Naomi Campbell is all about owning up to her past mistakes. It's her present mistakes she's having trouble accepting.
Take, for instance, her recent camera-directed tantrum. As the incident was entirely caught on tape, a standard denial would seemingly not quite cover it. So when Naomi was forced to talk about the incident on the Oprah Winfrey Show today, she had to get more creative with her excuses.
In the end, she took a page from the reality star playbook. Yup, she blamed the editing.
"There definitely is sound effect [added]," she told Oprah of the, um, completely unedited news footage, going on to flat-out deny that she punched the camera.
"There were three cameras, and I went to walk out the door, and the other one came in the way. So I moved the first one out to get to the door, and there were two more."
Her storm-out was prompted by the interviewer asking about a blood diamond she was rumored to have received from deposed Liberian president Charles Taylor, a gem of a dictator currently on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Since no one dares walk out on Winfrey, Naomi mustered up a response when Oprah began a similar line of questioning.
She admitted that while she met Taylor at Nelson Mandela's South African home, she did not initially know who he was. She also said that she has so far failed to cooperate with the international tribunal investigating the former leader because she didn't want to get involved in the case.
Which seems to be a recurring theme.
Two months ago, she avoided going to trial for allegedly assaulting her chauffeur after the driver had a change of heart, claimed he overreacted and dropped the charges. Since this is Naomi we're talking about, it didn't take long for speculation to begin about whether or not the tempestuous model had offered any financial encouragement to the driver for the case to go away.
"I wouldn't have given the statement if I had done something wrong," she said. "[The statement] said, 'I wouldn't be held hostage to my past.' Because of my behavior in the past, I will be sometimes pointed at and said, 'She hit me.' And I've got no proof of saying any different."
Of course, Naomi was quick to admit that her innocence is usually the exception, not the rule.
"I am ashamed of everything I've ever done. I take responsibility for the things that I have done, and I do feel a great sense of shame," she said while admitting that she threw a phone at her housekeeper (albeit without remembering why).
"I act out…I feel remorseful. I feel ashamed. I feel for them. I think, 'What have I done to them?' If I've hurt them."
And since this is something of a long-running problem in her life, she's not without some insight on the matter.
"I think it comes from a deeper place than that with me," she said when Oprah asked if she could chalk her issues up to bad anger management.
"It comes from another type of emotional disorder, because it's not just, 'I don't get what I want. I throw.' It comes from, I think, an abandonment issue, and it comes from also just trying to build up a family around me that's not my immediate family. And if I feel a mistrust, then I really just...all my cards go down."
And the arm winds up.
Naomi also confirmed during the sitdown that she's been off drugs for six years, alcohol for one and a half and is currently living in Moscow with still-married (details, details) Russian real estate mogul Vladimir Doronin.
"I like men who know what they want, know what they're doing, make their own decisions," she said. "As much as I like to be the controller, it's not in my best interest."
No arguments here.
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