Last week, supermodel Naomi Campbell spent several million dollars to build a new school in …?ooh sorry, I meant to say she spent several million dollars to feed hundreds of thousands of starving children in?… whoopsie! what I meant?is that she'spent several million dollars on?a party for her boyfriend.
Not just any party, mind you?… a?ridiculously?elaborate?2-day birthday?extravaganza for her billionaire boyfriend, Russian real estate mogul?Vladimir Doronin. It was?his?50th birthday and that’s a milestone … celebrate for sure!?Half a century is a big deal … and don’t get me wrong, I’m all for extravagant parties … but there’s a certain point at which extravagant overflows into vulgar.
Naomi?organized and threw?the two-day themed party in India for nearly 200 guests.?Guests were flown into Rajasthan?on chartered planes. They stayed at a?15th century fort in Jodhpur, which apparently costs $1,700 for a two-night stay (that’s for one room … in India). Guests were driven in Roll Royces during their stay and even had clothes custom designed for them by famed Indian designer Manish Malhotra.
The first evening, guests wore their Malhotra originals and ate traditional Indian food. The theme for the second evening was 1930s black tie … think Great Gatsby … and the amazing Diana Ross performed for a mere $500,ooo. Not bad.
The guest list supposedly included lots of fancy-pants beauties, such as Kate Moss and her husband The Kills’ Jamie Hince, Demi Moore (who may have been a bit sad that no one was throwing a party for her 50th), models Karolina Kurkova, Eva Herzigova, and Liz Hurley, Countess Debbie Von Bismarck, the awesome Bob Geldoff, Sarah Ferguson, JLo, Leonardo DiCaprio, Grace Jones, Donatella Versace, and Giorgio Armani.
While it’s awfully touching that the gorgeous and tempermental Naomi wants to fete her moneybags boyfriend … they do?make a hell of an?attractive pair …?it really sits badly to think that they would go to such extremes. Particularly in a country as poor as India, this level of ostentation seems outrageously tacky. And who knows, Naomi has been very generous to charitable causes in the past and perhaps she donated a matching amount to some worthy cause. Or perhaps they took some time out of their two-day long party to meditate on those less fortunate. Who knows?
Why India as the location, you might ask? Liz Hurley was married there and it’s a great, giant place. Were they hoping to mitigate all the partying with the thinning effects of the inevitable diarrhea? Do these people not work at all, that they can pick up mid-week and?what the hell,?fly to India, which in and of itself is no small thing (though I guess it’s considerably simpler if you have a chartered plane) then spend a Tuesday and Wednesday hanging out, and then spend a day or more getting home. It’s just not real life.
In Naomi’s defense, without the guidance of the incomparable Mother Teresa, she may have gone a wee bit overboard. But God willing,?her guests enjoyed themselves. God knows they probably needed a break from those rough lives, making movies and designing and wearing clothes. And happy birthday Vlad!?I’m sure he deserves to be worshipped in this manner because it must be pretty fucking stressful to be a jet-setting billionaire with a supermodel girlfriend.
Douglas Riggle says
I’m at a loss for words. It’s a struggle for some nonprofits (my own included) to keep a float these days. I guess the economic downturn in the world hasn’t impacted everyone.
CJ says
Economic downturns don’t apply to the truly wealthy. I’m sure lavish parties like this happened quite a bit during the Depression. There just wasn’t the internet to tell everyone how good the wealthy live when everyone else is wondering when toilet paper became so damned expensive.