Paulina Porizkova

Paulina Porizkova (born Pavlína Pořízková, ; 9 April 1965) is a model and author.

Porizkova was born on 9 April 1965 in Prostějov, then in Czechoslovakia, to anti-Soviet dissident parents, Anna Pořízková and Jiří Pořízka.

She was left in the care of her maternal grandmother after her parents fled to Sweden to escape the Warsaw Pact invasion.

Czechoslovak authorities would not allow her parents to reclaim her, and the ensuing battle was widely publicized in the Swedish press, making her a cause célèbre.

When Porizkova was seven, her pregnant mother returned to Czechoslovakia by a fake passport in an attempt to rescue her.

After the attempt failed, her mother was briefly detained by the national police and then placed under house arrest with her family.

Born in Czechoslovakia, she relocated to Sweden in 1973.

She began modelling in Paris at age 15.

In 1973, international political pressure led by Olof Palme caused the communist government to allow the Pořízek family to be reunited.

Porizkova's parents divorced after her father had an affair.

She and her father, who refused to pay child support for his children, have been estranged since her youth.

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.

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.

Her first appearance as a model in the magazine was in 1983.

Porizkova's film debut was in the 1983 modeling mockumentary, Portfolio.

In 1984, Porizkova became the first Central European woman to appear on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

In 1984, at 18 years old, she became the first woman from Central Europe to be on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

She was the second woman (after Christie Brinkley) to be featured on the swimsuit issue's front cover in consecutive years (1984 and 1985).

She appeared again on the cover in 1985.

She appeared on the cover and inside New York in July, 1985.

As an actress, she made her film debut in Anna (1987).

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.

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.

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.

Porizkova was part of the panel of judges on America's Next Top Model (ANTM), starting on Cycle 10, replacing fashion icon Twiggy.

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.

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.

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.

Her mother, a midwife, remarried at least twice and, as of 2010, was reported to be serving in the Peace Corps in Uganda.

Porizkova shared the photo that got the attention of modeling scout John Casablancas.

She was 13.

One of her friends, who wanted to be a makeup artist, painted Porizkova's face, along with other friends, and sent the photographs to modeling agencies in Paris in the hopes of getting hired.

"Soon after, a modeling agent called inviting me to Copenhagen to meet the famed model scout John Casablancas. ... He took one look at me and asked: ‘Want to go to Paris?’ As if I'd say no! The rest, as they say, is history."