ReganBooks was an American bestselling imprint or division of HarperCollins book publishing house (parent company is News Corporation), headed by editor and publisher Judith Regan, started in 1994 and ended in late 2006. During its existence, Regan was called, by LA Weekly, "the world's most successful publisher".^[1] The division reportedly earned $120 million a year.^[2] ReganBooks focused on celebrity authors and controversial topics, sometimes from recent tabloids.^[3][4]

Prominent ReganBooks titles include Jenna Jameson’s How to Make Love Like a Porn Star, biographies by General Tommy Franks, professional wrestler Mick Foley, and radio talk show host Howard Stern, three different books on the Scott Peterson case, and those by political commentator Sean Hannity. Though ultimately owned by politically active Rupert Murdoch, ReganBooks disavowed any political agenda, publishing, for example, books both supportive of and critical of George W. Bush.^[5]

In August 2004, ReganBooks had three books on the New York Times best-seller list, including the top two non-fiction positions, and the highest profit ratio at HarperCollins.^[6]

In 2005, ReganBooks announced plans to move from Manhattan to Los Angeles, making it one of the first major book publishers to move from the east to the west coast.^[1][3][4]

In November 2006, ReganBooks announced plans to publish O.J. Simpson's book If I Did It; publication was later cancelled by News Corporation chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch.^[2] After the public fallout Newsweek reported, "Regan's meddlesome-free days are almost certainly over" and Murdoch will be "clamping" down on control.^[2]

On December 15, 2006 Regan was fired from HarperCollins, allegedly over anti-Semitic comments.^[7] The staff at ReganBooks were reassigned within the HarperCollins General Book Group.^[8] The New York Times reported that ReganBooks' offices were closed and "a stunned Ms. Regan was confronted by security guards who arrived with boxes and ordered her to leave."^[7] Regan sued News Corporation for $100 million for defamation over the anti-Semitism charge, asserting that it was "completely fabricated"; in January 2008 News Corporation settled the lawsuit and publicly stated, "After carefully considering the matter, we accept Ms. Regan's position that she did not say anything that was anti-Semitic in nature, and further believe that Ms. Regan is not anti-Semitic."^[9]

Books published[link]

• Bodansky, Yossef. The Secret History of the Iraq War. (ReganBooks, 2005) ISBN 0-06-073680-1
• Boortz, Neal; Linder, John. The FairTax Book. (ReganBooks, 2005) ISBN 978-0-06-087541-1
• Bork, Robert H. Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline. (ReganBooks, 1996) ISBN 0-06-039163-4.
• Canseco, Jose. Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big. (ReganBooks, 2005) ISBN 0-06-074640-8
• Dickinson, Janice. No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel. (ReganBooks, 2002) ISBN 0-06-000946-2
• Dux, Frank. The Secret Man: An American Warrior's Uncensored Story. (ReganBooks, 1996) ISBN 0-06-039152-9
• Foley, Mick. Foley Is Good: And the Real World Is Faker than Wrestling. (ReganBooks, 2002) ISBN 0-06-103241-7
• Gibson, John. Hating America: The New World Sport. (ReganBooks, 2005) ISBN 0-06-076051-6
• Hannity, Sean. Deliver Us From Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism (ReganBooks, 2004) ISBN 0-06-058251-0
• Hannity, Sean. Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism (ReganBooks, 2002) ISBN 0-06-051455-8
• Jameson, Jenna. How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale. (ReganBooks, 2004) ISBN 0-06-053909-7
• Maguire, Gregory. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. (ReganBooks, 1995) ISBN 0-06-039144-8
• Payne, Patricia. Sex Tips from a Dominatrix. (ReganBooks, 1999) ISBN 0-06-039287-8
• Simpson, O.J. If I Did It. (Cancelled in November 2006)
• Thompson, Paul. The Terror Timeline. (ReganBooks, 2004) ISBN 0-06-078338-9
• Taormino, Tristan. Down and Dirty Sex Secrets. (ReganBooks, 2003) ISBN 0-06-098892-4

