originally published — August 2008

Super Agent

Janice Dickinson Gives Us The Not-So-Skinny On Season 4 Of Her Oxygen Docu-Series … And Why She Won’t Be Doing Ads For BlackBerry Anytime Soon.

By Lori Acken

But you gave them a shot … ?

Listen, Nathan Fields snuck some of these plus-size girls in the house, and I gave them a shot. But this was against my will.

Here’s the way it is. These girls were in my face going, “You don’t understand — big is beautiful.” I said, “Big IS beautiful.” But listen … as soon as I’m done with this interview, I’m going to go for a run. I’m disciplined. It’s part of my code, my ethic. I wake up and get on my knees and meditate and do yoga. Then I get up and go for a run. And then I clean the house and check my daughter’s homework, make sure her books are in order. I make sure everything for my children is in order. And THEN I go to work.

My son, Nathan Fields, runs the commercial division — the plus-size division — and he will continue to do that. But I want high fashion! I want couture! Can you put that in capital letters — I WANT HIGH FASHION!

[Dickinson’s manager, celebrated New York PR maven Lizzie Grubman, interjects:]
I have to interrupt! Her whole life she was brought up in a different era of modeling. [Janice: “Old school!”] This is “new school.” She cares about bringing up her children and these kids and showing them a healthy lifestyle. [Janice: “A healthy life!”] When you see these girls in Janice’s eyes — you know, I was there during the shooting — she can’t really relate to it.

[Dickinson continues:]
Here’s the deal. [My daughter] Savannah — she’s 14 and she helps out — said, “You know, Mom, you can be nice to them.” And I said, “I am being nice — but they eat too much!” She goes to an all-girls school and she’s very fair and she’s very correct. She’s a phenomenal girl for 14. She’s everything I’m not.

But I think part of what sets your show apart from other modeling shows is that you do invest yourself in your models and you stick with them, season after season.

Absolutely! We accumulate — we don’t eliminate.

We have Crystal Trueheart, an amazing girl — all the models in the house, that’s their favorite. Crystal Trueheart is still back with us after four seasons. Before your eyes, the duckling has turned into a swan. She was a little plump. But we started getting her going on a healthy diet and Pilates and yoga. This season, I’ve got a woman in the house teaching these girls how to dance with a chair — it’s very sexy. We’ve got the kids dancing with a chair and a feather boa. So I make it fun.

I’ve got another girl that I’m crazy about — Hazuki — from Japan. They threw her out; I’m going to make them pay big yen to get her back. And we’ve got another girl, an African American girl, who’s amazing. When she smiles, forget about it!

My problem is I fall in love with each and every one of them — even the bad kids. I mean, one girl — CC — came to the shoot two hours late. She got the job, though! She got the job because she was right for the job. But still, I couldn’t believe it! I was ready to bite her head off, because I was the only agent that goes to the shoot just to check up, just to watch their attitude, just to see. I’m an agent who also cares about their finance, not just their romance … or anything else that ends with an “ance.” Their “new-ances.”

It’s about reading, writing, arithmetic. It’s about reading the newspaper, casting a vote. I’m teaching them to go to the public library and rent a book. I don’t know what their parents have done with them!

Kids today have lost sight of their instinct due to the onslaught of the computer, and their BlaaaackBerries! Their BlaaaaackBerries, Lizzie Grubman!

Due to the onslaught of modern technology children have lost sight of one thing — instinct. They have forgotten how to think. “Oh My God! OMG!” And all that stuff on the Gossip Girl, and texting and all that crap. I don’t believe in it. I still write everything longhand and I remember telephone numbers in my head. People have lost sight of instinct.

Next: What about your own kids?

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originally published — August 2008

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