Naomi in pickle for not showing up at court

Supermodel Naomi Campbell, charged with assaulting her housekeeper with a jewel-encrusted cell phone, hitting her on the back of the head, resulting in four stitches, failed to turn up at the Manhattan court yesterday to answer for the charge.

Campbell, 36, was charged with second-degree assault, a felony that carries a minimum sentence of one year and a maximum of seven years in prison.

Judge James Gibbons has rescheduled the hearing for November 5 and has warned that Campbell will be arrested if she fails to appear on the new date. "I want to make it clear that she is absolutely obliged to appear at the next hearing. If she fails to appear on that court date, the warrant will go into effect", said Gibbons.

Campbell’s lawyer David Breitbart said that her professional reasons had not bound her for the appearance, but he remained tight mouthed in explaining anything further.

He wanted to elucidate Campbell’s absence to the judge behind closed doors but Gibbons denied the appeal, asking him to verbalize in front of everyone.

Campbell, British supermodel, actor, singer and author, savored stardom quite early in life.

Her modelling career started as a catwalk model, but she was swiftly picked up for various high profile advertisement crusades for Lee Jeans and Olympus Corporation, which broke her in to America. The icing on the cake came in the early 90's when she was part of the two chief supermodelling powerhouses, the Big Six and the Trinity.

Besides walking the ramp for well renowned fashion designers, Campbell was the first black model to appear on the cover of Time magazine and French and British Vogue. She has also appeared on the covers of Harper's Bazaar and Elle magazine.

She has appeared in many music videos and has also tried her hand at singing and writing.

Although her career has been sky rocketing ever since she embarked on the journey of stardom, her personal life and squabbles with celebrities have provided a regular fodder for yellow journalism.

She has brief relationships with lots of men from the industry, including boxer Mike Tyson, U2's bassist Adam Clayton, actor Robert de Niro, dancer Joaquin Cortes and Renault F1 team boss Flavio Briatore. In addition, she has been romantically linked to musician Eric Clapton, actor Sylvester Stallone, Prince Albert, Robert Goode, Matteo Marzotti, and actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

Campbell has had tiffs with fellow model, Tyra Banks and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, who publicly 'called names' to the model in 2000.

The super model has also been accused of committing acts of aggression and verbal abuse against some of her employees and associates.

In 2000, she pleaded guilty in a Toronto court to a 1998 assault on Georgina Galanis, her then assistant; Campbell had assaulted Galanis with a telephone in a hotel room and threatened to throw her out of a moving car.

In March 2005, the model was said to have slapped assistant Amanda Brack.

Italian actress Yvonne Scio has claimed the model left her "covered in blood" after a spat at a Rome hotel.

Campbell has even attended anger management classes and has blamed her sizzling rage on persistent bitterness towards her father for abandoning her as a child.

She however said that the charges for assaulting Ana Scolavino are fallacious.