Gia Carangi was honestly a one of a kind Supermodel

Just post a pic ffs.

It’s a vintage video

Scavullo died of a heart attack in his Upper East Side apartment as he was getting ready to head downtown to do a photo shoot with Anderson Cooper.

Nice video, OP. Thanks for sharing. And that's interesting, R3, and sad too.

Gia was gorgeous from the waist up but she had no butt and stumpy legs.

R5 DIDNT most models back then? You needed to be rail thin, small tits and no ass usually to be taken seriously as a model.

The picture from that shoot, probably the most famous one of Gia.

R6 It's highly possible Gia would have become fat, given her genes and addictive personality. Gia was almost kicked out from her detox program because of the outrageous claims she made about how much heroin she consumed. The other addicts and caseworkers would scoff at her claims because they did not think it was humanly possible for a person to spend between $2000-$3000 on heroin in a day, which Gia was doing at the height of her addiction.

She was no Ypir.

There was nothing natural about her in that video - did you miss the make up and hair stylist and clothes stylist? All overdone'.

That video just reminds me of how sleazy those days were. Sleazy make up, hair, clothes, fabrics, Yuck. I hated those days and that so called style. As much as I hated disco shit cause that's all that is. Lots of the 70s and into the 80s were full of awful design - not just in clothes and style but in things like furniture as well. It's best forgotten.

I love how the well manicured voice over talks about how Scavullo loves the vitality of the moment - ah yes the vitality of a heroin addict soon to die from her folly.

Up until the year before she died, Gia was still gorgeous. I think she was living in a halfway house in 1985 when this picture was taken. She was clean from heroin but knew she had AIDS. She definitely had health problems, but nothing serious until she caught pneumonia six months later.

Gia was working some menial jobs as part of her program in 1985, but on the side she was reconnecting with some of her old contacts in NY in hopes of making another comeback in modeling. Sandy Linter said Gia came to visit her during this time and she couldn't believe how gorgeous she still looked

It makes sense that Gia probably would have made a comeback if she had not fallen ill. Elle Macpherson only started modeling a year or two after Gia, and she did not reach her peak until about 1992. Then the twenty or so elite models from Gia onwards operated more like they were business corporations than single entities.

Gia would score her heroin from one of the Mr. Bigs in town, no smalltown transactions. She would also fuck guys from who she could get heroin, and ones who could advance her career. Perhaps she did it for her own enjoyment too, but I wonder if she ever felt any romantic feelings for anyone other than a woman?

Probably not, but when she did finally get clean, during that short period before the illness she had spoken to her mother about finding a man to marry and perhaps having kids. She saw some of her model friends marry well and enjoy security, so it must have been tempting for her.

OP, she was very natural and striking, and yes one of a kind. She was sensual-looking and a goddess. She also seemed to have no ego attachment to her beauty like most models do, and saw it only as a commodity. Very strange. I'm 100% gay male and feel like I could almost jerk off to that picture of Gia at R7, because she is so good-looking.

Phoebe Cates was another Wilhelmina model from the same era as Gia who had the "sensual" look.

Phoebe Cates was every teen boys jerk off material in the 80s

Besides Gia and Phoebe, Andie MacDowell was the 3rd highest earning Wilhelmina model in 82. Known professionally as "Andie".

Andie said never felt attractive before she was discovered: "I wasn't beautiful, but I was different. I was tall and thin".

Gia would have probably made a good actress with her deep voice. Even if she had only got into European movies. She was taking acting lessons and auditioning when the 20/20 story came out. Gia has one credit on IMDb and that's as the dancing girl in the Blondie video. Debbie and Gia also used the same dealer.

Jimmy Destri was reportedly over the moon with Gia, but they were never more than friends, who would occasionally get together to "shoot up" some pool.

R13 Marrying a man? She was a lesbian.

Gia identified as a lesbian, but she also daydreamed about living a 'normal' life. The conversation she had with her mother indicated she was tired of living through crises and wanted some stability. Gia also absolutely ADORED children, so I'm sure a bearding arrangement must have seemed attractive to her, after she had reached rock bottom.

Interview

Meh, I see prettier girls walking down my street.

