Mia Farrow Contradicts Naomi Campbell in Blood Diamond Trial

Actress tells a war crimes tribunal that the British supermodel lied about receiving stones from deposed African dictator

By Josh Grossberg Aug 09, 2010 3:34 PMTags

Good thing Mia Farrow doesn't work for Naomi Campbell because we'd probably be witnessing a catfight right about now.

A few days after Campbell testified under oath at Charles Taylor's war crimes trial at The Hague that she didn't know who the former Liberian dictator was, the actress took the stand and directly contradicted that claim, essentially accusing the British supermodel of perjuring herself on the witness stand.

In testimony Monday, Farrow told the United Nations court that Campbell did in fact admit to receiving a "huge diamond" from Taylor at a charity event at Nelson Mandela's house 13 years ago that both attended.

The deposed African despot is on trial for allegedly accepting uncut blood diamonds in return for funding neighboring Sierra Leone rebels who killed thousands of civilians during that country's civil war that ended in 2002.

Campbell, 40, took the stand last week and asserted that two men whom she didn't know from Taylor's entourage knocked on her hotel suite in the middle of the night following a dinner on behalf of Nelson Mandela's Children Fund and gave her some "dirty-looking stones."

The next morning, the fiery fashionista recalled telling Farrow at a breakfast that she "assumed" it was from Taylor whom she had met the night before, but up until then had "never heard of him before, never heard of the country Liberia before" and "never heard of the term 'blood diamonds' before."

Not so, according to Farrow, who said Campbell couldn't wait to gossip about the gift when she and some other guests sat down together.

"What I remember is Naomi Campbell. . .said, in effect, 'Oh my God. . .last night I was awakened by knocking at the door and it was men sent by Charles Taylor and he sent me a huge diamond," the actress recalled.

That recollection flatly contradicted the lawsuit-friendly model's assertion that she didn't know who the gift-giver was because, as she told the court, she "gets gifts given to me all the time, at all hours of the night."

Defense lawyers tried to counter by suggesting Farrow had a faulty memory and accused her of being biased toward Campbell, pointing to a later interview she gave ABC's Nightline about the affair in which she said she wanted to see "justice" for the people of Sierra Leone and Liberia. The thesp denied the bias claim.

Campbell subsequently gave the gems to an associate to donate to Mandela's charity, but no such donations were made and her friend instead held on to the diamonds and eventually turned them over to investigators.

Campbell's former agent, Carole White, is expected to testify next that Campbell had been "mildly flirtatious" with the dictator throughout the dinner; that she had overheard him talk about gifting her the diamonds; and that Campbell "seemed excited about the diamonds" and "kept talking about them."

It seems the excitement's worn off.

In fact, Campbell has since tried to pretend the whole thing never happened, telling prosecutors back in April that she never received the stones. She also initially refused to testify against Taylor, citing fears for her and her family's safety, but was eventually compelled to do so after being subpoenaed.

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Naomi's had quite the rap sheet. Catch up on her alleged crimes right here.