Dunn named Model of the year and Rihanna publicist drama

Hurray! One of our favourite 'nuh tek back nuh chat' islandistas - British model Jourdan Dunn, won the Model of the Year award at the British Fashion Awards two nights ago.

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Just 18, Dunn was spotted two years ago in Primark (our kind of girl!) and has swiftly risen to the top - an all the more remarkable feat when you consider (as we have discussed ad nauseum on this blog) the still glaring lack of black models on the fashion scene.

Pretty amazing too when you consider that Dunn doesn't hold her tongue and make folks feel it's alright. After all, this is the girl who said:

"London's not a white city... so why should our catwalks be so white? I go to castings and see several black and Asian girls, then I get to the show and look around there's just me and maybe one other coloured face."

Congrats from Islandista!

In other islandista news, some publicist named Jonathan Hay has claimed ... nay boasted that he is the one behind the ugly Rihanna/Jay-Z affair rumours that swirled around the Barbadian pop star at the start of her career and still track her.

According to Hay, he did it on behalf of a producer friend Vada Nobles who was the man behind Rihanna's first hit 'Pon De Replay' so as to build buzz and interest around Rihanna and the song.

According to Hay:

At first nobody seemed to really feel the song so I started a publicity campaign single-handedly. The whole idea behind the campaign was to get Vada Nobles out there as a producer so that ultimately people would forget about his past lawsuit and conflict with Lauryn Hill on her album the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

 Anyway, I sent the song to Jennifer Vineyard, my contact at MTV. She did me a favor and broke the story on Rihanna, “Pon De Replay” and Vada Nobles. Along with one of my partners, I then began to fabricate stories of Rihanna and Jay-Z, leaking false rumors to tabloids, working internet message boards, etc. We started to get an insane amount of media coverage very fast. There are so many things we did that people don’t even know about, not even Rihanna herself. She was completely unknown and I was paid by Vada Nobles to generate publicity. The mega Island Def Jam deal rumor, we fluffed and fabricated. Rihanna and Vada had no idea what I was doing behind the scenes, but my whole agenda was to get media for the song.

He goes on to say that "Rihanna had nothing to do with any of that nor did she know what we were doing. I was just trying to break the single and stay employed" and says he feels "awful" and looking back is "ashamed" because "there was zero integrity in that maneuver".

But he freely admits that "I was only thinking about the end result... gossip sells and even goes on to boast that "it worked" because "every artist needs a launching pad and there is nothing better than a good scandal to get the public's attention."

Hm. We all know how insidious the publicity game can be in showbiz and that things like this are not below publicists. But to start such a vicious rumour about a 16 year old girl without her even knowing? That is wrong.

Islandistas at the AMAs

The American Music Awards were last night and there were a few islandistas speckled here and there amidst this mostly 'pop' awards show. 

 

 Rihanna aka the real hottest chick in the game was on the red carpet and on the stage, performing her new song 'Rehab' (Amy Winehouse anyone? hm.)

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 Truthfully, not too sure about this dress. Love the concept and material but something about the way it is cut around the waist is making Rihanna look short-bodied and at 5"9, she is far from.

 

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Avast there me hearties! What is up with the bejewelled eye-patch Ri-ri? Even you can't stop that from looking slightly ridiculous.

Ms. Alicia Keys also hit the red carpet and performed 'Superwoman along with Queen Latifah and opera great Kathleen Battle.

 

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We ... LOVE... Alicia's shoes ... hotness cyan dun!

Brit-Guyanese singer Leona Lewis was also on the red carpet looking gorgeous as usual and yes, yes we know Guyana is not an island, so how she get an islandista? Because Guyana is part of the Caribbean and this blog is for Caribbean women and we decide we want to include her in our islandista hot list so if we say so, is so.... lol! Plus, Guyana has some islands within it... like in its rivers and ting... ok we're stretching it now!

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Another islandista 'it girl' - Nicole Fiscella

Well this came as a bit of surprise even to us here at islandista, who avidly track the Caribbean heritage of every celeb.

Did you know that Gossip Girl's Nicole Fiscella is an islandista? St. Lucian mother, Guyanese father.



So... what gives with the last name Fiscella right? That's what we thought. It's not a very Lucian or Guyanese name.

Apparently it is the name of her stepfather. Her father doesn't seem to have been a big factor in her life - in fact, her mother Julietta Fiscella who emigrated to the States when she was 19, went through some rough times after she and Nicole's father split when the future Gossip Girl was just 18 months old.

She decided to go to medical school which is not any kind of cheap and actually had to go on welfare, use food stamps, the whole nine yards.

