name,” for when the climactic cut occurred,rnamid “unbelievable chaos,” thern”haircolor icon of our time” perseveredrnlike the “determined” woman she is.rn”When Garren did this cut, I didn’trneven flinch,” the model bragged. It wasrnonly after the wrenching experience, likerna soldier plagued by flashbacks of thernfront, that the emotions of the event gotrnthe best of her. “It was at Louis’ [the hairrncolorist’s] that it hit me,” she confessed,rn”when we were rinsing the toner. I wasrnsobbing at the sink—I was so emotionalrnabout the color.” Ah, yes, the color.rnJoan of Arc took an arrow throughrnthe thigh. Whether she flinched or gotrnemotional, history doesn’t say.rnBorn to an Italian Catholic family inrnSt. Catharines, Ontario, in 1965, Ms.rnEvangelista admits to a childhood obsessionrnwith every aspect of “fashion—withrnthe magazines, the models and thernposes.” After entering the Miss Teen Niagararncontest at age 16, she moved tornNew York and then to Paris, where at agern19—the age at which Joan of Arc wasrnburned alive for her “idealistic” beliefs—rnshe reportedly had affairs with variousrnmoguls of the Parisian modeling scene,rnincluding one with her future husband,rnGerald Marie, later president and partrnowner of Elite in Paris.rnAs Linda’s star rose, and the famedrnTrinity graced every runway, atelier, andrnmagazine cover in the fashion world, reportsrnbegan surfacing about unscrupulousrnbehavior by both her and her husband.rnMichael Gross, in Model: ThernUgly Business of Beautiful Womenrn(1995), could find few people to speakrnkindly about either of them, citingrnan April Ducksbury of Models One inrnLondon as saying, “Gerald had the mostrnhorrible reputation—just a ruthlessrnbarbarian.” Someone else called him arn”sleaze.”rnRegarding the “independent” Linda,rnshe has long been known as “Evil-angelista”rnin the modeling world, more famousrnfor her rudeness and prima donnarnoutbursts than for any principles and idealism.rn”We don’t vogue—^we are vogue,”rnshe told People. “We have this expression,rnChristy [Turlington] and I,” sherngloated to Vogue, “We don’t wake up forrnless than $10,000 a day.” Which is apparentlyrntrue. When France’s NouvelrnObservateur requested an interview withrnLinda and was told that the price wouldrnbe $10,000 plus a 20 percent service fee,rnthe magazine refused: it published insteadrnthe number of Somalis who couldrnbe fed on the model’s salary. The thirdrnperson in the Trinity, Naomi Campbell,rnhas had her share of scandal as well, refusingrnto share the runway with any otherrnblack model and chalking up affairsrnwith a host of famous men, from MikernTyson, Robert De Niro, and SylvesterrnStallone to rock stars Eric Clapton andrnAdam Clayton. She was reportedly firedrnby Elite in 1993 for “unspecified bad behavior.”rnThere were even rumors of a lesbianrnrelationship between Linda and ChristyrnTurlington, a story fueled by their lewdrngyrations in the swing mounted over therndance floor at a New York disco in 1990,rnwhich photographers gladly captured forrnposterity. To be fair, lesbianism andrnmodeling are not exactly strange bedfellows,rnas the niece of Attorney GeneralrnJanet Reno made clear in July. ApparentlyrnHunter Reno, a blond model forrnL’Oreal, has fallen head-over-stiletto forrntennis jock Martina Navratilova, whornsays she loves the younger Reno “in a wayrnI haven’t loved before.” The gay duo wasrnexpected to join Chastity Bono, CandacernGingrich, and pro-golfer MuffinrnSpencer-Devlin at the first national gayrnpolitical convention in Chicago in August.rnAnd Martina and Muffin wonderrnwhy their phones seldom ring with endorsementrnoffers.rnThis bad behavior by the Trinityturned-rnTerrible Trio didn’t exactly endearrnthem to their colleagues. “They becamernvery powerful and not nice aboutrnit,” said one top model. “They were veryrnsnobby and cold and shut people out.rnWe had to deal with the disgusting influxrnof negative attention to models thatrnthey generated.”rnThis may be true, but the idea thatrnthe candyfloss world of high fashion justrnrecently turned nasty is a convenient butrnself-serving fiction. Whether it be professionalrnbaseball, professional acting, orrnprofessional modeling, each has feastedrnon the vain and the vulgar, and no matterrnhow much we romanticize the “goodrnold days”—whether the eupeptic days ofrnthe booze-swilling Babe or the whiteglovedrnearly years of professional modelingrnin New York—the fact remains thatrnthe “good old days” were not veryrn”good,” unless by “good” we mean whatrnMae West always meant by the word.rnThe only difference between then andrnnow is that models can today visit theirrnabortionist by daylight.rnBill Blass told Michael Gross all aboutrnthese early years, particularly about thernbusiness techniques of Stewart Cowley,rnthe foremost modeling booker in the latern1940’s. “He must’ve f—ked every one ofrnthose girls,” Blass laughed. RegardingrnHarry Conover, the marketing geniusrnwho laid the foundations of professionalrnmodeling in America in the prewar yearsrnand who created that creature called thern”Cover Girl,” he was “never available,”rnremembered Cowley. “He was too busyrnscrewing his models.” And far from subsidingrnin recent years, these Sodom-and-rnGomorrah sideshows, especially betweenrnagents and their jailbait tarts,rncontinue to flourish and have been frequentlyrninvestigated by both the newsrnmedia and the FBI.rnBut should any of this really surprisernus? “This is a world,” concludes Gross,rn”in which lawsuits fly as frequently asrnthe models do from city to city, agencyrnto agency, magazine to magazine, boyfriendrnto boyfriend. Loyalty is nonexistent.rnBetrayal is everywhere. But whatrnelse do you expect from a world thatrncaters to envy and lust?”rnWe get the leaders—as well as thernheroes—we deserve, and if at any timernLinda Evangelista saw the irony of thisrnstory about “honor,” “principle,” “reputation,”rnand “ideals,” she was absolutelyrnright not to let on. Sure, all that glittersrnmay not be gold, and our wandering eyesrnand heedless hearts may indeed berntempted by unlawful prize. But, whorncares? Her nostrils are beautiful, andrnthey even tilt another way.rnTheodore Pappas is the managing editorrnof Chronicles.rnSPORTSrnBoxing atrnthe GardenrnbyMarkRachornImagine this scenario: at the end of arnboxing match between two fighters—rnone white, the other, a visiting Africanrnblack—the black boxer, clearly winningrnthe fight, is disqualified on dubious technicalrngrounds. Instead of protesting hernwalks peacefully over to a neutral corner,rnwhere he is suddenly set upon by thern40/CHRONICLESrnrnrn