Here's the April 1979 Cosmo cover she was shooting in that vignette:

All this hoo-hah about Gia Carangi...she really wasn't all that. Oh, she had the looks to be a model. But other than that she had nothing; no education, no work ethic, no ambition, no discipline, no motivation, no family support system. Such a big deal is made about her, but her modeling career was very brief. Of course it would be; the girl was a train wreck. Of course she died you. Someone who knew her was right when he said "she would have been a casualty in any life."

Did the entirety of her skin really SLOUGH off her body when they lifted her out of her death bed post mortem, like the movie claims?

What a grotesque image.

R24 Yes, she was comatose and had not been moved for several weeks when she died. There were pools of liquid that had dried her back to the bed.

^^ What a horror.

I wish they’d kept that fact a secret.

More from Sandy Linter about Gia's Cosmo cover.

I could have given her a run for her money if I had been true to my inner, gorgeous woman in the late 70s- early 80s. My pussy would have been for sure more wetter.

The final Cosmopolitan cover she did with Scavullo (he was doing her a favor by using her for the cover photo) is astonishing. She's unrecognizable from the gorgeous, sexy girl that she used to be. She's bloated, her hair looks bad, and her hands are stuffed under a heavy skirt, in order to hide an abscess on her hand from where she was shooting up. It was shocking the way she'd declined.

She was stunning

WHO?

R10 I suppose because I didn't live through it, I kind of love the sleaze and decadence of the mid-1970s to the early-1980s. I've always thought that the photography of Chris von Wangenheim, Helmut Newton, and Guy Bourdin were perfect embodiments of the dark "underside" of that era.

Gia by Helmut Newton

^Ansolutely fabulous photo.. I definitely agree with you.

IMO, Gia started to look slightly hard & dykey by 1980 or so; just a few years into her career. Which is totally understandable given her addiction issues. But for me, her best shots were in 1978/1979.

Anyway, I'll never cease to be amazed at how much Cindy Crawford looks like Gia. In fact, early in Cindy's career her nickname was "Baby Gia". It's amazing how the industry was able to immediately find a doppelganger to replace Gia as soon as her career was over.

How, why, and where did she die? Was she not being cared for? Why would no one have been moving her if she was in a coma for weeks?

Gia died in an AIDS hospice. She had lost all her money and went for treatment as a public patient. The disease was still new and terrifying to most staff who worked in those places, and there was likely not a lot of protocol on how to care properly for patients.

Nobody except her close family even knew she was ill. She became sick rapidly after she had completed a harrowing 2 years of heroin detox, and then started taking drugs again as soon as found out she was ill. I think the mental decline for Gia was harder than losing her beauty.

No one in fashion went to her funeral. They probably thought she had just relapsed or was back in rehab. Gia was back in Philadelphia with her family as AIDS progressed and kept the two worlds separate.

Gia's mother hated the Angelina Jolie movie, and said it made her daughter look like an inhuman monster.

Gia had a terrible temper, but the scene of her pulling a switchblade on the receptionist at Wilhelmina on her very first interview, and THEN carving her name on the countertop never happened, and it's completely preposterous to suggest it did.

Angie, before all her surgery, does not even come close to capturing Gia's beauty, except for exactly one second in the scene where Gia is being photographed alongside the famous chainlink fence, she flips her hair back, and from the distance the resemblance is passable. Nowhere else in the movie does she capture Gia's true essence.

R38 that’s too bad because I first learned about Gia Carangi from the HBO film and I felt very sympathetic toward Gia after watching and wanted to learn more about her. I thought it was a sad but quality biopic.

I actually think this was one of Jolie’s better and more raw roles. After Jolie got famous, she was typecast as the edgy bombshell. This was pre- movies like Gone in 60 Seconds, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Salt, etc.

Love her and her whole story - the dramatic tragedy mixed with the horror of early AIDS and heroin addiction. Grateful not to have been her - and to have come of age just after this period. Of course she still looked good - she was only 19-26. Talk about a life cut short. Ironic that she was gay and faced the same issues as a gay person dying of AIDS.

I never appreciated what a harsh NY accent Sandy Linter had. And how Gia talked with lockjaw to hide her Philly accent.

