Archive for June, 2008
Love meant everything to her.
Supermodel Ruslana Korshunova poured her heart out on the Web in the months leading to her apparent suicide.
“Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably,” the sandy-haired knockout wrote in a poem that concluded: “And never regret anything that made you smile.”
The Kazakh beauty wrote that love “blinds,” “sets souls afire,” and “is always the answer” in emotion-soaked passages posted on a social networking site.
Korshunova volleyed between Russian and English in her heartfelt prose, but love was a central theme no matter the language. “Do not confuse love and desire,” she wrote in Russian in her most recent posting May 30. “Love is the sun, desire - only flash. Desire dazzles, and the sun gives life.”
The soulful note warns of the perils of sacrifice.
“Love does not take away from one in order to give to another,” wrote Korshunova, a 20-year-old thousands of miles from her native Kazakhstan. “Love - this is the essence of life. But you will not give your life to another.”
Korshunova’s most telling message came three months ago: “I’m so lost. Will I ever find myself?”
She appeared angry in some postings, brokenhearted in others.
“I’m a bitch. I’m a witch. I don’t care what you say!!!” she wrote March 11. “I know what it is. I know why my other relationships didn’t work out, ’cause I’m unpredictable. Why are you afraid of it?”
In January, she wrote, “It hurts, as if someone took a part of me, tore it out, mercilessly stomped all over and threw it out.
“My dream is to fly. Oh, my rainbow it is too high,” she wrote in a March note.
investigated by NYDailynews, MBI
June 29th, 2008
Stunning Kazakh fashion model Ruslana Korshunova plunged to her death from the ninth floor of her lower Manhattan building yesterday (Saturday) in an apparent suicide, police sources and neighbors said.
Ruslana, 20, a long-haired lovely who once graced the cover of Russian Vogue, plummeted onto busy Water St. in the Financial District around 2:30 p.m., according to sources and building residents.
“There’s no way she would have killed herself,” said her crying friend, Kira Titeneva. “She loved life so much.”
Witnesses to Korshunova’s deadly spill had no idea that the stunner - shoeless and dressed in blue jeans and a purple tank top - was a famous model but noticed her beauty right away.
“All I saw was something moving out of the corner of my eye, and then boom,” said Steve Metzger, 36. “It sounded like a bass drum when she hit the ground.
“She was a pretty girl.”
Police said her family had not yet been notified.
“She was my best friend,” Titeneva said. “I talked to her [Friday] night and we were talking all the gossip.”
Investigators said there were no signs of a struggle inside Korshunova’s apartment and believe she jumped from her balcony, which is next to a skyscraper construction site, a law enforcement source said.
“I turned around just as she was about 3 feet off the ground and then, boom, she hit,” said witness Ahmed Saad, 22, who was manning a nearby halal food cart.
Dubbed “fashion’s muse of the moment” by the Sunday Times of London in 2005, Korshunova distinguished herself with locks of hair that once draped down to her thighs.
She was often photographed with her mane cascading around her.
Long hair is a symbol of beauty in Kazakhstan, where she was born in the then-capital city of Almaty on July 2, 1987.
“She was like an angel,” Titeneva said. “She was just working, working, working.”
The friend said Korshunova had recently returned from spending a few weeks in Paris and did not appear troubled.
A doorman at her 12-story building - where Korshunova lived for months in a studio converted into a one-bedroom - said the model seemed happy when she came home about 4 a.m. Saturday.
“She came in this morning, she smiled, no sense of depression,” said Mahmoud Nakeeb, 45. “She was a very sweet girl, always smiling, never depressed-looking.”
Nakeeb said the green-eyed Korshunova was very down-to-earth, often dressed in simple pants and shorts. He had no clue she was an international model. “I feel bad,” he said. “My heart is broken.”
Korshunova’s elite modeling agency, IMG, was grappling with the tragedy last night and gathering information about her death and work schedule.
“We’re shocked and our heart goes out to her family,” said spokesman Zach Eichman.
The nearly 5-foot-9 model’s interest in German led to her discovery in 2003. A journalist from All Asia magazine visited her German language club and featured her photo in a story, according to an article in Continent, a Kazakh magazine.
During a flight, booker Debbie Jones of Models 1 spotted her picture in the magazine and called the article’s author for help in tracking Korshunova.
