Archive for July 27th, 2008
Supermodel Agyness Deyn may have one of the most intriguing names in showbusiness, but she has always maintained a mystique about its origins.
Did her mother simply dream up the unconventional spelling, or was it inspired by a belief in the power of numerology?
Now a New Age guru has come forward to reveal he was responsible for giving plain old Laura Hollins her glamorous and successful new moniker – using methods much more bizarre than anyone ever speculated.
Laurence Y Payg, who claims to be Britain’s only professional name analyst, ‘reads’ people’s names using a 3,000-year-old Chinese technique.
Charging around ?40 a time, he does much of his work by post from his Manchester home, suggesting changes based on a client’s date of birth and full legal name.
Deyn arranged for him to visit her family home after reading about his work – and he has since given the model’s mother and sister new names, too.
‘Agyness really wanted to be a successful model,’ said 59-year-old Payg, who was born Laurence David Adams and has changed his own name three times.
‘There wasn’t a lot of success ahead for her if she carried on as Laura Hollins, so she needed a name that would enhance her career.’
Payg stresses that his technique – summarised in the panel above – is not numerology, as it uses a different method to assign a numerical value to each name, which he says reflects a person’s ‘personality, virtues, vices and health’.
He also says that each individual letter can influence someone’s life. The letters G, Y, P, D and O are considered positive – notice the Ys and Gs in both his and Agyness’s name – while B, F, W, U, X and H are negative.
Deyn had already signed with London agency Models 1 when she met Payg, but it was only after she changed her name that her career really took off.
‘When I first met her, Agyness was entering a three-year period of losses, as indicated by the U in Laura, and her names didn’t work well together,’ Payg said.
‘Lauras can be childlike, they’re naturally inquisitive and might love dressing up, as this Laura did, but coupled with Hollins, it was never going to work.’
He was troubled by the H at the start of her surname, which he reckoned would bring eight years of strain and stress from the age of 35.
Payg offered a solution. ‘Legally changing a name changes the energy that powers the person’s body,’ he claims.
‘We didn’t want Agyness to have a stressful time because of that H, so we just got rid of it.’
Payg believes people should have a say in their new names, so Deyn suggested her grandmother’s name, Agnes, and an old family surname Dean, which Payg adapted to become Agyness G Deyn.
He ensured her new surname had the value 21.
‘The world needs more 21s,’ he said.
‘It’s great for Agyness because it will mean her looks won’t fade as she gets older, but it also makes her loving, giving and caring.’
He said that the extra G as a middle initial will lead to financial and emotional gains.
‘Soon after her name change, Agyness’s career sky-rocketed,’ Payg added.
‘Absolutely nothing else about her circumstances changed: she stayed with the same agency, kept her hairstyle, her look, and yet everything suddenly changed.’
A year after the name swap, Deyn made the cover of Italian Vogue, which was followed by her first Giorgio Armani campaign.
She has since modelled for Burberry, Giles Deacon and John Galliano, has formed her own band Gene Jacket in New York and is currently fronting the campaign for Jean Paul Gaultier’s fragrance, Ma Dame.
Agyness seems convinced that her new name played a part in her success, and asked Payg to advise her sister Emily, 21, and mother Lorraine, 55.
Both adopted the surname Deyn, while Lorraine replaced the I in her Christian name with a ‘more positive’ Y.
‘I can confirm that Laurence changed Agyness’s name,’ said her agent at Models 1.
‘But that’s all we’re willing to confirm.’
Payg says that he would now like to apply his techniques to tormented singer Amy [Jade] Winehouse.
‘Two of her three names indicate an addictive personality,’ said Payg.
‘She’s just starting eight years of stress as a result of the H in Winehouse. She’s desperately in need of some new initials to counteract it.
‘C would bring her much-needed good health and the ability to cope, N would bring her permanent love and G would bring emotional gains.
If she just introduced those and changed the I in Winehouse to a Y she’d be a lot better off.’
source: dailymail.co.uk
July 27th, 2008
As the new face of Burberry, she is following in the footsteps of Kate Moss and tipped to be the next big thing in the fashion world.
But a curious picture showing Rosie Huntington-Whiteley holding what appears to be drug paraphernalia may be cause for concern for the clothing label’s bosses.
The company has already been dragged into a drugs scandal, after Ms Moss was pictured apparently snorting cocaine, so will be keen to avoid any further adverse publicity.
