Elle Macpherson
Encyclopedia
Elle Macpherson is an Australian model, actress, and businesswoman nicknamed "The Body". She is perhaps best known for her record five cover appearances for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
beginning in the 1980s. She is also known as the founder and primary model for a series of business ventures including Elle Macpherson Intimates, a lingerie line, and "The Body", a line of skin care products. According to Forbes
, Macpherson possesses assets around $60 million. In 2010, she became the host and executive producer of Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model.
neighbourhood of Sydney, Australia, the daughter of entrepreneur and sound engineer Peter Gow, a former president of a Sydney rugby league
team, the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. Her mother Frances worked as a nurse before she married. Macpherson grew up in Killara, a North Shore
suburb of Sydney, and she attended Killara High School
. Macpherson is the eldest of four children including the businesswoman and environmentalist Mimi Macpherson. Macpherson’s parents divorced when she was 10 years old, and she moved with her mother and two siblings. Her mother later remarried, and a clerical mistake in registering at her new school meant that her name was changed from her father's, Gow, to her stepfather's, Macpherson.
Macpherson's modelling career began in 1982 with a television commercial for Tab
which established her as a "girl next door
" figure in Australia. By 1986, Time magazine
had already put her on the cover (with a feature entitled "The Big Elle"). By that time, she had also appeared on the covers of Cosmopolitan, Elle
, GQ, Harper's Bazaar
, Vogue
, and Playboy
. She co-hosted along with Naomi Campbell
the Miss Universe 2001
pageant.
Already possessing some widespread name recognition, Macpherson cemented her high profile through frequent appearances in Elle, where she appeared in every issue for six straight years. During that time, and at the age of 21, she married Gilles Bensimon
, the creative director
of Elle.
Eventually she gained even more exposure through Sports Illustrated magazine's annual Swimsuit Issue
. She appeared on the cover a record five times: 1986, 1987, 1988, 1994, and 2006. Her popularity had reached such a level that Australian government offered her a position on its tourist commission as an unofficial ambassador.
In November 2011, Elle Macpherson contacted the photographer Herb Ritts, who agreed to shoot her naked and the photos will be the cover of Playboy
and across numerous pages inside.
, Christy Turlington
, Tatjana Patitz
, Naomi Campbell
, Kate Moss
, Pavlína Pořízková and Cindy Crawford
, Macpherson became part of the new generation of supermodel
s. In 1994, she left her agency, Ford Models
, to work more lucratively for her own company, Elle Macpherson Inc. This company would serve as a financial and organizational base for her later endeavours.
MacPherson soon went on to produce her own highly popular series of calendars, each of which was accompanied by a "making of" television program in 1992, 1993, and 1994. She used this success as a springboard to create the "Your Personal Best – The Body" series of workout videos.
Macpherson later diversified her portfolio of businesses, and in 1990 launched her lingerie collection 'Elle Macpherson Intimates' in partnership with Bendon Limited Apparel. Intimates met with remarkable international success, becoming the single best-selling lingerie line in both Great Britain and Australia Breaking the mould of many models, Macpherson took an active role in the development and management of the company, serving as Chief Marketing Officer
and later Creative Director. While nursing her second child, she spearheaded the development of a signature maternity bra line. Intimates has retained a high brand recognition into the 2000s, appearing as a featured brand on America's Next Top Model
.
More recently, Macpherson created her own label of beauty products: "Elle Macpherson – The Body". She has launched or served as spokesmodel for campaigns by Boots
, Invisible Zinc, and Hot Tuna.
The BBC
-TV series The Money Programme
aired a documentary which followed Macpherson through her day-to-day business as she continued to develop her international lingerie business.
In March 2008, Macpherson signed a three-year spokesperson deal with Revlon
cosmetics. She has since been featured in print and advertising campaigns for that company; it has been announced by Macpherson herself that she would expand her underwear line by creating a new Lingerie Collection baptised 'Obsidion' which would be launched in Spring 2010.
