Remember the time when supermodels gracing magazine covers was a major part of pop culture? That’s still happening, of course, but there are so many models and magazines and other celebrities that it’s difficult to keep track of anything anymore. NBC wants to head back into that 1980s boom with a project called Icon, and they’re working with Cindy Crawford to turn it into a reality.
Should it make its way all the way down the TV catwalk, Icon will focus on the modeling wars between the Ford Modeling Agency (now Ford Models) and Elite Model Management, two companies that had no bad blood until Elite Model’s founder John Casablancas opened up a New York office in the late 1970s to complement the Parisian headquarters. That’s when things got hectic, and models like Esmé Marshall, Beverly Johnson, Christie Brinkley and many more flipped from one agency to its rival, sometimes leaving legal battles in their wake.
But before anyone starts dream-casting the major models of the era, let it be known that Icon would be a completely fictional take on that troublesome time, and no real companies or models’ names will be used in the show. Presumably in an effort not to step on any litigious toes in delivering the hyper-drama. That said, I’m betting that a few of the fictionalized stories would be close enough to reality to understand the intentions.
According to Variety, Icon is in the preliminary stages of development, so there’s no telling where this thing might end up, but it’s already got the building blocks of a creative team. Crawford is working with the project’s screenwriter Robin Bissell, who was an executive producer on The Hunger Games, and executive producing will be actress Anne Heche and Revenge actor James Tupper, with Universal TV backing it.
Don’t expect to see Cindy Crawford taking on the part of Ford Models founder Eileen Ford or anything, though, as she’s only sticking to her role as a producer and won’t be seen in the show as a character. The model made her fictional big screen debut in 1995 with the flick Fair Game – no, not that one – but it was a widely panned performance, and she didn’t do the whole acting thing too often after that. That said, she played herself for an episode of Cougar Town that aired in March, so she didn’t leave that world behind completely.
At least when NBC isn’t busy canceling series, they’re trying to work on new stuff. And should Icon become a series and turn into a big hit, we can probably expect Lifetime to add Models Inc. or Living Dolls to their unauthorized stories about shows from the 1980s and 1990s.
