Naomi Campbell

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Naomi Campbell
Image:NaomiCampbell.jpg Naomi Campbell at FashionWeekLive in San Francisco, March 15, 2007. Photo by Jesse Gross.
Date of birth	May 22 1970 (1970-05-22) (age 38)
Place of birth	Streatham, London, England
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in)
Eye color	Brown
Measurements	34B"-24"-34"
Official web site

Naomi Campbell (born May 22 1970^{[citation needed]}) is an English supermodel.

Contents 1 Childhood 2 Career 2.1 Modeling 2.1.1 Mishaps and feuds 2.2 Other Projects 2.2.1 Music 2.2.2 Designing 2.2.3 Charity 3 Legal troubles 4 Filmography 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Childhood

Campbell was born in Streatham, London, England. Her mother, Valerie, is a former ballet dancer of Jamaican heritage, who told Arena in 1996 that her daughter's unnamed father is a biracial man of Afro-Caribbean and Chinese descent.

Campbell attended Dunraven School, a comprehensive school run by Inner London Education Authority in Streatham, and attended the London Academy of Performing Arts. Campbell is a graduate of the Italia Conti Academy stage school.

Aged 7, Campbell's first public appearance came in February 1978 when she was cast as a pupil to appear in a music video with Bob Marley for his song Is This Love?. In 1982, she appeared in another music video, this time as a tap dancer for Culture Club's I'll Tumble 4 Ya.

[edit] Career

[edit] Modeling

Aged 15 and while still a student at the Italia Conti Academy, Campbell was spotted by Beth Boldt, former head of Synchro models agency, while window-shopping in Covent Garden. Campbell soon opted to become a fulltime model, signing with Elite Model Management. Of her looks, she has said: "My features are completely ethnic, and I'm proud of them."

Although Campbell started her career as a catwalk model, she was quickly hired for various high-profile advertising campaigns, including Lee Jeans and Olympus Corporation, which introduced her to the American market. Campbell also completed campaigns for Ralph Lauren and François Nars. In April 1986, she appeared on the cover of Elle, replacing a model who had canceled out of the appearance.

In August 1988, she appeared on the cover of Vogue Paris as that publication's first Black cover girl. In addition to Vogue Paris, Campbell also became the first Black model to appear on the cover of Vogue UK, Vogue Nippon and Time magazine. She has also posed nude for Playboy and appeared in Madonna's 1992 book Sex, in a set of photos with Madonna and rapper Big Daddy Kane. In total, Campbell has appeared on more than 500 magazine covers.

She famously starred in George Michael's music video Freedom! '90, where she lip-synched to his song along with fellow supermodels Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford and Tatjana Patitz. In 1992, Campbell appeared in Madonna's music video for Erotica, which featured filmed footage from photoshoots for the book Sex. In addition to the previously mentioned music videos, Campbell has appeared in videos for artists such as Michael Jackson, Nelly, Jagged Edge, Jay-Z, P.Diddy, The Notorious B.I.G, Macy Gray, Prince and Usher.

The highpoint of Campbell's career was in the early 1990s, when she was part of the two major supermodel powerhouses: the Big Six, alongside Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista and Kate Moss, and the Trinity, alongside Turlington and Evangelista.

[edit] Mishaps and feuds

In 1994, Campbell famously tumbled over on the catwalk at Vivienne Westwood's Anglomania fashion show. The fall was attributed to the 9-inch-heeled shoes made for the show by leading designer Patrick Cox.

For many years, Campbell was involved in a widely-known feud with fellow supermodel Tyra Banks, attested to by the many accounts of backstage tantrums at fashion shows and catty remarks. However, in 2005 Campbell appeared on Banks's talk show, The Tyra Banks Show, and the two reconciled. The interview was filmed with no studio audience present at the request of Banks, reportedly due to the host's traumatization and nervousness over the confrontation.

[edit] Other Projects

[edit] Music

In 1995, Campbell released a music single, Love and Tears, from her debut album Baby Woman. Although panned by critics and a flop in the UK, where it failed to chart higher than 75 ^[1], Baby Woman was a succes in Japan and sold over 1 million copies worldwide. Campbell's collaboration with Toshinobu Kubota, La La La Love Song, the theme song to Long Vacation, became a No. 1 hit in Japan, with the single selling approximately 1,856,000 copies. That same year she sang on Quincy Jones' album Q's Juke Joint. She was also featured on Vanilla Ice's single Cool as Ice.