, which also starred Hugh Grant
, Sam Neill
, Tara FitzGerald
, Kate Fischer
, and Portia de Rossi
. Macpherson gained nine kg (20 lbs.) to disguise her athletic frame for the period role. After Sirens, Macpherson followed with a two-year series of acting roles, appearing in films such as Woody Allen
’s Alice
, Batman & Robin alongside George Clooney
, The Edge with Anthony Hopkins
, and The Mirror Has Two Faces
with Barbra Streisand
.
In 1999, Macpherson appeared in five episodes of the American TV series Friends
, as Joey's roommate and girlfriend, Janine Lecroix. Macpherson went on to act in the movie Jane Eyre
with William Hurt
, and she has also appeared alongside Ben Stiller
and Sarah Jessica Parker
in If Lucy Fell
. Her most controversial acting was in the Showtime cable network miniseries
, A Girl Thing, in which she plays a woman experimenting with bisexuality along with Kate Capshaw
. In 2001, she acted in the Italian movie South Kensington
.
Macpherson played the modelling agent, "Claudia Foster" in the "CW"-network drama series, The Beautiful Life
, appearing with Mischa Barton
, Sara Paxton
and Corbin Bleu
. The show centred on aspiring models working for a modelling agency, trying to make it big in New York City, and in the Fashion World. The show was cancelled after two episodes.
. She also serves as executive producer on the show. Joining Macpherson on the revamped show are OBE
winning fashion designer Julien Macdonald
, fashion stylist Grace Woodward
and male model Charley Speed
.
Mischler, 29, pled guilty to one count of attempted extortion
and one count of burglary. He received a six-year and eight-month prison sentence. Holt, 26, a former U.S. Air Force
enlisted man and a military-justice convict out on parole, pled guilty to one count of extortion, and he was sentenced to one year in prison.
and Bobby Shriver to raise money and awareness for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and to help eradicate AIDS for women and children in Africa. She is also an ambassador for UNICEF. In her native Australia, she is an ambassador for the Smile Foundation, which helps the families of children with rare diseases and organises government research grants. She has also modelled for charitable causes including fundraising for 2007 British flood
victims, wounded veterans, and child welfare group Absolute Return for Kids
.
MacPherson is a patron for the National National Association for the Children Of Alcoholics (NACOA)
Early in her career, Macpherson campaigned against the use of fur in modelling. She later drew the ire of animal welfare groups by starting to model in fur herself. She was again criticised by animal rights activists when in an interview on Twitter in 2010, she made comments, which she later described as a joke, claiming to use rhinoceros horn as a herbal medicine. She subsequently issued a statement saying the idea of consuming products derived from endangered species was "abhorrent". The previous year, she joined a boycott of a London restaurant for serving meals containing bluefin tuna, an endangered species.
in 1984 on a photo-session for Elle magazine. They were married in May 1986, and divorced in 1989.
Macpherson has also had relationships with Billy Joel
and Kevin Costner
.
Macpherson has two sons with her former long-term boyfriend, French financier Arpad Busson
, whom she never married. Her sons are Arpad Flynn Alexander Busson (born 14 February 1998), and Aurelius Cy Andrea Busson (born 4 February 2003). Macpherson and Busson began their romantic relationship in 1995, became engaged in August 2002, but called off the wedding in July 2005.
Macpherson resides most of the time in Britain along with her two sons. She speaks fluent French and conversational Italian and Spanish.
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is published annually by Sports Illustrated. It features fashion models wearing swimwear in exotic locales. According to some, the magazine is the arbiter of supermodel succession. In addition, the issue is a media nexus that in 2005 carried in advertising....
beginning in the 1980s. She is also known as the founder and primary model for a series of business ventures including Elle Macpherson Intimates, a lingerie line, and "The Body", a line of skin care products. According to Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
, Macpherson possesses assets around $60 million. In 2010, she became the host and executive producer of Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model.
