Gisele Bündchen

Gisele Bündchen
Gisele Bündchen at the Fashion Rio Inverno 2006, 30th January 2006.
Born	Gisele Caroline Nonnenmacher Bündchen
Nationality	Brazil
Other names	Gise, The Midas Queen
Years active	2004–
Modeling information
Hair color	Sandy blonde
Eye color	Blue
Agency	IMG Models
Website	http://www.giselebundchen.com.br

Gisele Caroline Nonnenmacher Bündchen (born July 20, 1980) is a Brazilian model. According to Forbes, she is the highest-paid model in the world and also the sixteenth richest woman in the entertainment world, having earned $33 million in 2007 and $35 in 2008 alone, adding to her estimated $150 million fortune. She is also listed on Guinness Book of World Records as the world's richest supermodel. Gisele is the face of more than 20 brands internationally and appeared on more than 500 magazine covers on her career.

Biography

Family and early life

Bündchen was born in the Brazilian town of Três de Maio and grew up in Horizontina, Rio Grande do Sul, to Vânia Nonnenmacher, a bank clerk pensioner, and Valdir Bündchen, a university teacher and writer. She has five sisters — Raquel, Graziela, Gabriela, Rafaela and her fraternal twin Patrícia, Gisele's junior by five minutes. Bündchen was raised as a Roman Catholic, speaks Portuguese as her native language and English as a second language.

She is from Southern Brazil, a region whose population is largely composed of Brazilians of German descent. Bündchen is of distant German ancestry in both sides of her family: her great-great-grandparents immigrated to Brazil from Germany. In regards to her ethnic background, Bündchen was quoted:

"I was born in Horizontina, a town in the backcountry of (Brazilian) state Rio Grande do Sul. The town was once mainly colonized by Germans. In the school which I attended, learning German was actually obligatory from third grade on. But being out of touch with the language for such a long time, I unfortunately forgot it. (...) I belong to the sixth generation of my family in Brazil."

Modeling career

Originally, Bündchen wanted to be a professional volleyball player and considered playing for the Brazilian team, Sogipa. While in school, Bündchen was so thin that her friends used to call her "Olívia Palito" (Portuguese for Olive Oyl, Popeye's skinny girlfriend), and "Saracura" (a type of Brazilian shorebird).

In 1993, a then-13-year-old Bündchen joined a modeling course with her sisters Patrícia and Gabriela at her mother's insistence. The following year, Bündchen went to São Paulo in a school excursion to give them an opportunity to walk in a big city. In a shopping mall, Bündchen was discovered by a modeling agency. She was subsequently selected for a national contest, Elite Look of the Year, in which she placed second — Claudia Menezes, from Bahia, took first place. Bündchen placed fourth in the world contest, held in Ibiza, Spain. In 1996, Bündchen moved to New York City to begin her modeling career, debuting at Fashion Week.

Her debut on the cover of the July 1999 issue of Vogue magazine, and the accompanying editorial entitled, "The Return of the Sexy Model" is widely viewed as marking the end of the fashion's "heroin chic" era. She graced the cover again in November and December of that year. She won the VH1/Vogue Model of the Year for 1999, and a January 2000 cover gave her the rare honor of three consecutive Vogue covers. In 2000, she was the fourth model in history to grace the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, when she was named "the most beautiful girl in the world". Bündchen has been on the covers of many top fashion magazines including W, Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, Allure, international editions of Vogue, as well as style and lifestyle publications such as i-D, The Face, Arena, Citizen K, Flair, GQ, Esquire and Marie Claire. She has also been featured in broader market publications such as Time, Vanity Fair, Forbes, Newsweek, Veja, totaling more than 500 magazine covers throughout the world.

Bündchen consistently works with acclaimed photographers such as Mario Testino, Steven Meisel, Nick Knight, Mert and Marcus, Rankin, Annie Leibovitz, Karl Lagerfeld, Peter Lindbergh, David LaChapelle, Mario Sorrenti and Patrick Demarchelier, among others, and renowned directors such as Jean Baptiste Mondino and Bruno Aveillan.

According to Claudia Schiffer: "Supermodels, like we once were, don't exist any more." and reckoned that Gisele Bündchen was the only one close to earning the supermodel title.

Endorsements and earnings

Since her debut, Bündchen has been the face of a variety of advertising campaigns including several seasons of Christian Dior, Balenciaga, Mervyn's, Dolce & Gabbana, Missoni, Versace, Céline, Givenchy, Bvlgari, Lanvin, Guerlain, Valentino, Ralph Lauren, Earl Jean, Zara, Chloé, Michael Kors, Louis Vuitton, and Victoria's Secret. She has appeared in advertisements for Nivea lotion and is the face of several Brazilian brands including Vivo, Multiplan (Shopping Malls), Colcci and Credicard (Citibank). After C&A Brazil hired Bündchen as a spokesmodel and began airing television commercials, sales increased by 30%.

In May of 2006, Bündchen signed another multi-million dollar deal, this time with American giant Apple Computer. She starred in an advertising campaign to promote the new Macintosh line through the Get a Mac advertisements.

She has her own line of sandals with footwear company Grendene called Ipanema Gisele Bündchen. Forbes puts her 53rd on their list of the most powerful celebrities of 2007 due to the success of her shoe line. Custom Ipanema flip-flops sell for as much as $230 a pair. She is also the owner of a hotel in the south of Brazil, the Palladium Executive.

On May 1, 2007, it was announced that Bündchen had ended her contract with Victoria's Secret. The New York Post's Page Six reported that Bündchen had left Victoria's Secret because she just wanted to move on, not because she didn't get paid enough.. In July of 2007, having earned an estimated total of $33 million in the past 12 months, Forbes magazine named her the world's top-earning model in the list of the World's 15 Top-Earning Supermodels.

