LYE - it's SO GOOD to see you here again- MISSED YOU!!!!

Thanks solange,I missed you too!It`s good to be back

don't mention leo

Modelling at 11, married at 18, divorced soon afterwards and now the on-off girlfriend of the notoriously secretive Leonardo DiCaprio, it is perhaps no surprise that Bar Refaeli is suspicious of journalists. However, Julia Molony finds the Israeli supermodel happy enough to talk about the pressures of being one half of the world's most media-shy couple

By Julia Molony

Sunday January 25 2009

Bar Refaeli has had a difficult morning. It's the day of the launch of her latest project as a model-slash-celebrity-slash-social campaigner and she doesn't seem too happy with how it's going. All anyone wants to talk about is her boyfriend: Leonardo DiCaprio. Bar is having none of it and one can sympathise; after all, most women would bristle at the notion that they were only of interest in relation to their other half. But the fact remains that Bar's celebrity is, as yet, indivisibly linked to that of her fella. She's a successful model in her own right and an enormous celebrity in her native Israel, but, to tell the truth, her star currency currently owes more to her role as consort to DiCaprio than it does to her covers of Sports Illustrated. According to the latest supermarket tabloids, the on/off couple recently reunited after a split last year. But it is impossible to know for sure what's going on, since neither of them will countenance being asked about it.

Part of the problem, as Bar explains, is that she doesn't like being interviewed. She is shy and she doesn't enjoy the attention. It's only in front of the cameras, she says, that the more forthcoming, exuberant side of her character can thrive. But in her daily life, she is the retiring type, and points to her simple clothes -- jeans, comfy boots and an extremely modest wraparound cardigan -- to prove her point.

"You know what?," she says, "I was a very shy girl growing up. And I never liked the attention -- you can tell today, I don't like attention. I wanna be left alone. And I don't like -- even when people pay me compliments I'm very shy about it. I feel more comfortable in front of the camera. I wear things that I wouldn't feel comfortable in normally, and I just take on a different character that is way more open and way more confident."

She continues: "And then I go home and I don't feel comfortable wearing too big of a cleavage and things like that -- I'm just embarrassed. So I try to dress simple and keep simple. But when I do take photos, I like the attention."

A few weeks before meeting Bar, I interviewed DiCaprio as part of his promotional rounds for the film Body Of Lies. He was polite, charming even, in a remote sort of way, but as impenetrable as steel. Bar is less self-contained but something about her defensive manner seems the same. Perhaps they have been coaching each other in interview techniques.

Bar has been busy doing her best to emerge out of the shadow of serial supermodeliser Leonardo. She's making a very respectable career for herself as a model. She has a film project, the psychological thriller, Session, directed by fellow Israeli Haim Bouzaglo, coming out later this year, and she's currently one of the hottest models on the scene. She's made an important leap from clothes horse to personality. As if to prove the point, at the press launch of the Corona Save the Beach campaign, Bar wanders around nervously while several PRs and her management take pains to keep her ring-fenced.

Her manager is here, floating around importantly, looking harassed and issuing instructions, all of which adds a rather neurotic tone to proceedings. Somewhere in the background, Bar's father observes her protectively. He's a striking-looking man with a ruddy tan, presumably picked up on the family horse-farm in Israel.

Bar makes a point of keeping her family close, even when she is travelling or working. When I ask her about keeping a balance between work and home, her answer is simple: she brings her home life with her everywhere.

"I go to work every day, and I come back home every day, and, even if it's to a hotel, I usually have someone with me like my dad or my mum, my brother, my friends. You know, I always take someone with me so I'm not going back to a hotel room and being by myself. And so I hang out with my friends, I go out at night, I go out to dinner or go hang out so I'm never just about the job. I finish, just like every other person finishes their day," she says.

Since she grew up on a farm, activity and the importance of the natural world are woven into her DNA. It's these things that make her an obvious choice as a representative for the Corona Save The Beach campaign, an online campaign to clean up polluted beaches. Bar shares this enthusiasm for environmental causes with DiCaprio.

"I think there are a lot of things in our world that need our attention. So obviously there are a lot of great causes that need our care. This is something that is one of them, and is very dear to my heart, because I had a great childhood growing up at the beach," she says. "I still have a great time and I want my children to have the same thing. And if we're not going to create action, the contamination of the oceans and the water is going to lead to no beaches. It's not going to be safe any more to go into the water. Eventually, we're not going to have sand, because we are destroying the coral reefs. It's going to be a problem for my kids, or for me to be OK with my kids to go swim in the ocean."

Bar was 11 when she first started modelling, and, after a hiatus of a couple of years during which she wore braces, she was signed up to an agency at 15. It wasn't long before she was the most prominent model in Israel, and appearing on the cover of French Elle. When she was 18, she married an older man, believed to be a family friend, and the pair were divorced soon after. Her brief marriage led to accusations of draft-dodging. In Israel, military service is compulsory between the ages of 18 and 20 for all women except those who are Orthodox, disabled or married.

