MOVIE GIVES US A MODEL NOT TO FOLLOW
By STEVE DUNLEAVY
A new film documents the rise and fall of heroin-addict covergirl Gia Carangi, who died of AIDS.
IT WAS a sadly classic case of too much too soon.Gia, a supermodel at the age of 17, was the poster girl for cruelly shattered dreams that cost her her life at the age of 26.
As friends, family, fans and the fashion world today mark the 16th anniversary of her death, a chilling documentary has just been completed that serves as a stark morality play for those tempted to live a young life that is fast and furious.
Titled "The Self-Destruction of Gia," the film presents an incredible portrait of how a beautiful and successful model could fall so far, so hard.
"I just kind of knew somewhere inside of me that she would not live a long life. That girl was spared nothing, and AIDS literally ate her alive," said her mother, Kathy Sperr, who points to the deadly insatiable demand for reckless heroin consumption that triggered the AIDS virus.
In this new, blunt look at one of the highest-paid models at the time, Gia's drug therapist, Robert Hilton, talks of finding her in a Lower East Side shooting gallery dressed in an exotic nightgown after coming from a fashion shoot. (cont. next page)
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