Bad And Beautiful: Inside the Dazzling And Deadly World of Supermodels [Hardcover]

Ian Halperin (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Citadel (January 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806523107
• ISBN-13: 978-0806523101
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,414,534 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ian Halperin is also a former winner of the Rolling Stone magazine Award for Investigative Journalism. He is the author or coauthor of five books, including the bestsellers Fire and Rain: The James Taylor Story, and Celine Dion: Behind the Fairytale, as well as a number of exposes on the modeling industry. He coauthored Who Killed Kurt Cobain? with Max Wallace. Ian is a regular correspondent for Court TV and has contributed to 60 Minutes 2.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brave, Fascinating Book, February 27, 2002

By 

Paul Stephan (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bad And Beautiful: Inside the Dazzling And Deadly World of Supermodels (Hardcover)

I read this book straight through last weekend. I could barely put it down. This book really hits home for anyone involved in the fashion industry. I have been involved in fashion for more than 20 years. It's about time someone was brave enough to expose some of the bad dealings of the industry. Hopefully, Mr. Halperin's startling revelations will help make more people aware that it's important to beware of who you get involved with in this business. There are many bad apples out there. I encourage all parents and young models to pick up this book before getting involved in the industry. All your questions of what it's like to be a model and how to choose the right agent will be answered. And of course, you'll be intrigued by some of the horrific experiences some of the top models you see on TV have encountered. The author posed undercover as a model to get all the dirt. And he certainly does not hold back in revealing the truth about our glamorous industry.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save your money! Don't buy this book!, January 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Bad And Beautiful: Inside the Dazzling And Deadly World of Supermodels (Hardcover)

This book was incredibly dull and poorly written.
The majority of it is about wanna-be models who, while hoping for their big break, partied too hard and were "sexually abused" (as the author phrases it repeatedly) by men that like to hang around the fashion scene looking for naive girls. A typical passage: "Rio spent the next four hours convincing me how dangerous modeling has become. She admitted she had been beaten, held at gunpoint by a jealous boyfriend, and raped at least six times." Details about her harrowing ordeals follow ("Get out, get your hands off me", Rio yelled).If you find that interesting then this book is for you because much of it is just like that.
There are some pages about models that I have actually heard of (Halperin on model Kate Moss,"[She] appeared to be a beautiful, intelligent, and complex woman possessed of a smoldering sensuality.") But it's all recycled gossip told in a National Enquirer style but with a more pro-model spin. Naomi behaves badly because she has been "victimized by people who are trying to take advantage of her wealth and fame", Gisele Bundchen has become more famous because she dated Leonardo Dicaprio..and so on.
The insider slant, the author was a "model undercover" in L.A. not exactly a modeling mecca like New York, is rendered ridiculous as soon as you see Ian Halperin's picture. Not exactly model material.
I recommend instead Michael Gross' "Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women". It's money much better spent!

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The sensationalist cover should tip you off..., November 22, 2004

By 

J. Miller (Midwestern USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bad And Beautiful: Inside the Dazzling And Deadly World of Supermodels (Hardcover)

This book is so poorly written that I had a hard time taking it seriously. I am mystified by all the positive reviews. Most chapters read as if the author scribbled them down in the span of a few hours. Despite being a journalist, Ian Halperin seems to have no concept of letting stories speak for themselves. He can't describe anyone without tacking on a string of generic adjectives. He uses clichés with abandon and repeats himself to no end.

Halperin's reasons for writing this book are confusing. In the preface, he writes, "I wanted to expose this industry that thrives heartlessly on beauty as deception." Although this sentence makes little sense, it is clear that the author is horrified by the abuses and corruption in the industry (This is the major theme of the book). Yet he continues, "Through the information I present, I hope to build self-confidence, fuel modeling ambitions..." Fuel modeling ambitions? The book is devoted to describing how most aspiring models end up emotionally destroyed, in rehab or dead. I read the book in full, but Halperin does not present any coherent strategies to help future models avoid the pitfalls.

Awkward and ungrammatical (and sometimes questionable) statements further erode this book's credibility. One chapter opens with this sentence: "The supermodels of the nineties became a generation's most sought after figure." The unsophisticated language doesn't help, either. Halperin writes that one model has "big b***s".

Finally, Halperin closes with a chapter on the murder of Gianni Versace that has nothing to do with the rest of the book. If you can ignore the sloppy and repetitive writing, perhaps this is a somewhat illuminating exposé.