Adriana Lima

Adriana Lima
Adriana Lima, April 30, 2007
Birth name	Adriana Francesca Lima[1]
Date of birth	June 12, 1981 (1981-06-12) (age 28)
Place of birth	Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[2]
Hair color	Brown[2]
Eye color	Blue[2]
Measurements	86-61-89 (34-24-35)[2]
Weight	59 kg (130 lb/9.3 st)
Dress size	34 (EU); 4 (US)
Shoe size	8.5 (US)[2]
Agency	Marilyn Agency

Adriana Francesca Lima (born June 12, 1981^[3]) is a Brazilian model best known as a Victoria's Secret Angel since 2000 and a spokesmodel for Maybelline cosmetics. At age 15, Lima finished first place in Ford's "Supermodel of Brazil" competition, and took second place the following year in the Ford "Supermodel of the World" competition before signing with Elite Model Management in New York City.

Early life and family

Lima was born in the northeastern coastal town of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil on June 12, 1981. Her father, from whom she was estranged for most of her life, is Nelson Torres, and her mother, Maria da Graça Lima, was a social worker who gave birth to Lima at the age of 18. Lima revealed that her father walked out on her family when she was six months old, but has been making recent attempts to reconcile.^[4] In late 2007, Lima revealed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that although she is her mother's only child, she has two half brothers, aged 7 and 11, from her father's second marriage. Coming from a poor family, her first time leaving her country and first time on a plane was when she was 15.^[5] She was raised mainly by her mother and grandmother.

Career

Modeling

Lima never thought about being a model. However, she had a friend at school who wanted to enter a modeling contest and didn't want to enter alone, so Lima entered with her. Both sent in pictures, and the contest sponsor soon asked Lima to come out for the competition. Soon after, at the age of 15, she entered and finished in first place in Ford's "Supermodel of Brazil" model search. She subsequently entered the 1996 Ford "Supermodel of the World" contest and finished in second place.^[6] Three years later, Lima moved to New York City and signed with Elite Model Management. After acquiring representation, Lima's modeling portfolio began to expand by leaps and bounds, and she appeared in numerous international editions of Vogue and Marie Claire. As for fashion shows, she has walked the catwalks for big-name designers such as Vera Wang, Christian Lacroix, Emanuel Ungaro, Giorgio Armani, Fendi, Ralph Lauren and Valentino, among others. Lima then became a GUESS? girl, appearing in their Fall 2000 ad campaign. She also appeared in the book A second decade of Guess? Images.^[7]

Lima continued to build upon her portfolio, doing more print work for Maybelline, as well as bebe, Mossimo, Armani, Bulgari, De Beers, FCUK, Intimissimi, Keds, Swatch, Versace, and BCBG.^[8] She also appeared on the covers and in the editorials of other fashion magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, Vogue, GQ, Marie Claire, Arena, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, and many more.^[9] Her April 2006 GQ cover was the highest-selling issue that magazine for the year.^[10] She also appeared in the 2005 Pirelli Calendar^[7] and became the face of Italy's cell phone carrier, Telecom Italia Mobile, a move that earned her the nickname, "the Catherine Zeta-Jones of Italy."^[11]

In February 2008 she was featured on the cover of Esquire, re-creating the classic 1966 Angie Dickinson cover on Esquire's 75th anniversary along with fellow Victoria's Secret Angels Karolina Kurkova, Izabel Goulart and Selita Ebanks. As of November 2008, Models.com featured her at No.1 on the list of the hottest models today.^[12] She appeared only in shoes, diamonds and gloves for the November 2007 issue of Vanity Fair celebrating 20 years of supermodels with her fellow Angels.^[13] Lima was chosen to be a part of People magazine's 100 most beautiful people in the world, sharing that space with the Angels, with whom she also received a star on the Hollywood "Walk of Fame" prior to the 2007 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. In February 2008, she was chosen to be the face of Mexico's Liverpool department store chain and launched the partnership with a press conference, runway show, and summer campaign.

