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Korina Longin

By SARA TEMPLETON

Korina Longin can partly credit her rise to fame in Western markets (and particularly in North America) to the inane babblings of one Britney Spears.

Back in 2002, Korina starred in N*Sync's "Gone" music video clip and could be seen getting all lovey-dovey with Justin Timberlake, who at the time was dating the young Britney.

Long story short, Britney Spears saw the video clip showing Justin and Korina up close and personal, and basically flipped her lid, and went straight to the press to tell the world how upset she was to see this.

Unfortunately, Britney couldn't quite grasp the idea that this cavorting was 'fiction', which was staged and then filmed by a director and his crew to elicit a specific response from a specific demographic.

But it was entertaining to see Spears get all snooty, which would eventually lead to Justin breaking off the relationship, and Korina Longin receiving priceless amounts of free publicity in the US.

However, the Korina Longin story begins long before her rendezvous with J. Timberlake, as she started modeling in her homeland of Croatia at the age of just 11.

Born on December 12, in the year 1982 in the city of Zadar in Croatia, it is said that Korina had always been recognised as having astonishing natural beauty. When the suggestion of modeling was mooted, she was pretty keen to give it a try and, by the age of 11, she had already built up a fair reputation on local runways.

As time wore on, Korina successfully made the move from a catwalk model to that of a print model, and by 1997 she had appeared in ad campaigns for the likes of Dolce & Gabbana and Guess?.

This greater exposure on billboards, in magazines and newspapers led to a number of other contracts, and by the end of 1997, at the age of 15, she had been photographed for Italian Elle, French Vogue and Cosmo USA.

At 18 years of age, Korina Longin could be classed as a top model: She'd appeared in more fashion mags, such as German Vogue and French Elle, had strutted on catwalks for the likes of Prada, Fendi and Chanel and the icing on the cake was her debut in America's favourite lingerie catalogue, Victoria's Secret.

Korina's love of acting blossomed after she starred in her first TV commercial in Italy, for a jeans manufacturer called Replay. In 2002 she starred in the aforementioned N*Sync video clip for the "Gone" CD single, which helped her break into the lucrative American market.

She is fluent in English, Croatian and Spanish languages, and by 2002 she was recognised as one of the world's top models, jetsetting around the world, earning tens of thousands for each photo shoot and exponentially more for TV and print advertising campaigns.

Today, Korina still calls Zadar home, but you can expect her to be around for a long while yet in the fashion industry, and don't be surprised to see her move into film and television either: Her future is brilliantly bright.

Source: Palmer's advertisement Photography: Raphael Just	Source: Unkown Photography: Unkown