Naomi Campbell's day began along familiar lines on Monday. The supermodel was chauffeur-driven in a black sports utility vehicle with tinted windows surrounded by her minders and bodyguards. Reaching the venue, she strolled languidly past a long line of press photographers baying "Naomi, over here," before entering the building and changing into her costume.
And then it all went skewy. Where were the assistants to help her put on her clothes? Where were the makeup artists, the lighting experts and the seamstresses? Where, for heaven's sake, was the Vogue editor Anna Wintour?
The only people in sight were a few bemused-looking garbage collectors, real ones that is, not actors dressed up as garbage collectors of the sort used to add spice to fashion shoots. Campbell, 36, had just begun a weeklong exercise in seeing how the other half lived, courtesy of the New York penal system.
She was the guest of the city's sanitation department and will spend each day this week, from 8am to 4pm, at its warehouse in downtown Manhattan on the edge of the East River.
The community service, along with a compulsory payment of US$185 and a two-day anger management course, was her punishment for throwing a mobile phone at her housemaid, Ana Scolavino, who needed four stitches to the head.
For a celebrity who has endured a barrage of bad press over the incident a year ago, Campbell pulled off her entry to the warehouse at Pier 36 with considerable aplomb. She wore six-inch (15cm) stiletto heels, brown leggings, a black coat and hat and sunglasses.
Inside the warehouse and out of the reach of press lenses, Campbell changed into her boots and donned the standard issue gloves, dust mask and fluorescent safety vest. Then she was assigned her tasks for the day, at which point the full weight of her penance must have become evident to her.
Albert Durrell, a sanitation department deputy chief, explained that she would be asked to sweep and mop the warehouse floor, the locker rooms and windows. And yes, he said, "if they are dirty she will be cleaning toilets."
The one thing she won't have to endure is the prolonged attention of the media. The judge at her sentencing agreed she could stay indoors all week.
"Let me make this clear," Durrell said. "This program has been in Manhattan for over a year now. We've had a couple of celebrities, but the bottom line is everyone is treated with respect and dignity and they have a job to do and they perform well at it. So far so good, we haven't had any problems."
If Campbell, or any of the three other offenders doing community service with her this week, failed to do what they were told, he added, they would be straight back in front of a judge.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
RSS