Early life
Macpherson was born Eleanor Nancy Gow, in the KillaraKillara, New South Wales
Killara is a suburb on the Upper North Shore of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Killara is located north of the Sydney Central Business District in the local government area of Ku-ring-gai Council. East Killara is a separate suburb and West Killara is a locality within Killara.-...
neighbourhood of Sydney, Australia, the daughter of entrepreneur and sound engineer Peter Gow, a former president of a Sydney rugby league
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...
team, the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. Her mother Frances worked as a nurse before she married. Macpherson grew up in Killara, a North Shore
North Shore (Sydney)
The North Shore is an informal term used to describe the primarily residential area of northern metropolitan Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The term usually refers to the suburbs located on the north shore of Sydney Harbour between Middle Harbour and the Lane Cove River, up to...
suburb of Sydney, and she attended Killara High School
Killara High School
Killara High School is a co-educational public secondary school, located on Koola Avenue in East Killara, Sydney. Established in 1970, Killara High School is one of the highest performing comprehensive non-selective public schools in the state...
. Macpherson is the eldest of four children including the businesswoman and environmentalist Mimi Macpherson. Macpherson’s parents divorced when she was 10 years old, and she moved with her mother and two siblings. Her mother later remarried, and a clerical mistake in registering at her new school meant that her name was changed from her father's, Gow, to her stepfather's, Macpherson.
Rise to fame
At age 17, Macpherson enrolled to study law at Sydney University. Before beginning her university studies, Elle visited the United States to spend one year doing modelling work in order to earn money to pay for her law books. Macpherson travelled to New York City, where she initially signed up with the Click Model Management.Macpherson's modelling career began in 1982 with a television commercial for Tab
Tab (soft drink)
Tab, stylized as TaB, is a diet cola soft drink produced by the Coca-Cola Company, first introduced in 1963. The soda was created by Coca Cola after the successful sales and marketing of Diet Rite cola, owned by The Royal Crown Company; previously, Diet Rite had been the only sugarless soda on the...
which established her as a "girl next door
Girl next door
The cultural and sexual stereotype of the girl next door or the All-American girl is invoked in American contexts to indicate wholesome, unassuming femininity, as opposed to the culture's other female stereotypes such as the tomboy, the valley girl, the femme fatale, girly girl, or the slut. The...
" figure in Australia. By 1986, Time magazine
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
had already put her on the cover (with a feature entitled "The Big Elle"). By that time, she had also appeared on the covers of Cosmopolitan, Elle
Elle (magazine)
Elle is a worldwide magazine of French origin that focuses on women's fashion, beauty, health, and entertainment. Elle is also the world's largest fashion magazine. It was founded by Pierre Lazareff and his wife Hélène Gordon in 1945. The title, in French, means "she".-History:Elle was founded in...
, GQ, Harper's Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
, Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, and Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
. She co-hosted along with Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell is a British model. Scouted at the age of 15, she established herself among the top three most recognisable and in-demand models of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and she was one of six models of her generation declared "supermodels" by the fashion world...
the Miss Universe 2001
Miss Universe 2001
Miss Universe 2001 was held at Coliseo Rubén Rodríguez, Bayamón, Puerto Rico on May 11, 2001. 77 contestants participated in the prestigious event...
pageant.
Already possessing some widespread name recognition, Macpherson cemented her high profile through frequent appearances in Elle, where she appeared in every issue for six straight years. During that time, and at the age of 21, she married Gilles Bensimon
Gilles Bensimon
Gilles Bensimon is a fashion photographer and the former International Creative Director of Elle magazine. He has also been the photographer on the reality television series America's Next Top Model....
, the creative director
Creative Director
A creative director is a position often found within the graphic design, film, music, fashion, advertising, media or entertainment industries, but may be useful in other creative organizations such as web development and software development firms as well....
of Elle.
Eventually she gained even more exposure through Sports Illustrated magazine's annual Swimsuit Issue
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is published annually by Sports Illustrated. It features fashion models wearing swimwear in exotic locales. According to some, the magazine is the arbiter of supermodel succession. In addition, the issue is a media nexus that in 2005 carried in advertising....
. She appeared on the cover a record five times: 1986, 1987, 1988, 1994, and 2006. Her popularity had reached such a level that Australian government offered her a position on its tourist commission as an unofficial ambassador.
In November 2011, Elle Macpherson contacted the photographer Herb Ritts, who agreed to shoot her naked and the photos will be the cover of Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
and across numerous pages inside.
Business career
In the 1980s, together with Linda EvangelistaLinda Evangelista
Linda Evangelista is a Canadian model. She has been featured on over 600 magazine covers and has garnered work on numerous modeling assignments with companies, most recently with L'Oréal.- Early years :...
