Paulina Porizkova is a Czech-American model and actress. At the age of eighteen years, she became the first woman from Central Europe to be on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swim-suit issue. She was the second woman (after Christie Brinkley) to be featured on the swim-suit issue's front cover consecutive times (1984 and 1985).
Background
On 23 August 1989, Porizkova married Ric Ocasek, lead singer for the rock band The Cars. They had first met in 1984 during the filming of The Cars' music video "Drive" (directed by Timothy Hutton) in which she stars. Porizkova was 19 years of age and Ocasek was already married at that time. The couple have two children.
Porizkova is the subject of the song "Friends of P" by The Rentals on their 1995 album Return of the Rentals, written by lead singer Matt Sharp. She is also the subject of the song "Paulina" on No Doubt's eponymous first album.
Career
She appeared on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 1984 and again in 1985 (her first appearance as a model in the magazine was in 1983). She appeared on the cover of Playboy magazine in August 1987 to preview her new (non-nude) swimsuit calendar. Both of her calendars in 1988 and 1989 by photographer Marco Glaviano sold hundreds of thousands of copies.
She appeared on the covers of numerous magazines around the world during the 1980s and 1990s, including Vogue, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Self, Cosmopolitan and Glamour. She was also featured in advertising for Diet Sprite. Porizkova was the cover model for the 20th Anniversary issue of Cosmopolitan magazine in November 1985.
She was presented on the November 1999 Millennium cover of American Vogue as one of the "Modern Muses".
In early 2001, she was the hostess for a television show on the E! network's Style Channel.
Filmography: Anna, 1987, Portfolio, 1987, Her Alibi, 1989, Arizona Dreams, 1993, Wedding Bell Blues, 1995, Female Perversion, 1997, Thursday, 1996, Long Time Since, 1997, The Intern, 2000, Partners in Crime, 2000; author Ralphie the Road, 1994;
Porizkova was a participant on the Spring 2007 series Dancing with the Stars, but she was voted off on the first results show which aired 27 March 2007. In January 2010, she played the minor role of Clarissa, in the CBS Daytime soap opera, As The World Turns.
Porizkova also had a guest appearance in the short-lived sitcom Ned & Stacey in 1995.