References[link]

Janice Dickinson
Janice Dickinson (right) with Samata Angel, London Fashion Week, September 2010
Born	Janice Doreen Dickinson (1955-02-15) February 15, 1955 (age 57)[1][2] Brooklyn, New York, United States[2]
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[3]
Hair color	Auburn[3]
Eye color	Brown
Measurements	36C-24-34 (as of 2007[update])[4]
Spouse	• Ron Levy[2]  • Simon Fields[2] (1987–1993)[citation needed]  • Albert B. Gerston (1995–1996)[citation needed]
Website
www.thejanicedickinson.com

Janice Doreen Dickinson (born February 15, 1955)^[1] is an American model, photographer, author and talent agent.

Initially notable as a model, she has described herself as the first supermodel.^[5] One of the most successful models throughout the 1970s and 1980s, she expanded her profession to reality television in 2003 by judging for four cycles on America's Next Top Model. She subsequently opened her own modeling agency in 2005, which was documented in the reality-television series The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency (2006–2008).

Early life[link]

She was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York, to parents Ray Dickinson, of Belarusian descent,^[6] and Jenie Dickinson née Pietrzykoski, of Polish descent.^[2][7] She was raised in Hollywood, Florida, with two sisters, elder Alexis, who became a real estate agent, and younger Debbie, who also became a model.^[2][8]

Dickinson has been open about the emotional and physical abuse she suffered as a child and teenager,^{[2][5][9][10]} and how her father used to sexually abuse one of her sisters. Of her childhood with her "rageoholic pedophile" of a father, Dickinson stated, "Because I wouldn't give in and let him have sex with me, I was verbally and physically abused on a daily basis. I was told that I looked like a boy and wouldn't amount to anything. I think if you abuse a child, your balls should be cut off. You should be castrated immediately."^[10]

Career[link]

Modeling[link]

In the early 1970s, Dickinson moved to New York City to pursue work as a model after winning a national competition called "Miss High Fashion Model."^[7][11] At a time when blue-eyed blondes dominated the fashion scene,^[12] Dickinson was turned down several times by modeling agents, including Eileen Ford, who informed Dickinson she was "much too ethnic. You'll never work."^[11] She was discovered by the fashion photographer Jacques Silberstein when his girlfriend, actress Lorraine Bracco, mentioned she liked Dickinson's look.^[13][14] Wilhelmina became Dickinson's first agent. Her modeling pursuits led her to Paris, France, where her "exotic looks" secured her reputation within the European fashion industry.^[11]

She returned to New York City in 1978, and spent the next several years working steadily, earning $2,000 per day, nearly four times the standard rate.^[11] Dickinson eventually signed with Ford Models to land a major ad campaign for a new JVC camera.^[15] Dickinson, who had not forgotten Ford's initial rejection, was intent on revenge.^[15] She soon became one of twenty Ford models to defect to John Casablancas's upstart Elite Model Management.^[16]

By the 1980s, Dickinson was considered a supermodel, as she "possessed the kind of name and face recognition" that the majority of women in the modeling industry strive to achieve.^[7] She appeared within and on covers of magazines including Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Marie Claire and Playboy, and worked with some of fashion's best-known names, including Bill Blass, Gianni Versace, Valentino, Oscar de la Renta and Calvin Klein.^[17][18] Dickinson has appeared on the cover of Vogue (both American and international editions) 37 times.^[2] She appeared on the cover of Elle seven times in a row and has been the face of ad campaigns for products including Revlon, Christian Dior, Clairol, Virginia Slims and Cutex.^[12][18]

Dickinson looked for ways to sustain her relevance within the fashion industry as she aged, becoming a fashion photographer. In 2008, Dickinson launched her own jewelry line on HSN.^[19]

First supermodel[link]

