Archive for August, 2007
She’s been to prison like Martha Stewart. She’s launched her own clothing lines, for both people and dogs. She’s even been mentioned by Robert Redford as a harbinger of doom for his Sundance Film Festival. (Redford said the event has become “a big fat market where you have people like Paris Hilton going to parties.”) But it turns out the true Paris Hilton is actually a business wizard of unparallelled brilliance.
1. When she met the CEO of the Guess fashion line, she wooed him by recounting an encyclopaedic knowledge of company’s history. He signed her up on the spot. (cf: Simon Ambrose in the penultimate week of The Apprentice.)
2. Parlux Fragrances have described her as “a marketers’ dream” and estimated that by signing up her to endorse a perfume range they tripled the company’s value.
3. She got paid $1million to fly to Austria, wave at a crowd and tell them she loves Austria. “But why do you love Austria?” she was asked. “Because they pay me $1million to wave at a crowd,” she smiled. You can’t argue with that.
4. She’s lucky. When footage of her having sex leaked onto the internet, propelling her into the headlines, the silver lining was it’s timing: shortly before the debut episode of her reality television show The Simple Life.
5. She’s lucky more than once. In the week she published a book ‘written’ by her famous dog Tinkerbell, the chihuahua went missing for a few days, putting the book into the media spotlight.
6. She knows which opportunities to decline: “I turn down perverted things, like a Paris Hilton blow-up doll.” One must have one’s standards.
7. She’s lauded by other businesspeople. A successful real estate magnate - OK, her father Rick – says of her successes: “She hasn’t tried to spread herself too thin.”
8. How many other ‘dumb blondes’ have seen their book spend five weeks on the New York Times best-seller list?
9. She was reportedly recently offered $1 million by The Learning Annex to teach a 60-minute class on “How to Build Your Brand.” This would make her the second-highest paid Annex speaker, behind her friend Donald Trump.
10. She admits that she encourages people to believe she is dumb and “laughs all the way to the bank” as a result.
August 16th, 2007
HEIDI KLUM’S appearance in the new Jordache jeans campaign, shot by movie director Brett Ratner (the Rush Hour series) shows that the star continues to shine for the curvy model and entrepreneur.
Jordache’s decision to use Klum is a smart one: those fans who have followed her from her supermodelling days will recognize her, while she has an extra legion of fans who have come to know her from her two reality TV shows, Project Runway and Germany’s Next Top Model (look more closely and it’s actually Germany’s Next Top Model by Heidi Klum). Then there are the countless acting and talk show appearances, from a regular guest role in Spin City playing herself to the ever-popular (especially among women) Sex and the City.
Klum, whose net worth is estimated to be over ?3 million, is a mother of three, married to singer Seal, and has shoe, lingerie and jewellery lines named for her. Jordache simply adds to the idea of “Heidi Klum, the brand”, as elegantly as it has done for earlier models such as Elle Macpherson.
The model who claimed she was ‘too round’ for catwalk modelling and told The Independent earlier this year, ‘I stick to what I’m good at and have never been prepared to starve myself to death,’ gives off a sense of humility, having joked about naming her breasts (Hans and Franz) and her earlier days on German television. It’s hardly surprising in the industry: those in the know steer clear of the party girls and the braggarts, preferring to have their brands endorsed by someone who is unlikely to dip them into trouble.
Not that Klum has been totally trouble-free. After her divorce from famed hairdresser Ric Pipino, known to some of us at Lucire, you can find some in the anti-Heidi camp who are quite willing to group Klum as difficult to work with. Her affair with Flavio Briatore, the Formula One racing magnate, produced a child, at a time when there were more willing to add fuel to the fire by claiming infidelity from both parties.
But, celebrity culture has short memories and after her marriage to Seal, the Klum brand has returned to a high as a glamorous 30-something mother of three, someone who has had a successful modelling career while keeping her curves. In 2007, that seems to suit her earnings and those who align themselves with her.
The latest campaign was shot by Ratner in the penthouse of the Chateau Marmont and is aimed at the US market primarily. The company has announced that there will be a ‘viral component ’ to the marketing, along with outdoor and print. The website itself is ready today, with Klum inviting visitors to follow the making of her campaign, though the nitty-gritty comes on September 15, with several pages showing a fancy version of an “under construction” page.
The black-and-white images give off an idea of Hollywood glamour and claim to be inspired by the 1930s’ work of Helmut Newton. Klum‘s gear is the classic Jordache Falcon Crest skinny jeans, sold in high-end retailers and at Macy’s and Urban Outfitters.
Credits-
August 16th, 2007
German supermodel Heidi Klum, host of Bravo’s hit reality series, Project Runway, recently came to the defense of the fashion industry following claims that it promotes eating disorders in young women.
Klum said that it is important for the audience to remember that what they see on runway shows is just a presentation, a
nd often cannot be applied in real life.
