| Gisele Bündchen Biography |
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Gisele Bündchen Biography 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 million 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. Bündchen has been the face of more than 20 brands internationally, and has appeared on more than 500 magazine covers. Biography Family and early life Gisele 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 from both sides of her family: her great-great-grandparents immigrated to Brazil from Germany. In regards to her ethnic background, Bündchen was quoted: 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 the Pirelli calendar 2001 and 2006 as well as 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. Claudia Schiffer said: "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. Bundchen is signed to 2pm Model Management in Copenhagen, Denmark. 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, Credicard (Citibank), and Volkswagen do Brasil. After C&A Brazil hired Bündchen as a spokesmodel and began airing television commercials, sales increased by 30%. In May 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. Also in 2006, Bündchen became the new face of Swiss luxury watchmaker Ebel. 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 01, 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 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 as one of the reasons to love New York In the December 2005 issue, New York magazine chose-and publicized a list of-123 reasons to love New York City, and reason number 43 was because Gisele Bündchen lives there. 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 with the Dow Jones Industrial Average. According to Fuld, the Gisele Bündchen Stock Index was up 15% between May and July 2007, substantially surpassing the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was up just 8.2%. Tribute to Gisele (song) As an homage to Gisele, Brazilian singer and songwriter Gabriel Guerra, along with Pedro Cezar, another musician, wrote the song Tributo a Gisele (Tribute to Gisele in English), which is currently the theme of the supermodel's official website. In January 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 in February 2008 by The International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) to reveal how world celebrity images, which overwhelm popular media, influence people's choices and decisions to undergo plastic surgery. The question asked was, What influences do celebrities have on the decisions patients make?. The survey was sent to more than 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 frequently mentioned celebrities. Gisele won the abdomen and hair categories and took second place in the breasts category. Nude photography auctioned for US$193,000 (£96,000) On April 11, 2008, a black-and-white photo of Bündchen, shot by Irving Penn, was auctioned for US$ 193,000 (£96,000). 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 the others. Bardot was the second with US$ 181,000 (£90,000). Gisele as one of the fashion's most powerful names On August 26, 2008, the list of 50 names publicized by "NY Daily News", considered Gisele Bündchen the fourth most powerful person in the fashion world among such names of great notoriety as designer Marc Jacobs and Vogue's editor and chief Anna Wintour. Social work Bündchen lends her support and image to a number of charities and humanitarian causes, such as the I am African campaign, in which she painted her face to protest against the lack of attention given to Africa's HIV/AIDS victims. And, without receiving payment, Bündchen was the face of American Express Red Card, an initiative launched by U2 front man Bono and Bobby Shriver to send a percentage of monies earned from the financial transactions of this credit card to Africa's HIV/AIDS victims. She designed a limited necklace edition for Harper's Bazaar, crafted by jewelers Gumuchian Fils. These necklaces were sold to raise money for St. Jude Children's Hospital, which specializes 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 Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2003. Currently, her main social activism is to help protect the Amazon Rainforest water sources, donating to this cause a percentage of profits from her line of sandals named Ipanema Gisele Bündchen. Also, Bündchen helps projects such as Nascentes do Brasil, ISA, Y Ikatu Xingu, and De Olho nos Mananciais. Personal relationships Bündchen has dated Leonardo DiCaprio and Kelly Slater. She is currently dating New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Since they started their relationship, there are rumors that she is pregnant with his baby. The magazine In Touch Weekly reported, on May 04, 2008, that Brady wants to propose to Gisele.
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