year-old, who was 5′8″ tall, weighed just over six stone at her death.
Until now, the fashion shows of Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and other Italian designers have been dominated by cadaverous waif models. So it was a momentous event when Italy’s minister for youth, Giovanna Melandri finally persuaded Mr Boselli and his colleagues that Italy’s models do need rules.
The January deadline has been imposed with the aim of getting new rules agreed in time for Milan’s fashion week in February. The two sides hope that “the greatest number possible of those in the fashion industry will sign up”. “The Camera della Moda will take action against designers who do not respect the manifesto,” he said. “They could be removed from the fashion calendar, or in the most serious cases, banned from the fashion week altogether.”
As Flaminia Spadone, an aide to the youth minister, said: “In the Third World, if someone has an index of less than 18.5, they send in humanitarian aid.”
At risk models with a BMI of less than 18
Claudia Schiffer
Age: 36
Model for: Chanel, Guess
BMI: 17.7
Kate Moss
Age: 32
Model for: Gucci, Burberry, Topshop, Dior
BMI: 16.1
Erin O’Connor
Age: 28
Model for: Dior, Versace
BMI: 16.5
Gisele Bundchen
Age: 26
Model for: Louis Vuitton
BMI: 16
Naomi Campbell
Age: 36
Model for: Lauren
BMI: 16.5
December 10th, 2006
Kate Moss has apparently issued an ultimatum to lover Pete Doherty - it’s me or the drugs.
The supermodel, who is believed to be engaged to the drug addicted rocker, is sick of the Babyshambles frontman’s wild antics and has told him he needs to decide what is more important to him - drugs or love.
A friend of Kate’s told Britain’s Grazia magazine: “Everyone has just been waiting for the point at which she would snap with Pete. She’s been fixated on the fantasy of their rock ‘n’ roll romance, and for the past few months they’ve been living in this little bubble, oblivious to everyone else. But once again she’s found that drugs mean more to Pete than she does.
“Kate likes the fact that Pete is this wild, rebellious character but for her there is always a line you cannot cross but for him that line just doesn’t exist.”
Earlier this week, Pete, 27, was fined ?770 for five counts of possessing drugs. The charges relate to his arrest in April for possession of less than 2 grams each of heroin, cannabis and cocaine.
Kate, 32, is convinced if Pete carries on using illegal substances and getting arrested he will end up back in jail and she is not prepared to be a “prison wife”.
He served a short sentence for burglary in 2003 after he broke into his ex-Libertines bandmate Carl Barat’s flat.
The friend added: “Kate has to work out if she thinks it can ever work with Pete. She has already said she’s not going to be some prison wife, queuing up to see him. She needs to decide whether he is too much trouble or if it’s the trouble that she is addicted to.”
December 9th, 2006
Stick-thin women are to be banned from February’s fashion shows in Milan as Italy becomes the first country to tackle unhealthy modelling. The code of conduct, to be issued this month, means that models will be scrutinised for body mass indexes, which use height and weight measurements to determine body fat, before they are allowed to work. Any girl with a BMI of less than 18.5 will be sent home. Other measures are a minimum age limit of 16 for models and a ban on using make-up to achieve an ‘anorexic look’ with dark shadows under the eyes.
The guidelines have been drawn up in the wake of the outcry earlier this year over ultra-thin models on the catwalk. The row was given impetus after two models died suffering from eating disorders. A panel of doctors, stylists, models and politicians has been hammering out the new strategy at the request of the Italian government.
Eating disorders are a growing problem in Italy. According to a report by Rome’s La Sapienza University, Italian girls and young women are three times as likely to suffer from bulimia as from anorexia.
December 8th, 2006
German Supermodel Dari Maximova never considered modeling until she got scouted one day on her way to a store in Berlin (Germany). Since then, she won the largest grand prize in the modeling industry when she was named the FORD Models Supermodel of the World 2002. In the meantime the 23-years-old eye-catcher started to lead a glamorous life in front of the camera, burns up the catwalks and finally has been elected FMD’s model of the month December. We congratulate Dari!
read her interview on FMD
December 7th, 2006
British rock star Pete Doherty attended a party at which an actor fell from a balcony and died, London’s Evening Standard newspaper reported overnight.
The Babyshambles frontman, romantically linked to supermodel Kate Moss, reportedly left the east London celebration shortly before Mark Blanco, 30, lost his life.
The event was being hosted by Doherty’s literary agent, the Standard said.
Doherty had earlier spoken to Blanco, a University of Cambridge graduate, who invited the rocker to watch a play he was starring in, it added.
“He was at the party surrounded by unsavoury characters who took a dislike to him because of his background,” Blanco’s friend, comedian Jerry Sadowitz was quoted by the paper as saying.
Police confirmed that they were investigating the death, saying it was being treated as “unexplained”.
Earlier this week, Doherty, 27, was fined 770 pounds ($1900) and banned from driving for four months for possessing illegal drugs, including crack cocaine and heroin.
December 7th, 2006
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