“I saw her by chance and she looked like something out of a fairy tale!” Jones told British Vogue. “We had to find her and we searched high and low until we did! She’s really incredible, with feline features and timeless beauty.”
source: NYdailynews, various
June 29th, 2008
Kate Moss joined the growing crowd of celebrities at Glastonbury last night .
The 34-year-old supermodel braved the rain and mud to support her boyfriend, The Kills guitarist Jamie Hince, as he took to the stage to perform.
Surrounded by a huge entourage of bodyguards she was joined by singer Lily Allen as she made her way through the festival to take up her place backstage.
Meanwhile revellers battled on through the mud as the Festival continued.
Intermittent showers saw the return of the infamous Glastonbury slop - making navigating the site at Worthy Farm, Pilton, in Somerset, a real chore.
But 180,000 people at the festival - including ticket holders and staff - refused to let the swamp-like conditions and dank weather get the better of them.
The weather is set to continue as it has been - fairly calm with only occasional light showers and drizzle predicted.
Tom Knowles, 27, a retail manager, from Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire, said: ‘Every time the heavens opened, I felt a little down. I kept thinking “oh God is this it” but it kept clearing after 10, 15 minutes tops.
‘The bands I saw were incredible. I love MGMT on the John Peel Stage - definitely a highlight.’
Gareth Harvey, forecaster for MeteoGroup UK, the weather division of the Press Association, said there was even a strong chance of sunshine later today.
Temperatures should remain around the 19C to 20C mark, accompanied by a fairly brisk wind.
Tonight’s line-up is one of the most controversial in a long time.
New York rapper Jay-Z will take to the stage tonight for one of the most talked about headliners at Glastonbury Festival in years.
Many - including Oasis’ Noel Gallagher - have spoken out against festival founder Michael Eavis’ decision to give the world-famous hip-hop artist the premier Saturday night top slot on the Pyramid Stage.
But others have welcomed the move - calling it progressive and exciting - taken by Eavis to entice a younger audience to the 38-year-old festival.
Amy Winehouse is still scheduled to perform before Jay-Z - despite being diagnosed with emphysema earlier this week.
Avon and Somerset Police said crime was up on last year - with 266 reported crimes - compared with 75 incidents at this stage in 20
source: dailymail.co.uk
June 28th, 2008
Her cropped blonde hair and individual sense of style have made her a household name - but Agyness Deyn’s modelling career may be on the wane.
She has been replaced as the star of Burberry by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in the firm’s new autumn/ winter campaign, unveiled yesterday.
The decision to give the role - one of the most prestigious in the fashion industry - to the relative newcomer seems to have driven the once-close friends apart.
Huntington-Whiteley, 21, who is dating Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood’s son Tyrone, has complained that Deyn, 24, no longer speaks to her, and launched a lightly-veiled attack on her rival’s personal style.
“Agyness was really sweet and we used to hang out all the time but when she became big she dropped me,” the model said recently.
“I tried being her friend and texted her repeatedly for six months but she never replied, so I just gave up.
Personally, I think Agy’s look is a one-off season look but she has been so publicised and has such a big profile she’ll make it in the long term now. I wish her well.”
Huntington-Whiteley, a distant relative of Queen Victoria and recently named by the London Evening Standard as one of the 1,000 most influential people in London, appears in the campaign alongside actor Sam Riley, 28, star of Anton Corbijn’s film Control.
Among the bags featured is the ?1,295 ruched leather Lowry - a bargain compared with current favourite, the ?11,000 Warrior.
The Burberry campaign has a history of turning young, unknown models into celebrities. As well as helping to launch Deyn, it was one of the first international brands to sign up Kate Moss, in 1999.
Photographed by Mario Testino, the adverts afford global exposure to any models who star in them and almost guarantee success in a notoriously competitive industry.
But there is good news for Deyn. She continues as the face of Burberry’s perfume, The Beat, and stars in the new Jean Paul Gaultier fragrance campaign as well as ones for Armani, Shiseido and Printemps, France’s equivalent of Selfridges.
‘Agyness is a huge part of the Burberry family and a personal friend,’ said Burberry’s creative director Christopher Bailey.
‘We’ve worked with her for several years and I am thrilled she will continue to star in our fragrance campaign.’
The model, who has been photographed with Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr, also provides backing vocals on Who, the new single by New York rockers Five O’Clock Heroes.
source: dailymail.co.uk
June 28th, 2008
It seems Peaches Geldof is following in younger sister Pixie’s footsteps, as she stepped out in model mode for a tartan-themed photoshoot.
