EVER SINCE she began modeling for Fox a couple of years ago, Esti Ginzburg has been in high demand in Israel and abroad. She currently models for Tommy Hilfiger among others. Her bank account will soon swell further as result of a $100,000 contract that she has signed with Il Makiage professional cosmetics for the company's 2007-2008 season.
The latest ex-girlfriend of television and stage star Ran Danker, Liel Danir, is not doing quite as well as Ginzburg, but a $35,000 paycheck is nothing to sneeze at either. That's what Danir will receive for heading the Golf winter campaign together with Hila Rich. The two are replacing Adi Neumann.
THE STORK is keeping busy in the modeling industry. International fashion model Maayan Keret, who is also an author, documentary filmmaker and lecturer on self image and nutrition, recently gave birth to her second son. Keret is heading the Hadassah Taburi Stem Cell campaign, urging mothers to donate blood from the umbilical cord for future use. Earlier this year, a woman suffering from acute leukemia had her life saved by stem cells from umbilical cord blood donated by two mothers of newly born babies.
ADVERTISING AND Public Relations executive Gil Samsonov, a former chairman of the Management Committee of the Israel Broadcasting Authority and a former campaign advisor to both Binyamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon, has stirred up a hornet's nest in the advertising and public relations sector. Samsonov has asked his colleagues in the industry to sign a declaration that they will not hire celebrities who have not served in the IDF in their marketing campaigns. Among those who fall into this category are household names such as Bar Rafaeli and Maya Buskila. Samsonov's argument is that marketing campaigns only add to the fortunes, fame and glory of people who star in them, while people who do national service in one form or another, miss out. Many of Samsonov's colleagues disagree with him, saying that national service should not interfere with professional considerations. Marketing choices should based on who is best suited to promote a product to the public, they say.
This is not the first time the subject has been raised. There was a lot of hullabaloo when then Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog selected Rafaeli to promote Israel at an international tourist fair in London. Many Israelis were offended and said they didn't think it was appropriate for someone who had entered into a fictitious marriage in order to avoid army service to represent Israel. Meanwhile Rafaeli has scotched rumors that she is pregnant, and is still involved in her on again off again romance with Leonardo DiCaprio. She has reportedly said that she doesn't believe in marriage, and that people who love each other don't need a contract in order to stay together.
CELEBRATED MALE model Yoav Schwerd, who two years ago was featured almost daily in gossip columns across the nation as he vied for the affections of Sharon Ayalon in the glamorous reality show Kchi Otti Sharon (Take Me Sharon), is embarking on a new career. Schwerd, who won out over other contestants, split with Ayalon after a romantic holiday in Tuscany and several months of sharing a luxury apartment in Israel. Ayalon found a more permanent significant other with whom she has a baby, and Schwerd has dated several women, but as yet has not found Ms. Right. Now he's into Food Coaching, as the sales manager for an enterprise founded by Maya Ben Ephraim with the aim of teaching chefs in restaurants, hotels, bistros, coffee shops, et al, how to make their menus more nutritious. He will also be in charge of a group of clinical dieticians who will provide the know-how for what he will be marketing.
Because Schwerd is still part of the celebrity social set, his success is almost assured. The introduction of the new health menus will be accompanied by a launch at each venue that will be graced by at least a dozen celebrities.
NOT SO long ago, people in Israel knew who their neighbors were, and knew a lot about them. These days, people live such insular lives that they don't even know their neighbors in the apartment next door, let alone across the hall or in the adjacent building. Thus, when a certain Jerusalemite had a leak in his apartment that he suspected had originated from the apartment above, instead of just knocking at the door and asking his neighbor, he resorted to trickery and pretended to be a civil engineer from the Aguda L'Tarbut HaDi'ur (an association that advises people of their legal rights with respect to problems with their neighbors). When the upstairs neighbor, who suffered no water leak in his own apartment, opened the door and was advised that the "engineer" from the Aguda was there to inspect the pipes, he asked for some form of identification. The "engineer" was indignant and said he saw no reason why he had to go back to his car to get the necessary documentation. But the apartment owner would not allow him to proceed until he produced the required proof. The man left in a huff without making the inspection.
The apartment owner happened to be Israel Radio's Menachem Freedman, whose various assignments include anchoring a show in which listeners report when they have been duped by individuals, companies or even government offices. As a veteran journalist and economics reporter, Freedman happened to know that the Aguda does not have its own engineers. He also recognized the neighbor, who apparently was unaware of Freedman's identity. The experience prompted Freedman to warn his listeners not to let strangers into their homes unless they produce proof that they are who they say they are.