, Christy Turlington
Christy Turlington
Christy Turlington Burns is an American model best known for representing Calvin Klein from 1987 to 2007. She has worked on dozens of modeling contracts with companies including Maybelline Cosmetics and Versace. Turlington starred in her fashion documentary Catwalk and Isaac Mizrahi's Unzipped...
, Tatjana Patitz
Tatjana Patitz
Tatjana Patitz is a German model and actress who rose to international prominence in the 1980s and 1990s, representing top fashion designers, campaigns, and collections, and who continues to model today.-Modelling career:...
, Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell is a British model. Scouted at the age of 15, she established herself among the top three most recognisable and in-demand models of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and she was one of six models of her generation declared "supermodels" by the fashion world...
, Kate Moss
Kate Moss
Kate Moss is an English model. Moss is known for her waifish figure and popularising the heroin chic look in the 1990s. She is also known for her controversial private life, high profile relationships, party lifestyle, and drug use. Moss changed the look of modelling and started a global debate on...
, Pavlína Pořízková and Cindy Crawford
Cindy Crawford
Cynthia Ann "Cindy" Crawford is an American model. Known for her trademark mole just above her lip, Crawford has adorned hundreds of magazine covers throughout her career. She was named #3 on VH1's 40 Hottest Hotties of the 90s...
, Macpherson became part of the new generation of supermodel
Supermodel
The term supermodel refers to a highly-paid fashion model who usually has a worldwide reputation and often a background in haute couture and commercial modeling. The term became prominent in the popular culture of the 1980s. Supermodels usually work for top fashion designers and labels...
s. In 1994, she left her agency, Ford Models
Ford Models
The Ford Modeling Agency, or as it is known today Ford Models, is a modeling agency in New York City. It was established in 1946 by Eileen and the late Gerard W. Ford.-Company:...
, to work more lucratively for her own company, Elle Macpherson Inc. This company would serve as a financial and organizational base for her later endeavours.
MacPherson soon went on to produce her own highly popular series of calendars, each of which was accompanied by a "making of" television program in 1992, 1993, and 1994. She used this success as a springboard to create the "Your Personal Best – The Body" series of workout videos.
Macpherson later diversified her portfolio of businesses, and in 1990 launched her lingerie collection 'Elle Macpherson Intimates' in partnership with Bendon Limited Apparel. Intimates met with remarkable international success, becoming the single best-selling lingerie line in both Great Britain and Australia Breaking the mould of many models, Macpherson took an active role in the development and management of the company, serving as Chief Marketing Officer
Chief marketing officer
Chief Marketing Officer is a corporate title referring to an executive responsible for various marketing activities in an organization...
and later Creative Director. While nursing her second child, she spearheaded the development of a signature maternity bra line. Intimates has retained a high brand recognition into the 2000s, appearing as a featured brand on America's Next Top Model
America's Next Top Model
America's Next Top Model is a reality television show in which a number of women compete for the title of America's Next Top Model and a chance to start their career in the modeling industry....
.
More recently, Macpherson created her own label of beauty products: "Elle Macpherson – The Body". She has launched or served as spokesmodel for campaigns by Boots
Boots UK
Boots UK Limited , is a leading pharmacy chain in the United Kingdom, with outlets in most high streets throughout the country...
, Invisible Zinc, and Hot Tuna.
The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
-TV series The Money Programme
The Money Programme
The Money Programme is a finance and business affairs television programme on BBC2.It was first broadcast on 5 April 1966 and presented by "commentators" William Davis, Erskine Childers and Joe Roeber. At this time David Attenborough was the controller of BBC2...
aired a documentary which followed Macpherson through her day-to-day business as she continued to develop her international lingerie business.
In March 2008, Macpherson signed a three-year spokesperson deal with Revlon
Revlon
Revlon is an American cosmetics, skin care, fragrance, and personal care company founded in 1932.-History:Revlon was founded in the midst of the Great Depression, 1932, by Charles Revson and his brother Joseph, along with a chemist, Charles Lachman, who contributed the "L" in the Revlon name...
cosmetics. She has since been featured in print and advertising campaigns for that company; it has been announced by Macpherson herself that she would expand her underwear line by creating a new Lingerie Collection baptised 'Obsidion' which would be launched in Spring 2010.