She is the world's fourth highest paid model as of 2007.^{[10][11][14][15]}

Victoria's Secret

Lima is probably best known for her work with Victoria's Secret. Her first fashion show for the company came in 1999, and since being contracted as an Angel in 2000, she has appeared on subsequent shows ever since, opening the show in 2003, 2007, and 2008, in which she also closed the opening segment. Lima has appeared on several television ads for the brand, including the praised and criticized^[16][17] "Angel in Venice" commercial of 2003 with Bob Dylan and her solo Victoria's Secret's Super Bowl XLII ad, the single most-seen ad of the game, watched by 103.7 million viewers.^[18] 2008 continued for Lima with hosting the "What Is Sexy?" program for the E! Entertainment Network and a July tour for the BioFit Uplift Bra launch, with stops in Long Island, Boston, and Miami Beach. She also served as the face of the Miracle Bra^[19][20] relaunch in November. Topping the year off, Lima wore the "Fantasy Bra" for the 2008 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. In early 2008 Lima renewed her contract with Victoria's Secret, along with Maybelline for 5 more years.

Acting

Lima's first acting role was the wife, alongside Mickey Rourke, Forest Whitaker in The Follow (2001), one of BMW's short films series titled The Hire, starring Clive Owen. She also appeared with her fellow Angels in a guest spot playing herself in the series How I Met Your Mother in November 2007.

In 2008, Lima appeared on the American television series "Ugly Betty," where she played herself and made friends with the series' title character, played by America Ferrera. According to her publicist, Liza Anderson, "Adriana has always been a huge fan of Ugly Betty and is thrilled for the opportunity to make a guest star appearance."^[21]

Endorsements

Lima is also a spokesperson for cosmetics giant Maybelline New York.^[22]

Public image

Personal life

Lima is fluent in Portuguese, English, and French, and also speaks a bit of Italian. In her free time, she loves reading novels.

Lima was shy around boys when she was younger, not receiving her first kiss until she was 17 years old. They were watching a movie during the kiss. Afterwards, he went directly to her mother to ask if he could marry her.^[23] In an interview with GQ in the April 2006 issue, Lima told the magazine that she is a devoted Catholic who attends church every Sunday and is a virgin. "Sex is for after marriage," she explained. "They [men] have to respect that this is my choice. If there's no respect, that means they don't want me."^[24] US GQ dubbed her as "The World's Most Voluptuous Virgin."^[25] When she was younger, she studied to become a nun and often takes a Bible backstage to read.^[26]

She has been romantically linked to rocker Lenny Kravitz,^[25] Prince Wenzeslaus of Liechtenstein,^[15] and Denny of Timbalada. She is currently engaged to Marko Jarić.^[27] They will wed in Brazil in June of 2009.^[28]

Lima enjoys listening to classical music; she cites Beethoven as her favorite composer^[29] and the piano sonata as her favorite sound.^[30] She cites Sophia Loren and Betty Page as inspirations.^[31]

Reception

Victoria's Secret Angels Adriana Lima (left), Marisa Miller and Selita Ebanks ride in the Guantanamo Bay Christmas Parade Dec. 1, 2007

Since her rise to fame, Lima is often cited by popular media as one of the world's sexiest women. She ranked 7th on FHM 100 Sexiest Women 2007^[32] On June 13, 2007, she was awarded as "Hottest Girl on the Planet" at the first Spike TV Guys' Choice Awards but the category was not mentioned in the actual show.^[33] Lima was also voted on the Maxim Hot 100 2007 as number 53. She was voted # 1 as the Most Desirable Woman in 2005 by visitors of the men's lifestyle website, Askmen.com (she was placed 4th in 2006, also 4th in 2007 and 10th in 2008).

She was also the model for the new Alyx Vance in the so called CINEMATIC MOD by !Fakefactory" for the Ego-Shooter-Series HALF-LIFE 2 by Valve.

Charity

Lima does charitable work helping with an orphanage, "Caminhos da Luz" (Ways of Light), located in her hometown. She helps with construction to expand the orphanage, and buys clothes for poor children in Salvador, Bahia. She also stands for animal rights.^[6] Adriana appeared on the Turkish version of Deal or No Deal where her prize money went to Caminhos da Luz. ^[34]

References

External links

• Adriana Lima's Official Site
• Adriana Lima at the Internet Movie Database
• Adriana Lima in the Fashion Model Directory