Janice Dickinson

{{Infobox Model | name = Janice Dickinson | image = | imagesize = | caption = | birthname = Janice Doreen Dickinson | birthdate = (1954-02-15) February 15, 1954

Janice Doreen Dickinson (born February 15, 1955) is an American model, fashion photographer, actress, author and agent. By the 1980s, she was considered a supermodel in the fashion industry, and later expanded her profession to reality television by judging for four cycles on America's Next Top Model. She subsequently opened her own modeling agency, which was documented as The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency.

Early life

Janice Dickinson was born in Brooklyn, New York. to parents Ray Dickinson of Belorussian descent and Jennie Pietrzykoski, who is of Polish, Irish and Japanese ancestry. 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. Primarily to disassociate herself from her parents, Dickinson adopted an ambitious attitude at an early age.

In the early 1970s, Dickinson moved to New York City and began to pursue work as a model there is where she met her first love sly..

Career

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

Dickinson returned to New York in 1978. 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.

By the 1980s, Dickinson was considered a supermodel and was said to have "possessed the kind of name and face recognition" that the majority of women in the modeling industry strive to achieve. 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.

Dickinson looked for ways to sustain her relevance within the modeling industry as she aged. 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. Dickinson's follow-up to No Lifeguard on Duty is the 2004 book Everything About Me is Fake… And I’m Perfect.

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" in 1979. 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 claims for coining the term "supermodel" in 1979 and being the first supermodel, however, are disputed. The term "supermodel" was already known in the 1940s. The writer Judith Cass used the term in 1942 for her article in the Chicago Tribune, which headlined "Super Models are Signed for Fashion Show". Later in 1943, Clyde Matthew Dessner used the term in his modeling book. The term was popular throughout the 1960s to 1970s. In 1968, an article in Glamour described Twiggy, Cheryl Tiegs, Wilhelmina, Veruschka, Jean Shrimpton and fifteen other top models as "supermodels". Jean Shrimpton was also described as a supermodel by Time in 1971, as were Beverly Johnson by Jet in 1977, and Naomi Sims in the 1978 book Total Beauty Catalog by K.T. Maclay.

Dorian Leigh is recognized as being one of the 20th Century's first supermodels, and whose career began and ended before Dickinson was born. Gia Carangi has also been called the first supermodel, as well as Lisa Fonssagrives.

Dickinson has appeared on the cover of Vogue (both American and international editions) 37 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.

In 2005, Dickinson was a regular on The Surreal Life for its fifth season. She appeared with English 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 the runner up against Christopher Biggins. She was then selected to do a live bushtucker trial, in which she was joined by fellow contestant 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!".

Dickinson was also a contestant for series two of the American version of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! which began airing in June 2009. She was eliminated from the show on June 18, 2009.

In 2009, Dickinson was a guest judge on the Finnish version of the Top Model franchise. She created controversy after the claimed effects of accidentally mixing a sleeping aid with champagne caused her to fall down a flight of stairs and burst out at the models. Dickinson was then taken to a hospital where she was told she had no visible injuries. She later then apologized to the models during the show's airing.

Dickinson 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."

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, Simon Fields (1987 – 1993), and Albert B. Gerston (February 1995 – 1996; also recorded as Alan B. Gersten). With Fields she had a son, Nathan Fields. She has a daughter, Savannah Dickinson, 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.

Her past lovers include Warren Beatty, Sylvester Stallone, Jack Nicholson, Liam Neeson, Sir Mick Jagger, and Bruce Willis. In an interview on The Howard Stern Show in 2007, Dickinson claimed to have had sex with over 1,000 men.

Dickinson has been open about the emotional and physical abuse she suffered as a child, 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." She further relayed, "I survived a monster... 16 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." 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?"

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."

Age

Dickinson's date of birth is variously stated as February 15, 17, or 28 in 1951, 1952, 1954, 1955, 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. In the eighth episode of the same series, she said, "I waited until I was 32 to get married." In 1987 she married Simon Fields, which would again place her birth date at 1955.

As an author

In 2002, Dickinson, in need of money, wrote her first book, the autobiography No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of The World's First Supermodel.. Two years later, she started the writing of her second book, Everything About Me Is Fake... And I'm Perfect!, in which she describes her life in modeling, her experience with plastic surgery, and her battle with anorexia, bulimia and alcoholism.

Dickinson's most recent book is Check Please! Dating, Mating and Extricating and is labeled as showcasing a lighter and tender side of Dickinson. In the book, Dickinson discusses the men in her life, and prescribes her rules for dating.

External links

• Janice Dickinson's Blog and Official Site
• Janice Dickinson's UK website
• Janice Dickinson Talks Trash About Celebs
• Janice Dickinson at IMDb
• 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)