English roses on Sunset Boulevard

IIPM MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE

Pirates and Mossgate: A tale of two Ks!

Two British beauties – one who has ‘bent’ it in style in the UK movie scene and consequently Hollywood, and the other Moss who has gathered a few dazzling stones as she has rolled along in her ‘super’ modelling career. Together they represent the new wave of dazzling British celebrities and are proudly at the forefront as the most recognizable faces of that clique. We, if you have ignored the hints till now, are talking about Keira Knightley and Kate Moss. Kate Moss represented the new wave of super-models and was known almost as much for her pencil-thin figure as her drop-dead gorgeous looks. A face that has been worthy enough to launch the thousands of campaigns and dozens of top notch brands that it has, Kate started her career in 1988, when she was discovered by the founder of Storm Model Management at the JFK Airport!

At that time Keira was still a kid with severe problems in reading and writing (though officially never classified dyslexic), but that did not stop her from asking forher own agent at the ripe age of three! She overcame her limitations with enormous effort and took up acting on the side. Perhaps acting was in her genes, after all actor Will Knightley and playwright Sharman Macdonald are her parents! She got her wish of an own agent as she turned six and did small roles on TV and a few movies (mostly in her summer holidays).

Meanwhile, Kate catapulted to the status of a super-model and walked the ramps of the fashion capitals of the world. Her weight, or the suspected lack of it (“I am not anorexic,” she always maintained) made her almost an anti-supermodel, contrary to the curvaceous look that the others (like Cindy Crawford, Caludia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell) carried.

Keira was first noticed as the British friend helping a girl of Indian origin realize her dream of playing football in Parminder Nagra’s sleeper hit Bend It Like Beckham. But her piece de resistance was the portrayal of Elizabeth Swann in the Pirates movie franchise that flipped her fortunes overnight. Like a pirate stumbling on a treasure chest, she almost stumbled on to the role as she reported for the auditions in London very late (caught up apparently in a traffic snarl).

Meanwhile, Kate Moss’s career rocketed along as she signed up prestigious campaigns including Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Versace, Chanel, and Calvin Klein. And there didn’t seem to be a survey left , which had not categorized her as one of the sexiest women in the world! What rocked her world though was the outbreak of the ‘Cocaine Kate’ scandal when the London tabloid Daily Mirror ran a picture of her sniffing cocaine. She immediately issued an apology conceding that her behaviour reflected badly on her family and friends but did not admit to drug abuse. Whispers of that had been abound for almost a decade since she checked into a psychiatric centre in 1998 due to ‘exhaustion’. It was speculated that the real reason was depression resulting from her separation with long-time boyfriend Johnny Depp.

Kate’s ex-boyfriend played a critical role in Keira’s career, as Pirates of the Caribbean swept the box-office worldwide with Captain Jack Sparrow’s antics quickly building up a super loyal fan base. The positive externality was that everyone took notice of Keira as well and soon she was one of the top of wanted lists from producers. And just like Kate, she started making it to those ‘sexiest’ lists as well. The fresh-faced girl with a cute British accent had arrived, and how! People fell in Love, Actually and the affair continues full bloom at the box-office as she looks ahead to life beyond the Pirates franchise.

Meanwhile, Kate is gathering no ‘Moss’ at all as she makes a spirited comeback putting all the controversies (the drug charges were dropped due to lack of evidence) behind her as she launches a new line of clothes for the ‘Topshop’ chain.

The British beauties remain as alluring, attractive and sought after as ever!

Edit bureau: Tareque Laskar

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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