It was September 1991 in New York and the grand finale of Look of the Yr, a prestigious modeling contest that had helped launch the careers of the supermodels Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen.
The superstar magician David Copperfield, one of many judges, watched from the entrance row as 58 contestants paraded throughout the runway of their branded sizzling pink and sorbet yellow swimsuits. Almost all of the contestants had been youngsters; some had been as younger as 14.
At present, greater than three a long time later, 5 former contestants say that they had been subjected to conduct by Copperfield that they now regard as inappropriate or worse. The ladies – who had been all youngsters on the time – met him on the New York contest in 1991 or three years earlier in Japan, when he was additionally a decide. Others who attended the occasions additionally say they witnessed Copperfield behaving inappropriately in the direction of the ladies.
The claims embody allegations of undesirable sexual touching and sexual harassment. In a single case, a former contestant alleges she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Copperfield within the months after the competitors. She was 17 years outdated on the time, she says.
The claims comply with a report in yesterday’s Guardian US, which detailed allegations of sexual misconduct and inappropriate conduct by Copperfield from girls who had met him in connection together with his performances. There was additionally an allegation of drugging in that story: one girl advised the Guardian that she believes she and a buddy had been drugged by Copperfield earlier than he had sexual relations with them, leaving them unable to consent.
In written responses to questions from the Guardian, legal professionals for David Copperfield denied all of the allegations of misconduct and inappropriate conduct. Copperfield’s legal professionals stated he had “by no means, ever acted inappropriately with anybody, not to mention anybody underage”.
Look of the Yr 1991
In 1991, Look of the Yr was hosted by the real-estate mogul Donald Trump on the Plaza lodge in New York, which he owned. Former US President Trump and Copperfield had been among the many 10 judges.
Different judges included a former Look of the Yr winner and an government at an promoting company. High vogue photographer, the late Patrick Demarchelier, and Gérald Marie, head of the Paris workplace of Elite Mannequin Administration, the company that ran the competitors, had been additionally on the judging panel. Elite was then the world’s main modeling company. In recent times each males have been publicly accused of sexual misconduct in the direction of younger fashions, which they each denied.
The judges and the contestants stayed in rooms at Trump’s luxurious lodge overlooking Central Park through the week-long contest.
Behind-the-scenes footage and pictures from the occasion present Copperfield mingling with contestants through the occasions. On the grand finale, Elite’s founder and proprietor, John Casablancas, launched the illusionist, who was carrying a black dinner jacket with shoulder pads, as “the Emmy award-winning grasp magician, my buddy, David Copperfield”.
Trump sat alongside him within the entrance row, together with his then nine-year-old daughter Ivanka, who would later work for Elite as a mannequin, perched on his knee. Naomi Campbell, then an Elite supermodel, co-hosted the black-tie gala with Casablancas.
The occasion attracted aspiring fashions from all around the world, aged 14 to 21. The common age of contestants – based on a Fox documentary the next 12 months – was simply 15. Some traveled there alone and had been away from residence for the primary time. The strain to impress the judges was intense.
Jenniffer Diaz, a Venezuelan contestant, had simply turned 18 when she arrived in New York. Within the night, after the day’s occasions had been performed, she says the cellphone in her lodge room rang and a voice stated: “Hello, so that is me, David Copperfield.” She claims he repeatedly referred to as her room and invited her to hitch him in his room.
She recollects being in her pyjamas and being requested by him what she was carrying.
“I actually didn’t communicate a lot English and I had no concept what he meant,” she says now.
Solely later, she says, did she understand that there was a sexual implication. Diaz, now 50, says she is relieved she declined the invites, however says that on the time she felt uncomfortable saying no to the superstar decide. “Even at that age, I used to be very younger and naive, however nonetheless, I knew very clearly that you simply don’t go to a man’s room at night time.”
Copperfield’s legal professionals denied that he referred to as Diaz or some other contestants at their lodge rooms . “The allegation towards our shopper is fake and makes no logical sense,” legal professionals stated.
They stated that through the occasion younger male scammers would name contestants’ lodge rooms, utilizing Copperfield and different judges’ names in an effort to “attempt to meet ladies”. Copperfield’s assistant on the time, Linda Faye Smith, stated in an announcement to the Guardian that there was a “group of scammers calling contestants’ rooms at random – posing as superstar judges” and “saying they had been David”. Copperfield’s legal professionals confirmed that he and Smith had been involved earlier than she despatched the assertion to the Guardian.
