Naomi Campbell will surely put on a brave smile tomorrow when her billionaire boyfriend, Vlad Doronin, throws her a lavish 40th birthday party at the Hotel du Cap with every celebrity from the Cannes Film Festival. But the excitable supermodel must be worried.
Prosecutors of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, on trial at The Hague for war crimes, have asked the judges to subpoena Campbell to testify about “blood diamonds” she allegedly received from the warlord in the middle of one night in 1997.
The leggy stunner and Mia Farrow were in the guest house of Nelson Mandela inSouth Africa when Taylor’s men threw pebbles at a window and woke her up.
Farrow told ABC News last month she learned of the diamond gift the next morning at breakfast: “Naomi Campbell . . . said during the night some men had knocked on her door and she, half-asleep, had opened the door and it was representatives of President Charles Taylor and that they had given her a huge diamond. And we were like, ‘Oh, my gosh!’ ”
Campbell’s former modeling agent, Carole White, who was also on the trip, saw the ABC News report and came forward to tell prosecutors she saw several men giving Campbell a “half-dozen” rough stones. White, according to her lawyer Daniel Bright, said Campbell was disappointed the gems were uncut. Prosecutors also want to subpoena White and Farrow to testify.
Taylor is on trial for inciting a bloody rebellion in neighboring Sierra Leone. Prosecutors say Taylor was in South Africa to buy weapons for the rebels with the diamonds.
When Oprah Winfrey asked Campbell about the diamonds during an appearance on her show earlier this month, Naomi said, “I don’t want to be involved in this man’s case — he has done some terrible things and I don’t want to put my family in danger.”