a blog for the beleaguered
Birds of a feather stick together – especially when both feathers are bosses with a reputation for assistant abuse. This week is Fashion Week, and Vogue editor Anna “The Devil Wears Prada” Wintour has nothing but nice things to say about Naomi “Cell Phone Tosser” Campbell. In response to claims that Campbell was a diva (shock!) during prep for Fashion Week, Wintour said, “Naomi was on time, professional and a joy to work with.”
Yeah, you two have no incentive to protect each other. Nope.
STA’s mascot, Naomi Campbell, is once again back in the news with some assistant-related drama. However, this time she’s the one suing instead of the one being sued. Naomi brought a suit against her former assistant, Vanessa Frisbee, who allegedly violated her non-disclosure agreement by selling a story about Naomi to a tabloid publication. Instead of waiting for a verdict, Naomi claims she’s “tired of litigation” (excuse me while I laugh hysterically for a minute) and has pulled the plug on the whole trial. That doesn’t come cheap, though – she now has to pay £300,000 for her and Frisbee’s legal fees.
In other European celebrity assistant news, U2 bassist Adam Clayton is pressing charges against his former assistant, Carol Hawkins, whom Adam alleges embezzled €1.8 million from him over the years. From the Irish Times:
Mr Sreenan [Clayton's attorney] said the matter went back to September 2008 when Ms Hawkins – who worked as a housekeeper and personal assistant – had come to Mr Clayton and confessed she had misappropriated €13,000 of his money. He had dealt with this in “a compassionate manner” and had altered his financial arrangements accordingly and kept her on in employment.
However, counsel said it had since emerged that Ms Hawkins, without the authorisation of Mr Clayton, had used his debit and credit cards.
On November 19th last, when allegations were put to her, she had accepted the cards had been used and money taken without Mr Clayton’s authorisation but she had disputed the sums involved, Mr Sreenan said. Her employment had been terminated.
Quite the celebrity assistant drama going on this week! I’m definitely keeping an eye on these two cases. Plus, did you know Adam Clayton used to date Naomi Campbell (see photo)? Isn’t it great when these posts come full circle?
Just when I thought former Naomi Campbell assistant Rebecca White – who decided to announce to the world she’d seen Heath Ledger do drugs with Naomi just hours after Ledger’s death – she’s back in the news again. This time, she’s attached herself to the biggest story in the news, the death of Michael Jackson. TMZ reports that White is being sued by Jackson’s ex-wife (and mom of his two older kids), Debbie Rowe. White appeared last night on the tabloid TV show EXTRA and spoke about conversations she allegedly had with Rowe.
In a defamation lawsuit filed today, Rowe claims White defamed her when she went on EXTRA and said she has an email from Debbie saying, “Do I want the kids? Hell no. Does it look good for me to ask for them? Absolutely.”
Rowe claims the emails are bogus.
And, Rowe claims, White is like Zelig, surfacing in a number of high-profile scandals. The suit alleges White claimed to have been a personal assistant for Naomi Campbell back in 2001 and made allegations Campbell forced her to smuggle drugs.
Regardless what I may think about Debbie Rowe, I can’t help but think she has a point about Rebecca White. White does have an ability to try and get herself in the news whenever there’s a celebrity death scandal, and that reeks of insincerity.
I have heard a lot of euphemisms for “assistant,” but I have to say that “fixer” is one of the better ones. French first lady Carla Bruni (who is also a model, singer/songwriter, fashion icon, and overall badass) is now the subject of a tell-all book written by her former “fixer,” which is apparently French for assistant/chauffeur. Franck Demules’ book is not a typical expose, though. He seems to idolize Bruni and describes her as a veritable saint in the drug and alcohol soaked scene that she ran in. People who make cameos in the book include everyone from Mick Jagger to Karl Lagerfeld. There’s also an awesome mention of STA’s favorite evil boss, Naomi Campbell:
Serving Bruni has its tough moments, he says. One was taking Naomi Campbell shopping. On a visit to Au Bon Marché, the Left Bank department store, the former supermodel was so fierce that no-one dared talk to her, he writes.
As for Bruni, Demules credits her for the help and support to overcome a crippling cocaine addiction. I think it’s pretty safe to say she’s a great boss, right?
“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.”
Really? Want to talk about hard work, Naomi? I’ll give you a hint. It involves continuing to put up with a horrible rich woman’s diva behavior every day despite the threat of a cell phone being thrown at you.
Click here to see assistant Marc (Michael Urie), receptionist Amanda (Becki Newton) and Worst Boss Ever Naomi Campbell (herself) on the set of an upcoming episode of Ugly Betty.
Oh man, this news is almost too good to be true. STA’s favorite fictional assistant and STA’s favorite evil celebrity boss are going to go head to head. ABC announced yesterday that Naomi Campbell will guest star on Ugly Betty’s season finale. I can only hope that Naomi tries to mess with Betty and that Betty kicks major ass. I may have to liveblog this.
That reminds me…Ugly Betty is finally back tonight with its first episode since the writers’ strike ended. The episode is about Betty’s 24th birthday.
Ah, Naomi. How we missed you. You’d been so quiet lately. Sure, there was that part where you had a random surgical procedure in Brazil, or the part where you were engaged to some random Brazilian dude, or the part where you went to Venezuela to interview Hugo Chavez, but there hadn’t been a story about you assaulting an assistant in ages.
We’re glad to see you’re not beating assistants for the time being, but did you really have to take your aggression out on a police officer at the airport? Anger management, Naomi. Try it sometime. Or maybe they’ll make you clean up a warehouse in Croydon this time.
In a way, this is weirdly comforting. The sky is still blue. Naomi Campbell is still a bitch with anger issues. All is right with the world.
We’re sad to report the death of one of our own. Former Naomi Campbell personal assistant Jade Bien-Aimee Sutherland took her own life yesterday. The 28-year-old, who grew up in the Caribbean but had been living in London, jumped off of the Albert Bridge, allegedly distraught from her boyfriend’s recent death from pneumonia.
[Sutherland, right, with her former boss.]
Jade’s tenure as Naomi’s assistant–like everyone else’s–did not last long and was fraught with drama. She’d dreamed of a modeling career and hoped that working for Naomi would open doors for her. Sadly, that didn’t pan out. In a blog entry after she quit, Jade wrote “I was happy prior to working for you, now I’m left broken, jobless.”
Our thoughts are with Jade’s family and loved ones.
OK, let’s take a deep breath before delving into this story.
Rebecca White, former assistant to known underling-abuser Naomi Campbell, announced today that she had seen Naomi doing cocaine with Heath Ledger. Rebecca worked with Naomi several years ago, and the only reason she’s coming out about the story now is because she’s trying to get swept up in all the hubbub surrounding Heath Ledger’s sad and untimely death.
[A fine actor, remembered.]
We wanted to write something earlier this week about how saddened we are to hear of Heath’s death, but seeing as there was no assistant-related angle we kept it to ourselves. And now that there is an assistant-related angle, we’re airing our feelings. As for whether Rebecca White is a diehard 10 Things I Hate About You fan who wants to share a memory of an actor she admires or is just a publicity fiend taking advantage of a tragedy to make a name for herself, we don’t know. If you want to read her story, here it is. And if you don’t care to read it, and think it’s better to let the dead stay dead, we understand too.
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