The Guardian spoke to eight attendees of the 1991 occasion, together with an organizer from Elite, and none recalled listening to something about scammers calling contestants. Diaz says she believed it was Copperfield’s voice on the cellphone.
Diaz’s account was corroborated by two witnesses. An American contestant, who didn’t wish to be named, recalled translating a cellphone name between Copperfield and Diaz. “I used to be like, what the hell is happening?” the girl advised the Guardian in 2020. Diaz’s then roommate, Stacy Wilkes, 16 on the time, additionally corroborated Diaz’s account of the calls. In the course of the contest, Wilkes provides, the presence of males with no obvious connection to the modeling business felt “inappropriate”.
Diaz claims Copperfield continued to contact her even after the competitors ended. He referred to as her a number of instances at her household residence in Venezuela and left messages with their housekeeper, she says. She didn’t reply. Diaz, who’s now an actress and actual property agent, says, in hindsight, she feels it was “completely predatory conduct”. Copperfield’s legal professionals stated he didn’t name contestants at their household houses “as claimed”.
Diaz says she believes her company, Elite, might have given Copperfield her residence quantity with out her permission. She says it appeared to her that her then boss, Casablancas, and Copperfield, had been pals.
Aimee Bendio, a 15-year-old American contestant, says she believes Copperfield additionally confirmed an curiosity in her through the 1991 competitors. Footage from the competition exhibits Aimee being interviewed by the panel of judges in her swimsuit. Instantly after, the digicam cuts to Trump and Copperfield leaning again of their chairs to speak to 1 one other.
Bendio says Copperfield approached her on the night of 1 September 1991, when all of the contestants, judges and different “pals of the company” had been taken on a non-public yacht across the Statue of Liberty.
Bendio first advised her story in a 2020 Guardian investigation, which revealed allegations of inappropriate conduct by a number of males linked to Elite’s Look of the Yr, together with accounts from contestants that Trump would generally seem backstage as they had been getting dressed. Trump denied “within the strongest potential phrases” behaving inappropriately with the contestants. In response to the article his representatives stated he was not conscious of any predatory setting on the time.
On the night of the boat celebration, Trump and Copperfield posed for images with the contestants. Bendio claims Copperfield – who was almost twenty years her senior – got here as much as her and grabbed her across the waist. “He simply thought he might do it and it made me really feel actually uncomfortable,” she tells the Guardian. Copperfield’s legal professionals denied Bendio’s allegation and claimed that safety, press and chaperones had been all over the place always.
Copperfield and his assistant contacted Bendio at her household residence a number of instances over the course of seven months after the competition, she says. They primarily spoke to her mom, “checking in to see how my profession was going”. Bendio says: “We didn’t come from some huge cash and I do know that he had supplied to assist.” Copperfield invited her to his exhibits and on one event supplied to ship a limousine, however her mom advised her to say no, she recollects. Bendio, now a college bus driver in her 40s, says: “We simply thought the entire thing was creepy.” Copperfield’s legal professionals denied he contacted contestants “as claimed”. They described the presents of free tickets to his exhibits as “pleasant and harmless” conduct.
Like Diaz, Bendio says she shouldn’t be positive how Copperfield received her contact info.
Along with Diaz and Bendio, sources say Copperfield contacted at the very least two different contestants from Look of the Yr 1991 after the occasion.
The identical 12 months, Copperfield allegedly linked with one other teenage mannequin by way of certainly one of his stage performances. Carla*, whose story appeared yesterday within the Guardian, says she met Copperfield at certainly one of his exhibits when she was 15. Afterwards, she alleges, Copperfield repeatedly referred to as her at her household residence, sending items and tickets to his exhibits. Like different girls who agreed to be quoted by the Guardian on the situation of anonymity, she is being recognized with a pseudonym marked* with an asterisk.
Carla now feels she and her household had been being “groomed” by Copperfield. When she turned 18 she says he was the primary man she had intercourse with. His legal professionals denied her allegations.
The sooner Guardian investigation reported teenage fashions’ misconduct allegations towards Elite’s boss, Casablancas. This included a lawsuit in 2019 that alleged Casablancas despatched a 15-year-old mannequin to a “casting name” with the late intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein, throughout which she says Epstein sexually assaulted her. The alleged sufferer, Jane Doe 3, later reached a settlement with Epstein’s property.
