Model and actress Brooke Shields is finally spilling the beans on Barbara Walters, calling an interview from her childhood “practically criminal.”
Speaking on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, Brooke Shields discussed how she was over-sexualized by the media and the public after her now-infamous 1980 Calvin Klein jeans campaign.
In the Calvin Klein ads, then-15 year old Shields modeled the jeans while reciting several different lines, one of which was: “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.”
Following the backlash for the perceived sexual innuendo of the campaign, the Shields did several interviews, including one with famed broadcast journalist, author, and television personality Barbara Walters. During the interview, Walters asked the 15 year old model a number of intimate and invasive questions about her sexual history.
Talking to Shepard about that interview and the sexualization of young celebrities, Shepard called Shields’ interview with Walters “maddening.”
Shields agreed, stating: “It’s practically criminal. It’s not journalism.”
In October, Shields spoke out about the public backlash she received soon after the 1980 campaign, calling it “ridiculous.”
“I was away when they all came out, and then started hearing, ‘Oh, the commercials have been banned here, and Canada won’t play them.’ And paparazzi and people screaming at me and screaming at my mother, ‘How could you?’ It just struck me as so ridiculous, the whole thing,” the model recalled.
“They take the one commercial, which is a rhetorical question. I was naive, I didn’t think anything of it. I didn’t think it had to do with underwear, I didn’t think it was sexual in nature. I would say it about my sister, ‘Nobody can come between me and my sister,'” Shields continued.
The model remembered being shocked that she was being “berated” by the public, who somehow assumed that the 15 year old understood the intention behind the commercials.
“I think the assumption is that I was much more savvy than I ever really was,” Shields said.
Despite the backlash, Brooke Shields’ 1980 campaign was a success for Calvin Klein, putting the jeans company on the map for a new demographic.
“I feel like the controversy backfired,” Shields said. “The campaign was extremely successful. And then, I think the underwear sort of overtook the jeans, and they understood what sells and how to push the envelope. There’s an appeal to it that is so undeniable, and they tapped right into it. They knew exactly what they were doing, and I think it did set the tone for decades.”
