Richard Johnson

Richard Johnson

Celebrity News

ID Models founder now an advocate for endangered animals

Ambassador Paolo Zampolli, who founded ID Models, is now an environmentalist — which means he has an exotic animal or two at every birthday party.

This year, it was an alligator.

“Last year, we had baby sharks. The year before we had tiger cubs,” Zampolli told me as he celebrated his 44th birthday on the 46th floor of the Trump Soho, with an international mix of diplomats and the women who love them.

Zampolli, ambassador to the UN for the Commonwealth of Dominica (an island in the Caribbean), is married to a stunning 6-foot-tall Brazilian model, Amanda Ungaro Zampolli. They have a 5-year-old boy, Giovanni.

“I created awareness of the problem that there are only 2,200 wild tigers left in the world,” Zampolli said. “The tigers could not come — they are now 270 pounds — so they sent their friend the alligator.”