4 males who attended Look of the Yr in 1991 advised the Guardian that Copperfield’s curiosity within the contestants appeared evident to them.
Ohad Oman, a younger journalist who attended the occasion, claims he witnessed Copperfield flirting with a 16-year-old Israeli contestant, which he says he discovered inappropriate. One European modeling agent says he intervened at one level through the occasion when he noticed the illusionist speaking with a contestant he represented who was additionally across the age of 16. “From the nook of my eyes I noticed she wrote her phone quantity on somewhat booklet” for Copperfield, he says. “I took that, threw it on the ground and took her away.”
The agent says: “Folks within the business knew why Copperfield needed to be invited to those occasions.” He says fashions at such occasions had been a giant attraction for some high-profile males.
“Plenty of folks within the business knew of his repute as a creep. It was apparent,” says the style photographer Roberto Rabanne, who took images and video for Elite through the occasion.
Copperfield’s legal professionals stated that any portrayal of their shopper participating in Look of the Yr to take advantage of teenage fashions was “merely improper”. They be aware many celebrities served as judges and that it was a “high-profile occasion within the modeling calendar”.
Look of the Yr 1988
Three years earlier than the 1991 competitors, Brittney Lewis, a 17-year-old highschool pupil from Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah, arrived at Look of the Yr 1988.
It was September and the competition was held on the seaside resort of Atami, Japan. Copperfield, one of many judges, was on a tour of Asia on the time. He was then recognized for his large dying noticed trick and the 12 months earlier than had carried out his well-known “escape” from Alcatraz jail.
Lewis, based on an article in her native newspaper, the Salt Lake Tribune, skipped the primary day of college to attend the occasion. In an interview with the Guardian, she recollects that Copperfield “received to interview us [the contestants] alone in a room and he requested issues like, who was my boyfriend”. It felt “somewhat uncomfortable,” she says.
Quickly after returning to her residence in Utah, Lewis says, the cellphone calls started.
She says Copperfield, then 32, invited her to certainly one of his upcoming exhibits in California. Lewis says she was excited. On the time she lived along with her grandparents and noticed her father, Gus Lewis, sometimes. Since she was solely 17, they weren’t positive she could be protected going to satisfy a person they didn’t know. Over the course of a number of conversations, Lewis says, Copperfield reassured Patricia Burton, her late grandmother, and her father, that she could be sorted by his feminine employees.
“He was nice on the cellphone,” her father tells the Guardian now. “My daughter should have advised him I used to be into bikes and Harleys on the time, which I used to be. And so he introduced that up very first thing … simply attempting to be buddy, buddy.” He says Copperfield advised him he “would take excellent care of her and so they’d be in separate rooms”.
Lewis says: “My dad and mom are simply tremendous good, trustworthy folks and trusting … They had been starstruck and believed every thing he stated.”
In late 1988, Lewis recollects, she traveled to California to satisfy Copperfield forward of the present. They spent the day collectively and went buying, she recollects. “He took me to a mall and he needed to carry palms and his hand was tremendous sweaty.”
Backstage “he tried to kiss me up towards a wall and I ducked and dodged and I used to be like, no, no, that’s not what I’m right here for,” she says. She advised him they had been “simply pals”.
“After the present, he took me to a bar,” Lewis says. “I keep in mind wanting down and seeing him pour his drink into mine and I checked out him and stated, ‘What are you doing?’ And he stated, ‘I’m simply sharing’.” The remainder of the night time is hazy, she says.
She says she remembers flashes of being carried out to a automotive and being helped right into a lodge room, the place Copperfield had an adjoining room. She says he laid her on the mattress, and she or he remembers “him on high of me, my garments coming off after which him kissing down and taking place in the direction of my crotch.” Then she blacked out, she says. “I don’t keep in mind something after that.” Lewis says she believes she was drugged.
Within the morning she awoke feeling “nauseous and sick to my abdomen”. Yesterday’s Guardian story reported that one other girl, Gillian*, believed she and a buddy had been drugged by the magician. Copperfield’s legal professionals denied Gillian’s allegations, saying: “Anybody who is aware of our shopper is aware of medication have by no means been part of his life in any form or type.”
Lewis says Copperfield got here in by way of the connecting door shortly after, saying he needed “to speak to me about what had occurred”. She says he then stated, “I simply need you to know that I didn’t penetrate you since you’re underage.”
