EXCLUSIVE: Playboy tycoon has model wife
By Nick Meo In Bombay And Lucy Lawrence In Milan THE MIRROR

Liz Hurley's new man Arun Nayar is married to a beautiful Italian model. And his millionaire father Vinod insisted last night that his playboy son's marriage is still strong.

The news will come as a hammer blow to Liz, who was pictured holding hands and flirting with Arun, a leading Indian socialite, at a fashion show in Paris last week.

But Vinod, who has a textiles and mail order business in Bombay. claimed his son's 7-year marriage to blonde Valentina Pedroni was still holding together.

"Arun is still married to Valentina," he said "There's no question of separation or divorce. He runs around with all sorts of women. He likes a good social life.

"But he's a great guy who has worked hard to build up a business. We're really proud of him."

However, Valentina is now back in her native Milan in northern Italy to be with her neurosurgeon dad Giovanni and her mother Anna Maria.

"Everything has just landed on Valentina," said Giovanni. "Liz Hurley is not famous here. Valentina knew nothing about this until a few days ago and she has gone to the mountains for a break."

Friends say Valentina, who married Arun in a Catholic ceremony in her home city, left Bombay six months ago and has only been back on brief visits.

A friend of Arun's, Shyam Singhania, said: "Of course, these rumours about Arun and Liz Hurley are the talk of Bombay but nobody is really surprised.

"He's a playboy, part of the jet-set. And the kind of guy who is so good-looking and charming he could sweep a film star off her feet."

Another friend, who asked not to be named, added: "Valentina and Arun have been going through a bad patch, but she will be furious at the pictures of him and Liz Hurley. "They're still married after all and nothing infuriates a Latin woman more than being humiliated in public.

"Seeing your husband's photo all over the papers with another woman - and a famous and beautiful woman, at that - is the ultimate slap in the face."

Liz, 37, who was with Arun at the Christian Dior fashion show, told friends he was her boyfriend - her first since her split with millionaire playboy Steve Bing.

The pair are said to have met during a skiing trip to St Moritz.

Arun was educated at £15,000-a-year Millfield School in Somerset before studying physics at Oxford University's Christ Church college.

The apartment he shares with Valentina - a part-time model who has appeared in several upmarket magazines - overlooks the Arabian Sea and is one of Bombay's poshest addresses.

Arun runs his firm, specialising in website design, from an office behind his apartment. Vinod, 56, lives in the same block and, although divorced from Arun's German mum Gunnar, she stays in the city.

Last night columnist and writer Shoba De - dubbed the "Jackie Collins of India" - said Arun and also his brother Niki have made enemies in Bombay.

She added: "They are obnoxious and complete brats."

It's easy to forget these days models are supposed to be dressed, but the Haute Couture shows in Paris are really about clothes. Expensive clothes: some of the dresses you're about to see cost more than $100,000 (yes, one). The models love the HC shows, there's much less pressure and even more bucks than the Pret a Porter shows (rumours say Elize Crombez, a complete unknown till a few months ago, made in four days about 250,000$).

It is said Dior had some of the models signed on exclusive contracts for the day (there are 5-6 shows a day), to be sure they will be relaxed and concentrated on the Dior show and not on a marathon of taxis and logistics. Of course, the models were paid as if they actually made 5-6 shows for Dior.

The following are a mix of hi-res and low-res from different shows. I hope I haven't mixed the credits. Most of the pics are safe for work, but there is of course an occasional glimpse that could be unsafe in some countries. Here you go:

---> Audrey Marnay at Chanel

---> Anastasia at Philip Treacy

---> Eugenia Volodina at Philip Treacy

---> Caitriona at Anne Valerie Hash

---> Diana Gartner at Balmain

---> Eva Herzigova at Philip Treacy

---> Eva Riccobono at Philip Treacy

---> Elize Crombez at Emmanuel Ungaro

---> Inna Zobova at Stephane Rolland

---> Jacqueta Wheeler at Ungaro

---> Jade Parfitt at Philip Treacy

---> Jessica Miller at Philip Treacy

---> Karen Elson at Jean Paul Gaultier

---> Karolina Kurkova at Givenchy

---> Karolina Kurkova at Valentino

---> Maja Latinovic at Anne Valerie Hash

---> Maria Carla Boscone at Givenchy

---> Michelle Alves at Anne Valerie Hash

---> Naomi Campbell at Gaultier

---> idem, 2

---> Naomi at Philip Treacy

---> Naomi at Philip Treacy, closing

---> Els Pinoo (from 'Vive la fete") at Libertyn Louison

---> Rie Rassmussen at Ungaro

---> Tetyana Brazhnyk at Anne Valerie Hash

---> Tetyana Brazhnyk at Philip Treacy

---> Ujjwala at Ungaro

---> And here comes the bride!