Janice Dickinson, Brutally Honest
Janice Dickinson doesn't mind a little hard work.
The self-described "world's first supermodel," reality TV star, photographer and author, is enjoying the challenge of running her own agency in front of the cameras.
"This job is twofold: I'm doing the start-up business along with my partner Peter Hamm, and making a television show out of it at the same time," she told The ShowBuzz's Judy Faber. "I'm tired obviously. (But), I'm having the best time of my entire life. I love my work."
When Oxygen's "The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency" premiered last year, Dickinson had to start completely from scratch with her new venture.
"The premise of the show was I had to have a license, it had to be an actual operating business, which it is," she said. "It was a hoot and a holler to watch me go through the motions of finding the space, getting it decorated, getting accountants, finding a computer, learning how to use a computer."
Dickinson was a successful model in the 1970s and early '80s, working with the hottest designers, posing for the best photographers, and demanding top dollar for her services.
But, like many actors who claim that all they want to do is direct, Dickinson says she always wanted to own her own agency.
"It started when I was 9 years old and I wanted to be Wilhemina Cooper, who was a very successful model in her day and afterward she founded the Wilhemina Agency in New York City," she said. "I always admired and looked up to her. I knew at the end of my modeling career — which for a model has a very short shelf-life — I knew I had to have something to fall back on."
Now that her dream has come true, Dickinson is charged with the task of finding talent for her agency. She had some successful bookings last season, but she lost Frederick's of Hollywood as a client when she didn't have models the lingerie company deemed sexy enough for their catalog.
Video: Janice Dickinson On Her Reality ShowBy the end of the season, she had whittled down her talent roster to the models she and her partner felt were ready to work right away, with a few on deck who would need only a little more training to start getting jobs.
This season, she'll hold an open casting call and look for more talent, much to the chagrin of the "kids," as she calls them, on her current roster.
"You're going to see this season on my show some of the freshest faces in the industry, I'm not kidding you," she said. "The guys are already booking Vogue, huge campaigns, well you'll just have to tune in and see."
A single mom, Dickinson has a daughter, Savannah, 12, and a son, Nathan, 19. Both were seen on the show last season and this time around Nathan will take on the role of running part of the agency.
In her autobiography, "No Lifeguard On Duty: The Accidental Life Of The World's First Supermodel," Dickinson writes candidly about her many lovers, the wild parties, and her battles with substance abuse in a world where champagne flowed and cocaine was always available.
Because she's seen her share of the darker side of modeling, Dickinson has very strict advice for her "kids."
"I have rules," she said, emphatically. "No. 1, say no to drugs and alcohol; No. 2, get a high school education; No. 3 if you're under 18, make sure a parent accompanies you to a photo shoot or places unknown or other countries; No. 4, always bring a friend along with you and tell your agent, your booker, or your family members where you're going at all times," she said. "Because in my experience girls have disappeared, they've been kidnapped, there are many models that have had drug problems, along with myself."
As a judge on the CW's "America's Next Top Model" and on her own show, Dickinson has developed a reputation as a highly-critical taskmaster, sort of a Simon Cowell of the fashion world.
The way she sees it, she's just being realistic.
"People call me brutally honest. I am," she said. "It's a brutal, highly critical industry, the fashion industry. If they're not going to get it from me, they'll hear it from magazine editors, other photographers, fellow models, it just goes right down the line."
But, she adds that she's fiercely protective of her models, and always has their best interests at heart.
"The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency" has been expanded to a one-hour format, and airs every Wednesday on Oxygen at 10 p.m. ET.
By Judy Faber