Lewis says Copperfield advised her it could be greatest for her to return residence that day, regardless of having a multi-day journey deliberate. Earlier than she left, she says, he satisfied her to jot down him a letter. She will be able to’t recall the precise wording however says it steered that nothing improper had occurred and that Lewis wouldn’t inform anybody concerning the alleged incident. “I really feel like that be aware saved me hostage for a very long time,” she says.
Copperfield’s legal professionals have denied Lewis’s allegations. His legal professionals stated “our shopper didn’t act as alleged.”
Months later, Lewis says, Copperfield referred to as her once more, inviting her to certainly one of his exhibits in her residence city. Lewis advised him she by no means needed to see him once more and hung up, she says.
Lewis says her concern of Copperfield was compounded by a childlike sense that he was able to actual magic. Lewis recollects him telling her he was into black magic. When she returned residence and realized certainly one of her crystal earrings was lacking, she was satisfied Copperfield had taken it and was “actually frightened of what he might do”. One other girl in yesterday’s story, Lily*, who alleged she was groped on stage by Copperfield when she was 14 or 15, says for years after she had nightmares fearing that he would “use his magic on me”.
Lewis, now 53, will get emotional when she talks concerning the impression the alleged incident had on her life. She had been sexually assaulted as a teen earlier than she met Copperfield. “I fought the primary time … and I assumed if it ever occurred once more, I’d combat tougher,” she says. With Copperfield, she says she believes she was drugged “so I felt actually defeated and frightened of males, scared to this point, scared to have boys kiss me”. She “began ingesting younger,” she says. “I used to be simply actually self-destructive for a very long time.”
On many nights for a decade after the alleged incident, Lewis says, she had nightmares, through which she was being attacked by a person on high of her. Ultimately, she started opening as much as these near her about what she says occurred, and received remedy. Now, a mom of three, residing a quiet life in southern California along with her husband, she says: “I simply discovered a number of actually nice alternative routes to heal.”
The Guardian corroborated Lewis’s claims by interviewing three family and friends members, in addition to an acquaintance with whom she is now not involved. They recall her telling them concerning the alleged incident a number of years later. Lewis says she initially felt she couldn’t inform folks due to the be aware she had written Copperfield.
In 2018, Lewis shared her allegations publicly in The Wrap, impressed by the #MeToo motion. Copperfield posted a statement on Twitter after the article was revealed praising the #MeToo motion whereas saying that he had been “falsely accused publicly up to now”.
The cellphone calls
One other contestant from Look of the Yr 1988 additionally recollects getting cellphone calls from Copperfield at her household residence after the competition. Natalie*, who spoke on the situation of anonymity, had turned 17 simply earlier than the competitors.
She had no concept, she says, that Copperfield was additionally allegedly contacting Lewis across the similar time.
Natalie remembers the giddiness of getting a star taking an curiosity in her. They developed what she thought on the time was a friendship and describes being “enamored” of him. Over the cellphone, he would take the time to ask her how she was and the way her modeling profession was going, she says. “That made me really feel particular.” Copperfield advised Natalie that he could be performing in her residence city quickly and supplied her and her dad and mom tickets, she says.
They jumped on the alternative. It hadn’t crossed their minds that something inappropriate might occur with their daughter, who was nonetheless a minor, as they’d be there along with her, she says.
Legal professionals for Copperfield stated he didn’t name contestants as claimed, including: “If folks our shopper met requested his workplace for tickets to his exhibits our shopper would usually present complimentary tickets”.
Copperfield, who she says had constructed the household’s belief, invited Natalie to hitch him backstage alone, she recollects.
In an interview with the Guardian, Natalie, now 52, says: “He tried to have his manner with me.” She alleges he kissed her, touched her breasts and “pushed me down” on to a sofa. “He was attempting to maneuver ahead and go additional south and I simply didn’t let him try this. I ended him.”
Natalie, who says she had not had intercourse earlier than, remembers feeling scared, not desirous to upset the person who had been so beneficiant to her and her household. She notes that whereas she didn’t need him to the touch her, he stopped when she requested him to cease. She remembers becoming a member of her dad and mom within the viewers after the incident.
When she returned residence the cellphone calls continued, she says.
“At any time when he got here again to [my home town] he at all times supplied tickets to my household,” she says. Natalie admits that on the time, a part of her loved the eye from a star. “I used to be naive, I used to be silly,” she says.
