Archive for November, 2009
French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who has lent her star power to the global campaign against AIDS, has called for greater efforts to beat mother-to-child HIV transmission by 2015.
On the eve of World AIDS Day, the singer and ex-supermodel wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy has written in Le Monde daily that preventing newborns from contracting HIV from their mothers in poor countries is a matter of justice.
“I am not a doctor, or a scholar, or a politician. I am just a woman troubled by the injustice of a world that has the knowledge and the medicine needed to prevent HIV transmission and death from AIDS,” she wrote on Monday.
The 41-year-old first lady said 430,000 babies were born with HIV in 2008 in the world’s poorest countries while such transmission is virtually non-existent in Europe and North America.
Most of the newborns will die a premature and painful death, wrote Bruni-Sarkozy, who last year became an ambassador for the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The first lady reiterated her call for eradicating mother-to-child HIV transmission by 2015 in line with objectives set by the UN AIDS agency.
“What I hope for is that one day we can tell our grandchildren that we did everything we could, everywhere in the world, so that children no longer are born as carriers of HIV,” she added.
Bruni-Sarkozy said 45 per cent of pregnant women living with HIV were treated last year but this percentage could rise to 60 per cent through the work of the global fund.
The first lady, who lost her brother Virginio to AIDS three years ago, has said she hopes to use her celebrity status to help women and children living with HIV.
source: news.smh.com.au
November 30th, 2009
With a body as impressive as hers, is it any wonder that Helena Christensen has no problem showing it off?
The supermodel-turned-photographer says her willingness to appear nude in her latest photoshoot is partly down to her Danish roots and partly down to her love of the human form.
‘I have no problems with showing my body,’ the 40-year-old says. ‘I’m Danish.
Everyone’s naked on the beaches. We don’t really give a s***.’ But she doesn’t want the shots to be overtly sexual – just in case it upsets her gran!
‘I just want the nudity to be in that normal, subtle way because my grandmother is still alive and I want to keep her another 15 years – I don’t want her to get a shock!’ she tells Elle magazine.
And her career behind the camera means the single mother of one can celebrate the human form – and one aspect of it in particular. ‘I love breasts. I love the female shape,’ Christensen says.
‘It’s crazy – you can have movie posters with men with machine guns but, oh, God forbid you show the nipples! That never ceases to amaze me. It’s flabbergasting. I can understand if you have your legs spread and you’re pushing yourself into the camera – that’s sexually erotic. But the sensual contours in the male or female shape? Come on, guys, relax.’
Read the full interview in the January issue of Elle, on sale on Wednesday.
source: metro.co.uk
November 30th, 2009
SUPERMODEL Megan Gale turned talent scout at the unveiling of the revamped David Jones city store.
The glamorous hostess gave Premier John Brumby and Lord Mayor Robert Doyle a personal tour of the renovated departments – as well as some fashion tips.
The suited dignitaries were told even men of power could wear purple, and that they had a future in her business.
“They could be our new male models,” Gale said of Mr Brumby and Mr Doyle.
David Jones launched “stage one” of its $100 million Bourke St redevelopment on Saturday.
source: heraldsun.com.au
November 29th, 2009
Supermodel and Topshop designer Kate Moss has told friends she wants to quit Britain for good.
Kate, 35, has said she is ‘sick’ of being given a hard time by the media, which attacked her after she revealed one of her mottos is ‘nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’.
‘Kate’s sick of the media glare in the UK and is planning to leave by next spring,’ says a close friend.
‘She is looking to move to New York or Paris.
‘She has expressed an interest in sending her seven- year-old daughter, Lila, to the international Lycee school.’ It has branches in London, New York and Paris.
Moss earns millions from her modelling contracts and designing deal with high street chain Topshop.
She caused anger by revealing that one of her mottos is the phrase ‘nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’.
The supermodel, who made the comments in an interview with fashion magazine Women’s Wear Daily, was heavily criticised by eating disorder charities and even her own mentor and friend Topshop owner Sir Philip Green.
Kate has spoken with Lila’s father Jefferson Hack about a move to New York, where Topshop boss Sir Philip Green is said to be keen for her to launch the next branch. The friend added: ‘She just wants to get away.’
Read more: dailymail.co.uk
November 29th, 2009
She was one of the original supermodels: an icon whose natural beauty was ubiquitous on magazine covers and billboards in the Eighties and Nineties.
And now Cindy Crawford has admitted she used Botox to enhance her looks.
The 43-year-old mother of two, who has always denied having ‘proper’ plastic surgery, said she visited a London cosmetic surgeon for several years to have the wrinkle-reducing injections.
