The Christie Brinkley reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
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Christie Brinkley

Sponsor with the world's largest charity for orphans
Christie Brinkley (born 2 February, 1954) is a blonde United States supermodel with noticeably cleancut and well-chiselled features epitomizing beauty-ideals of the 1980s yuppie culture.

She was born Christie Lee Hudson in Michigan. She was educated at Le Lycée Francais de Los Angeles and worked in Paris as an entry level illustrator.

In 1976 she signed a twenty-year contract with Cover Girl, the longest model contract ever. She appeared on the cover of three consecutive Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues (1979-1981). In the book "Model," people who knew her at the start of her career say that she slept her way to the top, and that her sweet personality changed dramatically once she achieved a measure of success.

She has been married four times: her first three marriages were to Jean-François Allaux (1973-1981), Billy Joel (1985-1994) and Richard Taubman (1994-1995). Her current husband is Peter Cook, an architect, whom she married in 1996. She has three children: a son by Taubman, one daughter by Joel and another by Cook.