Mama Mia!

2009 September 12

Christine and Danielle Staub
Dresses, Calvin Klein Collection. Christine's shoes, Bruno Frisoni. Danielle's shoes, Brian Atwood. Cap, stylist's own. Photograph by Gilles Bensimon View Gallery

A moment with Danielle Staub, New Jersey's Realest Housewife... BY MARSHALL HEYMAN

How did the whole modeling thing happen with your daughter, Christine?

DANIELLE STAUB: Bravo said IMG called and they’d seen Christine on the show. I said, “Who from IMG?” and they said, “Ivan Bart.” I nearly passed out. I was just blown away that Ivan Bart had taken an interest in my daughter. He just knows what’s he’s doing. And I’ve known that for two and a half decades. I was a model many years ago, but just my legs. Now, they’re shooting my baby! I mean, I gave birth to her!

Anyway, the next thing I know, they’re calling us in to do this cover shoot for the Daily, and saying Gilles Bensimon wants to photograph it. Oh my God, put a fork in me! And they were like, “Wait a second, we’re not done. They want to shoot you, too.” This is bigger than big! I’m trying to explain to my daughter, who’s very humble and well-rounded, that this is as big as it gets. This does not happen unless you’re going right to the top. Seeing Gilles shoot my daughter those first few frames, I started to cry.

What other great things have happened since the end of the first season?

I’m writing a book for Simon and Schuster. It’s my life story. No one would pay attention when I was trying to tell my life story on television, but I think they’ll pay attention now.

Are you excited to tell the other Housewives about this shoot?

Are you kidding me? Yeah.

How are you going to tell them?

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