Remember the America’s Next Top Model challenge where Tyra made the girls pose with things like tarantulas on their faces? Turns out that’s a real-life modeling application, or whatever you call it. In the just-released behind-the-scenes video footage of the 2009 Pirelli calendar shoot in Botswana, which took place in May, Isabeli Fontana undergoes possibly worse bug-to-face torture with some sort of freaky giant grasshopper, and even sheds a tear mid-shoot because of the trauma. Peter Beard shot this year’s calendar, which boasts an all-star model cast, including Mariacarla Boscono, Malgosia Bela, Lara Stone, and Daria Werbowy. A behind-the-scenes video on Spiegel reveals the models endured getting splashed with muddy water by full-grown elephants, clutching bird carcasses to their chests, and standing on high tree limbs all while wearing hardly more clothing than a loin cloth. The calendar isn’t sold commercially but given as a corporate gift to important people, like celebrities. Click on for the disturbing footage and remind yourself why it’s good not to be a model. You can view the NSFW photos that made the calendar here.
Making Of Pirelli Calendar [Spiegel Online via Jezebel]
Behind the scenes of the 2009 Pirelli calendar in Botswana [Sassybella]
