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Janice Doreen Dickinson (born February 15, 1955) is an American supermodel,³ fashion photographer, actress, author and agent. She opened her own modeling agency, which was documented as The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, after judging for four cycles on America's Next Top Model.

Early life

Janice Dickinson was born in Brooklyn, New York.¹⁴ She was raised in Hollywood, Florida and grew up in a dysfunctional household; her father was abusive and violent, and her mother was abusing drugs.⁴ Primarily to disassociate herself from her parents, Dickinson adopted an ambitious attitude at an early age.⁴

In the early 1970s, Dickinson moved to New York City and began to pursue work as a model.⁴

Career

Dickinson's pursuit to become a model was successful and led her to Paris.⁴ Her "exotic looks" became one of her most prominent features in securing her notoriety within the European modeling industry.⁴

Dickinson returned to New York in 1978.⁴ She subsequently spent the next several years working steadily and partying often, reportedly interacting with celebrities such as John Belushi, Andy Warhol and Truman Capote.⁴

By the 1980s, Dickinson had become a supermodel, as she "possessed the kind of name and face recognition" that the majority of women in the modeling industry strive to achieve.⁴ Dickinson appeared within and on covers of magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and Playboy. She worked with some of fashion's best-known names, including Giorgio Armani, Gianni Versace and Calvin Klein.⁴

Dickinson looked for ways to sustain her relevance within the modeling industry as she aged.⁴ In 2002, she released a tell-all book detailing her "wild days" as a supermodel. Entitled No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World’s First Supermodel, the autobiography was effective in introducing Dickinson to a whole new generation.⁴ Dickinson's follow-up to No Lifeguard on Duty is the 2004 book Everything About Me is Fake… And I’m Perfect.⁴

First supermodel claim

Dickinson is the self-proclaimed first supermodel. In E! Network's E! True Hollywood Story, she described how she coined the term "supermodel". Her manager, concerned that at the peak of her modeling career she was doing too much work, told her, "You are not Superman." Dickinson replied, "I am not Superman, I am a supermodel."

Dickinson's claim as being the first supermodel, however, is disputed. Dorian Leigh is widely recognized as being one of the 20th Century's first supermodels,⁵⁶ and whose career began and ended before Dickinson was born. Lisa Fonssagrives is also considered by most in the fashion industry as the world's first supermodel.⁷ In 1968, an article in Glamour described Twiggy, Cheryl Tiegs, Wilhelmina, Veruschka, Jean Shrimpton and fifteen other top models as supermodels.⁸

Dickinson has appeared on the cover of Vogue (both American and international editions) thirty seven times.

Television

Dickinson reemerged to the forefront with her four-cycle stint as a judge on the reality series America's Next Top Model and her subsequent reality show and modeling agency The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency.⁴

In 2005, Dickinson was a regular on The Surreal Life for its fifth season.⁴ On the show, she consistently fought with fellow castmate Omarosa. In recent interviews, it appears that Dickinson regrets doing this show, and she would rather it be forgotten.

Dickinson appeared with British model Abigail Clancey in Abbey & Janice: Beauty & The Best, a reality series detailing Clancey's attempt to break into the American modeling market. The show debuted in Britain on May 14, 2007 and premiered in the United States on the Oxygen television network on February 19, 2008.

In November 2007, Dickinson became one of the celebrities taking part in the UK reality TV show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. She was in team Snake Rock before the two teams of celebrities joined together. Dickinson competed in the first 'Bushtucker trial', but lost because of her phobia of eels.

She was then selected to do a live bushtucker trial, in which she was joined by fellow contestant Christopher Biggins. She now holds the title for the UK show of being the contestant who has had to do the most trials in any series, due to the public voting her in for every Bushtucker Trial she had been eligible for.

In the finale of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! it was announced that Dickinson had gained second place in the competition, with Christopher Biggins coming first. During the show she became known for saying "Aw Man!".

