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Naomi Campbell (born May 22, 1970) is a British
supermodel, actress, singer and author.
****
Born: May 22, 1970
Streatham, South London, England
Occupation: actress, supermodel,
****
Biography
Campbell was born in Streatham, South London. She
is of mostly Afro-Jamaican heritage, though her father is also partially of
Jamaican-Chinese descent. Campbell attended the London Academy For Performing
Arts.
A graduate of the Italia Conti Academy stage
school, Campbell's first appearance to a wider public was in February 1978 when
she was cast as a pupil to appear in a music video with Jamaican reggae
superstar Bob Marley for his song Is This Love?.
On graduating from Italia Conti, her looks created
her an income and she switched to become a fulltime model, creating a high
profile career and creating two spin-off companies: NC Connect and a self-named
line of perfumes.
Her charity work mainly focuses on the children and
people of Africa, including working with Nelson Mandela, since 1997. In 2005 she
helped to create and participate in 'Fashion Relief' for Hurricane Katrina
victims, raising over a million dollars.
Modeling
Aged 15 and while still a student of the Italia
Conti Stage School, Campbell was spotted by Beth Boldt, former head of Synchro
models agency, window-shopping in Covent Garden. In April 1986, she made the
cover of Elle, when another black model had to cancel the job. By August 1988,
she had graced the cover of French Vogue as the publication's first black cover
girl and completed campaigns for Ralph Lauren and Francois Nars.
Her modelling career started as a catwalk model,
but she was quickly picked up for various high profile advert campaigns for Lee
Jeans and Olympus Corporation, which broke her in to America. The highpoint of
her career was in the early 90's when she was part of the two major
supermodelling powerhouses, the Big Six and the Trinity, (with Linda Evangelista
and Christy Turlington).
She has walked for many fashion designers,
including Gianni Versace and Valentino. Campbell famously tumbled over on the
catwalk at Vivienne Westwood's Anglomania fashion show in 1994. Campbell was the
first black model to appear on the cover of Time magazine and French and British
Vogue. [citation needed] She has also appeared on the covers of Harper's Bazaar
and ELLE magazine.
She posed nude for Playboy magazine and for a
series of lesbian-erotic photos with Madonna in the latter's book Sex.
Music
Campbell has appeared in music videos for artists
such as Michael Jackson, Jay-Z, Macy Gray, Prince, Usher and also Madonna's
music video, "Erotica", with Ingrid Casares on 12 October 1992. She had
previously appeared in George Michael's music video, "Freedom '90", where she
lip-synched to his song along with other models.
Campbell has also tried her hand at singing. Her
album Baby Woman sold over 1 million copies worldwide (mostly in Japan), and she
was featured on Vanilla Ice's single "Cool as Ice." In 1995, her collaboration
with Toshinobu Kubota, "La La La Love Song", became a #1 hit in Japan, with the
single selling approx. 1,856,000 copies. That same year she lended her vocals to
Quincy Jones' album "Q's Juke Joint"
Author
Campbell "co-authored" the best-selling novel Swan
in 1996, and followed it up with a photography book titled Naomi. But when
questioned about her use of a ghost writer for "Swan", Campbell admitted that
she wrote almost none of the book: "I just did not have time to sit down and
write a book" [cite this quote]
Trivia
Naomi Campbell has graced over 400 magazine covers.
[citation needed]
Personal life
Campbell has dated many famous personalities. She
was rumored to have a brief relationship with boxer Mike Tyson in the late
1980s, and also U2's bassist Adam Clayton. In the 1990s Campbell dated actor
Robert de Niro, dancer Joaquin Cortes and with Renault F1 team boss Flavio
Briatore. In late 2004 she had a high profile relationship with Usher, although
by 2005 their relationship appeared to be over. In addition, she has been
romantically linked to musician Eric Clapton, actor Sylvester Stallone, Prince
Albert, Robert Goode, Matteo Marzotti, and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, among
others. [2]
Drug addiction
In February 2001 pictures were published in the
Daily Mirror newspaper showing Campbell leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in
London. In March of 2002 Campbell sued the paper citing a breach of
confidentiality, as she was receiving treatment for drug addiction at the time.
