Seems the world would not be complete without a Naomi Campbell story. Over the past year she has been embroiled in a controversy regarding so-called blood diamonds she allegedly received from the Liberian dictator Charles Taylor.
According to the story, Jeremy Ractliffe, the South African who once ran Nelson Mandela’s children’s charity, the supermodel gave him three uncut diamonds in 1997. As a result, Campbell had to take the stand in Taylor’s international war crimes trial.
Prosecutors at Taylor’s trial claim that the former Liberian president was in South Africa in 1997 to trade uncut blood diamonds for weapons that he then gave to Sierra Leonean rebels.
Now the legendary model has appeared in a fall advertisement campaign for designer Dennis Basso. The problem is that Basso is a famous New York furrier and in 1994 Campbell appeared in the iconic People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) anti-fur ad declaring, “I’d rather go naked than wear fur.”
Apparently, Campbell’s had a change of heart. Better hide Fluffy.
–torrance stephens, ph.d.
