£1m model has yet to set foot on a catwalk
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

A Briton who has never walked down a catwalk, or had any kind of photographic assignment, has secured a modelling contract worth almost £1 million.

Francesca Cotwal, 21, from London, has been signed up by a California-based company, Cortez Solano Management, in a move that is unprecedented for the modelling industry.

She will earn £968,000 irrespective of whether she gets any jobs. Paying the fee up front guarantees Cortez Solano Management exclusive rights to market and represent Miss Cotwal around the world.

The British beauty has exotic origins, being a mix of English, Indian and South African. At 5ft 8in, Miss Cotwal is described as having stunning Eurasian features and is expected to work across the media spectrum, according to her representatives.

However, Miss Cotwal is determined that her lucrative contract will not deflect her from her long-term educational plans.

She said: "For the last two years I had been in a succession of temporary jobs collecting money to eventually pay for a university place in America. And modelling contract or not, that still remains the plan."

My two cents:
1. I found this story in The Sun this morning, and thought it was some kind of joke. Then I found it in all the British and Irish major newspapers. I took it from The Telegraph, but all of the newspapers have exactly the same quote from Francesca Cotwal, indicating it was copied from a press release. All the papers describe her in the passive tense ("she is described as..."), indicating the reporter hasn't even seen her.

2. Nobody here knows nothing of a modelling agency called Cortez Solano Management, described on Sky news as "a top US agency". There wasn't even one model from this agency in the last Paris season. Such agency does not appear in the California phone book nor in the United States Global Yellow Pages.