Last month Pixie graced the cover of Tatler magazine, and now Peaches has been seen darting around London while on a fashion shoot for a European fashion magazine.
The young starlet’s Scottish look referenced the pinnacle of London fashion over the past few decades.
But later she vamped it up in a lace ra-ra skirt and racy leather boots.
Media-savvy Peaches took a break from her already busy schedule to get into model mode, after she was been confirmed as the host of ITV’s coverage of the much anticipated iTunes Festival, which sees sixty bands performing over a period of 31 days.
Clearly, she hasn’t slowed down her workload despite father Bob Geldof ordering his wild-child daughter to move back home after images surfaced of her allegedly buying drugs.
Bob told the 19-year-old to move from her Islington flat to his home in Battersea, London.
And now it seems Peaches has chosen to throw throwing into her career after the former hard partying starlet told the Mirror she was giving up her hectic nightlife: ‘I can’t be bothered going out and falling out of Bungalow 8 p***ed any more.
‘I’ve been at home, eating takeaways with my boyfriend Faris (Badwan) and watching DVDs.’
She added, ‘There’s so many unexciting things I’ve been doing. I’ve been filming and working on a collection of short stories. ‘
Peaches is now gearing up for her degree course in English and Film at Queen Mary’s University. She will begin her studies in September.
source: dailymail.co.uk
June 28th, 2008
Paris Hilton is making good on her promise to become a better person.
The 27-year-old socialite made an “extremely generous” donation toward the construction of a medical building at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, hospital officials said Thursday, although they did not specify the amount.
“The children I have met through my involvement with Childrens Hospital have truly touched my heart,” Hilton said in a statement. “I am proud to make a donation and lend my name to the fundraising effort to help children who are facing terribly serious illnesses.”
The 460,000-square-foot Childrens Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases is expected to open in 2010.
After spending about 23 days in jail last year for violating probation on alcohol-related reckless driving charges, Hilton told CNN’s Larry King the experience caused her to re-evaluate the role partying played in her life. She said she wanted “to help raise money for kids and for breast cancer and multiple sclerosis.”
June 28th, 2008
It’s good to have a musical boyfriend.
Benji Madden has already recorded a song about Paris Hilton, and now the Good Charlotte guitarist is helping her with her own music.
Hilton, 27, told E! News that she and Madden, 29, are hard at work on the theme song to her upcoming MTV reality show My New BFF.
“Benji and I have been working hard on it,” she said. “He’s helping me write the lyrics for the song and then I’ll sing it, too.”
The couple, who’ve been dating for four months, are laying down the track at a studio located, conveniently enough, in her Beverly Hills mansion.
Premiering later this year, My New BFF will follow the former Simple Life star as she chooses a new shopping buddy from 20 contestants.
Hilton also plans to start working on the follow-up to her 2006 debut CD Paris. “I’ll have another album come out, for sure,” she told E! News. “I just don’t know when yet. I only have the summer off, then I’ll be taping another season of BFF. But an album is something I’ll do.”
source: people.com
June 27th, 2008
As the night wears on into the early hours of the morning, a strikingly attractive, yet strangely androgynous blonde is deep in conversation amid the gaudy surroundings of London nightclub Punk.
Beneath a luminous portrait of Sid Vicious, oblivious to the blatant stares of the fashionable crowd who surround her, she leans into her male companion and whispers into his ear.
‘What is the best savings account to go for at the moment?’ she intones in a distinctive Lancastrian drawl.
‘You get so much conflicting advice, sometimes I feel like shoving it all under the mattress and hoping for the best.’
As conversational gambits go, it is not, to say the least, standard supermodel conversation. But then 25-year-old Agyness Deyn is anything but your typical supermodel.
This down-to-earth lass from Stubbins, Lancashire, famously started out working in her village chippy, serving up - and often eating - portions of deep-fried haddock in a grease-stained tabard.
Today she is, without exaggeration, the most sought-after model in the world - the face of the Noughties - and celebrities such as Pixie Geldof, Sarah Harding and Kimberly Stewart are queuing up to have their hair cropped into a peroxide blonde ‘Agy’.
To cap it all, she’s on the brink of pop stardom, singing on a record which is tipped for chart success following its release last Monday.
Small wonder that Kate Moss - a frustrated rocker herself - is green with envy at this younger, fresher version stealing her thunder.
‘Kate can’t stand her. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Agy is her nemesis,’ a friend of Kate’s told me.