Dickinson is the self-proclaimed "world's first supermodel".^[2] In E! Network's E! True Hollywood Story, she described how she coined the term "supermodel" in 1979.^[20] Her manager, concerned that at the peak of her modeling career she was doing too much work, told her, "You are not Superman." Dickinson replied, "I am not Superman, I am a supermodel."^[21]

Dickinson's claims for coining the term "supermodel" and being the first one to represent the title are disputed. The term "supermodel" was already known in the 1940s. The writer Judith Cass used the term in 1942 for her article in the Chicago Tribune, which headlined "Super Models are Signed for Fashion Show".^[22] Later in 1943, Clyde Matthew Dessner used the term in his modeling book.^[23] The term was popular throughout the 1960s to 1970s. The New York Times on March 21, 1967, and The Daily Times on May 19, 1967, referred to Twiggy as a supermodel.^[24] In 1968, an article in Glamour described Twiggy, Cheryl Tiegs, Wilhelmina, Veruschka, Jean Shrimpton and fifteen other top models as "supermodels".^[25] The July 8, 1970, issue of The Gazette described Penelope Tree as a supermodel.^[26] The April 23, 1971, issue of The Hour headlined one of its articles "Supermodels Reveal Their Beauty Secrets", including an advertisement with the caption "Supermodel Cheryl Tiegs". The article also says, "The fashion/beauty world is dotted with Supermodels" and "Cybill Shepherd a Supermodel who may turn into a Superstar."^[27] Jean Shrimpton was also described as a supermodel by Time in 1971,^[28] as were Margaux Hemingway by Vogue on September 1, 1975,^[29] Beverly Johnson by Jet in 1977,^[30] and Naomi Sims in the 1978 book Total Beauty Catalog by K.T. Maclay.^[31]

Lisa Fonssagrives^{[32][33][34][35]} and Dorian Leigh, whose careers began before Dickinson was born, have been retroactively recognized as the 20th century's first supermodels.^[36][37] Gia Carangi has also been called the first supermodel^[38][39] as well as Jean Shrimpton.^{[40][41][42][43][44]}

Television[link]

In 2003, Dickinson returned to media attention with her stint as a judge on the reality television series America's Next Top Model. She was hired after producer Tyra Banks read No Lifeguard On Duty and realized that Dickinson could offer the contestants advice on the perils of the fashion industry. As a panelist, Dickinson became known for her wit and incisive, brutally honest critiques.^[45] Dickinson frequently quarreled with her fellow judges, particularly Kimora Lee Simmons and Nolé Marin.^[46] A recurring source of tension between Dickinson and Banks was the former's dubiety concerning plus-size models.^[47] After four cycles, Banks fired Dickinson, replacing her with Twiggy. Dickinson was hurt by the decision. "I was just telling the truth and I was saving these girls from going out there and being told that they're too short, too fat, their skin's not good enough," she said. "I was to America's Next Top Model what Simon Cowell is to American Idol."^[48]

In 2005, Dickinson was a cast member on The Surreal Life during its fifth season. She was confronted by cast mate Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth during a publicity photo shoot while Dickinson was posing with a prop knife. After being physically separated by Bronson Pinchot the two continued to feud throughout the series.^[2][49][50]

In 2006, Dickinson starred in her own reality show, The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, for the Oxygen cable-television channel. The program, which ran for four seasons, documented Dickinson launching a new career as a modeling agent. Despite high ratings in key demographics^[specify] a fifth season was not ordered.

She appeared with English model Abigail Clancy in Abbey & Janice: Beauty & The Best, a reality series detailing Clancey's attempt to break into the American modeling market. The show debuted in Britain on May 14, 2007, and premiered in the U.S on Oxygen on February 19, 2008.

In November 2007, Dickinson became one of the celebrities taking part in the UK reality television show I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here!. Dickinson set the record for most Bushtucker trials, competing ten times in a row.^[51] In the finale of the series, it was announced that Dickinson had gained second place in the competition, with Christopher Biggins coming first.

