Don't mess with Naomi Campbell

Don't mess with Naomi Campbell

If she "made" you, she can just as easily break you. So why would any aspiring model in her right mind want to risk her career and mess with Naomi Campbell?

After all, the British supermodel basically ruled the runways in the 80s and 90s and is one of the most powerful players in the dog-eat-dog fashion world.

But Miss Universe China 2011 Luo Zilin went there. She started hanging out with Campbell's billionaire ex-boyfriend.

The result: She paid the price.

And it was painful, as anyone could have told her it would be - Luo, 26, was fired from her New York agency, reportedly after Campbell called in a few favours, according to several showbiz websites.

Luo, a Shanghai native, is a contestant on the modelling reality TV series The Face, in which 43-year-old Campbell became her friend and mentor.

The show features three supermodel coaches - Campbell, Coco Rocha and Karolina Kurkova - who compete with each other to find the face of US beauty retailer Ulta Beauty among their handpicked models.

Campbell took Luo under her wing and, in an early episode, even raved about the latter's potential, saying: "I cannot go wrong with her."

But the real drama happened after filming wrapped.

Luo went after Campbell's Russian billionaire ex-boyfriend Vladimir Doronin.

He started dating Campbell in 2008. They broke up in March.

Obviously Luo is a girl with no sense of self-preservation.

Because why would you pull such a stunt on a renowned bully who's been accused 10 times in the past decade of committing acts of violence against her female employees and associates?

Mobile phone assault and Blackberry beatings, anyone?

Things spiralled downwards for the 1.82m-tall Luo when she was caught red-handed cavorting with and kissing Doronin on board his luxury yacht as well as at his holiday villa in Ibiza in early June.

For Campbell, it was game on.

And this time, she didn't even have to lift a finger, well, perhaps just to dial some numbers.

Luo's contract with Mix Model Management NYC was terminated "due to ongoing unprofessional conduct and unacceptable work ethic," announced the firm's president Neal Hamil.

Campbell, who often references quotes on her Twitter account, even issued a veiled warning by writing around the same time as the scandal: "The moment a person loses appreciation for the goodness others have done for them is the moment they begin their fall."

Even Luo's former teammate on The Face, Jocelyn Chew, wasn't too pleased with the sordid developments.

She tweeted: "I'm completely shocked/disgusted W my 'teammate' Zilin. Never judge a book by it's cover. #truecolors love you @naomicampbell."

Whether or not Luo got what she deserved, she has learnt a painful and very public lesson. Don't bite the hand that feeds you - especially when you consider where that hand has been.

The Face ended its run in the US end-March but is airing here on Diva Universal (StarHub Ch 522) on Mondays at 8pm.


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