R35, what made her look hard and dykey? Just wondering

Gia and Madonna lookalike

R42 needs glasses

She gave good face.

Cindy is gorgeous. Nobody was more beautiful than Cindy in her prime. Gia was a poor man's Cindy.

R43. Twins

Gia was the most beautiful woman ever

Gia died in Hahnemann University Hospital, r37.

The Gia movie with Jolie was stupid. Rob Fay said that movie was the kind Gia was afraid they'd make about her life. I hated it.

Angelina lacked Gia’s curves, really. The scene where she chases after her girlfriend from her apartment naked…Angelina’s ass is like an ironing board. Gia had a great body. I think that the movie could have been better. I worked with some women who grew up near Gia in Northeast Philadelphia. Everyone said that she was strange. Good looking but strange. Don’t know why she went off the rails like she did. Her mother sounds like trash. Sorta like Cissy Houston was to Whitney.

Good filmstrip OP.

Lol’d at the Barbara Walters portrait with the signature Cosmo cover winged eye makeup. Incongruent.

Was Gia a lipstick lesbian?

If the people in that video only knew what lie ahead for them...

I don't care.

Never heard of her before DL. She is unremarkable as a woman but has a masculine face, probably why she made it as a “supermodel” in a male GAY dominated world.

r54 How old are you? I am not asking in a cunty way, but in a curious one. You are strangely prideful how oblivious you are. You might think that is "cute" now, but it isn't and this kind of attitude will only become more obnoxious as time goes by. I have a feeling you believe time will stand still for you, but trust me it doesn't.

Arm chair psychiatrist R55 thinks he has a persons number from one comment

Nice try R56

Not really,

I am curious how old the poster is not because of any psychological basis, but the poster speaks the way a young person does (I was young once as I assume you were/are) so I am wondering what time in their life their judgement is coming from. Hope that helps.

If you would like to speak to a psychologist, my husband will be awake in a few hours. If you need any help, he is more than happy to give the milk away for free as it were.

Take good care.

Nice try R56

Not really,

I am curious how old the poster is not because of any psychological basis, but the poster speaks the way a young person does (I was young once as I assume you were/are) so I am wondering what time in their life their judgement is coming from. Hope that helps.

If you would like to speak to a psychologist, my husband will be awake in a few hours. If you need any help, he is more than happy to give the milk away for free as it were.

Take good care.

Weird, it double posted. Gia, you bitch? Was that you?

Anyway, meant to sign off with my full reply number anyway

It's easier to see the resemblance to Cindy in the video than the stills

Personally i don't see her appeal, i mean, she's obviusly good looking but i suspect it's her tragic death that elevated her at beauty icon status. Are there any footstage of her catwalks?

I think that she was mainly a print model.

R62 I see- well, i wish i could see her in a catwalk because in print she doesn't give much, she looks like those generic catalogue model

No, r51. She often wore men's clothes and did not wear make-up. A friend of hers described her as having an interesting mix of being very feminine and very butch at the same time.

R,49: Is there anything more specific you can tell us that these people who knew her said?

I think she was bisexual, but preferred women. The HBO movie makes her out to be a lesbian, but people who knew her said that she got with a lot of men.

No she didn't, r65. She had sex with some for drugs only.

Anyone know if she ever had any plastic surgery or other procedures done?

I don't think she did. She was young when she started modeling and young when she died. she didn't need plastic surgery. She didn't have a great body but Scevello said she had great tits. She had bad legs and a washboard ass but a beautiful face. She was a top print model and cover girl.

R32- You would love the coffee table book Gloss.

[Quote] I worked with some women who grew up near Gia in Northeast Philadelphia. Everyone said that she was strange. Good looking but strange. Don’t know why she went off the rails like she did

Molested?

Soft butch…

R69 Would you be surprised to learn that I already own that book?

Just last week I bought Helmut Newton: Legacy, which is great!!

Another shot of Gia by Helmut Newton.

She had a great ass but she couldn't live forever...

Her last Cosmo cover where Scavullo positioned her to hide her coke bloat and track marks, including the open sores she had leading directly to her veins.

