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Cindy Margolis

By Rick Maniera

It's not often that we profile 'cyber' supermodels, but Margolis was one we just couldn't avoid. Her story, and her charisma, is so potent, it can even affect the New York Stock Exchange. Referring to the term 'cyber', she has risen to prominence not by appearing on the covers of glossy magazines, a la traditional models, but rather through clever self-promotion via that crazy fad they call the Internet.

In the year 1996, Cindy Margolis was the world's most downloaded woman on the Internet - which has a captive audience of, let's say, fifty bazillion. But she didn't sit on her laurels waiting for the money to roll in - she capitalised on her then popularity by launching her website (CindyMargolis.com).

Margolis was again voted the world's most downloaded woman in 1997, and used her site to sell everyday products. Other notable 'most downloaded' title holders include Danni Ashe (of Danni's Hard Drive fame) and Australia's own Sarah Jane.

But before her conquest of cyberspace, and before The Cindy Margolis Show, there is a story. Born in the City of Angels, California, on October the 1st, 1965, Margolis started her own small greeting card range when studying at university on a business/commerce subject. Of course, the greeting cards had images of Cindy on them and were an instant success - relatively speaking.

The greeting card business quickly took off, perhaps due to Cindy's good looks as well as her business acumen. Agents started taking notice and soon Margolis was signed up for a number of TV advertisements for the likes of Sunkist and Vidal Sassoon.

The word got around about the 'greeting card girl', and an American tabloid TV show, Extra, wanted all the goss. It put together a small exposé about Margolis in 1995.

The piece aired and towards the end of the segment viewers were shown her website address where they could download posters of the blonde bombshell. From here on in, she would be known as the Internet chick with more downloads than any other.

Cindy Margolis has since gone from strength to strength and while men seem to like looking at (and downloading) pictures of her, numerous surveys and research documents indicate that she is somewhat inoffensive to women. The main reason behind this is the simple fact that she hasn't taken her clothes off for the cameras.

In the original Austin Powers movie, Margolis had a cameo appearance as one of Dr. Evil's nefarious Fem-Bots and, if you ever had access to American cable television, you may have caught her hosting her own TV show, originally titled The Cindy Margolis Show, in mid-2000. Long story short - it was put together by the people who created The Sally-Jesse Raphael Show and Jerry Springer...

A somewhat surreal show, it was basically a big party in Miami's South Beach once a week. Margolis would host, the techno music would be pumping and there were lots of drunk young people, well, getting drunk. Of course, it was interspersed with segments like the "Webkini Girl" contest, and a few one-liners from comedian Lance Krall. Panned by the critics, it was neither a ratings success nor disaster - sitting in limbo between the good and the bad TV shows.

One of her first big-breaks on the small screen was with US version of The Price Is Right as one of the models. She's since had stints on Baywatch, Pensacola Wings of Gold, Murphy Brown, Roseanne and has shared the lounge room with the elegant Bundy's in Married... with Children.

She even delivered Howard Stern his highest rating ever for his late-night TV show - a testament to her popularity, if one was ever needed. The power of Cindy can't be ignored!

The 'Cindy' effect has been seen working its magic for other online entities. Back in late 1998, for instance, the US-based CyberShop International saw it's share price skyrocket 37 per cent purely on the back of news that Cindy was to be the company's spokeswoman. Forget the product, they got Cindy. Is there anything she can't do?

Now married to US franchise Jerry's Deli head honcho (whose name isn't Jerry), Guy Starkman, Margolis has a baby on the way. She told TV showExtra: "I'm hoping, once I have the baby, I will get my body back. But right now I look in the mirror and I'm proud to be fat."

She will host a new segment on US entertainment series E!, called In Your Dreams with Cindy Margolis, but apart from this new gig, Cindy will go down in the annals of entertainment history as one of the first people to make the big time thanks, in large part, to the Internet. 

As long as she exists, the Power of Cindy will exist!