Gisele Bündchen Stock Index

An American economist named Fred Fuld developed a stock index to measure the profit performance improvement of companies represented by Bündchen compared to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. According to Fuld, the Gisele Bündchen Stock Index was up 15% during the interval of time between May and July of 2007, substantially surpassing the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was up just 8.2%.

Tribute to Gisele (song)

A Brazilian singer and songwriter named Gabriel Guerra, along with Pedro Cezar, another musician, wrote as homage the song Tributo a Gisele (Tribute to Gisele in English)., which is currently the theme of the supermodel's official website. In January of 2008 she met Gabriel Guerra at Copacabana Palace Hotel in Rio de Janeiro where she was a guest at the time.

Her image as inspiration for aesthetic plastic surgeries

A result of research was publicized at February 2008 by The International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) to reveal how world celebrity images, that overwhelm popular media, influence people's choices and decisions to undergo plastic surgeries. The question asked was: What influences do celebrities have on the decisions patients make? The survey was sent to over 20,000 plastic surgeons in 84 countries.

Gisele Bündchen, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Pamela Anderson, Sophia Loren, Brad Pitt and George Clooney were the most mentioned. Gisele won the abdomen and hair categories and was second place in the breasts category.

Nude photography auctioned for US$193,000.00 (£96,000.00)

At April 11, 2008, a black-and-white photo of Bündchen, shot by Irving Penn, was auctioned for USD 193,000.00 (£96,000.00). The picture was one of dozens from the collection of Gert Elfering that were sold at Christie's International in New York. In all, the auction tallied US$ 4.27 million and included pictures of Brigitte Bardot, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Carla Bruni. Bündchen's picture reached the highest price in comparison with all others famous personalities. Bardot was the second with USD 181,000.00 (£90,000.00).

Charity work

Bündchen lends her support and image for a number of charities and humanitarian causes, such as the I am African campaign, painting her face for protesting against the lack of attention about the HIV African victims and also was, without payment, the face of American Express Red Card, a initiative launched by U2 front man Bono and Bobby Shriver to send a money percentage of financial transactions with this credit card for HIV African victims.

She designed a limited necklace's edition for Harper’s Bazaar, crafted by jewelers Gumuchian Fils and sold to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Hospital, specializing in cancer treatment. She served as the spokesperson and campaign model for Fashion Targets Breast Cancer.

Bündchen already gave a São Paulo Fashion Week's payment check for Zero Hunger (in Portuguese: Fome Zero), a Brazilian government program introduced by the Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2003, and nowadays, her main social activism is to protect the Amazon Rainforest water sources, donating for this cause a percentage of profits reached with her line of sandals named Ipanema Gisele Bündchen for helping projects like Nascentes do Brasil, ISA, Y Ikatu Xingu and De Olho nos Mananciais.

Personal Life

Bundchen has dated Leonardo Di Caprio and Kelly Slater. She is currently dating New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Rumors are about that she is pregnant with his baby.

Filmography

Year	Title	Roles	Notes
2004	Taxi	Vanessa	main antagonist
2006	The Devil Wears Prada	Serena	supporting character/special appearance

Controversy

PETA "anti-fur" target

In 2002, during the taping of the annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, Bündchen was the target of a protest made by four members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals because she was signed to be the new face of Blackglama, a trademark of a fur farming cooperative. When Bündchen was on stage, four women jumped onto the runway holding posters that read "Gisele: Fur Scum" and included the logo for PETA. Bündchen tried to ignore them while several security guards detained the protesters. Bündchen told CNN the protest was "unwarranted" as the fashion show only featured faux fur. After the incident, the producers decided to stop the music and redid Bündchen's segment once the protesters were removed.

"I'm the biggest animal lover in the world!!" she said backstage after the show. "I was just doing my job as a model. I don't even wear fur. They just want attention." Despite her comments that PETA had acted 'inappropriately' Bündchen later announced that "it was a bad decision on my part," explaining that she no longer "wears any fur". But she appeared on the October 2005 China Vogue Cover wearing fox.

Reaction to papal statement on condom use

Although raised as a Roman Catholic, Bündchen did not agree with statements regarding condom use made by Pope Benedict XVI during his official visit to Brazil . Bündchen was quoted with saying, "To prohibit condoms is ridiculous, just think of all the diseases transmitted without them," and asking, "How is it possible to not want people to use condoms and also not have abortions? It's impossible, I'm sorry."

The euro preference rumour

When Bündchen signed a contract in August of 2007 to represent Pantene hair products in Brazil for Procter & Gamble, it was reported that the model demanded payment in euros, according to Veja, the biggest weekly Brazilian magazine. She was also rumoured by Veja to be paid in euros for the last deal reached with the Italian brand Dolce & Gabbana to promote the fragrance The One. The American dollar's devaluation in international markets was the trigger for the rumour and Bündchen was written about in many financial publications, a rarity for someone in the fashion world.

Her sister and manager Patrícia Bündchen denied these contract details on her official web site after much criticism.

Vogue America cover with LeBron James

The cover of the April 2008 Vogue, shot by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, was the first time a black man had graced the cover. Criticism was immediate from many quarters for what was perceived as a racist depiction of LeBron James, putting the basketball superstar and the much smaller model in a pose reminiscent of King Kong carrying off Fay Wray. Further criticism arose when the website Watching the Watchers analyzed the photo alongside the World War I recruitment poster titled "Destroy This Mad Brute".

External links

• Official website
• Gisele Bündchen at IMDb
• Gisele Bundchen at Fashion Model Directory