Lara Bingle Media Man Australia

Lara Bingle

Lara Bingle (born 1987, Cronulla, New South Wales) is an Australian model who is best known for appearing in the controversial 2006 Tourism Australia advertising campaign So where the bloody hell are you?, where she delivers the final line in the television commercial. She is currently a contestant on the Nine Network's Torvill and Dean's Dancing on Ice.

In May 2006, Bingle took legal action against EMAP Australia, who allegedly published photographs of the model without her permission in the March 27 issue of Australian lad's mag Zoo Weekly. Bingle claims that the magazine defamed her by implying she consented to pose for the magazine, which used photographs that were shot when she was an unknown model. Credit: Wikipedia

Articles

Bare Bingle shots won't stop Zoo blue, by Yuko Narushima - 30th March 2007
(Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)

Sydney model Lara Bingle will proceed with her lawsuit against Zoo Weekly for publishing shots of her in a bikini, even though she appeared nude in Germany's GQ magazine.

Her manager Priscilla Leighton-Clark, the owner of Priscilla Model Management in Potts Point, said the nude pictures, taken when she was 17, are a separate issue to the court case against Zoo Weekly.

She said the sale of the nude photos was a betrayal of trust.

"This is a case where the photographer has again sold a picture without the model's consent. That's the issue here," she said.

"Lara did a test with a photographer. He lulled the family into a false sense of security," Leighton-Clark said.

The photographer Gavin O'Neill could not be reached for comment.

"She thought that he was a friend, that he's a good photographer and that he was going to take these beautiful shots. He has sold them knowing it goes completely against her wishes."

Leighton-Clark said "test shots" are common place in the industry, where models and photographers build a rapport to see if they can work together.

The pictures are then blown up and put in the model's and photographer's portfolios, if they like them.

She said the photographer consults the agent if a magazine wishes to buy the shots, and in this case, that didn't happen.

"When a girl gets famous in this fickle world of fame, then the photographer goes right ahead and sells pictures and the smuttier the pictures, the better," she said.

"He's cashing in. He has betrayed Lara and her family.

"I believe O'Neill seriously pushed the boundaries. Lara was very young, though she was older than 16."

Lara Bingle is in London for the Dancing on Ice show and is apparently "devastated" about yesterday's ferry crash. She had trained at the Cantebury ice skating rink.

"Lara Bingle is a very lovely person," Leighton-Clark said. "Lara has the full and continued support of her agency and of course, her family."

Bingle, who plugged Australia in the "Where the bloody hell are you?" tourism campaign is suing Zoo Weekly for defamation, misleading conduct and breach of copyright after it used photographs of her in a bikini on a beach after she turned down their requests for a nude shoot.

Bingle claims the spread defamed her by implying she consented to pose in a G-string bikini for a smutty men's magazine, was the sort of model who would invite readers to achieve sexual pleasure from her photographs; and was prepared to demean herself for money by being photographed scantily clad for a smutty men's magazine.

She also claims Zoo engaged in misleading conduct by representing she had posed topless for the magazine and had said, "I'll make you come", words contained in a speech bubble on one of the photographs.

In response, the magazine's publisher, Emap Australia, said: "Emap rejects completely the allegations made by Lara Bingle and will defend this claim with the utmost vigour."

Lara Bingle nudes headaches, by Megan Miller - 31st March 2007
(Herald-Sun)

Nune news isn't good news for bikini babe Lara Bingle.

The timing of photos, taken in 2005, of the teen model baring all on the German website of GQ magazine couldn't be worse, given she's suing Australia's Zoo Weekly for running bikini shots without her permission.

While the controversial face of the "Where the Bloody Hell Are You?" tourism ads is the first model to go to court over the sale of old pictures, many unsuspecting Aussie starlets have fallen victim to the lads' mags' rush to run unsolicited racy shots of them before they were famous.

After Ralph failed to convince Home and Away beauty Isabel Lucas to pose, it splashed old images of her in a white bikini on its front cover last year.

Reality TV pin-up Imogen Bailey has also spoken out about losing control of her image to photographers, who sold lucrative archive shots to the men's mag market.

Erin McNaught almost lost her shot at Miss Universe after old topless photos surfaced. She still endures Erin McNaughty. Even the Prime Minister isn't immune. Eyebrows were raised when six-year-old bikini photos of Sarah Mackintosh, girlfriend of John Howard's son Tim, emerged.

Mackintosh was described as having "one of the best bodies in the southern hemisphere" by the French version of popular lad's mag FHM.

Bingle's nude bungle could be the fodder Zoo's lawyers need to defend the mag against her claim in the Federal Court that she'd never agree to pose for such a publication.

There is talk that more nude shots of Bingle are up for grabs in the European market and are likely to be picked up as her star continues to rise there.

She's currently touring Britain in Torvill and Dean's Dancing on Ice.

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