The Mirror claimed that the pictures were in the public interest as Campbell had
denied having a drug problem publicly and had, up to that point, not been known
or proved to be a drug addict. The High Court ruled in Campbell's favour and the
Mirror was ordered to pay £3,500 in damages (although legal costs were thought
to be around £500,000.) In October of 2002, the Mirror won an Appeal Court
ruling that the photographs were indeed in the public interest. Campbell was
ordered to pay the costs of the Mirror's legal fees, a cost of around £350,000.
However, in May of 2004, the Law Lords overturned the Appeal Court ruling by a 3
to 2 majority, which reinstated the High Court's original decision, and Campbell
was rewarded £3,500 and the £350,000 legal costs. The Mirror's legal cost is
thought to be over £1,000,000. The case is also thought to be a landmark in the
rights of celebrities to privacy.[3]
Feuds
Campbell is purported to have had feuds with
several celebrities, the most publicized of which is with fellow model Tyra
Banks. The two finally made up in 2005 on an episode of Banks' syndicated talk
show The Tyra Banks Show. At the end of the 2005 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show,
Banks and other models exited the runway and Banks explained her emotions of the
event being her last runway show as a fashion model; and as she was talking
Campbell came to hug Banks and kiss her on the cheek.
Campbell also had a rift with former Spice Girl
Victoria Beckham, who publicly branded the model as a "massive cow" and a
"bitch" in 2000. [cite this quote] They have since been photographed holding
hands at a fashion show so a truce appears to have taken place.
Legal troubles
Campbell has been accused of committing acts of
violence and verbal abuse against some of her employees and associates.
Documented accusations include:
In 2000, she pleaded guilty in a Toronto court to a
1998 assault on Georgina Galanis, her then assistant; Campbell had assaulted
Galanis with a telephone in a hotel room and threatened to throw her out of a
moving car. Under an agreement with the prosecution her record was cleared in
exchange for her expressing remorse; Campbell also paid Galanis an undisclosed
amount of money and agreed to attend anger management classes. [4]
March 2005, the model was said to have slapped
assistant Amanda Brack and beaten her around the head with a Blackberry handheld
personal organiser. The star's spokesman Rob Shuter denied the incident ever
took place. In July 2006, Brack began proceedings against Campbell, claiming the
supermodel abused her verbally and physically on three continents. Brack accused
Campbell of assault, battery, false imprisonment and infliction of emotional
distress in incidents that started a month after she began working for her in
February 2005 [5]
Italian actress Yvonne Scio has claimed the model
left her "covered in blood" after a spat at a Rome hotel. Yvonne claimed: "She
punched me in the face. She was like Mike Tyson." [6]
On 30 March 2006 in New York City, Campbell was
arrested for allegedly assaulting[7] her assistant with a jewel-encrusted cell
phone, resulting in a bloody head that required stitches. She was charged[8]
with second-degree assault, a felony that carries a minimum sentence of one year
and a maximum of seven years in prison. [9]
Filmography
Cool as Ice (1991)
The Night We Never Met (1993)
Ready to Wear (1994) (Cameo)
Unzipped (1995) (documentary)
Miami Rhapsody (1995)
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar
(1995)
Catwalk (1996) (documentary)
Girl 6 (1996)
Invasion of Privacy (1996)
An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1997)
Beautopia (1998) (documentary)
Trippin' (1999)
Prisoner of Love (1999)
Ali G Indahouse (2002) (Cameo)
Fat Slags (2004)
Quotes
"I don't always wear underwear. When I'm in the
heat, especially, I can't wear it. Like, if I'm wearing a flower dress, why do I
have to wear underwear?"
"I make a lot of money, but I don't want to talk
about that. I work very hard and I'm worth every cent."
"I never diet. I smoke. I drink now and then. I
never work out. I work very hard, and I am worth every cent."
"The worst was when my skirt fell down to my
ankles, but I had on thick tights underneath."
****
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URL of Original Article:
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Date Article Copied:
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