‘It’s not about Agy’s personality, but what she represents. She’s younger, fresher, everyone loves her and she’s got everything ahead of her.
‘Now she’s singing with a band, something Kate has wanted to do for years. Kate’s 34 now and she realises her days as a model are numbered. Everyone’s calling Agy the new Kate Moss - and that hurts.’
Comparisons between the two British supermodels are inevitable. Each captured a fashion moment, albeit in separate decades, and developed her own distinctive take on rock’n’ roll chic. But that’s where the similarity ends.
For where Kate has developed an image of sexy aloofness, often bordering on rudeness, Agy represents something entirely different.
‘She has life, personality and she’s very enthusiastic about everything she does,’ says Vogue photographer Robert Fairer. ‘She jumps up and down, she plays the part and she is always happy.’
A happy supermodel? Surely not! And yet it truly seems to be the case that fashion, a world renowned for its cold reserve, has been won over by the sheer, smiling enthusiasm of Agyness.
The camera loves her, but so do the people taking the pictures, the stylists, the make-up artists, the designers and practically everyone she meets.
Whisper it quietly but there may be hope for the world of high fashion yet.
‘For all Agy’s new-found fame, she hasn’t been spoiled in the slightest,’ says a friend who has known her since she was at Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School.
‘The Agy of today is exactly the same wide-eyed northern lass who moved to London less than five years ago.
‘ Perhaps it has something to do with the fact she didn’t make it as a model until she was in her 20s; Kate Moss was an international icon at 15.’
source: dailymail.co.uk
June 26th, 2008
ASPIRING teen model Demelza Reveley vowed she’d do “whatever it takes” for runway success. Now, under pressure from competition judges, she’s lost 10cm from her hips.
So after months of the Australia’s Next Top Model finalist copping criticism from the show’s judges for being “bottom heavy”, Reveley, 16, has lost 10cm from her hips.
Her dramatic trim-down has sparked fresh debate on the shocking pressure forced on teenage models to be thin.
The stunning Wollongong schoolgirl has spent the last two months since the Foxtel series wrapped filming slogging it out in 60 minute training sessions, seven days a week, in a bid to discard the unwanted weight.
Beginning the competition measuring a healthy 101cm around her hips and a size 10, Reveley is now 90cm, a size eight and forces herself to exercise with a personal trainer five days a week.
“I knew that if I wanted to succeed in this competition I would have to do it (lose weight) - regardless of if I won or not - to stay in the industry,” Reveley said .
“When they measured us at the start on the show they told us we should be around 36 (inches) but I have done my research and I know all the good models are usually around 34 inches so that is my ultimate goal and that would make me happy.”
This comes on top of allegations that sexy Czech model Karolina Kurkova is also too fat.
While Reveley hopes her motivation will eventually reward her with victory over rival Alex Girdwood when they go head-to-head in the fourth series grand finale of the TV program next Tuesday,
Premier Morris Iemma has condemned the pressure the young model has been put under to lose her curves.
“(Young girls’) bodies need to develop naturally without being subjected to fad diets or dangerous eating habits,” Mr Iemma said yesterday.
“It is completely irresponsible for anyone to encourage a young woman to do anything other than lead a healthy lifestyle, eat well and exercise.”
Modelling agent Priscilla Leighton Clarke, with whom the show’s winner gets a one-year contract, backed Reveley losing weight saying it was a model’s obligation to be in shape.
“It (modelling) is cut-throat at the best of times, so it is really imperative that when girls go to castings . . . they feel 100 per cent about how they look,” she said. “That is what modelling is all about how you look. You have to be in shape to be a model - simple as that.”
source: news.com.au
June 25th, 2008
Fashionista Lily Cole usually accessorises well, and last night was no exception.
The supermodel was accompanied by a handsome male companion as she arrived to host a star-studded dinner for American artist Richard Prince at London’s Serpentine Gallery.
The appearance sparked rumours of a new romance for Lily, who recently announced she will put her movie career on hold to study social and political sciences at Cambridge University’s King’s College later this year.
The 20-year-old, who has earned an estimated ?6million as a sought-after model, isn’t hesitant about taking time away from the catwalk for other pursuits.
She has said: ‘I take opportunities as they come. Fashion has been a great one, but it hasn’t stopped me doing other things. I love creativity and I’m interested in the humanities. Human life, art, any of those things wonder and perplex me.’
source: dailymail.co.uk
June 25th, 2008
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