If you’re like us, you grew up with a deep appreciation of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue and Victoria’s Secret catalogs, though it had nothing to do with a love for swimsuits or lingerie.
This, of course, was during the 80s and 90s — widely considered the “Supermodel Era.” That meant the models in those publications, as well as on the covers of Vogue, Cosmopolitan and a host of other magazines were all household names, not just the unattainable goals of teenage boys everywhere.
We did a little research to find out what those supermodels are up to now, and not surprisingly, it brought back waves of bittersweet post-pubescent nostalgia. After checking out the photos below, you’ll know what we mean.
Christie Brinkley - The ultimate sun-kissed California blond, Christie reigned as America’s sweetheart during the early 80s.
Christie’s recent tabloid divorce from fourth husband Peter Cook proves that just because a woman has her pick of men doesn’t mean she is good at picking men.
Iman - The quint-lingual (that means five) daughter of a Somali diplomat was legendary designer Yves Saint Laurent’s “dream woman.”
Iman has been married to David Bowie since 1992, and currently hosts “Project Runway Canada.”
Cindy Crawford - With her trademark mole and early embrace of “tasteful” nudity, the former high school valedictorian stood out even in the era of the supermodel.
These days Cindy does former supermodel stuff like charity work and being photographed with other famous people as she sunbathes in St. Tropez.
Christy Turlington - Her flawless skin made her the perfect pitchwoman for Maybelline’s “Maybe She’s Born With It Maybe It’s Maybelline” ad campaign, and helped her become one of highest paid supermodels of all time.
Turlington is married to director-actor Ed Burns, and in 2006 she signed a multi-year deal to return to Maybelline. She also has no problem posing in the buff, as evidenced by her work for PETA.
Carol Alt - Labeled “the face” for her piercing blue eyes and pouty lips, appeared on over 500 magazine covers before abandoning the fashion industry for an acting career that never quite took off.
Alt has found success as a nutritional guru — her two cookbooks promoting the virtues of the “raw diet” became national best sellers. She’s also gone toe-to-toe with Trump on “The Apprentice.”
Paulina Porizkova - This Czechoslovakian stunner gave the world a preview of the bevy of beauties that would eventually emerge from post-Communist Eastern Europe, and then gave hope to not-traditionally-handsome men everywhere when she married gangly Cars front man Rick Ocasek.
Paulina has been doing the reality TV circuit lately, with appearances on “Dancing With The Stars” and “America’s Next Top Model.”
Janice Dickinson - The self-proclaimed “World’s First Supermodel” also claims to have slept with leading men Sylvester Stallone, Warren Betty, Jack Nicholson and Bruce Willis, as well as rock legend Mick Jagger, during her 80s heyday.
Dickinson and her special brand of crazy has gotten more out of the reality television format than any other former supermodel thanks to Oxygen’s “Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency.”
Grace Jones - During the 80s, the androgynous model had a successful singing career and displayed disturbingly superhuman strength in the movies “Conan the Destroyer” and “A View to a Kill.”
Jones has a new album coming out later this year, although, sadly, she no longer sports her once-signature flat top.
Claudia Schiffer - A fashion insider once said that Guess Jean girl Schiffer “looks better in jeans than any other model has looked in Chanel.”
After making long-time beau David Copperfield disappear, Schiffer married a film producer, had a couple kids and enjoys horseback riding, painting, playing tennis and skiing.
Jerry Hall - The one-time roommate of Grace Jones used her 6-foot frame and long blond hair to end up on the cover of every fashion magazine and nab common law hubbie Mick Jagger.
After having four kids with Jagger, the couple split in 1999. Hall is currently working as a pitchwoman for Levitra, an erectile dysfunction drug. No joke.
Elle Macpherson - In 1986, the Aussie sensation had men all over the world learning the proper way to say g’day after she landed on the front of Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition for the first of her record five covers.
Macpherson dabbles in acting — she had a cameo on “Friends”– and has just signed up to be the global brand spokeswoman for cosmetics manufacturer Revlon.
Kathy Ireland - Ireland appeared 13 times in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition, including three covers, and was known for having mesmerizing green eyes befitting of her surname.