Acting career
Macpherson made her movie debut playing an artist's model in the 1994 SirensSirens (film)
Sirens is a 1993 film, written and directed by John Duigan, and set in Australia between the two World Wars.Sirens, along with Four Weddings and a Funeral and Bitter Moon—all released in the U.S...
, which also starred Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant
Hugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His films have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis's...
, Sam Neill
Sam Neill
Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM, OBE is a New Zealand actor. He is well known for his starring role as paleontologist Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III....
, Tara FitzGerald
Tara Fitzgerald
Tara Anne Cassandra Fitzgerald is an English actress who has appeared in feature films, television, radio and the stage....
, Kate Fischer
Kate Fischer
Kate Fischer, aka Katie Fischer, is an Australian model and actress. She attended the Canberra Girls' Grammar School....
, and Portia de Rossi
Portia de Rossi
Portia Lee James DeGeneres , known professionally as Portia de Rossi , is an Australian-American actress, best known for her roles as lawyer Nelle Porter on the television series Ally McBeal and Lindsay Bluth Fünke on the sitcom Arrested Development...
. Macpherson gained nine kg (20 lbs.) to disguise her athletic frame for the period role. After Sirens, Macpherson followed with a two-year series of acting roles, appearing in films such as Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
’s Alice
Alice (1990 film)
Alice is a 1990 film written and directed by Woody Allen and starring Joe Mantegna, Mia Farrow and Alec Baldwin. The film is a loose reworking of Federico Fellini's 1965 film Juliet of the Spirits.-Plot:...
, Batman & Robin alongside George Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
, The Edge with Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
, and The Mirror Has Two Faces
The Mirror Has Two Faces
The Mirror Has Two Faces is a 1996 American romance film produced and directed by Barbra Streisand, who also stars. The screenplay by Richard LaGravenese is based on the 1958 French film Le Miroir à deux faces written by André Cayatte and Gérard Oury, which focused on a homely woman who becomes a...
with Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
.
In 1999, Macpherson appeared in five episodes of the American TV series Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
, as Joey's roommate and girlfriend, Janine Lecroix. Macpherson went on to act in the movie Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre (1996 film)
Jane Eyre is a 1996 film adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel of the same name. This Hollywood version, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, is similar to the original novel, although it compresses and eliminates most of the plot in the last quarter of the book to make it fit into a 2-hour...
with William Hurt
William Hurt
William McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination...
, and she has also appeared alongside Ben Stiller
Ben Stiller
Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....
and Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker is an American film, television, and theater actress and producer.She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City , for which she won four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Emmy Awards...
in If Lucy Fell
If Lucy Fell
If Lucy Fell is a 1996 romantic comedy starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Eric Schaeffer and Ben Stiller. The film is rated R and runs for 92 minutes...
. Her most controversial acting was in the Showtime cable network miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
, A Girl Thing, in which she plays a woman experimenting with bisexuality along with Kate Capshaw
Kate Capshaw
Kate Capshaw is an American actress. She is known for her role as Willie Scott in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. She is married to Steven Spielberg.-Early life:...
. In 2001, she acted in the Italian movie South Kensington
South Kensington (film)
South Kensington is a 2001 Italian British romantic comedy film directed by Carlo Vanzina and starring Elle McPherson, Rupert Everett and Sienna Miller, in her first screen role. It takes its name from the London neighborhood of South Kensington....
.
Macpherson played the modelling agent, "Claudia Foster" in the "CW"-network drama series, The Beautiful Life
The Beautiful Life
The Beautiful Life: TBL is an American television drama series, which ran on The CW from September 16, 2009 to September 23, 2009. The series starred Mischa Barton, Elle Macpherson, Sara Paxton and Corbin Bleu. It revolved around a group of male and female models sharing a residence in New York City...
, appearing with Mischa Barton
Mischa Barton
Mischa Anne Marsden Barton is a British-American fashion model, film, television, and stage actress, best known for her role as Marissa Cooper in the American television series The O.C..-Early life:...