“It’s up to the viewer to see it for what it is and to be realistic; not many people can look like this,” Heidi Klum said. “Everyone has to look in the mirror and say, ‘This is who I am’ and be happy.”
The 34-year-old Project Runway host, who started modeling at the age of 18, also said that she believes teenage girls in the business should make it a point to eat healthily. She also said that accusing models of being anorexic is unhelpful, adding that some young models are just thin by nature.
“I think it’s good when people are healthy and eat,” Klum said. “But it’s not for me to say that some very thin high-fashion models are anorexic. I don’t know them. Some models are naturally thin.”
Klum herself came close to developing an eating disorder during the earlier stages of her modeling career. However, she claims that she never wanted to become skinny for the sake of competing against others on the catwalk, adding that the more she tried to lose weight, the harder it was to keep her mind off of food.
“They’d say, ‘You have to lose weight’, and I’d be like, ‘All I can think about is muffins!’ I wasn’t prepared to starve myself to be edgy,” Heidi Klum told People magazine last month. Now, she is among the World’s 15 highest-earning supermodels, according to Forbes magazine.
Klum has also experienced enormous success as a television personality. Project Runway recently earned its third Emmy nomination for Outstanding-Reality Competition Program.
“Third is our lucky number!” Klum told Usmagazine.com last month. “[I am] very proud of our show! It’s just an honor to be in the mix of all… these big time shows that have been around for a long time with big budgets, and we’re this little show.”
-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Yahoo Xtra Entertainment
August 15th, 2007
LONDON (Reuters) - Billionaire businessman Philip Green on Wednesday rejected charges made by a newspaper that the Kate Moss clothes collection, sold by his Topshop retail outlets, was made in a Mauritian sweatshop.
Green, one of the country’s most successful retailers, quoted three audits and two letters which he said proved the factories mentioned in an article by The Sunday Times were “generally compliant with relevant codes of practice”.
The letters from the two factories in question — Compagnie Mauricienne de Textile
(CMT) and Star Knitwear — showed they paid their workforce above the rates set down by the Mauritian government, Green said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for The Sunday Times said it was not immediately able to comment.
The newspaper had reported Green’s Arcadia group, the parent company of Topshop and several other British retail chains, was profiting from Sri Lankan, Indian and Bangladeshi workers paid less than 4 pounds a day.
The report added to pressure on the retail industry which, after years of slashing prices, is facing a backlash from consumer groups who claim clothes sold at a discount can be made by textile workers who are paid substandard wages.
The country’s largest retailer Tesco faced one such protest at its annual general meeting in June when lobby groups flew in workers from South Africa and Bangladesh who demanded higher wages and better living conditions. Tesco said it was investigating the claims.
Green said on Wednesday he had personally investigated “the very serious allegations” made by The Sunday Times against himself and his companies.
He said he had provided the newspaper with Arcadia’s most recently completed audit, the audit of the factory from another unnamed retailer and a document from a major international retailer showing its most recent independent audit was satisfactory. He now awaited the newspaper’s response.
August 15th, 2007
Britain’s leading weekend newspaper, The Sunday Times, has accused UK retailer Topshop of using “slave labor” to produce its range of clothes designed by supermodel Kate Moss.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned Sunday Times reported in its latest edition that factories supplying the retail empire of Sir Philip Green, the owner of Topshop, were grossly exploiting immigrant factory workers in Mauritius and paying them a mere $8 for a 12-hour day.
Workers from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India were reportedly recruited for fees of around $725 by agents, flown to Mauritius and then locked in compounds were they were forced to work 70-hour weeks, for far less than the wages they were originally promised.
Green, one of the UK’s richest men’s who ranks seventh on the Sunday Times’ own Rich List, told the paper he was monitoring conditions in the factories where his sub contractors produce clothes for his wide ranging fashion empire. Green’s Arcadia holding company also owns Topman, Burton, Miss Selfridge and Burton, and last year launched a collection “designed” by supermodel Moss.
Though his fortune is estimated at ?4 billion (or $8 billion) Green’s firm Arcadia has not signed onto an ethical charter on fair trading, whose signatories include Next and Marks & Spencer. Firms such as Nike and The Gap, which had been widely criticized for using supplier factories with poor working conditions, have since set up independent vetting procedures and published regular reports of their findings.
Workers in a plant owned by Compagine Mauricienne de Textile (CMT) in Mauritius, which produces Moss’ collection, have gone on strike to protest their conditions. In response many have reportedly been deported back to their own countries after apparently being threatened members of the armed forces.
According to the UK weekly, as many as 50 workers are crammed into 20ft-30ft dormitories and paid as little as $25 per week for 70-hour weeks.
Their sorry plight contrasted starkly with the lifestyle of Green, who spent last week on his 165-foot yacht Lionheart on a cruise in Turkey.