She was a special guest in Still Charmed and Kicking, one episode of Charmed where Paige disguised herself as Dickinson in order to fool both her sisters and old family friends that people important to her did actually care that she had "died". Her sisters soon found out that "Dickinson" was actually Paige and ordered her to reverse the spell.

Making a guest appearance on CNN's Glenn Beck Show, Dickinson said all Catholic priests are pedophiles. She relayed, "If anyone out there is listening, please just read my book, know my story, that if you are molested or touched in inappropriate areas, please tell a neighbor, tell a friend, tell a priest. Not a priest, they're all pedophiles, but tell someone." When host Glenn Beck challenged Dickinson's statement about priests, she replied, "Oh yes, they are."⁹

She made a cameo appearance in Darren Hayes's video On the Verge of Something Wonderful.

Personal life

Dickinson has been married three times. Her former husbands are Ron Levy, Alan B. Gersten, and Simon Fields, by whom she has a son, Nathan Fields (born May 5, 1987). She has a daughter, Savannah Dickinson (born February 23, 1994), by former boyfriend, Michael Birnbaum. Dickinson thought that Sylvester Stallone was Savannah's father. A paternity test proved that the biological father was not Stallone, but Birnbaum. In her books and in interviews, she has also discussed her numerous sexual relationships with male and female celebrities.¹⁰

Her past lovers include Warren Beatty, Sylvester Stallone, Jack Nicholson,¹¹ Liam Neeson,¹¹, Sir Mick Jagger¹¹ Dolph Lundgren, Grace Jones, Kelly LeBrock, and Bruce Willis.¹² In an interview on The Howard Stern Show in 2007, Dickinson claimed to have had sex with over 1,000 men.¹³

Dickinson has been open about the emotional and physical abuse she suffered as a child,³¹⁴¹⁵ and how her father used to sexually abuse her sister. During an episode of the reality show The Surreal Life, Dickinson stated to her cast mates, "My father was a pedophile. He was a dark, angry guy. Being forced to have a pedophile for a father is probably the most horrible thing that can happen to a child, bar none."¹⁴ She further relayed, "I survived a monster... Sixteen years I was forced to keep the secret... If I ever exposed my pedophile father, I would've been murdered. So you know what he did instead? He beat me on a daily basis."¹⁴ In an interview, Dickinson told British magazine Now, "When he was on the way to the hospital, I tossed his medication out of the car window and didn't tell the doctors. Maybe I wanted to kill the abuser?"¹⁵

Of her childhood with her "rageoholic pedophile" of a father, Dickinson stated, "Because I wouldn't give in and let him have sex with me, I was verbally and physically abused on a daily basis. I was told that I looked like a boy and wouldn't amount to anything. I think if you abuse a child, your balls should be cut off. You should be castrated immediately."¹⁵

Age

Dickinson's date of birth is variously stated as February 15, 17, or 28 in 1951, 1952, 1954, or 1960. Municipal records from Los Angeles California, Hollywood, and Florida give the date as February 15. In Dickinson's autobiography No Lifeguard on Duty, she wrote, "When I was just eighteen months old, in 1957, the family moved from Brooklyn to Florida." She also graduated in 1973 from South Broward High School, making 1955 her more likely year of birth.

In the first episode of I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! on November 12, 2007, Dickinson stated her age as 53. This corresponds with the 1955 date of birth given in this article. 1954 would be more accurate, but her age at time of high school graduation is as yet unknown.

References

External links

• Janice Dickinson's Blog and Official Site
• Janice Dickinson's UK website
• Janice Dickinson On I'm A Celebrity
• Janice Dickinson Talks Trash About Celebs
• Janice Dickinson at the Internet Movie Database
• Janice Dickinson's community on LJ
• Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency at MySpace
• Janice Dickinson interview
• AOL Books interview on the book Check, Please: Dating, Mating, and Extricating (2006)

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 5 January 2009, at 21:05.

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