, Sara Paxton
Sara Paxton
Sara Paxton is an American actress, model and singer. She grew up in California and began acting at an early age, appearing in many minor roles in both films and television shows, before coming to wider renown in 2004, after playing the title role in the series Darcy's Wild Life and Sarah Borden...
and Corbin Bleu
Corbin Bleu
Corbin Bleu Reivers , known professionally as Corbin Bleu, is an American actor, model, dancer, producer, and singer-songwriter. He performed in the High School Musical film series, the Discovery Kids drama series Flight 29 Down, and the Disney Channel Original Movie Jump In!...
. The show centred on aspiring models working for a modelling agency, trying to make it big in New York City, and in the Fashion World. The show was cancelled after two episodes.
Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model
In July 2010, Macpherson became the new host of Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model, taking over from Lisa SnowdonLisa Snowdon
Lisa Snowdon is an English fashion model, television personality and presenter. She was the host of the reality television show Britain's Next Top Model from 2006 until 2009...
. She also serves as executive producer on the show. Joining Macpherson on the revamped show are OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
winning fashion designer Julien Macdonald
Julien MacDonald
Julien Macdonald OBE is a Welsh fashion designer.Born in Merthyr Tydfil, Macdonald attended Cyfarthfa High School in Merthyr Tydfil. Macdonald was taught knitting by his mother, and soon became interested in design...
, fashion stylist Grace Woodward
Grace Woodward
Grace Woodward is an English fashion stylist and television presenter, currently a judge for Sky Living’s Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model. and also hosts Chick Fix for the channel....
and male model Charley Speed
Charley Speed
Charley Speed is an English model and actor. He became known in 1997 at the age of 17 when he co-modelled with Kate Moss for a global Calvin Klein advertising campaign. Later that year, he won Male Model of the Year in the prestigious VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards in New York. He has been retained...
.
Victim of an attempted extortion
According to a police statement reproduced online, between 11 and 22 July 1997 William Ryan Holt and Michael Mischler broke into Macpherson's Los Angeles house while she was away on business in Chicago. They stole an estimated $100,000 worth of jewellery, $6,000 in cash, and nude photographs. The two were arrested on 4 August 1997.Mischler, 29, pled guilty to one count of attempted extortion
Extortion
Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...
and one count of burglary. He received a six-year and eight-month prison sentence. Holt, 26, a former U.S. Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
enlisted man and a military-justice convict out on parole, pled guilty to one count of extortion, and he was sentenced to one year in prison.
Philanthropic work and animal rights
Macpherson is a European Ambassador for RED, an initiative set up by BonoBono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
and Bobby Shriver to raise money and awareness for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and to help eradicate AIDS for women and children in Africa. She is also an ambassador for UNICEF. In her native Australia, she is an ambassador for the Smile Foundation, which helps the families of children with rare diseases and organises government research grants. She has also modelled for charitable causes including fundraising for 2007 British flood
2007 United Kingdom floods
The 2007 United Kingdom floods were a series of destructive floods that occurred in various areas across the country during the summer of 2007. The most severe floods occurred across Northern Ireland on 12 June; East Yorkshire and The Midlands on 15 June; Yorkshire, The Midlands, Gloucestershire,...
victims, wounded veterans, and child welfare group Absolute Return for Kids
Absolute Return for Kids
Absolute Return for Kids is an international children's charity based in the United Kingdom.ARK is a registered charity under English law and is based in London...
.
MacPherson is a patron for the National National Association for the Children Of Alcoholics (NACOA)
Early in her career, Macpherson campaigned against the use of fur in modelling. She later drew the ire of animal welfare groups by starting to model in fur herself. She was again criticised by animal rights activists when in an interview on Twitter in 2010, she made comments, which she later described as a joke, claiming to use rhinoceros horn as a herbal medicine. She subsequently issued a statement saying the idea of consuming products derived from endangered species was "abhorrent". The previous year, she joined a boycott of a London restaurant for serving meals containing bluefin tuna, an endangered species.