Dickinson was also a contestant for series two of the American version of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! which began airing in June 2009.^[52] She was eliminated from the show on June 18, 2009.

In 2009, Dickinson was a guest judge on the Finnish version of the Top Model franchise. She created controversy after the claimed effects of accidentally mixing a sleeping aid with champagne caused her to fall down a flight of stairs and burst out at the models. Dickinson was then taken to a hospital where she was told she had no visible injuries. She later then apologized to the models during the show's airing.^[53]

Other guest appearances include "Still Charmed and Kicking", an episode of Charmed in which Paige disguises herself as Dickinson in order to fool both her sisters and old family friends that people important to her did actually care that she had "died." Her sisters soon find out that "Dickinson" is actually Paige, and they order her to reverse the spell. She made a cameo appearance in Darren Hayes's music video "On the Verge of Something Wonderful".

In 2010, Dickinson appeared on the celebrity edition of British dinner-party contest Come Dine With Me, on which she frequently butted heads with former Page 3 Girl Samantha Fox over her glamour modeling career, and flirted with Calum Best.^{[episode needed]}

Dickinson appeared in the fourth season of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, which premiered in December 2010.^[54]

In 2011, she guest-starred in the episode of 90210 titled "Project Runway".^[55]

Music[link]

In 2009, Dickinson recorded a song entitled "Crazy", which was written and produced by Craig Taylor.^[56]

Personal life[link]

Dickinson has been married three times. Her former husbands are Ron Levy,^[2] Simon Fields^[2] (1987–1993)^{[citation needed]} and Albert B. Gerston (February 1995–1996;^{[citation needed]} also recorded as Alan B. Gersten).^[2] With Fields she had a son, Nathan Ray Michael Fields^[2] (born May 5, 1987).^{[citation needed]} She has a daughter, Savannah Rodin Dickinson (born February 23, 1994),^{[citation needed]} by former boyfriend, Michael Birnbaum.^[2] Dickinson thought that Sylvester Stallone was Savannah's father. A paternity test proved that the biological father was not Stallone, but Birnbaum.^[2] In her books and in interviews, she has also discussed her numerous sexual relationships with male and female celebrities.^[57] In addition to Stallone, her past lovers include:

During an episode of the reality show The Surreal Life, Dickinson revealed in-depth information about the emotional abuse she endured as a child and teenager. She stated to her cast mates, "My father was a pedophile. He was a dark, angry guy. Being forced to have a pedophile for a father is probably the most horrible thing that can happen to a child, bar none."^[9] She said, "I survived a monster... 16 years I was forced to keep the secret... If I ever exposed my pedophile father, I would've been murdered. So you know what he did instead? He beat me on a daily basis."^[9] In an interview, Dickinson told British magazine Now, "When he was on the way to the hospital, I tossed his medication out of the car window and didn't tell the doctors. Maybe I wanted to kill the abuser?".^[10]

Age[link]

Dickinson's date of birth is variously stated as February 15, 17, or 28 in 1951, 1952, 1954, 1955,^[2] or 1960. In Dickinson's autobiography No Lifeguard on Duty, she wrote, "When I was just eighteen months old, in 1957, the family moved from Brooklyn to Florida."^[18] She also graduated in 1973 from South Broward High School in Hollywood, making 1955 her more likely year of birth.^[18]

In the first episode of I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here! on November 12, 2007, Dickinson stated her age as 53.^[62] 1954 would be more accurate, but her age at time of high school graduation is as yet unknown. In the eighth episode of the same series, she said, "I waited until I was 32 to get married."^[63]

As an author[link]

Dickinson released a memoir detailing her "wild days" as a supermodel. Entitled No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World’s First Supermodel (2002), the book was effective in introducing her to a new generation.^[7][64]

Dickinson's follow-up memoir was Everything About Me is Fake… And I’m Perfect. (2004),^[7][65] in which she describes her life in modeling; her experience with plastic surgery; and her battles with anorexia, bulimia and alcoholism.^[65]

