Naomi Campbell took a break from shooting her show “The Face” to appear at the South-South Awards during the UN General Assembly.
Spies said the supermodel was seen entering the Waldorf-Astoria through a side entrance while VIPs and other guests entered on Park Avenue. Inside the gala honoring Nelson Mandela and his wife, Graça Machel, Campbell was seen greeting Mandela’s daughter Zindzi, and Machel’s daughter, Josina.
During her remarks, Zindzi said Mandela and Machel, “want you to know their hearts are with the people of Africa and Kenya.” Campbell was overheard saying of Mandela: “Sometimes I pinch myself and think, ‘Do I really know him?’ I am so grateful to have [him] in my life . . . He is humble and sincere and has no regrets. He holds no anger or resentment — he only thinks of humanity and his country and the greater good.” She even calls him by a special nickname, “grandpa.”
Guests also included Ambassador John W. Ashe, the prime ministers of Fiji, Antigua and Barbuda, as well as James Fairchild and Dr. Christine Borelli, Elaine Sargeant, Unik Ernest and Sharon Bush.
A spy said that Campbell insisted on arriving through an entrance that had been barricaded on 49th Street so she could sneak into the awards undetected and pose for the red carpet inside, but a source close to the supermodel said, “Naomi was instructed to arrive at the entrance on 49th Street.”