Elite Model Managment Under Drug Arrest
Paris, In the news today is the arrest of Bertrand Hennet, chief executive of Elite World, who has been charged with buying and transporting cocaine, in the latest scandal to hit the industry, reports the Telegraph.
Elite Model Management is house to 800 models including supermodels Gisele Bundchen, Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Linda Evangelista and Naomi Campbell.
"The president of Elite Model Management, Gerald Marie, said that he was "surprised" by the affair but the ex-husband of Linda Evangelista dismissed the arrest as an "epiphenomenon," saying that Mr Hennet had no hand in the day to day running of the agency. Mr Hennet's father, Bernard, bought a controlling stake in Elite World in 2006 and his son deals plays a purely administrative role. "We see him pass through but he has nothing to do with the models and photos and everything we do here," Mr Marie told Le Parisien.
This is not the first time Elite has been the subject of scandal. In 1999, a controversial BBC documentary filmed Mr Marie offering an undercover reporter sex for money. During the programme, model Rebecca Howard, a finalist in the 1994 "Elite Look of the Year" final, said that she was destroyed by drugs supplied by the fashion industry. Although the documentary was subsequently discredited in part, it sent shock waves throughout the industry" writes the Telegraph.
The Marie Claire Espania blog (translated) adds to the 1999 story in that:
"In 1999, an investigative report by the BBC during Fashion Week in Milan found that the girls are pressured (some with only 13 years) for sex and taking drugs. They even got a recording of the then president of the agency, Gerald Marie, saying that it planned to seduce the winner of the Elite Model Look, where the average age of participants was 15 years."
The above Image is from Marie Claire's blog in which (translated): "Sisley
said in a press release that it was not an ad campaign itself but in
some sick joke from which nobody ever knew who, how or."
Scandalous! It's a shady aspect of the industry-all the parties and hotspots, it's bound to be a problem.
I think this is something that's been happening for a long time. The girls are under a lot of pressure and lack self confidence.