From the alumni site of the State University of New York, University at Buffalo:

Fiscella enrolled at St. John’s University as a biology major, but foundered her freshman year. Her schoolwork suffered as she juggled academics with single parenthood. Lacking a solid foundation in the sciences, her courses overwhelmed her. Unaccustomed to multiple-choice exams – in St. Lucia, students were given only essay tests – she earned all Cs and Ds her first semester.

To motivate herself, Fiscella posted affirmations on her bathroom mirror that reinforced the pact she had made with herself: “I will support myself and my daughter.” “I will help my parents.” “I will be at the top of my profession.”

By her sophomore year, Fiscella’s grades had improved, but her savings had run dry. To make ends meet, she saw no other option than to apply for welfare.

Lean times meant that she had to make meals stretch as far as possible, while putting money to the side so she could take her daughter, Nicole, out for a modest meal once a month. To bolster her morale, Fiscella always performed the same mental exercise: She imagined herself as a doctor.

“The whole picture would play over and over in my mind,” she says. “Every moment of the day was spent focusing on my goal. I visualized myself in a white coat with a stethoscope, helping patients.”

It has been two decades, but Fiscella vividly remembers the plane landing in the midst of a Buffalo blizzard for her medical school interview.

“It was like it was already my home,” she says. “That night I told my mother that, no matter which other school accepted me, I was coming to Buffalo.”

Like many of her peers, Fiscella found medical school grueling. Being away from her daughter throughout the day made the experience more challenging still.

“But, again, I had my focus,” she says. “I had all these people depending on my success, especially my daughter. It was a different experience than many other people have.”

Different, indeed. While other students were studying, Fiscella was standing in line at schools and churches to receive free eggs or cheese. One day Nicole came home from school in tears, upset that kids had teased her because she received meals from the subsidized “food line.” In response, Fiscella started skipping her own lunches so her daughter could have them to take to school.

At the supermarket one afternoon, she found that she didn’t have enough food stamps to pay for her groceries. With her daughter by her side, she watched in mortification as the clerk flicked on the checkout light and began shouting for the manager to come and attend to the problem.

Even worse were her routine visit to the Social Services office. Although she made her own clothes, she purposely dressed down for these appointments so the social worker wouldn’t suspect her of being better off than she was.

“I don’t wish anyone to go through what I went through,” Fiscella says of her years on welfare. “People make judgments about who you are. But at the same time, I knew that if I could put my pride on the shelf, I could get through this time and achieve my goal.”

Inspiring. And funny how life is, isn't it? After coming up pretty hard, Fiscella (the younger) is now making a living portraying this uber-elite, aspirational lifestyle. Interestingly enough, Gossip Girl is her first ever acting role. After graduating from Boston's Tufts University she started working as a model for a few years. During that time, she resisted numerous urgings to try acting but finally gave in and went for the Gossip Girl role - and got it. Go girl - we love to see islandistas doing well,  no matter where in the world they are.

Islandistas' fashion hit and miss

Islandistas Selita Ebanks and Genevieve Jones were a fashion hit and miss respectively last night at the Women’s Coalition for Empowerment and Opportunities Fundraiser to Benefit Shine On Sierra Leone.

Selita was fabulous in a blue and black number with a fanciful origami-fold skirt... love that trend!

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Genevieve on the other hand... um... she was draped in fake flowers. We really don't know how else to describe this ... outfit.

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We don't get it either.

In other fashion notes, Rihanna rocked a sexy cowgirl look at her rehearsal for the upcoming American Music Awards  that would look absurd or cheesy on most people and managed to make it look fierce. I guess it's like a college sistren of mine used to say 'it's not what you wear, it's how you rock it'.

Island son Eric Holder to be next US AG

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We can hardly keep up with the stream of island folk doing big things in music, fashion, sports and politics and we are so excited!

It is now being widely reported that US President-elect Barack Obama has offered Barbadian-descended Eric Holder the position of US Attorney General. Holder, who would be the first black US Attorney General was born to Barbadian parents in Queens, New York City in a very Caribbean enclave - so much so that he said it was only when he got older that he realised that most black Americans were not of Caribbean descent, as he and everyone else in his neighbourhood was. He traces his roots to the country parishes of St. Joseph and St. Philip, came up in a thoroughly Caribbean household, eating "rice and peas every Sunday" by his own recounting.

"I feel that I grew up partly in Barbados and partly in New York," Holder has said.

Like many Bajan Yankees do, his parents made sure he visited 'back home' often and he still visits Barbados from time to time.

We should be dignified and analytical about this but yuh know what...? Rrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeee! To di worl'! We here at islandista are sooo fusssssy dennn!

As a Bajan Yankee friend of mine texted me last night "Girl, my president's black and my AG's Bajan!' 

We're loving it.