Ireland has been so successful selling clothes, furniture and skin care products through her company Kathy Ireland Worldwide, that Forbes Magazine called her “the prototype for the model turned mogul.”
Brooke Shields - At 14, Shields was the youngest model ever to appear on the cover of Vogue. But it was probably her controversial nude film scenes and her provocative advertisements for Calvin Klein that made her one of the most recognizable faces in the world by the age of 16.
Lately Shields has been guest starring on TV shows and forgiving Tom Cruise for making insensitive comments about her.
Naomi Campbell - With her distinctive catwalk strut and exotic Chinese/Jamaican looks, Campbell was a fashion powerhouse well into the 90s.
Campbell’s charity work in Africa and on behalf of the victims of Katrina tends to get overshadowed by her nasty habit of assaulting underlings with cell phones and other PDAs.
Carrie Otis - In 1990, Otis was thrust into the spotlight amidst rumors she shot an unsimulated sex scene with then-boyfriend Mickey Rourke during filming of the movie “Wild Orchid.”
Otis has overcome anorexia and heroin addiction and now works as a plus-size model.
Linda Evangelista - Evangelista was famous for constantly switching up her hair style, and for coining the supermodel maxim, “We don’t wake up for less than 10,000 dollars a day.”
Linda, who had her first child in 2006, still pops up on the modeling scene from time to time — presumably for at least 10,000 dollars a day.
It appears that one of the prime beneficiaries of President Bush’s Economic Stimulus Plan was the porn industry.
An independent market-research firm, AIMRCo (Adult Internet Market Research Company), has discovered that many websites focused on adult or erotic material have experienced an upswing in sales in the recent weeks since checks have appeared in millions of Americans’ mailboxes across the country.
According to Kirk Mishkin, Head Research Consultant for AIMRCo, “Many of the sites we surveyed have reported 20-30% growth in membership rates since mid-May when the checks were first sent out, and typically the summer is a slow period for this market.”
Jillian Fox, spokeswoman for LSGmodels.com, one of the sites reporting figures to AIMRCo, added, “In a June 15, 2008 survey to our members, thirty two percent of respondents referenced the recent stimulus package as part of their decision to either become a new member, or renew an existing membership.”
The economic stimulus plan, which includes a check for up to $600 for individuals and $1200 for married couples (among other benefits), is the product of an agreement between House leaders and the Bush Administration, focused on reviving a struggling economy in the wake of a flagging economy.
Fox also added, “Getting more people to buy porn was probably the last thing Bush had on his mind when he came up with his ’stimulus package,’ but we’ll take it.”
If you were married to Christie Brinkley and had $3000 in extra cash every month, would you spend it on porn?
Christie Brinkley’s estranged husband spent about $3,000 a month on pornographic Web sites, the model’s lawyer said at the start of the couple’s nasty divorce trial.
“That is the man who’s come before this court and asked for custody of his 13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter,” attorney Robert Stephan Cohen said of Peter Cook. The couple’s daughter, Sailor, had her birthday on Wednesday.
“It was wrong and he said it was wrong,” Cook’s lawyer, Norman Sheresky, said of the porn.
But the main focus of the trial is Cook’s affair with an 18-year-old, which set off a frenzy in the tabloids. Cohen said Brinkley found out about it from the teenager’s stepfather; the fashion model got the bad news moments before she was to speak at the Southampton High School graduation.
The teenager, Diana Bianchi, is expected to testify. She claims Cook seduced her shortly after hiring her to work at his Hamptons architectural firm.
“He did it and it was wrong. And we said so. And there is no way to make that right,” Sheresky said. “Peter has apologized. He’s cried his eyes out. He’s lost his marriage.”
The lawyer said Brinkley is partly to blame for the public spectacle.
“For goodness sake: She’s on her fourth husband,” Sheresky told the court. “Your honor, we’re here because of the self-indulgent wrath of a woman scorned.”
Oh, snap!
Look, Christie isn’t as hot as she was in the days when teenage boys had posters of her on their walls and using her for the same purposes Peter Cook presumably employed his porn to. But, dude, she’s still pretty hot!
And, to add insult to injury, he was also screwing some 18-year-old. I don’t have any pictures of her but if he was willing to risk losing Christie Brinkley to sleep with her, she had to be at least halfway decent looking.