Bar has run into trouble with the press on this issue before and even threatened to sue an Israeli newspaper which she accused of misrepresenting her comments on the subject. Today, all she will say is that she has learned not to take the press too seriously. "I realise that the most important thing is to be happy with myself, because you can't always make everybody happy. People will always have an opinion, and some people will be judgemental, and there is no way to please everyone," she says. "So, you just have to please yourself, and know that what's written about you doesn't make a difference -- it doesn't matter what other people think about you as long as my close friends and family still think I'm the same old Bar and think good about me.

"So," she continues, "just coming to terms with the fact that media will always be media and journalists will always be journalists -- there are some of course, that are great and good, and some that like to hurt and say mean things, and also actually even the ones who say good things," she says, while smiling winningly at me. "If you take it too much into consideration you end up admiring yourself, so none of them take too much to your heart and know that you have to be a good person, and that's what I try to do. Don't take the compliment into an extreme and don't take the criticism on either."

She pauses for a moment, and then she adds: "When I read 'body of the year', I'm happy," -- Bar was named the Body of 2008 by Arena magazine -- "but I forget about it after five minutes, just like when I read, you know, she did this and that wrong; then, it makes me mad for five minutes. So none of them I take to heart, it's just words."

With her DiCaprio association and her rising fame as a model come new opportunities for Bar, but not without a price. From the tension in her demeanour, you can tell that she feels that engaging with the press is venturing into enemy lines. You can't exactly blame her for that, given that thus far, a large proportion of her experience of engaging with the public has been done through shrub-dwelling paparazzi. All non-official photographs of Bar feature her beside a disgruntled and clearly camera-shy DiCaprio, who, outside of filming schedules, seems to model his look and demeanour on The Grinch.

"I don't think you can ever get used to it," she says of her growing relationship with the gossip columns. "It's not a normal thing to be followed or photographed, or be aware of who is around you looking at you. You can never feel so comfortable with it. But I try to live a very simple lifestyle, so I don't go to the places where I can be shot or followed or seen," she says. "It's the way you want to live, basically. Don't go to the high-profile places. I wouldn't go to the main mall in Israel, and I would not go to The Ivy in LA."

The situation presumably won't improve if her acting career takes off. How did she find her first foray into movies with Session? "Really hard actually," she says, and, as she starts to relax, traces of warmth begin to come through. "The free time -- the in-between times were really really long."

Did her experience as a model help with the craft of acting?

"Not really, because I didn't ever watch the dailies and I didn't ever watch the material -- only after we were done. Because I didn't want to be thinking about the way that I look. With acting you have to try to look natural, whereas with modelling, even when you try to look natural you have to pose for it. Although, in modelling, it's a whole world of all kinds of characters you have to play, so I guess it did help me."

Angling, again, for a hint of whether DiCaprio's influence has rubbed off, I ask her about the recent expansion of her career into acting and TV presenting, and whether that speaks of a desire to take on projects that are more creatively fulfilling, or valid.

"That's why I'm designing a line right now," she says -- Refaeli is on board as a designer with clothing and beachwear label Hurley -- "and I'm doing a few pieces and a few bikinis. Yeah, because I wanna grow and try new things. And it's also the things that I am passionate about. For instance, I love to do things that make me feel like I'm doing a good thing at the same time. You know, it's not just about money and career. It's also about contributing and helping to change something for the better," she says, and with that, our time is up.

The manager intervenes, and Bar Refaeli flashes me a totally dazzling smile as she is gratefully marshalled away.

L

For more information on how to preserve your beach of choice, see www.coronasavethebeach.org

- Julia Molony

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/dont-m...eo-1613906.html

http://www.marketingdirecto.com/noticias/n...idnoticia=31817

http://www.askmen.com/specials/2009_top_99...refaeli-34.html

Thanks Lye

Click on photos for HIGH DEF large pics from SI calendar!

http://www.wonna-know.com/2008/02/03/bar-r...msuit-calendar/

Cozy-Chic Winter Hats

Shop-darling

The chic cold-weather looks seen at Tuesday's inauguration make me want to rethink my hat/scarf/gloves situation. I always dread piling on the loads of knit accessories necessary to stay warm, but with the right pieces I could almost get excited about bundling up. Bar Rafaeli (model and Leo's love), seen here in Washington, keeps it simple and stylish in a gray Hurley beanie and pale pink scarf. Below, some similar hat options I’m tempted to try (from top: lilac and gray beanies from Topshop, and cream beanie from Jung Anderson). Any tips for finding cute yet cozy accessories?

—Violet Moon Gaynor

http://fashion.elle.com/

Thanks Lye!!

Thanks Lye and Solange!

Thank you all for the pictures!

BTW, does anyone knows where the new SI Swim goes out? Im dyin' to see if she's in the Cover, that would be amaziiiiiing!

These pics are new to me.