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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Stephen Brook, press correspondent

Supermodel grills Chavez for GQ

Supermodel turned rookie journalist Naomi Campbell has interviewed the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, for the latest issue of men's magazine GQ.

Campbell, who last year famously turned the tables on her bitter enemy, former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan, during a GQ interview by firing questions at him, is also working on landing interviews with the Cuban president, Fidel Castro, and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, for the magazine.

She went to Venezuela in October to interview the country's controversial president and to persuade him to make a donation to the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

In the GQ interview, in the February issue, published on Thursday, January 10, Campbell discusses with Chavez his plans for closer ties with Cuba and his opposition to the US president, George Bush.

At one point Campbell asks Chavez if he would ever be photographed without a shirt, like Russian president Vladimir Putin. He replies: "Why not? Touch my muscles?"

The GQ editor, Dylan Jones, told MediaGuardian.co.uk: "It was actually remarkably easy to organise the interview, as Chavez obviously wanted to meet Naomi.

"I mean who wouldn't want to meet Naomi? Even socialist dictators have an interest in gorgeous supermodels."

Campbell has already met and interviewed formula one star Lewis Hamilton for the magazine and is working on landing interviews with Castro and Sarkozy.

"Is she a better journalist than model? I think she has a natural flair for it and is tremendously engaging with people - also, she gets them to talk," Jones said.

"Like all good GQ journalists, Naomi was very protective of her copy - this wasn't just something she knocked off in five minutes.

"We edited the copy closely together in our boardroom here, and she now pops in on a regular basis. I must say, the boys in the office don't seem to mind at all."

Campbell writes in the article that she wanted to see if it was true that Chavez was a people's president.

"I didn't want to judge Chavez, or probe him for his political views, even though he gave them freely. I simply went to interview Hugo Chavez the man."

· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332.

· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

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