Daniela's Filmography· The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show (2001) (TV) .... Herself (Model) · Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit '99 (1999) (TV) .... Herself (Model) · Elite '99 (1999) (TV) .... Herself (Model) · GQ Magazine '98 (1999) (TV) .... Herself (Model) · Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit '95 (1999) (TV) .... Herself (Model) |
IMDB |
Daniela's Bio
Things are looking much better in the new millennium for Daniela Pestova than they were in 1999. Daniela landed the coveted Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover shot for the 2nd time, her first being in 1995. Born October 14, 1970 in the tiny Czech Republic town of Teplice, Daniela has charmed many with her stunning European beauty. Her problems in 1999 were well chronicled, which included her separation from Tommaso Buti, to whom which they also share a young boy who Daniela gave birth to in 1996. The two also were dealing with heavy losses at the business which Buti started, the Fashion Cafe, which included a criminal probe by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer alleging that Buti and Pestova bilked the restaurant chain out of millions. Couple this with the fact that Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell ditched their association with Buti and the restaurant chain last year and one begins to realize why Pestova wanted to disassociate herself from the man. Ironically, most have said all this money siphoning was in large part done to try to keep Daniela happy, a strategy that surely had backfired on Buti, as she ditched him for a much more frugal situation with an Australian photographer.
Daniela's modeling career was also turned upside down when she and several other models bolted from Elite in 1999 to join the Donald Trump formed Trump Management. Critics have scoffed that Trump created the organization as more of a trophy than a business, as many have said he paid Pestova, Elsa Benitez and others double what they were worth to get them to leave the highly regarded Elite organization. Thankfully for the sake of their son perhaps, the couple remain friends, as Buti told the New York Post "We grew apart, but we talk every day. We have a great relationship."
The 5'11" blond haired, blue-eyed beauty like many others in her industry never set out to be a model. Her upbringing in the Communist controlled Czechoslovakia didn't make this career choice very likely, but fortunately she was discovered by Madison modeling agency's Dominique Caffin, who spotted her going into a theater, and the rest quickly became history. He asked her to enter in a modeling contest which she won and from their, the non-English speaking lovely headed to the land of the free in New York. Quickly she was landing scores of magazine covers and landed a role showcasing her incredible body with Victoria's Secret. She does admit that unlike many other models that can eat anything and not gain weight, she does have to control her diet, which includes avoiding breads, a staple amongst her homeland Czech folks.
The second SI Swimsuit Issue has garnered Daniela a lot of positive attention, where so far she's appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn. The cover of SI features Daniela wearing a tiny metallic bikini bottom and strands of beads over her breasts and this year's issue for the first time includes 3-D glasses to get a more realistic view of the beauties. This is not the most revealing cover that Daniela has done though, as she appeared topless in a cover of GQ magazine in '98, though only subscribers got this memorable photo, as newsstands carried a different non nude version where Daniela was wearing a bikini. Daniela has yet to break into film though it is reported that she turned down role as a hard-partying model in a Woody Allen film because she wasn't comfortable with the image it projected, which is an image entirely unlike Daniela herself, who enjoys walking on the beach, spending time with her child, and privacy.