The picture of Rosie enjoying herself at a party with friends has appeared on a fashion industry website. Casually dressed in jeans and a gilet, the rising star is seen clutching what appears to be a bong. Also known as water pipes, bongs are used to smoke tobacco, cannabis or other herbal products.
They are filled with water which cools smoke before it enters the lungs, making it easier to inhale. Users can therefore draw in a large amount of smoke quickly, rather than smaller, more frequent puffs on a pipe or cigarette.
With her head thrown back and mouth open, the model is pictured huddled with fellow models Jennifer Pugh and Aleksandra Rastovic, who is the face of Armani and Calvin Klein. As Croatian-born Aleksandra, 20, looks on, American Jennifer leans towards Rosie and poses provocatively with her tongue out.
Rosie, who has been dating Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood’s art dealer son Tyrone, 24, since last year, was snapped at a friend’s private party a couple of years ago. The picture was later posted on fashion industry website supermodels.nl, attracting several comments from the models, bookers and fans who use the website’s open forum.
Last month, 21-year-old Rosie was unveiled as the new face of Burberry. She appears in their autumn/winter campaign, shot by Mario Testino, alongside British actor Sam Riley.
The fashion giant has a history of turning unknown models into international catwalk stars and was one of the first to sign Kate Moss in 1998. They dropped her from a planned advertising campaign in the wake of the ‘Cocaine Kate’ scandal, but reinstated her when police charges against her were dropped.
The Burberry contract has already caused problems for Rosie, leading to tensions with Agyness Deyn, whom she replaced.
Rosie grew up the eldest of three children in Quither, a four-house hamlet near Tavistock in Devon.
The family owned a farmhouse where they grew organic vegetables and kept chickens, ducks, pigs and sheep. But Rosie said she knew from an early age that she was destined for bigger things.
‘I was made for the city,’ she said. ‘I knew that I was going to leave Devon and that, whatever I did, it would be big.’
She first posed for the camera five years ago after she was discovered as a 15-year-old GCSE student doing work experience at London model agency Profile. She got her first big break in January 2004 when she appeared in a New York fashion shoot for Teen Vogue, and she made her catwalk debut the same year.
Speaking three years ago, she said: ‘I’m pretty level-headed and down-to-earth. I had a regular upbringing . . . that keeps me pretty normal.’
Now signed to Models 1, she has been photographed for Chopard perfume, Clinique, Jaeger, DKNY, Abercrombie & Fitch, Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger.
She has been seeing Tyrone ‘Ty’ Wood since meeting him at a Rolling Stones concert in Barcelona last year.
In a recent interview, Ty said he was ‘madly, deeply in love’ with her, while she has said: ‘I think it’s serious. There’s a healthy future ahead of us.’
Rosie says she is the ‘luckiest girl’ because of her lifestyle, adding: ‘I have some great memories and experiences, and look forward to achieving even more. I’m truly blessed and fortunate to be in my position.’
Burberry declined to comment on the photograph, but a friend of Rosie’s said: ‘She is aware of the picture’s existence, but she was 18 or 19 when that was taken. She’s just turned 21 so it’s two or three years old.’
Speaking from the family farmhouse yesterday, Rosie’s mother Fiona, a personal trainer, confirmed it was her daughter in the picture.
But she added: ‘I really cannot say anything about it, my darling. Isn’t it lovely that someone so young is doing so well?’
source: dailymail.co.uk
July 27th, 2008
Friends of Kate Moss have speculated that she will soon have a baby with her boyfriend Jamie Hince.
The supermodel has travelled to Ibiza for a summer break with Jamie following their recent reunion, and they are expected to discuss children during their time away. Kate’s five-year-old daughter Lila Grace has joined them on the trip, along with Lila’s nanny.
“Kate is keen to have another baby before Lila Grace gets any older. She doesn’t want her to grow up a single child,” one pal told The Mirror. “Lila even calls Sadie Frost’s little girl Iris her sister because she wants one so much, which has made Kate feel guilty. But it has become a real sticking point between her and Jamie.
“She thinks he will be a great dad - but he has been unsure whether he’s ready for such a huge commitment.”
The newspaper claims that the couple’s recent split was caused by their differing attitudes towards children, however Jamie is now believed to be coming round to the idea of starting a family.
“He agreed to go to Ibiza with her for a break before he goes on tour to see how they get on,” the source added. “No one would be surprised if Kate comes back pregnant.”
source: digitalspy.co.uk
July 27th, 2008