Pirelli has revealed yesterday in London its new calendar for 2003. No more "strong women", no more Annie Leibovitz arty pics, back to nudes, nudes, nudes. The alibi is the addition of male models (they are not nude, by the way)

Of course, they didn't use these words. This is from the official press release, I find it hilarious:

The calendar is an ode to freedom, a celebration of the joy of life, an acclamation of unspoilt nature. The true protagonist though is the female personality in its entirety, photographed against an enchanting, unspoilt natural Mediterranean background.

"What I have always loved about Italy is that she is like a mistress: you can’t live with her, but you can’t live without her”, says Bruce Weber. “When Pirelli first asked me to photograph the calendar this time, I decided that I didn’t want too many concepts, I wanted to experience Italy again like I did when I first came with the kids from school. I wanted to see Italy again as a child. I think there is something really beautiful when you see a sense of freedom in a person, a freedom of expression, and a freedom at being a wild child again. About the women: “I wanted to pick those kinds of girls that people have a fantasy about, a fantasy about knowing them. I keep seeing all these women looking at the Pirelli calendar and I think it would be really nice for women and men to be able to look at the calendar and see a guy once in a while. It is a modern theme today – men love women; women love men".

The final result is one the most beautiful calendars ever produced by Pirelli: an extraordinary combination of photographs to be read as a single, natural sequence. A truly unique creation: this is the Pirelli Calendar 2003.
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This is really a non-unique creation, but there are pics, and that's what is important. The photographer this year is Bruce Weber. The models are, by order of appearance:

Enrico Lo Verso - Yamila Diaz-Rahi (nude)
Isabeli Fontana
Alessandra Ambrosio - Marcelo Boldrini
Karolina Kurkova
Heidi Klum - Jak Krauszer (quite nude)
Natalia Vodianova (transparent)
Heidi Klum - Enrico Lo Verso - Yamila Diaz-Rahi (nude)
Sophie Dahl (nude)
Alessandro Gassman - Jessica Miller
Lisa Seiffert (nude and sexy)
Filippa Hamilton - Ajay Lamas - Rania Raslan (ridiculous)
Heidi Klum (almost nude)
Tomasino Ganesh - Natalia Vodianova
Karolina Kurkova
Alessandra Ambrosio - Marcelo Boldrini - Isabeli Fontana
Sienna Rose Miller
Isabeli Fontana - Ajay Lamas
Filippa Hamilton
Natalia Vodianova - Tomasino Ganesh - Karolina Kurkova (nice)
Bridget Hall (wet shirt, like in the fifties)
Sienna Rose Miller - Stephan Ferrara - Filippa Hamilton
Yamila Diaz-Rahi
Sienna Rose Miller - Lisa Seiffert
Jessica Miller
Tomasino Ganesh - Natalia Vodianova
Isabeli Fontana (stupid)
Enrico Lo Verso - Yamila Diaz-Rahi (nude)
Maria Carla Boscono

The calendar includes both six-colour and black-and-white photos, with two pictures for each month. The first series of female portraits is accompanied by a second series (on the back) of pictures including also men.

Pirelli has signed an exclusive agreement with Microsoft for online distribution (even pirelli.com doesn't have the rights), so you'll find the pics here:
The 2003 Pirelli Calendar

And a few hi-res pics can be found here.

But that's not all! Since the MSN guys couldn't understand each other, the French gave different pics and different hi-res, so if you move to MSN France you'll find the second pic of each month (and the models speak French!). Just click on the inverted name of the month at left. As for the Italians, they've got great wallpapers at MSN Italia.

Croatian model Tatjana Dragovic confirmed today in the local press that she is pregnant. The father is her long-time boyfriend, tennis star Goran Ivanisevic, mostly known as the first-ever player to win the Wimbledon tournament after entering as an unseeded player, in 2001. Tatjana put her modelling career on hold after Goran won Wimbledon title and the couple now live in Tatjana's native Zagreb.

Marie-Anne from Zagreb sent me a hilarious interview with the couple from OK! Magazine. The highlights:

- How did the two of you meet?
Tatjana: Goran called my agency in New York. He left a message and asked me to call him in Long Island, where he was playing in a tournament. I called him and asked him what he wanted but I didn't know who he was.

- Didn't things get off to a rather rocky start?
Goran: We spoke for a year on the phone and then she called me after Wimbledon 1998 and I said I would call her back in ten minutes and I didn't call her for a month! And then we started talking again and then we met again and that's how it started.

- So your relationship was quite a challenge at the start?
Goran: In the beginning it was tough because she was a very proud and stubborn person. It was very hard for me because she didn't understand much about tennis. I always had to explain to her that I had fight all day on the court and that I didn't want to come home and fight with her too. I said to her that I couldn't do it anymore and it was too much. But then she started to understand that our relationship was going to be a little bit different. And now everything is perfect.

-Tatjana, you had some negative press coverage after Goran's win...
I don't know what was going on in the international press because I didn't get a chance to read it but here in Croatia it was unbelievable. I thought they would write more about his success rather than getting involved in his personal life. If I am the right choice or not is nothing to do with his tennis. If it all happened again now I would know how to deal with it, but it was the first time that something like that had ever happened to me.