So, he’s having sex with Christie Brinkley, shagging a hot teenager on the side, and still needs $3000 a month for porn?! The greedy bastard! You have to admire the dude’s stamina, if nothing else.
Source: Brinkley’s lawyer: Husband spent money on porn [AP]
Bar Refaeli, the Israeli supermodel and Leonardo DiCarprio’s girlfriend is rumored to be the 2008 cover model for the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.
Here is a sneak peek into the 2008 swimsuit issue:
How the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue came about?
In the winter of 1964, Sports Illustrated magazine was in its usual sales slump. So the editorial staff at S.I. decided to try something new.
Babette Marche, a model in a racy (for the time) bikini was splashed across the cover for their new February issue and - surprise! - the edition was almost an instant sellout.
Soon, hot-blooded sports fans by the millions were waiting at mailboxes for delivery of the Sports llustrated Swimsuit Issue in an annual winter tradition.
Almost single-handedly, Sports Illustrated had launched the Era of the Supermodel - giving rise to the careers of Tyra Banks, Christie Brinkley, Rachel Hunter, Elle Macpherson and Kathy Ireland (to name only a few) who have since graced the cover.
The 2006 landmark “topless” cover featured models Veronica Varekova, Elle Macpherson, Rebecca Romijn, Rachel Hunter, Daniela Pestova, Elsa Benitez, Carolyn Murphy and Yamila Diaz.
Inside, Heidi Klum was the featured photo spread and, (just to keep it fairly legit as a sports issue), tennis pro Maria Sharapova also appeared in the lower right hand corner over the sub-headline, “…As You’ve Never Seen Her.
[More Bar Refaeli - Click thumbnails for a larger view]
With celebrities-turned-fashion designers currently basking in the pop culture spotlight, let’s visit the model-turned-actor’s.
Despite some high profile flops (Cindy Crawford in ‘Fair Game‘, anyone?), there seems to be an endless supply of leggy lovelies dreaming of snagging an Oscar.
LILY COLE
One look at this flame-haired, porcelain-skinned catwalker, and it’s clear that she was destined to play Alice in Wonderland. But given his recent predilection for teenage girls, we can’t help wondering about the wisdom of signing up for the role under the direction of cultural provocateur Marilyn Manson. Still, Cole already has one film project under her belt, playing a schoolgirl in the upcoming St. Trinian’s, co-starring Rupert Everett and Colin Firth and based on a popular British cartoonist’s anarchic vision of boarding school life. And if she can survive the cutthroat fashion world, an aging shock rocker should be, well, child’s play.
EFFORT: B+ TALENT: TO BE DECIDED
GEMMA WARD
The credit for this in-demand model’s role in the upcoming horror movie The Strangers, starring fellow sometimes mannequin, Liv Tyler, is a stroke of pure irony (unwittingly, if we know Hollywood). The face that launched a hundred fashion spreads is listed simply as “Masked Stranger,” although we can’t imagine that the director will be able to keep this wide-eyed lovely under wraps entirely.
EFFORT: N/A TALENT: TO BE DECIDED
GISELE BUNDCHEN
Behind-the-scenes fashion folk have raved about the down-to-earth sense of humor of this arguably most super of supermodels for years, so it’s no surprise that her most memorable film role to date (we’ll forget Taxi, as we hope she has) was as an acid-tongued fashion assistant in the tongue-in-chic blockbuster The Devil Wears Prada. EFFORT: B- TALENT: C+
We have to give credit to anyone who has held her own against Mark Wahlberg AND a hairy ape (Warren did both in Tim Burton’s widely-panned Planet of the Apes remake). Still, the former synchronized swimmer has largely fallen off the radar in recent years, except as a pillow-lipped fantasy figure in the minds of devoted male fans.
EFFORT: C TALENT: C+
CHRISTIE BRINKLEY
That killer smile, that killer car. Brinkley zoomed into every adolescent boy’s dreams thanks to a high profile cameo as “the girl in the Ferrari” in the comedy classic National Lampoon’s Vacation, but these days she’s more likely to be found tooling around her beloved Hamptons—and holding her head up in the aftermath of a nasty divorce—than appearing at a theater near you. EFFORT: C TALENT: C
REBECCA ROMIJN
Hate her or love her, it appears that Rebecca Romijn, actress, is here to stay. Fusing her smoldering swimsuit model physique with a goofy girl next door charm, the former Mrs. Full House has emerged with a full-fledged second career that’s fast outstripping (pun intended) her Victoria’s Secret heyday.