Her legs don't look remotely stubby at r73.

Sharon Stone could play her mother if they do another biopic.

Has there ever been a better-looking famous lesbian than Gia Carangi?

Someone wrote this in one of the other Gia threads:

[quote] I'm not sure if it's known when she developed what we now think of as full blown AIDS. She was diagnosed with it a couple months before her death, but was previously diagnosed with the no longer used AIDS-Related-Complex several months or maybe the year before. Death was so much more rapid and gruesome then.

What the did she die of?

Probably the most beautiful woman ever

Freakishly beautiful. The fact that she could go from masculine to bombshell is just mesmerizing.

In my early,20s I dated a girl and she was her spirit animal.

The camera added 20 pounds.

[quote]Never heard of her before DL. She is unremarkable as a woman but has a masculine face, probably why she made it as a “supermodel” in a male GAY dominated world.

Bless your heart for thinking that anyone but straight men AND women are the gatekeepers in any discipline.

Funny, I was a high school fashion gayling during Gia's time, but I don’t remember her. What I do remember is clipping Vogue photos of Janice Dickinson, Rene Russo, Rosie Vela, Pat Cleveland, etc. But Gia? Not on my radar.

I’m starting to think she was more of a star in the small, insular world of Datalounge. She was pretty, but pretty in a common way. I honestly think Cindy Crawford was way more attractive. They might have a similar look, but Cindy’s is sharper, slicker, sexier, cooler. Gia, though? Just ordinary-ish. I think it’s her being gay, along with her addiction, her crash, and her AIDS death that have some DL'ers singing her praises, calling her the most beautiful woman ever, hardly.

Lastly, I think she looks way better in photos by Helmut Newton than by Scavullo. Just my 2 cents.

Methadone bloat and weight gain, not "coke bloat "

I think she represents “what could have been” to many people. She was on the cusp of having it all but she ended up losing it all instead.

janice dickinson was more photogenic.

Listen, I once hooked up with [the late supermodel] Gia, who died of AIDS in 1986. And even if I did know she was HIV positive, I still would’ve hopped in bed with her. She was gorgeous. I knew way too many beautiful, wonderful, amazing people who have died from AIDS — Francesco Scavullo, Halston. And I would never dump anyone because they had AIDS. To me, that’s just deplorable. In fact, I’d dump any bigot who would say that HIV was a deal breaker for them.

R10- Every so often I watch Wonder Woman Spins from season 2. She wore some fabulous tasteful late 1970’s fashions as Diana Prince before turning into Wonder Woman- God - I’m SO gay.

I do agree with you and that 1980s fashions were absolutely hideous not just the clothing but the hairstyles too.

Gia's biography, "Thing of Beauty," is excellent and chronicles Gia's rise to supermodel fame and tragic fall. She was a self-destructive mess and could have gone so far had she had the right guidance.

The HBO movie "Gia" with Angelia Jolie, which based on the book, is awful. It gets the essence of the 1970s all wrong, and Angelina plays Gia like some tantrum throwing kindergartner. It also stars Faye Dunaway as Wilhelmina, and Faye basically plays Wilhelmina as Joan Crawford with a Dutch accent.

It was a real missed opportunity. There are documentaries you can find online about Gia which are much better.

Don't get the Cindy hype. She has always looked so manly to me.

I'll take Gia over her any day.

Gia in front of the camera just sizzled. Her eyes alone conveyed sexiness, seduction, allure. After her rapid descent into addiction and subsequent attempt at rehab, she tried to make a comeback, and as a favor, Scavullo gave her her final Cosmopolitan cover. But you could see the magic was gone. Her eyes are blank, the electricity she once generated wasn't to be found. And Scavullo had to hide the track marks on her arms underneath the dress.

Ho hum. Next? Stunningly pointless!

R92, that looks like a prom photo.

R94 Yeah. She was dead behind the eyes. Scavullo adored her, but even he knew she was finished after that.

Did she ever have work done?

Here's the newer book on her.....

Are there any other books on her aside from this and Thing Of Beauty?

R88 that would be clever if Tyra wasn’t only 13 when Gia died. She was a kid. Grow up.

