Paulina Porizkova


Paulina Porizkova is a model, actress and author. Born in Czechoslovakia, she now holds dual U.S. and Swedish citizenship.
At 18 years old, in 1984, she became the first woman from Central Europe to be on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. She was the second woman to be featured on the swimsuit issue's front cover in consecutive years. She was part of the judging panel of America's Next Top Model in Cycles 10–12.

Early life

Born in Prostějov, Czechoslovakia, Porizkova was a toddler when her parents fled Czechoslovakia to Lund, Sweden, to escape the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion. She was left in the care of her grandmother. Czechoslovak authorities would not allow her parents to reclaim her, and the ensuing battle was widely publicized in the Swedish press, making Porizkova a cause célèbre.
After a failed rescue attempt, in which her pregnant mother returned to Czechoslovakia and was shortly detained by the national police and then placed under house arrest, international political pressure led by Olof Palme caused the communist government to allow the Pořízek family to be reunited after seven years. Porizkova acquired Swedish citizenship. The reunion was soon ended when Porizkova's father left the family, and her parents filed for divorce, and her father refused to pay child support for Paulina and her younger brother. Porizkova and her father have been estranged since her youth. Her mother, a midwife, remarried at least twice and as of 2010 was reported to be serving in the Peace Corps in Uganda.

Career

Modeling

An aspiring make-up artist friend took pictures of Porizkova and sent them to the Elite modeling agency in 1980, hoping they would notice her own make-up artist skills.
Porizkova rose to become a top model in Paris during the early 1980s, and her fame spread to the United States when she posed in swimwear for Sports Illustrated. She appeared on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 1984 and again in 1985. She appeared on the cover and inside New York Magazine in July, 1985. Harper's Bazaar named her one of its ten most beautiful women in 1992 and American Photo magazine in its first issue declared her to be the model of the 1980s. Porizkova appeared on the covers of numerous magazines around the world during the 1980s and 1990s, including Vogue, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Self, Cosmopolitan, and Glamour.
She has been featured in advertising campaigns for Chanel, Versace, Hermes, Christian Dior, Oscar De La Renta, Mikimoto, Perry Ellis, Laura Biagiotti, Anne Klein, Ellen Tracy, Barneys New York, Ann Taylor, Guerlain, and Revlon and appeared on the runway for Calvin Klein. In 1988, Porizkova won what was then the highest-paying modeling contract: a $6,000,000 contract with Estée Lauder, replacing Willow Bay. The black-and-white television and print advertising campaign won praise from critics. The Estée Lauder makeover transformed Porizkova's public image from a swimsuit model to that of European sophisticate and she remained the company's face until 1995. She soon landed another multimillion-dollar contract, with Escada. She was presented on the November 1999 Millennium cover of American Vogue as one of the "Modern Muses."

Television work

Porizkova was part of the panel of judges on America's Next Top Model, starting on Cycle 10, replacing fashion icon Twiggy. Porizkova continued to conduct regular weekly evaluations of ANTM participants on the show until she announced during a 12 May 2009, appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson that she had been fired from the show. Although Porizkova maintained she was told by producers that she had an "ego problem," especially when she "consistently complained" about Tyra Banks' reported lateness to the set, ANTM executive producer Ken Mok and Banks released a statement claiming Porizkova's firing was due to "the current state of the economy," forcing ANTM to "make major budget cuts…unfortunately, Paulina was a casualty of these cuts." When questioned by ABC news journalist Cynthia McFadden about the firing of Porizkova as well as former ANTM colleague, Janice Dickinson, both of whom had complained Banks was "difficult," Banks refused to address the issue.
She appeared on Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes.
Porizkova was a participant on Dancing with the Stars, in spring 2007 but was voted off on the first results show which aired on 27 March 2007. In 2009 and 2010, she played Clarissa on about five episodes of the CBS Daytime soap opera As the World Turns. Porizkova appeared in the fourth episode of Celebrity Ghost Stories' second season.

Acting

Porizkova's film debut was in the 1983 modeling mockumentary, Portfolio. She appeared in the 1987 film Anna. In 1989, she co-starred with Tom Selleck in the film Her Alibi.
However, she was nominated for a Golden Raspberry for worst actress for her appearance in the film.
Porizkova appeared in Emir Kusturica's 1993 film Arizona Dream, with Johnny Depp and Jerry Lewis, in a minor role as Lewis's young Polish fiancée. She had the main female role in the 1998 film Thursday. Porizkova wrote and directed the 2001 film, Roommates. In 2004, she starred in the romantic comedy Knots. She appeared in an episode of the Starz comedy series Head Case which aired on 24 April 2009. She appeared in a 6th-season episode of Desperate Housewives, "Chromolume No. 7", alongside model Heidi Klum. She appeared on the ABC Family drama-comedy series Jane by Design in an episode which aired on 6 March 2012, and made a guest appearance on The Mysteries of Laura in February 2015.

Writing

Porizkova co-authored a children's book, The Adventures of Ralphie the Roach with British model Joanne Russell and illustrated by stepson Adam Ocasek, that was published in September 1992. She published her first novel, A Model Summer, in 2007, which is about a 15-year-old Swedish girl chosen by a modeling agent to spend a summer working in Paris in 1980. Porizkova is a blogger for Modelinia and The Huffington Post.

Personal life

On 23 August 1989, Porizkova married Ric Ocasek, lead singer of the rock band The Cars. They had met in 1984 during the filming of The Cars' music video "Drive". The couple have two sons, Jonathan Raven Ocasek, and Oliver Ocasek. In May 2018, Porizkova announced she and Ocasek had separated a year earlier. In September 2019, while caring for Ocasek following an unspecified surgery, she found him dead in his home.

In popular culture

Porizkova is the subject of the song "Friends of P" by The Rentals on their 1995 album, Return of the Rentals, written by lead singer Matt Sharp. She was the subject of "Paulina" on No Doubt's eponymous first album and "Dear Paulina", written and performed by Luna for the film Thursday, in which she appeared. She's one of several women referenced in Sonic Youth's song "Swimsuit Issue," from the 1992 album Dirty.

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