Her next memoir, Check Please! Dating, Mating, and Extricating (2006), is purported to show a lighter and more tender side of Dickinson. In the book, Dickinson discusses the men in her life, and prescribes her rules for dating.^[66]

Bibliography[link]

• Dickinson, Janice (2002). No Lifeguard on Duty – The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel. New York City: ReganBooks. ISBN 978-0-06-000946-5.
• Dickinson, Janice (2004). Everything About Me Is Fake – And I'm Perfect. New York City: ReganBooks. ISBN 978-0-06-055469-9.
• Dickinson, Janice (2006). Check, Please! – Dating, Mating, and Extricating. New York City: ReganBooks. ISBN 978-0-06-076391-6.

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	Fashion portal
	Television portal

• List of people from Florida
• List of people from Brooklyn, New York
• List of women writers

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Janice Dickinson at the Fashion Model Directory
• Janice Dickinson at the Internet Movie Database
• Janice Dickinson's blog (at oxygen.com)

Wally Lamb (born October 17, 1950)^[1] is an American author known as the writer of the novels She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True, both of which were selected for Oprah's Book Club.^[2][3][4] He was the director of the Writing Center at Norwich Free Academy in Norwich from 1989 to 1998 ^[5] and has taught Creative Writing in the English Department at the University of Connecticut.^[6]

Early life[link]

Lamb was born in Norwich, Connecticut.^[1], and grew up in a working-class family in that town. Three Rivers, the fictional town where several of his novels are set, is based on Norwich and the nearby towns of New London, Willimantic,^[7] and Westerly, Rhode Island.^[2] As a child, Lamb loved to draw and create his own comic books--activities which, he says, gave him "a leg up" on the imagery and colloquial dialogue that characterize his stories.^[8] He credits his ability to write in female voices, as well as male, with having grown up with older sisters in a neighborhood largely populated by girls.

After his graduation from high school, Lamb studied at the University of Connecticut during the turbulent early-1970s era of anti-war and civil rights protests and student strikes.^[2] He holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Education from the University of Connecticut and an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College.^[9]

Writing[link]

Lamb began writing in 1981, the year he became a first-time father.^[10] Lamb's first published stories were short fictions that appeared in Northeast, a Sunday magazine of the Hartford Courant. "Astronauts," published in The Missouri Review in 1989, won the Missouri Review William Penden Prize and became widely anthologized.^[11] His first novel, She's Come Undone, was followed six years later by I Know This Much Is True, a story about identical twin brothers, one of whom develops paranoid schizophrenia.^[7][8] Both novels became number one bestsellers after Oprah Winfrey selected them for her popular Book Club.^[12] Lamb's third novel, The Hour I First Believed, published in 2008, interfaces fiction with such non-fictional events as the Columbine High School shooting, the Iraq War, and, in a story within the story, events of nineteenth-century America.^[13][14] Published the following year, Wishin' and Hopin' was a departure for Lamb: a short, comically nostalgic novel about a parochial school fifth grader, set in the year 1964.^[3][15] In We Are Water, Lamb returns to his familiar setting of Three Rivers. The novel focuses on art, 1950s-era racial strife, and the impact of a devastating flood on a Connecticut family.^[16]

Teaching[link]

For 25 years, Lamb taught English and writing at the Norwich Free Academy,^[17] a regional high school that was his alma mater.^[5] In his last years at the school, Lamb designed and implemented the school's Writing Center, where he instructed students in writing across the disciplines.^[18] As a result of his work for this program, he was chosen the Norwich Free Academy's first Teacher of the Year and later was named a finalist for the honor of Connecticut Teacher of the Year (1989).^[19] From 1997 to 1999, Lamb was an Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of Connecticut.^[20] As the school's Director of Creative Writing, he originated a student-staffed literary and arts magazine, The Long River Review.^[21]

Prison work[link]