She was briefly featured in a 1970s Maybelline commercial. She's the woman at the beginning walking her dog.

R96 no. Back then Supermodels were actually naturally gorgeous individuals. Not remodeled by a plastic surgeon Instagram hoes

ummmm..... R98, tyra would’ve never known halston.

the "tyra" post was a janice quote...

arguably the greatest thing that's ever come out of loudmouth janice's lips.

Why all the focus on Gia and Janice Dickinson when so little attention to the original supermodel, Pam Dawber, also a Wilhemina model.

R102 because no one actually considers her the original supermodel.

Was it Jean Shrimpton?

No. She was never considered a supermodel.

paw dawber walked more runways than twa and delta combined

R106 cool. That doesn’t make her supermodel though.

She may have been a celebrity in the fashion industry but not among the general public. I don't remember hearing or reading her name until the TV film with Angelina, and when I looked up images of her after seeing "Gia" I was disappointed by how undistinguished looking she was. Generic 1980s model.

She was stunning but I didnt get anything particularly masterful from the video

As an aside though, god I love the glamour of the late 70s/very early 80s.

R108 she was a big deal in the 80s. For a very brief moment. You weren’t even alive according to some of your posts. Based on your posting history, you weren’t even alive so I don’t know why you are commenting.

The "first supermodel" tag has to be the most thrown around and abused. Meanwhile the ACTUAL 1st supermodel is my girl Evelynn Nesbbit

R111 again, not a supermodel.

pam dawber not a supermodel?

are you kidding?

a supermodel means the earned-recognition of saying the first name. and first name alone

there is one pam!

and that's pam dawber

R113 no.

R112 she was a model and was the most sought after one at the time, so yes.

Was Gia bisexual or a lesbian?

But not a supermodel

pam dawber, like, worked for elle on a regular basis.

R116 I think she had a couple of straight flings but definitely preferred women

From Wikipedia, Jean Shrimpton (I know, I know):

[quote] is an English model and actress. She was an icon of Swinging London and is considered to be one of the world's first supermodels.

R82 Are you a man or a woman?

R116 Definitely a lesbian.

move over, shrimpy

suze parker predates dovima

Twiggy predates both. She was a legitimate SUPERMODEL and the first to be labeled as such.

She still has the "Vogue" look after all these years!

Prior to Gia, most of the models you would see on magazine covers were blonde. I remember young Cybill Shepherd being on a number of them.

[quote] Twiggy predates both. She was a legitimate SUPERMODEL and the first to be labeled as such.

No she wasn’t.

R122 But how do you know. She slept with women and men, and yes she was masc and yes it appears she preferd women a quite more, but how can you possibly know she was a 100% lesbian? She even wanted to get married at the end of her life

Cyndi Crawford will forever be labeled Baby Gia.

R128, she was an out lesbian. She turned tricks with men for drugs.

Gia was in one of Blondie’s music videos.

She also has amazing tits.

How many Gia documentaries have there been?

R130 There are gazillion women than were out as lesbian before settling down with a man. Not saying she wasn't a lesbian, it all points in that direction. But there's a possibility she enjoyed men enough to agree to marry straight/,gay man just to have kids with him

Twiggy was the first...working class girl to be a big model, but the age of the supermodel didn't start until the 80s were well underway, and anyone who predates the 80s, doesn't count, they were a part of the zeitgeist of the day, and their era ended with the 90s coming to a close.

Doesn't mean there weren't other models of note, but the term supermodel wasn't used in relation to them, nor does it apply to more contemporary, uber successful models, it's a generational/era niche.

R128 Read "Thing of Beauty." It's clear she preferred women. She made no bones about it.

R129 with none of the personality

R136 I read it, and it's the most heartbreaking part of the book when they tell Gia she needs a hysterectomy because she wanted kids badly. She gave up and let the illness consume her after that.

But I detassled corn!

I've found that there are at least 3 documentaries on Gia: Vanished, E True Hollywood Story, Self-destruction.

Any others?

I can't find her in the Atomic video

This is a blast from the past. DL's Gia Carangi Stan Troll. WHET the Gong Li Stan and the Capucine Stan. The Gia Carangi Stan Troll earned the "troll" part because she had the same bitchy defensiveness about her idol that shop bottom Stans of Pop Divas have about theirs.