Miss Crawford’s disclosures come in a wide-ranging interview with Mail on Sunday columnist Piers Morgan.
The American, who quit modelling nine years ago and now has her own range of beauty products, said she had contemplated more drastic surgery, dismissing it because it made other women look ‘unreal’.
She admitted, however: ‘There’s a doctor here in London who I’ve gone to for Botox. I did a whole skincare line with him. But I haven’t done Botox for ten years. And I didn’t do collagen, I don’t think.’
Miss Crawford, married to ex-model and businessman Rande Gerber, also revealed: ‘Because people have such expectations of what they are going to find when they see me, that brings added pressure to fight the ageing process.’
But she added in the interview, to be published in GQ magazine this week: ‘I mean, don’t get me wrong, I think I’m holding together pretty good.’
Onlookers in Mexico, where the supermodel and her husband are holidaying with George Clooney and his latest girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis, may well agree.
They could be forgiven for being confused about who was who as the quartet enjoyed the sunshine, lounging round the pool.
For though Miss Crawford is 12 years older than 31-year-old model and actress Miss Canalis, the two could have been mistaken for twins.
Both wore bikinis, showing off their enviable figures as they swam and sunbathed, while Clooney, Gerber and a friend had obviously spotted an interesting sight as they larked around with binoculars.
Firm friends, Clooney and the Gerber-Crawfords often vacation together, whether it’s on the former’s yacht on the French Riviera or at his Lake Como home in Italy.
Read more: dailymail.co.uk
November 29th, 2009
A South Korean supermodel whose apparent suicide in Paris a week ago sent shockwaves through the fashion industry reached out to a friend for help with relationship problems a few hours before she was found dead.
It has emerged that Daul Kim, 20, the “Korean Kate Moss”, confided she had argued with her boyfriend but was afraid to leave him. The friend advised Kim to telephone her mother in Seoul. Kim ended the exchange of internet messages abruptly, saying she had to clean her flat.
Her body was discovered by the boyfriend soon afterwards on November 19. French police declared it a probable suicide but are still investigating. Last Wednesday, Kim’s agency said it appeared she had killed herself because of the pressures of work. “She was not able to live the normal life other girls did at her age,” said the agency in a statement. “We suspect that she felt confused and lost after reaching the top of her career.”
Her death was the second apparent suicide by a top model in Paris this year. In May, Lucy Gordon, a 28-year-old British model turned actress, was found hanged in her flat in a fashionable district on the Right Bank, where Kim lived.
Kim’s death appeared to be the latest in a string of Korean suicides that has included the country’s leading actress and a former president.
Joy Yoon, a friend of Kim and a fellow Korean, said despite her success on the catwalk, the 5ft 10in model was prey to dark moods and bouts of melancholy. “The loneliness she felt must have been suffocating,” she said. “Did her agencies really have her best interests at heart? I know she wanted stability and a somewhat normal life and even complained about it. Isn’t that a sign? A cry for help?”
Kim, who grew up in Seoul and Singapore, was discovered by Vogue Korea at the age of 17. In 2007 she broke on to the European fashion scene and never looked back.
She had worked for designers such as Dries Van Noten and Alexander McQueen, and had recently appeared in an advertisement for Christopher Kane’s Topshop line. Karl Lagerfeld described her as his new muse.
In fashion, it does not get much better than that.
Yet Kim was something of a rarity in a business known for its frivolity. According to JD Ferguson, a photographer, she was “a real thinker” with wit, zest for life and a passion for painting, film-making and Tolstoy. It set her apart on the catwalk and made her popular among other models.
Yale Breslin, a fashion writer, said “she definitely didn’t take herself too seriously”. Surrounded by friends, “the model persona came down”.
Behind the smile, however, was a troubled soul of which she gave glimpses in her internet diary. She often spoke poetically of the loneliness of the catwalk.
That theme also crops up in interviews with Kim, the last of which will feature in a tribute to her to be broadcast on a fashion channel in Korea.
She spoke of the difficulties she had at the start of her career because she was “different”. “Nobody understood me. I was a loner at school.”
On her internet blog, a big hit among teenagers, she would sometimes show the despair behind the glossy veneer of the high-earning, party-loving model.
“Freedom comes with such cost,” she wrote on October 15. “But is it even freedom?” she went on. “One could get numb living like this … decadent nights to make up for the losses. But this endless loneliness. There must be something wrong from the core.”
Kim complained regularly of insomnia, exhaustion and how much she missed her mother. Friends suspected she was taking Adderall, a stimulant, to help her cope with a punishing routine of travel and public appearances.
