Vanessa Hessler

Born	January 21, 1988 (age 23) Rome, Lazio, Italy
Height	1.79 m (5 ft 10½ in )

Vanessa Hessler (born 21 January 1988) is an American model and actress. She has been a model since she was 15, and has appeared in many publications throughout Italy and Germany.

Early life

Hessler was born to John, an American, and Gabriella, an Italian. She lived in Rome until she was 8, then moved to Washington DC, her father's birthplace. In 2002 she returned to Italy and started working as a model. She speaks Italian, English and French. Hessler dated Moatassem Gaddafi, son of Muammar Gaddafi, for four years.^[1]

[edit] Career

[edit] Modeling career

She worked for Donna sotto le stelle and Notte Mediterranea, both on TV. In 2004, she was chosen for a Korff's advertising campaign and for Alta Roma Alta Moda, the Rome fashion week.
She lives in Rome and Washington, and appeared in commercials for Baby Star, Nara Camicie and Gilli.
Hessler planned to work in television, and in early 2006 she wanted to replace Alessia Marcuzzi to host Le Iene, but lost to Cristina Chiabotto.
Hessler has appeared in advertising for GUESS, Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, L'Oréal, and Ferrero SpA.
In March 2006, she made her debut as a TV show host at the Festival di Sanremo with Claudia Cedro, Francesca Lancini, and Marta Cecchetto.
Hessler was the face of the DSL brand "Alice" in Germany (a service of Telefónica Europe) until late October 2011, when the company decided to terminate her contract due to her personal connections to and public support for the deposed Gaddafi family, stating that she had "failed to distance herself from her comments on the conflict in Libya."^[2]

[edit] Acting career

Hessler appeared in the 2005 film Christmas in Miami (Italian: Natale a Miami), along with Christian De Sica, and consequently her popularity soared. She plays Greek princess, Irina, in the 2008 Asterix at the Olympic Games (French: Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques), a film that also stars Alain Delon and Gérard Depardieu. She also plays the leading female role in Per una notte d'amore (English: For a Night of Love), which was filmed in Italy and released in 2008 as a 2 part TV special.^[3]

[edit] Controversial Firing

She lost her biggest client November,1, 2011 after she defended her former boyfriend, Mutassim Gaddafi, and the Gaddafi family in an interview with Italian media. She said that she had "very beautiful love story" with the son of Moammar Gaddafi who was murdered with his father following a U.N sanctioned airstrike and rebel ambush on Gaddafi's convoy in Libya. Hessler also said that the West had made a mistake in backing the rebels who ended Moammar Gadhafi's 42-year reign. "We, France and the United Kingdom, financed the rebels but people don't know what they are doing," Hessler told Italian magazine Diva e Donna, adding that she is disgusted by what is happening in Libya and that "the Gaddafi family is not how they are being depicted, they are normal people."