Personal life
Macpherson met Gilles BensimonGilles Bensimon
Gilles Bensimon is a fashion photographer and the former International Creative Director of Elle magazine. He has also been the photographer on the reality television series America's Next Top Model....
in 1984 on a photo-session for Elle magazine. They were married in May 1986, and divorced in 1989.
Macpherson has also had relationships with Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
and Kevin Costner
Kevin Costner
Kevin Michael Costner is an American actor, singer, musician, producer, director, and businessman. He has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards, won two Academy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Costner's roles include Lt. John J...
.
Macpherson has two sons with her former long-term boyfriend, French financier Arpad Busson
Arpad Busson
Arpad A. Busson is a London-based socialite and Swiss financier. Busson entered the world of hedge funds in 1986 working in New York. He is the founder and Chairman of the EIM Group, a fund-of-funds company. Mr. Busson is also very active in a number of philanthropic causes around the...
, whom she never married. Her sons are Arpad Flynn Alexander Busson (born 14 February 1998), and Aurelius Cy Andrea Busson (born 4 February 2003). Macpherson and Busson began their romantic relationship in 1995, became engaged in August 2002, but called off the wedding in July 2005.
Macpherson resides most of the time in Britain along with her two sons. She speaks fluent French and conversational Italian and Spanish.
Filmography
| Year | Film |
|---|---|
| 1990 | Alice Alice (1990 film) Alice is a 1990 film written and directed by Woody Allen and starring Joe Mantegna, Mia Farrow and Alec Baldwin. The film is a loose reworking of Federico Fellini's 1965 film Juliet of the Spirits.-Plot:... |
| 1994 | Sirens Sirens (film) Sirens is a 1993 film, written and directed by John Duigan, and set in Australia between the two World Wars.Sirens, along with Four Weddings and a Funeral and Bitter Moon—all released in the U.S... |
| 1996 | Jane Eyre Jane Eyre (1996 film) Jane Eyre is a 1996 film adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel of the same name. This Hollywood version, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, is similar to the original novel, although it compresses and eliminates most of the plot in the last quarter of the book to make it fit into a 2-hour... |
| If Lucy Fell If Lucy Fell If Lucy Fell is a 1996 romantic comedy starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Eric Schaeffer and Ben Stiller. The film is rated R and runs for 92 minutes... |
|
| The Mirror Has Two Faces The Mirror Has Two Faces The Mirror Has Two Faces is a 1996 American romance film produced and directed by Barbra Streisand, who also stars. The screenplay by Richard LaGravenese is based on the 1958 French film Le Miroir à deux faces written by André Cayatte and Gérard Oury, which focused on a homely woman who becomes a... |
|
| 1997 | Batman & Robin |
| The Edge | |
| 1998 | With Friends Like These... With Friends Like These... With Friends Like These... is a 1998 film by Philip Frank Messina. It stars Robert Costanzo, Jon Tenney, David Strathairn and Adam Arkin, and features a cameo by Bill Murray.-Summary:... |
| 1999 | Friends Friends Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television... |
| 2001 | A Girl Thing |
| South Kensington South Kensington (film) South Kensington is a 2001 Italian British romantic comedy film directed by Carlo Vanzina and starring Elle McPherson, Rupert Everett and Sienna Miller, in her first screen role. It takes its name from the London neighborhood of South Kensington.... |
|
| 2009 | |
| The Beautiful Life The Beautiful Life The Beautiful Life: TBL is an American television drama series, which ran on The CW from September 16, 2009 to September 23, 2009. The series starred Mischa Barton, Elle Macpherson, Sara Paxton and Corbin Bleu. It revolved around a group of male and female models sharing a residence in New York City... (TV Series) |
|
| 2010– | |
| Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model (TV Series) | |
| 2011– | |
| Fashion Star (TV Series) |
Further reading
- Celebrity1000.com—profile for Elle MacPherson[sicSicSic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...
] - SouthCoast Today, 24 July 1997, "Elle Macpherson says she was the victim of burglary..."
- SouthCoast Today, 6 December 1997, "Two men pleaded guilty..."
- The Smoking Gun
- Elle is also a Patron for NACOA, the National Association for Children of Alcoholics.
- "Elle is dating Canadian singer Bryan Adams."