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Elle MacPherson has revealed some of the secret stories behind being a supermodel in the 1980s, talking about how she would hang out and party with celebrities like Whitney Houston, Donald Trump, Michael Jackson and was there when Christie Brinkley met her eventual husband Billy Joel. The Australian supermodel-turned-super-succesful-businesswoman also told Jimmy Kimmel Live! how she trademarked the phrase 'The Body' and struck out on her own with her famous calendar.
Backstage at #Kimmel. Tune in tonight at 11:35|10:35c on ABC with @ElleMacpherson #SuperElixir pic.twitter.com/g99OYx3NBs
— Jimmy Kimmel Live (@JimmyKimmelLive) January 29, 2015
The 50 year old TV star and business icon -- who has lines such as Elle Macpherson Intimates lingerie and The Body skin care products -- explained to Jimmy Kimmel that it was her famous calendar that first pushed her into business.
Sometime during her time with Sports Illustrated, the model recalled "I was looking at the calendars and thinking 'I'm Miss January... I'd really like to be Miss March' - as that's when my birthday is- 'and actually thinking about it I might like to be Miss April as well, and Miss May and Miss June,' so i decided, 'Why don't I do my own calendar?'"
She took matters into her own hands, she says, and after putting $60,000 into printing, "I got a photographer, I found a distribution and i just made my own calendar."
But that wasn't the end of it, Macpherson revealed. "Then I made a 'Making of the Calendar' TV show, so that was the first time 'actually, it would be really interesting to do my own thing.'"
Also involved in that? Trademarking her descriptive 'The Body' persona. And, as it turns out, she doesn't have a lawsuit against Jesse 'The Body' Ventura.
Thanks for having me @JimmyKimmel love that @superelixir / David Beckham scotch mix.
A photo posted by Elle Macpherson (@ellemacphersonofficial) on Jan 29, 2015 at 5:32am PST
She also explained to Kimmel just how crazy the '80s were. "It was interesting;" she admitted."I'd just come from Australia and moved to America and was exposed to a lot."
Macpherson then regaled Kimmel with a couple of classic '80s stories, saying that she may've hooked up Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley -- who were married form 1985 to 1994 -- as well as setting Whitney Houston on the path to stardom!
Said Macpherson, "I remember one of my first jobs I was invited to go to St Barts... and I remember thinking 'No, I can't go, I don't have enough money for the plane ticket,' and my agency said, 'No, the magazine actually pays for you to go,'" she laughed.
Once she got to St Barts she says "A friend of mine called me and said 'you'll never guess who's playing the piano down at the piano bar,' and it was Billy Joel!"
Down she went with her Whitney Houston, who Macpherson was working with. "She started as a model," remembers Macpherson, "so Whitney and I were working together and then Christie Brinkley was shooting her beauty book there. So it was Whitney, Christie, and me, and Billy Joel, and the rest is history. He ended up with Christie and very much in love...
"And," she added, "I remember Whitney made a tape and gave it to him and said 'do you think I could be singer?' and there you go."
She also remembers having "dinner at a casino in New Jersey I think it was, at one of the Trump Towers, with Michael Jackson and Donald Trump," which was "pretty cool," she laughed.
So... how was it hanging out with Michael Jackson in the '80s? "He was cool," revealed Macpherson. "Ge was sweet and funny, and very wry. I remember people chasing him and he would run the other way up the escalators to try get away and I was like 'How did he do that? How do you even go up a down escalator?' But that was what he could do. He was nifty on his feet."
That's for sure.
Check out the Elle Macpherson interview with Jimmy Kimmel below:
