They might look like stony-eyed femme bots on the cat walk, but models have made headlines for their off-runway cat-fights as well. Blame it on the industry’s ultra-competitive atmosphere, or maybe it’s the irritability of having abysmally low blood sugar, but the following intra-model feuds have existed since before the runway’s current crop of skeletal Bulgarians were glints in a headhunter’s eye.
1. Naomi Campbell vs. Tyra Banks
Ah, once this was mother of all modeling feuds! While Naomi Campbell has earned a reputation for tantrum-throwing antics that has sent everyone from personal assistants to agency contractors running for the hills, she reserved a special strain of venom for fellow supermodel Tyra Banks that poisoned any encounter with the American beauty for fourteen years. When Tyra landed her own daytime talk show, she invited Naomi to appear in a highly-publicized détente. “Back then there were 10 top models, but there was an unwritten rule that only one of them could be black,” Tyra told her former rival. “And Naomi was that one black girl.” The two women opted to create a more united front against the
white-dominated fashion industry by resolving their
differences.
2. Gisele Bundchen vs. Bar Refaeli
While no girl is thrilled to see her ex-boyfriend on the arm of another woman—especially when girlfriend 2.0 is Israeli beauty Bar Refaeli—few jilted lovers have to deal with the same competition twice. After Gisele Bundchen and Leonardo DiCaprio ended their four-year relationship, paparazzi quickly snapped up pictures of Leo getting friendly with Bar. When Gisele later ended her stint with surfer Kelly Slater, Bar hooked up with Gisele’s sloppy-seconds again. Tension peaked when Victoria’s Secret—Gisele’s modeling mainstay—was rumored to be pursuing Bar for their upcoming Angel Bra series. Gisele threw a fit and told the lingerie company reps that they had to choose between her or Bar—an
ultimatum that she undoubtedly wanted to sling at
her old boyfriends, too.
3. Jerry Hall vs. Carla Bruni and Janice Dickinson
Leo DiCaprio must have been taking notes from Mick Jagger in his youth. The Rolling Stones front-man had one rocky common-law marriage with model Jerry Hall thanks to his penchant for models (ladies: this is why you don’t marry an inveterate modelfucker in a Balinese “ceremony”). When Mick took up with runway queen Carla Bruni in the late ‘80s, Jerry publically warned Carla to back off her man, kicking up a dust storm of speculations about divorce and custody battles over their four children. Later Jagger apparently took up with foul-mouthed proto-supermodel Janice Dickinson, who disdained Jerry to the press. “Jerry hated me, but she can fuck off and die,” Janice ranted. Carla eventually settled
down with then-married French president Nicholas
Sarkozy, and Janice still makes headlines as a
vituperative C-lister, but Jerry got the last laugh with
her tell-all memoir detailing her marriage with Jagger
during all his dalliances.
4. Elle Macpherson vs. Heidi Klum
Few of us could hotly contest Heidi Klum’s professional decision to assume the nickname “The Body”—have you seen her Sports Illustrated swimsuit covers?—but Elle Macpherson has room to argue. In 2006, Heidi came out with a Victoria’s Secret commercial with the slogan, “They call me The Body, and now I have a bra named after me,” allegedly ruffling feathers in Elle’s camp. Elle’s publicist immediately quibbled to the press, reminding reporters that a slew of magazines had dubbed the Aussie model The Body in the past, leading to Elle’s own line of Body products. No one seemed to care that "The Body" makes both women sound like a 'Law & Order' extra who suffers a brutal
end.
5. Claudia Schiffer vs. Stella Tennant
Known as the “good girl” of the Big Six supermodels of the 1990s, Claudia coined herself as a teetotaler who abstained from drugs and clubbing, but that didn’t spare her from the ruthless world of business. Chanel had employed Claudia to peddle makeup and purses for years before unceremoniously dropping her for Stella in 1998. “Stella is more in-tune with the modern fashion trends,” designer Karl Lagerfield explained in a less-than-subtle swipe at Claudia’s advanced age (in modeling years). Claudia eventually patched things up—with Chanel, at least—and became the face for the label’s Spring/Summer 2008 line.