Carangi was a beautiful.... mess. She was not "one of a kind". She was top model quality but so were 50 other girls of her time.

she smelled and had dirty feet.

R141 Gia is the girl dancing with long dark hair and pink hot pants at 3:13 and 3:52. You have to freeze-frame it to see her face but it's her.

R144, I see her. Thanks

pam dawber was practically a soul-singer compared to debbie harry

Wow, wow! You can see in R146 why Pam was HUGE in the fashion industry in the 1970s. Even amongst a coterie of children, your eyes never leave Pam for a moment. Her sensuality is palpable and her bone structure is one of a kind!

Did Gia have any physical flaws?

R148 She was shorter than most models. Her booking profile said she was 5'8", but she was really 5'6". Early in her career, a photographer told her he would have rejected her for a photoshoot because of her height if she hadn't been so striking on camera.

pam dawber was easily 5'11"

everyone remembers how pam towered over all other lanky beauties

Madonna kinda looks like Gia

Pam was gorgeous.

I think Christie Brinkley and Cheryl Tiegs were ‘70s supermodels

I wish that someone would put together and release a nice coffee table book of photos on Gia

Who knew The DL had a Pam Dawber troll??

Pam Dawber shit is lame. Block this asshole. If you want to troll or sabotage, at least be witty.

I'll never get the appeal of Cheryl Tiegs. She always looked rat faced to me. Very thin lips too.

Gia certainly was very attractive.

R136 she was living the life I guess..in a world of beautiful women as is the modeling world, being a lesbian would be quite the perk

My friend says that Gia was straight.

Who was the male version of Gia?

R161 maybe Rodney Harvey? He was a model/actor in the mid 90s that got hooked on heroin. He inspired this infamous psa

R162 interestingly enough, both from Philadelphia, PA

Ahem R126

Gia’s mother was evil. She wouldn’t accept her homosexuality and then used her daughter’s death for publicity. The family called her out publicly for it.

Gia’s time at the hospital is heartbreaking. She told a nurse who said that her daughter wanted to be a model not to let her do it. She did it and it was a terrible industry.

Rodney was very cute.

This thread sent down a Gia rabbit hole on youtube. I hate overdiagnosing everything like people do now but in this case, girl definitely had Borderline personality disorder at best and Bipolar disease at worst and was self medicating with smack.

Her mom always seemed fucked up to me...not saying she didn't love her daughter but definitely a toxic relationship.

R32 I am with you. There's something about the urban filth and decadence of the late 70s/early 80s mixed with the high class disco glamour of that era that fascinates me.

The Gia Jolie movie was so ridiculously over the top. It's cringe inducing watching it now.

Angelina originally had a round face like Chelsea Clinton, not at all angular like Gia. Bad choice to play a supermodel.

[quote]Did Gia have any physical flaws?

Some claimed that Gia's space between her nose and upper lip was too long, which I disagree. They also claimed her eyes were not perfectly symmetrical, that one was smaller than the other but nobody has 100% the same sized eyes and hers were fine.

And Gia was not 5'6. Willamina would not have put her reputation on the line with a 5'6 model when her absolute cut-off level was 5'9. Gia was over 5'7 but they smudged the books to make her 5'8.

AJ was beautiful in her own way but she never had the more subtle classy beauty of a super model like Gia. This clip of the 98 Gia movie is hilarious. It's when she's "discovered" by a fashion editor and the photo they show of "Gia" is so unbelievably bad, it's cringe. AJ looks like a drunk blow up doll.

Did Gia ever have braces or any work done on her teeth?

What was inaccurate about the movie GIA?

OP, ignore R1. She hasn’t had a bowel movement in days.

I loved the video—anything from that era and I instantly wish to be transported back to 1979.

Love this picture. Does anyone know what year it was taken?

OMG R16

I ❤️ Andie!

Was she a tomboy?

Did she like sports?

Gia was big into Bowie in Philly and dressed as him all the time. Apparently it was a big thing there. She ate, lived, and breathed Bowie.

R172, I don’t believe so.