“I sent inspectors to factories to look at the working conditions, to see that they are not working in sweatshops, that the working conditions are good. I can’t stand there and count how many people are working,” Green told
Credits- Godfrey Deeny(FWD)
August 15th, 2007
Adrianne Curry is shaking in her high heeled hooker boots over a pregnancy scare. Did she miss her special “monthly visitor”? Actually, no. But she did hear from a “psychic medium” that she is at high risk of finding a bun in her oven and needs to be “super careful.”
According to Curry’s latest MySpace rant, her medium has asked her numerous times if she’s pregnant, freaking the outspoken reality star out! She’s even gone so far as to take two pregnancy tests in the last three weeks. Here’s a tip — stop having sex!
So far, no Baby Brady in sight. One might think that the medium would have seen this article coming. Spooky!
August 15th, 2007
Paris Hilton is hugging babies and reading books. The dog-toting socialite is reforming her one time “pals with Britney” image and is looking to the right to accomplish it. A report from the New York Post claims that Hilton has latched on to an image guru that has helped Rush Limbaugh and others when they were under attack from the media.
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| Paris Hilton Turns to Rush Limbaugh Image Guru (Image: WENN) |
“Paris hired a crisis publicist because of all the negative attention after she got out of jail. But it’s just for her public image,” one Hollywood insider said.
Page Six reports that recently Miss Hilton has been seen in conservative one-piece bathing suits all the while hugging cute little tiny tots for the cameras and acting demure with the paparazzi. But an insider says that it is phony and it’s all the work of spin doctor Michael Sitrick and his crisis management team, Sitrick & Company.
Citing sources close to the heiress, The Post reports that it is in doubt that she can keep the good-girl act going too much longer. “She’s being smart right now, but she’s a party girl at heart …we’ll just have to wait and see,” dished one pal.
Cue the rep™: Sitrick takes no credit for Hilton’s sudden transformation. “Paris said when she got out of jail that it was a life-changing experience, and indeed she has changed,” he told the paper.
“She’s more involved in charities now - from volunteering at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles to her being a sponsor at a spinal cord injury fundraiser and more. People may try to read something into this that’s not there - but that is who she is.”
August 15th, 2007
Seems like Paris Hilton’s 3,000 square foot mansion just isn’t roomy enough for her – perhaps it’s the paparazzi swarming around the gates 24/7. The 26-year-old socialite just signed the sale on West Hollywood home and is jonesing for a new bachelorette pad to settle into.Her home, which sat on the market for a short 10 days before being snatched up, sold for a whopping 4.25 million dollars – not bad for a not-yet-30-convict. But the blonde beauty wasn’t about to show her home to just anyone. You can bet potential buyers were pre-screened – and likely had to undergo blood and DNA testing – to ensure a whacked-fan didn’t sully the inner sanctum.
So, what’s next for the former jailbird now that she’s sold her home? Paris claims she’s won’t stop searching until she finds the perfect place. Maybe Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel will let Paris tag along on their house-hunting adventures.
Who knows, Justin and Jessie may even end up neighbors to Paris in the end. Weird, but when it comes to Paris, not much surprises us.
August 15th, 2007
CAMBRIDGE bound supermodel Lily Cole has revealed she missed half of her classes at school.
The 19-year-old has been speaking about her time at school having finished filming a new adaptation of St Trinian’s. Lily, who was schooled in London, said: “I missed about 50 per cent of my classes.”
However, she was still clever enough to land a place at Cambridge University, where she is set to study social and political sciences.
She added: “I was always the first to hand in my work because I knew if I was late the teachers would come down on me like a ton of bricks. Modelling is great, but studies came first.”
The 5ft 11in model recently achieved three A-levels and two AS-levels and has won a place at King’s College, Cambridge, where she plans to start a degree in social and political science next year.
Talent-spotted at 15, she has been the “face” for leading labels including Hermes, Moschino, Lacroix and Prada.
August 15th, 2007
We’ve seen a very different Paris Hilton this past month. The starlet has stayed away from Hyde, Area and Les Deux, and has instead popped up at events to support green vehicles, spinal cord injury advocates, and safe, healthy California coastlines. So what gives? Did Paris’ jail stay really change her outlook on life?
No way, say her pals. After her jail stay, Paris parted ways with longtime publicist Elliot Mintz, instead signing up with crisis manager Michael Sitrick, who has been guiding Hilton’s image rehab. “She’s being smart right now,” says a Paris friend, “but she’s a party girl at heart . . . we’ll just have to wait and see.”
When she’s not attending charity events, Paris has been partying in private at her Malibu beach pad, where she was recently spotted smoking what I’m sure is a hand rolled cigarette.
“You can tell that it’s hard for her that she is not supposed to be seeking the attention anymore,” said a paparazzo on the Paris beat. “She is going to the types of events that her people tell her to go to. But she is definitely staying away from the club scene. Paris is all about her dogs and hanging out alone.”
August 15th, 2007
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