From 1999 to the present, Lamb has facilitated a writing program for incarcerated women at the York Correctional Institute, Connecticut's only women's prison in Niantic, Connecticut.^[16] Lamb's writing program at York Prison has produced two collections of his inmate students' autobiographical writing, Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Testimonies from Our Imprisoned Sisters and I'll Fly Away: Further Testimonies from the Women of York Prison, both of which Lamb edited.^[2]

The publication of the first book became a source of controversy and media attention when, a week before its release, the State of Connecticut unexpectedly sued its incarcerated contributors--not for the six thousand dollars each writer would collect after her release from prison but for the entire cost of her incarceration, calculated at $117 per day times the number of days in her prison sentence.^[22] When one of the writers won a PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award, given to a writer whose freedom of speech is under attack, the prison destroyed the women's writing and moved to close down Lamb's program.^[22] These actions caught the interest of the television show 60 Minutes, and shortly before the show aired an episode about the controversy, the State of Connecticut settled the lawsuit and reinstated the program.^[22][23][24]

Influences[link]

Lamb says he draws influence from masters of long- and short-form fiction, among them John Updike, Flannery O'Connor, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, Raymond Carver,^[25] and Andre Dubus.^[5] He credits his perennial teaching of certain novels to high school students with teaching him about "the scaffolding" of longer stories. Among these, Lamb lists Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird,^[25] Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,^[5][25] and J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.^[25] He says Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces and other anthropological analyses of the commonalities of ancient myths from diverse world cultures helped him to figure out the ways in which stories, ancient and modern, can illuminate the human condition.^[25] Lamb has also stated that he is influenced by pop culture and artists who work in other media. Among these he mentions painters Edward Hopper and Rene Magritte.^[5]

Honors and awards[link]

Lamb's writing awards include grants from the National Endowment for the Arts^[26] and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Connecticut Center for the Book's Lifetime Achievement Award, selections by Oprah's Book Club^[10] and Germany's Bertelsmann Book Club, the Pushcart Prize, the New England Book Award for Fiction, and New York Times Notable Books of the Year listings.^[27] She's Come Undone was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times's Best First Novel Award and one of People magazine's Top Ten Books of the Year. I Know This Much Is True won the Friends of the Library USA Readers' Choice Award for best novel of 1998 and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill's Kenneth Johnson Award for its anti-stigmatizing of mental illness.^[10]

Teaching awards for Lamb include a national Apple Computers "Thanks to Teachers" Excellence Award^[28] and the Barnes and Noble "Writers Helping Writers" Award for his work with incarcerated women.^[27] Lamb has received Honorary Doctoral Degrees from several colleges and universities and was awarded Distinguished Alumni awards from Vermont College of Fine Arts and the University of Connecticut.^[28][12]

Personal[link]

Lamb lives in Connecticut, with his wife and three sons.^{[3][23][24][5]}

Bibliography[link]

Novels

• She's Come Undone (1992)
• I Know This Much Is True (1998)
• The Hour I First Believed (2008)
• Wishin' and Hopin': A Christmas Story (2009)
• We Are Water (forthcoming in 2012)

Non-fiction

• Couldn't Keep It To Myself: Testimonies from Our Imprisoned Sisters (2003)
• I'll Fly Away: Further Testimonies from the Women of York Prison (2007)

Sources[link]