This site is amazing. Somehow they even got access to a letter she never sent her aunt. Here are her many Vogue covers.

The girl burned the candle at both ends. Her life is fascinating. She lived hard and sadly paid for it at the end. Her sexuality is always written about. She was an out and proud lesbian. She didn’t care what people thought. Being an unabashed out lesbian in Philly in the 70s took balls.

Rodney Harvey and Gia were both from South Philly, both Italian. They even went to the same high school. They both died tragically.

Rodney.

Rodney had a Matt Bomer thing going.

Rodney with Madonna.

South Philly must have been depressing back in the 70s or something.

Gia grew up in NE Philly, not South Philly.

R186, the family was from South Philly and they’re still there. It’s true that the family had a home in the North East but she came into and stayed in South Philadelphia more as she got into her teens. She worked at her father’s hoagie shops and went to South Philadelphia High School. The family still has Carangi Baking Company in South Philly.

R185, not as depressing or as dangerous as New York City. It was like any other city for a gay kid. It had a huge punk scene. Drug culture was in full swing.

Janice Dickinson did a TikTok video exasperated over someone asking who Gia Carangi was. lol

Gia said that she was sexually abused by a neighborhood man to her mother when she was five. Later she said that the man was her own father.

Linter wouldn’t admit to being Gia’s lover for decades.

Gia's mother was a miserable cunt who abandoned her family when Gia and her brother were young, leaving them to be raised by their father, who had no idea how to be a parent. Gia and her brother were basically left on their own to raise themselves. She was very lucky to end up in modeling, but was completely unprepared for adulthood, and that's an industry where you need to be grounded in order to survive.

R187, she went to Abraham Lincoln HS, which is in NE Philly. Her family may have been originally from South Philadelphia but she grew up in NE Philly. Funny enough, I know that because I grew up there, and our neighbor worked in her father’s hoagie shop, which was also in NE Philly.

This 20/20 special featuring Gia is fascinating. She speaks about overcoming her addiction, but according to the book, "Thing of Beauty," she was still doing drugs at the time.

Her handlers were grooming her to move into the acting world and she had been taking diction and voice lessons in order to come across as more "refined." She sounds very composed and intelligent in her interview segments. If you compare this to some of her earlier candid conversations caught on film, she sounds like a completely different person.

Here she is, totally strung out, practically incoherent, twitching uncontrollably at times. Quite a contrast from what you see in R194.

People say she's strung out there, but to me she seems to be in obvious withdrawal. You don't twitch after doing heroine.

That was for 195 btw

[quote]You don't twitch after doing heroine.

I beg to differ. All the heroines I've known were amazing lovers.

4/10

Lesbians make dad jokes? Learn something new every day.

R193…

1976, Fall ~ Gia moved into the apartment over the Hoagie shop in Center City, on 12th & Chestnut, with her brother Michael, who had just graduated. She starts her Senior year in new high school, South Philadelphia High.

1977, Summer School ~ Gia graduated South Philadelphia High School upon completion of Summer School.

…

Gia used to go to the gay clubs around South Street in Philly.

I think she was diagnosed as borderline and other suspect that she was bipolar. It’s really hard to tell. Her behavior was definitely borderline but then so was it bipolar too. Then there were the drugs. She was found sleeping in the rain outside on a wet mattress. A guy went over and raped her. The stories are unreal. Completely horrifying. She would go score drugs for the other models in really bad neighborhoods. She tried to kill herself right before she was diagnosed with AIDS (which she already sensed that she had) and she didn’t die. It was a massive heroin overdose. My guess is that her body was used to it and could take a really big hit. She missed being part of the 27 club by 1 year.

It seems that her mother’s abandonment was the first thing to really fuck her up.

The 20/20 interview is so sad. You can tell that she knows that she’s living on borrowed time. In 26 years she lived 10 lifetimes.

[quote]Her handlers were grooming her to move into the acting world and she had been taking diction and voice lessons in order to come across as more "refined."

I can totally see Gia playing the Phoebe Cates part in "Lace".

R200, She lived in Torresdale, a neighborhood in Philadelphia. Her father owned a chain of hoagie shops, including one in center city, where she lived. But she went to Abraham Lincoln High School for most of her high school life. I guess we have dueling wikis.

