Catwalk queen determined to guard her privacy while her tantrums work toensure that the media are never allowed to forget about her trials and tribulations Revelations in the current privacy action in London are unlikely to cause problems for supermodel Naomi Campbell, writes Roisin Ingle
The blurb on the website of that notoriously retiring yet at the same time internationally publicity-seeking supermodel, Naomi Campbell, was surely composed with a tongue placed in well sculpted cheekbone. Welcome to my official website, charms the chocolate (as in tasty) one, where "you will shortly be able to find everything you ever wanted to know about me".
Of course, what that privacy-shielding catwalk queen really meant was that we could find everything she ever wanted us to know about her. Like, oooh, what her favourite perfume is, apart from her own brand, of course. Um, and how many pairs of Jimmy Choos she owns and, like, how she manages to keep looking so damn beautiful all the time. The bad news is that the website is still under construction. The good news is that Naomi promises "it will keep you entertained for hours! Enjoy!" Snooze.
Naomi Campbell (31) is suing the Mirror Group for unlawful invasion of privacy after it published a photograph of her leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting last year. She claims this caused her untold distress. The Mirror is defending the case strenuously. Judgment was reserved yesterday.
More used to the catwalk, Campbell cut a glamorous if more subdued than usual figure in court. While she looked typically stunning in photographs, her appearances produced rather unflattering court drawings which one imagines would cause the telegenic supermodel considerable distress.
On a day off from court, Ms Campbell jetted across to New York to take part in a fashion show where she didn't look in the least bit upset. In the past, Campbell has held forth about the intimate details of her lovelife (think de Niro, Tyson and our own Adam Clayton) and the bigger the commercial venture she had to flog, the more beans she seemed to spill.
These have included the inevitable scent, a mercifully brief foray into the music business (Baby Woman anyone?) and a dire fashion blockbuster, Swan, but it has been her success as a clothes horse that has shown her the money. What kept her in the headlines, meanwhile, was her tendency to blow her top. She admitted in court that her behaviour was notorious. She is considered churlish and pushy by some in the industry, while two of her personal assistants have made allegations of assault against their former employer.
In 1993, she was sacked from the Elite Model Agency, which described her as a "spoiled, selfish, greedy brat". She was, said John Casablancas, "totally uncontrollable. . .using foul language, throwing tantrums and being abusive". But against her volcanic temper and reports of her drug abuse (frankly, in the strung-out fashion world it would be more of a story if she had never popped a pill), Campbell's achievements as a model in an industry that has discriminated against black models for years are noteworthy. She was the first black model on the cover of Time magazine and both French and British Vogue. Fashion critics say she is often given the worst dresses to wear because she makes anything look good.
Born in Streatham, south London in 1970, Campbell was plucked from schoolgirl obscurity at the age of 15 while window shopping with friends in Covent Garden. "She just glowed," said the woman who spied her. "Skin, hair, teeth, everything. I followed her to see how she moved, walked up and asked her if she wanted to model. She smiled an unbelievable smile and said yes".
The daughter of a single mother - equally dazzling Valerie Campbell - the supermodel wanted to be a dancer and was at the Italia Conti stage school when she was discovered. Her debut came in Elle magazine in 1986 and she has rarely stopped working since.
NOT much is made of Campbell's involvement in charideee, it doesn't fit as easily with our image of her as überbitch. But she has offered support to children's charities and worked with the Dalai Lama as well as getting so close to Nelson Mandela he considers her an honorary grand-daughter.
Her current on-off boyfriend is Flavio Briatore, of Benetton racing team fame. Campbell has said in the past she needs her men to be dominant figures and makes no apologies for her own tough (read aggressive/arrogant) approach.
"Every woman I know who's very strong on personality - and I have a strong personality - is called something or another. Anna Wintour, Madonna, everyone. I don't expect to be liked by everyone," she has said. "The thing is, I've never been someone who could be railroaded or controlled or told what to do."
Some of the revelations in the court case, the "whoppers" she was accused of telling, or the judge interrupting her barrister to describe the supermodel as an unreliable witness, could have damaged a celebrity such as her. However, it fits with the Naomi Campbell brand.
But there was one particularly striking moment in the case. At one point part of a documentary was shown where Campbell was seen struggling to grab a video camera from a fellow airline passenger who had been filming the model while she was sleeping on a flight to South Africa. "I want that film now. Unload that camera". One of Nelson Mandela's biggest fans was then heard to shout "I will get the ANC to stop them at the f***ing airport".
Later, in the documentary Naomi Conquers Africa, Campbell is seen talking about the incident with one of her best friends, supermodel Kate Moss. "What did I say to them?" she asked Moss, who replied "You said, 'you're an ugly bitch with the head of an alien' ". Handsome is as handsome does, as Forrest Gump's momma always used to say.