• Barreca, Regina. Don't Tell Mama: The Penguin Book of Italian American Writing. New York: Penguin Books, 2002.
• Goldberg, Carole. "Lamb for Christmas: Writer Takes Different Tack in Fourth Novel, Lacing It With Much More Humor, Less Pathos." The Hartford Courant 15 November 2009: G6, G8. Print.
• Lamb, Wally. "P.S. Insights, Interview, and More." The Hour I First Believed, Perennial Edition. New York: HarperCollins, 2009.
• Lamb, Wally. "P.S. Insights, Interviews, and More." I Know This Much Is True, Perennial Edition. New York: HarperCollins, 2008.
• Lamb, Wally. "Revisions and Corrections." I'll Fly Away: Further Testimonies from the Women of York Prison. Ed. Wally Lamb. New York: HarperCollins, 2007.
• Lamb, Wally. "Notes to the Reader" and "Couldn't Keep It To Ourselves." Couldn't Keep It To Myself: Testimonies From Our Imprisoned Sisters. Ed. Wally Lamb. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.
• McClurg, Jocelyn. "'Oprah Effect' Strikes Wally Lamb Again." Hartford Courant 19 June 1998: A1, A14.
• Shoup, Barbara and Margaret Love Denman. Novel Ideas: Contemporary Authors Share the Creative Process. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2001.

References[link]

External links[link]

• HarperCollins Author Website
• Facebook page

Briana Banks
At the AVN Awards, January 7, 2005
Born	Briana Bany[1] (1978-05-21) May 21, 1978 (age 34)[2] Munich, Germany
Other names	Mirage
Ethnicity	German
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)[3]
Weight	110 lb (50 kg; 7.9 st)[2]
No. of adult films	253 (per IAFD)
Website
http://brianabanksreloaded.com/

Briana Banks (born Briana Bany;^[1] May 21, 1978^[2]) is a German-American pornographic actress and model.

Early life[link]

Briana Bany was born in Munich, Bavaria to a German father and an American mother. They moved to Britain when she was four years old, and to the Los Angeles, California, United States suburb of Simi Valley when she was seven years old.^[4][5] Her father still lives in Germany. She moved out of her mother's house when she was 16 years old, taking her 14-year-old sister with her.^[6] She got custody of her sister when she turned 18.^[4][6] She modeled as a teenager, including a cover of Teen magazine.^[5] She held various other jobs before entering the adult industry; making pizza, clerk at an arts and crafts store, file clerk and secretary.^[4]

Career[link]

In 1999, she responded to an ad in the newspaper to do nude modeling for adult magazines. The photographer put her in a pornographic film.^[4] Her first film was University Coeds 18, for Dane Entertainment, in which she performed opposite Brandon Iron.^[4] She entered the industry under the name "Mirage", but began calling herself "Briana Banks" in 2000, after having the first of two breast enlargement operations.^[7] Having had aspirations of being a supermodel, she chose the professional surname "Banks" after model Tyra Banks.^[8] Her first appearance using the new name was in the film Decadent Whores 9. She was Penthouse magazine's Pet of the Month in June 2001. The same year, she signed with Vivid Entertainment.^[4]

Banks claims to have the longest legs in the business (36 in (91 cm) inseam).^[7] She has a ribbon tattoo on her lower back. For several years, her regular boyfriend was pornographic actor Bobby Vitale,^[6][7] but they broke up in 2006.^[9]

In 2002 Banks was one of the first pornographic actresses to have an action figure made in her likeness, by Los Angeles based company Cyber F/X and Sota Toys.^[10]

Banks was a contributing author in the 2004 book How To Have a XXX Sex Life: The Ultimate Vivid Guide (ISBN 9780060581480, from ReganBooks), in which she and other Vivid contract stars give advice and tips about sex, as well as relate anecdotes from their personal sex lives.

On October 13, 2006, Banks reportedly filed a federal lawsuit seeking more than US$75,000 in damages against Doc Johnson Enterprises charging that they had created unauthorized products from molds of her genitals.^[1]

Awards[link]

• Hot D'Or Cannes 2001 - Best American New Starlet
• AVN Awards for "Best Renting Title of the Year", and "Best Selling Title of the Year", Briana Loves Jenna, 2003
• 2009 AVN Hall of Fame inductee^[11]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Briana Banks

• Official website
• Briana Banks at the Internet Movie Database
• Briana Banks at the Internet Adult Film Database
• Briana Banks at the Adult Film Database
• Podcast Interview
• Briana Banks on Twitter

Pornography portal