“In her adolescent years, Carangi found the attention she sought from other teenage girls, befriending them by sending flowers. While attending Abraham Lincoln High School, Carangi bonded with "the Bowie kids", a group of obsessive David Bowie fans who emulated Bowie's "defiantly weird, high-glam" style.”

At r204, meant to say “where she lived for a time.” She spent most of her early life in NE Philly.

..and I can’t believeI just realized this minute I drove by the cemetery where she’s buried today. I moved to Bucks County last year, and Byberry Rd. (yes, where the mental hospital was), is the easiest way to get to NE Philly. She’s buried in Sunset Park, which is right off of Byberry.

How many times was she captured on video?

Sad. I really disliked the mom.

Simply not YPER

R203 "Which one of you bitches is my dealer?"

Do you mean my dear friend Ypir?

What does everyone think of her nose?

Just randomly found a very cool documentary from 1980 (from HBO nonetheless, when it was in it's infancy) on very high profile models with interviews from the usual girls for that time (and a few male models) including Janice D, Iman, J Hall, R Russo, C Brinkley. Oddly no Gia, despite there being a fairly long segment with Wilhemina. I do wonder if Gia's star fell so fast she barely had the chance to become more well know inside the industry before being able to reach proper fame outside of it.

Anyway, for lovers of the late 70s/early 80s fashion era, it's a nice find. Sadly the quality is crap, but it's watchable

She had it all, or at least the potential to have it all and she threw it away. Her family life was unholy, but in the end, she made her own choices that played a role in her destruction. It’s sad but I don’t feel any sympathy for her.

She was young, too young, I do feel sympathy because everyone fucks up at that age, especially if you've had a toxic family life and feel alienated.

But I will never understand a person who picks up a syringe and decides that is the course to take in life. Like, what is in their heads? Unless you are consciously suicidal but are too afraid to take it on directly. Honestly, I would never advocate for the latter but ultimately, it must be said, it's the less painful option for everyone.

R175 she is a sspitting image of Cindy Crawford there. Just magic marker in the mole and it's her.

I wonder if Gia had lived if Cindy would have had the same level of fame that she did.

Probably not. The modern supermodel age began in late 1988, when Linda Evangelista cut off her hair and created a new look and aesthetic. The supermodels in that group were sensational and more business-savvy than the previous generation. Gia was 5 - 10 years older than them.

How many men was she with?

A good documentary on her...

Another documentary on her. :

There's another documentary on her, the e true Hollywood story but I can't find it online anywhere.

I saw it on TV years ago.

A good chunk of humanity and certainly use intoxicating substances for a variety of reasons, and try several at least in their youth. The issue with smack is that - believe it or not - this may be a new information for R215 - for some people it's a godsend and for others its just another drug, take it or leave it. Meth is much the same.

Also, there are all kinds of ways to be a heroin junky. Some are quite grisly, quite fast. Some junkies decline over a several years until they get so sloppy they die. On the other hand, a few people are heroin junkies and keep their shit and their health together enough to continue to function for years, even decades.

R173 alot of the "wild child" angle in the beginning of the film was way overdone. She absolutely did not carve her initials into a receptionist's desk. She wasn't quite the overnight sensation like the film depicted, and people weren't chanting for Gia to come out to the runway in a show (cringe much?).

I did think AJ did a good job towards the end where Gia was really destroyed. She does vulnerability better than wild party girl.

Also, unlike the film portrayed, not only did Gia know about AIDS when she was diagnosed, she heavily suspected she had it for awhile and had been collecting news articles and information about Aids to the point of obsession.

R224 What I hated about the Gia movie how the clothes, hair, and makeup completely missed the 70s aesthetic. The whole thing looked like it was set in the 80s and 90s.

Was she ever called gay in the media, while she was alive?

R226 Not that I know of.

R226 she wasn't really discussed in the media when she was alive except I think for that 20/20 special. She was more well known within the industry but her star fell before she was a break out success (that is, before her name became known outside of it)

So only her closes friends knew she was gay/bi?

R229, not sure