Natalie, who now runs a enterprise in New York, by no means advised her dad and mom, believing for years that she was one way or the other guilty. “I don’t know, I felt responsible, perhaps,” she says.
Copperfield’s legal professionals stated he denied Natalie’s allegations. They famous that the backstage setting at a magic present was “densely populated and inhospitable to the type of outrageous conduct alleged. It might be like partaking on this form of misbehavior throughout rush hour at Piccadilly Circus.”
A 3rd contestant from 1988, Diana Lengthy from Pennsylvania, says Copperfield “pursued” her through the Japan contest. Lengthy, who was 19 then, says that the magician by no means crossed a line, however “I keep in mind considering he was fairly daring and why didn’t he get the message.”
She says that following the competitors, Copperfield’s feminine assistant referred to as her household residence at the very least two instances, chatting with her mom. They declined presents of tickets to his exhibits.
Lengthy, now a mom of 5, didn’t give a lot thought to her interactions with Copperfield on the time, she says, but when he was “speaking that strategy to my 18-year-old, I might be actually upset. It’s very inappropriate.” She describes it as “an abuse of energy … I believe he took benefit of his place, particularly being a decide and being well-known.”
Copperfield’s representatives denied Lengthy’s allegation, saying it was “not our shopper’s observe” to supply tickets to exhibits.
Concerning the cellphone calls, Lengthy provides: “I’m questioning how many people he was doing this to and making every certainly one of us [think] it was solely us.”
Elite was pressured into chapter 11 in 2004. The Elite model continues for use by two separate companies, owned by totally different company entities. One, Elite World Group, stated in an announcement that the “present possession since 2012 don’t have any ties to John Casablancas. It by no means employed, consulted or performed any enterprise with Mr Casablancas throughout his lifetime.” It stated the company was “dedicated to offering protected work environments for our … fashions.”
The opposite heir of the model, Elite Mannequin Administration, declined to reply to questions. In response to the 2020 article it additionally strongly distanced itself from the Casablancas-owned agency and period.
The business
A decade or extra after the 1988 and 1991 Look of the Yr occasions, Valerie* – who was quoted in yesterday’s Guardian investigation – was working as an assistant to Copperfield. She recollects Copperfeld having a “little black guide”, containing contact particulars for fashions and others from the modeling business.
Valerie, who labored for the magician for 18 months from the late Nineties says a few of Copperfield’s closest employees would use the record to “contact modeling companies” and prepare for fashions to satisfy him at or after his exhibits. This included companies throughout the US.
“There have been at all times fashions coming in and going,” she claims.
The Guardian spoke to an American mannequin agent from the record who confirmed that he obtained a name from a Copperfield worker asking for a gaggle of fashions to attend his present.
In 1993 Copperfield started courting the Elite supermodel Claudia Schiffer. In response to reviews, they met when he introduced her on stage to take part in a mind-reading act and a flying phantasm.
Copperfield reportedly proposed to Schiffer the next 12 months on Little St James, the island that might later be bought by Epstein. Within the years that adopted, Schiffer appeared on stage with Copperfield a number of instances. Schiffer by no means married Copperfield and their relationship ended six years later in 1999. There is no such thing as a suggestion she was conscious of any alleged misconduct throughout their relationship. Schiffer declined to touch upon the allegations towards him.
Valerie stated in yesterday’s story that she felt so uncomfortable about her boss’s conduct round younger girls that she stop and paid again her Christmas bonus.
The ultimate set off for her leaving, she says, was witnessing Copperfield’s conduct round a mom and her daughter, an aspiring mannequin, who hung out with him over plenty of days in his New York condo. Copperfield’s legal professionals stated he was unaware of employees members quitting for the explanations cited.
Valerie says {that a} modeling company had linked Copperfield with the pair and the illusionist gave the impression to be advising them on the woman’s modeling profession.
Copperfield, whose legal professionals stated he denied performing as alleged, took the mom and her daughter – who Valerie recollects was nonetheless a minor – to nightclubs till late at night time, she says. Valerie attended one such night and recollects his conduct in the direction of the woman as “creepy”. She says: “That mom appeared very naive, very starstruck.”
Valerie notes that she doesn’t know of any misconduct between Copperfield and the woman, however provides that she felt “it was tremendous improper.” She felt she couldn’t work for him any extra, she says.
“I left as quickly as I might after that.”