[edit] Designing

In 1999, Campbell developed a spin-off company, the Design House of Naomi Campbell. So far Campbell has created seven fragrances for women, most of which were released in Europe. In 2000, Campbell introduced her first perfumes, Naomi Campbell and Naomagic, a combination of Campbell's name and the word "magic". In 2001, Campbell introduced her third perfume, Cat Deluxe, and in 2003 released Mystery. A year later a fifth fragrance was made, Sunset, and in 2005 another fragrance was released, Paradise Passion. Campbell's latest fragrance is a new version of her Cat Deluxe perfume called Cat Deluxe At Night.

[edit] Charity

Since 1997, Campbell has been involved in charity work mainly focused on the children and people of Africa. She has worked with Nelson Mandela, and has said that one of her greatest joys in life is knowing Mandela, stating that his kindness, passion and intelligence make him a modern world leader. In 2005, she helped create and participated in Fashion Relief, raising over a million dollars for Hurricane Katrina victims.^[2] On July 7, 2007 she hosted the South African leg of Live Earth in Johannesburg.

[edit] Legal troubles

Campbell has been accused of and arrested for physically and verbally abusing several of her employees and associates. In UK tabloids such as The Sun, Campbell is often referred to as "Nutta" because of her shocking public behaviour.^[3] Documented accusations against Campbell include the following:

• 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 sum and agreed to attend anger management classes.^[4]
• In March 2005, Campbell allegedly slapped assistant Amanda Brack and beat her around the head with a BlackBerry personal organiser. Campbell's spokesman Rob Shuter denied the incident ever took place. In July 2006, Brack began legal proceedings against Campbell, claiming Campbell abused her verbally and physically on three continents. Brack accused Campbell of assault, battery, false imprisonment, rape, and infliction of emotional distress in incidents that started a month after she began working for her in February 2005. Campbell countersued for an unknown amount.^[5]
• Italian actress Yvonne Scio has claimed Campbell left her "covered in blood" after an altercation at a Rome hotel. Scio claimed: "She punched me in the face. She was like Mike Tyson."^[6]
• On March 30, 2006 in New York City, Campbell was arrested for allegedly assaulting her housekeeper with a jewel-encrusted mobile phone, resulting in a bloody head that required several stitches.^[7] She was charged with second degree assault,^[7] a felony that carries a minimum sentence of one year and a maximum of seven years in prison.^[8]
• On September 28, 2006, Campbell did not attend a required court appearance in New York City, and the judge ruled that he would order her arrest if she failed to turn up in court the following week, on charges of a second-degree assault on her housekeeper, and could be jailed for up to seven years if convicted.^[9]
• On October 25, 2006, Campbell was arrested in London on suspicion of assault;^[10] she was released on police bail.
• On November 14, 2006, another former Campbell housekeeper, Gaby Gibson, began a new court case against Campbell seeking unspecified damages, and accused her ex-employer of being a "violent super-bigot".^[11]
• On November 15, 2006, Campbell appeared in criminal court in New York City regarding her March 2006 assault charges. Her defence lawyer and the prosecutor told the judge that they were "still in the process of working out a possible" plea deal in the case.^[12]
• The Boston-based law firm Sullivan & Worcester, which had assigned a top litigator to defend Campbell throughout her many escapades, severed their relationship with Campbell in 2006.^{[citation needed]}
• On January 16, 2007, Campbell pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless assault against her maid Ana Scolavino. She was sentenced to five days community service and ordered to attend two days of an anger management course. In addition, she was ordered to pay medical bills of $363 (£185) to Scolavino who required four stitches after the incident.^[13] According to a report on CNN, Campbell blames "her temper on lingering resentment toward her father for abandoning her as a child".^[14] On 19 March 2007, Campbell began mopping floors at New York's Sanitation Department for her service.^[15]
• On August 20, 2007, New York Supreme Court Judge Michael Stallman^[16] issued a decision and order^[17] denying Campbell's legal attempt to exclude Gaby Gibson's references from her history of well-publicized, allegedly "chronic abusive and repeatedly violent conduct toward her employees." Judge Stallman reasoned that "if proven, the reports of Campbell's conduct" might result in proving that it was so "wanton or outrageous" to justify the punitive damages sought by Campbell's ex-housekeeper.^[18]

[edit] 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)
• Beautopia (1998) (documentary)
• An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1998)
• Trippin' (1999)
• Prisoner of Love (1999)
• Ali G Indahouse (2002)
• Fat Slags (2004)
• The Call (2006) (short subject)
• Karma, Confessions and Holi (2006)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Naomi Campbell's official website
• Naomi Campbell in the Fashion Model Directory
• Naomi Campbell at the Internet Movie Database
• Campbell's Felony Criminal Charges (N.Y. v. Campbell) FindLaw
• Naomi Campbell starts cleaning sentence
• Video of Campbell on the Italian version of Dancing with the Starsbn:নেওমি ক্যাম্পবেল

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