Quicknation    Gisele Bundchen

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Gisele Bundchen , (born July 20, 1980) in Três de Maio, near Horizontina, Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil. She is best known as a model but has recently branched out into acting with a role in the 2004 movie

She is the daughter of Valdir and Vânia Bündchen, both of German descent. Gisele has five sisters: Raquel, Graziela, Patricia, Gabriela and Rafaela. Patricia and Gisele are twins, but do not look the same. Gisele has mentioned several times that at least one of her sisters has attempted a modeling career as well. Pictures of her family reveal they share the same statuesque bone structures, and long, wavy brown hair.

While in school, Gisele was so thin that her friends used to call her "Olívia Palito" (Portuguese for Olive Oyl, Popeye's skinny friend), and Saracura (kind of bird with long legs). She liked to play volleyball, and had even thought of becoming a professional for Brazilian team Sogipa.

An often told story about the "discovery" of Gisele is when, as a schoolgirl, Gisele went to a McDonalds and was eating a Big Mac when an agent discovered the chesnut-haired beauty. In an interview, Gisele remarked that she at first did not know what a model was, thinking it was something perhaps akin to being a hooker.

In 1993, Gisele, 13 years old, joined the Dilson Stein's mannequin course to correct her posture, with her sisters Patrícia and Gabriela, because her mother insisted. The course was for teenagers who wanted to be models.

In May 1994, Stein took 50 girls to São Paulo to give them a chance to walk in a big city and to let them be evaluated by Brazilian Elite bookers (agents). On August 20, 1993 Gisele was playing volleyball for Sogipa, in Porto Alegre. Elite "kidnapped" her and took her to a contest. Gisele came between the five finalists. Then, she went to São Paulo. She came in second in the national Elite Look of the Year contest - Claudia Menezes, from Bahia, was the one in the first place. In the world contest, in Ibiza, Gisele came in fourth. While Gisele was easily noticeable for her beauty, she still endured physical criticsm. One major criticsm she faced from agents was her large and distinctive nose.

When a young, teenaged Gisele moved to New York City to begin her runway debut at Fashion Week, she was so nervous she decided to get a blue star tattoo on her wrist. The tattoo is very distinctive and noticeable of the model, but there seems to be no attempt to cover it up with make-up in photo shoots or runway shows. After her debut in NYC, she was immediately embraced by the fashion world.

Gisele has done ads and runway shows for various fashion houses including Valentino, Zara, Bvlgari, Tommy Hilfiger, Chloe, Celine, Versace, Christian Dior, Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren, Victoria's Secret, and Dolce Gabbana. She has also appeared on the covers of Allure, Marie Claire, Vogue USA, Vogue Italia, Harper’s Bazaar, Arena, and Rolling Stone. Her curvaceous figure prompted Vogue to refer to her of work as the "return of the sexy model", since she seems to have marked the end of a trend of "waif" models such as Kate Moss. In 2000 her annual earnings were reportedly $8 million and she commands between $7000 and $15,000 per hour for runway shows.

Gisele has received the "Model of the Year" award and has been named "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" by Rolling Stone. She has also hosted the VH1 Fashion Awards and appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.Gisele has a belly button piercing as well as the star tattoo on her left wrist. She is well-known for her prominent chest and is continually hailed as a "curvy, sexy model," when in fact she is still quite underweight, at one time reportedly just 114 pounds at 5'11" tall. Models such as Tyra Banks (in the 140s-lbs range) are more suited to a "curvy" title. Former head of Elite Models, John Casablancas, has had tiffs with Gisele; he once famously claimed that her infamous breasts were fake and that she has slept her way to the top.She treasures her dog, Vida, and has split up with Leonardo DiCaprio, ending their four year relationship. Before Leonardo, she had been romantically linked to male model Scott Barnhill, Brazilian tycoon João Paulo Diniz, Big Joe, Puff Daddy and actor Josh Hartnett.She endorses several Brazilian brands, notably including Vivo (a cellular service company) and the Brazilian subsidiary of CHer other homes include an apartment in Manhattan’s Tribeca district and a house near Woodstock, NY.. The film failed miserably at the box office and at present Gisele seems to be entirely focused on her enormously successful modeling career, rather than pursuing other film roles.