EFFORT: A+ TALENT: B-
CLAUDIA SCHIFFER
She spoofed herself in Zoolander and took on a bit more of a stretch in filmmaker James Toback’s controversial exploration of race relations, Black and White, but at the end of the day this Teutonic supermodel’s most absorbing role is playing mom to children, Caspar and Clementine.
EFFORT: C- TALENT: B
MILLA JOVOVICH
This sharp-cheekboned Slavic stunner has carved out a niche for herself on the other side of the catwalk, as half of the design team behind hipster label Jovovich-Hawk, but she’s played a pretty convincing alien in her day (in former flame’s Luc Besson’s fantastical The Fifth Element), and she’s set to return to the silver screen this fall as the star of the latest installment of the horror-sci-fi series Resident Evil.
EFFORT: A TALENT: C-
CINDY CRAWFORD
Internationally recognized as one of the original core supermodels, Cindy Crawford seemed to have been “marked” for commercial success. Just not in the film/television category. She started off strong with the George Michael “Freedom 90″ video, and the hot Pepsi commercials in the mid-’90s, but when she tried her hand at film (the forgettable Fair Game), her star quickly fizzled out.
EFFORT: B TALENT: D
ELLE MACPHERSON
This eternal amazon’s lingerie empire is now her central focus, but back in the late ‘90s “The Body” made a genuine stab at movie stardom, showing up in such diverse films as the sophisticated sex-drenched comedy Sirens, opposite Hugh Grant, and the bloated big budget flop Batman and Robin.
EFFORT: C+ TALENT: B+
NAOMI CAMPBELL
Her frenzy-inducing public service stint was more entertaining than anything we’ve seen in theaters in years, so here’s hoping that this tempestuous fashion icon harnesses even an iota of her naturally dramatic mojo for her rumored upcoming movie project.
EFFORT: A TALENT: TBD
And… the ONLY MALE…
ASHTON KUTCHER, Yes… he was first a model!
No exploration of the model-turned-actor phenomenon would be complete without Demi Moore’s favorite accessory. Despite attempts at scaling the dramatic A-list, former Calvin Klein model Kutcher is still best known for playing dim-witted Kelso on the long-running sitcom That ‘70s Show and for playing practical jokes on fellow celebrities on his reality show Punk’d. Oh, and of course for being, like, the best stepdad EVER!
EFFORT: B TALENT: B
I’m proud of Christie Brinkley… not taking her cheating husband back. Words of experience will tell you… they never change. Unfortunately, it does take a toll on the children involved. Our best goes out to Christie and her daughter Alexa.
Christie Brinkley, 52, filed divorce papers from her husband of 10 years, architect Peter Cook, in New York’s Suffolk County Court earlier this week, E! reports. The couple separated two months ago when Cook, 47, confessed to having an affair with a 19-year-old former employee with his architectural firm.
“[Cook] regrets that this happened,” David Aronson, another of Cook’s legal eagles, told the Associated Press. “He was hopeful that they would be able to work through this problem and put their marriage back together, but obviously she has decided otherwise.”
Meanwhile, Brinkley’s 20-year-old daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, an aspiring singer, collapsed Saturday on the way to a performance at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York.
“I ended up fainting from stress, lack of sleep and just overall exhaustion about five minutes before the show,” Joel wrote on her MySpace blog the following day.
Joel, who is a product of Brinkley’s second marriage to singer, Billy Joel, was rushed to the emergency room by ambulance.
“This has never happened before, but I guess I was really pushing myself to the limit this week,” she continues. “I was having quite a bit of anxiety in general that day, so I guess this was just my body’s way of telling me to RELAX…something I haven’t done in a while.” source
An independent market-research firm, AIMRCo (Adult Internet Market Research Company), has discovered that many websites focused on adult or erotic material have experienced an upswing in sales in the recent weeks since checks have appeared in millions of Americans’ mailboxes across the country.