In September, she wrote: “I wore high high heels and short short skirts to hide my depression.” A month later, she posted: “So many times I almost jumped but didn’t.”
An entry earlier this month reads: “Oh but how lonely it is. Then and now.”
A different side of Kim is on show in a video she made for New York Magazine, which had asked her to document life behind the catwalk. She tells a story about a model struggling to understand her accent.
“I was talking to a model and told her I was reading Hadji Murat by Tolstoy,” she began. “The girl was like, ‘Oh, you’re reading Toy Story’,” said Kim, adopting a southern drawl. “No,” said Kim, “Tolstoy. She’s like, ‘No, no, that’s not how you say it. It’s Toy Story.”
Her blog was flooded with tributes until her family shut it to the public last week. “She was a sweet, sweet girl,” wrote Ferguson, the photographer, on his blog. “Highly intelligent and a lot of fun.”
source: timesonline.co.uk
November 29th, 2009
Supermodel/actress KAROLINA KURKOVA is a first-time mum – she has welcomed a baby boy with fiance ARCHIE DRURY.
The Czech-born Victoria’s Secret catwalk beauty, 25, gave birth to Tobin Jack Drury on Thursday (29Oct09).
Her spokesperson confirms, “Supermodel
and GI Joe actress Karolina Kurkova, 25, and film producer of Voices of Iraq, Archie Drury, welcomed a son Thursday in New York. Both mother and baby are happy and healthy.”
source: thebosh.com
November 29th, 2009
PERTH model Emily Cattermole is on the way to becoming Australia’s first indigenous supermodel after signing with elite American modelling agency Ford.
The 18-year-old will leave her Melbourne base to spend two months in LA from January to work with the agency that represents supermodels Christie Brinkley, Rachel Hunter and Chanel Iman.
A model since the age of 14, Cattermole is the granddaughter of former WA politician Ernie Bridge, who was the first Aboriginal political minister in Australia.
She was the face of the Perth Fashion Festival and will soon appear in a campaign for indigenous swimwear brand Kooey.
She said her heritage was important to her and while she didn’t see herself as a role model, she hoped other young Aboriginal people were inspired by her success.
“It’s a big part of my family and it’s a big part of my life,” Cattermole said.
“It’s a privilege to be indigenous and to be doing something good as well. I feel really proud.”
Her manager, Tanya Muia of Perth’s Chadwick Models, said Cattermole, who was already known for her talent on the catwalks of New York, Paris, Milan and Hong Kong, would focus on magazine and print work.
“The American west and east coasts are vital markets for an international launch and if she can succeed in LA, that would be fantastic,” she said.
source: news.com.au
November 28th, 2009
George Clooney really does live a charmed life. Not only is he globally acknowledged as a heart-throb and respected actor, but he is known for having dated a string of beautiful women.
And now he is on holiday with supermodel Cindy Crawford – some men have all the luck.
Relaxing in Mexico with the 43-year-old and her husband Randy Gerber, the actor had also brought along his latest girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis.
But onlookers may have been confused about who was who as the quartet enjoyed the sunshine, lounging round the pool.
For despite being 12 years her senior, Crawford and 31-year-old model and actress Canalis could have been mistaken for twins at the Mexican resort.
Both wore bikinis, showing off their enviable figures as they swam and sunbathed, while Clooney, Gerber and a friend had obviously spotted an interesting sight as they larked around with binoculars.
Firm friends, Clooney and the Gerber-Crawfords often vacation together, whether it’s on the former’s yacht on the French Riviera or at his Lake Como home in Italy.
In addition, the Ocean’s Eleven actor also publicly supported Gerber earlier this year in May when he stood accused of sexual harrassment by two waitresses working for his company, the Gerber Group.
The women claimed they were fired for rejecting advances made by the supermodel’s husband.
However, Clooney – who had been with Gerber the night of the alleged incident – undertook a lie detector test to help prove the 47-year-old’s innocence.
source: dailymail.co.uk
November 28th, 2009
Statuesque supermodel Erin O’Connor is clearly planning for the future, with a new project that takes her off the catwalk.
The 30-year-old has made a documentary about the fashion industry, due to be broadcast next month on Radio 4.
“I’m writing and producing the programme,” said Erin. “I hope it gives a flavour of how fun the fashion industry can be.”
The model was approached by Radio 4 and jumped at the chance to work on the documentary, part of which was recorded during London Fashion Week.
“The fact that it’s a one-off takes the pressure off somewhat, but I am nervous about the reviews,” Erin admitted.
“I hope it will lead to more projects in future, as I want to focus on writing.”
source: thisislondon.co.uk
November 28th, 2009
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