Caprice Valerie Bourret (born October 24, 1971)[1] is an American lingerie model and sometime actress, television personality and businesswoman. Much of her career
has been in the United Kingdom where she is often known by her first name.
Biography
Early life
Bourret (pronounced Bour-Ray) was born in Hacienda Heights,
California to working class parents Dale Bourret and Valerie Pion; her family is Jewish[2] and originates from a
French-speaking area of Canada. After growing up in
Whittier, California she moved to the United
Kingdom in 1996 to further her career in modelling. An appearance in a revealing dress at the 1996 British
National Television Awards ceremony helped gain her public recognition.
Modeling career
Bourret became a cheerleader at age 13. Contrary to a popular trivia item, she never won the title of Miss Teen
California,[3] nor even participated in the pageant. In the
years following, Bourret became one of the UK's better known models. She has had her
breasts (now insured for £50,000) augmented, which may have led to her selection as a model for
Wonderbra. She appeared on the covers of GQ, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Maxim, FHM and the 1998 Swimsuit Issue of Sports
Illustrated. Bourret also posed nude in the March, 2000 issue of Playboy magazine. She was voted GQ magazine's Woman of the
Year and Maxim's International Woman of the Year in three consecutive years. She has also been featured in television
ad campaigns for Diet Coke and Pizza Hut. She continues to
be the face of Paradise Poker.com, and also appears on billboards and advertisements in
London.
Lingerie line
Bourret is becoming known as a business woman, having launched a series of lingerie, using
her image and name. The lingerie is sold by the UK department store chain,
Debenhams and lingerie retailer figleaves. The line was
well received and deemed a success, having sold millions of items, and is now in its sixth season. Consequently, Bourret has
decided to expand her designing interest into a larger industry, and is now planning to market her lingerie line in
North America and Australia.
Has recently launched her own range of hair straighteners.
Other work
In 1999, Bourret released her first single as a pop singer, "Oh Yeah" (#24), then follow-up
single "Once Around the Sun" (also #24), which was co-written by '90s one-hit wonder
Chesney Hawkes.
Bourret is also moving into an acting career, having appeared on stage in London
in The Vagina Monologues and Rent. She has also appeared in the low-budget films Hollywood Flies, Nailing Vienna,
and Jinxed In Love, the soap operas Hollyoaks and Dream Team, and the one-off comedy show Hospital.
In 1998, Caprice became the host of a UK
television series, "Caprice's Travels". The series involves Bourret's tour through several
major holiday destinations across the world. Bourret has also hosted Friday Night's All Wright as well as several award
shows, including the European MTV awards and the Monaco World Music Awards in 1997, the British
National Television Awards in 1996, 1997 and 1998, and several series for the television channels VH1 and E! Entertainment.
In early 2005, she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother
in the UK, where other contestants implied that she was only taking part in order to
boost sales of her products. During a boozy game of 'spin the bottle confessions' on the show, she confessed to thinking about
having a lesbian romp. [4]
She also was a cast member on the fifth season of the VH1 reality series The Surreal Life and has previously appeared in the reality shows Celebrities Under
Pressure, Celebrities Disfigured, Three Celebrities and a Baby, and Road
Raja.
Bourret travelled to Los Angeles, where she played in the World Poker
Championship, coming in at 120th out of 700, beating actors Ben Affleck, Matthew Perry, Tobey Maguire, and James Woods.
In May 2006 Caprice captained the England Women's team in the Celebrity World Cup Soccer Six tournament, in which they lost to Brazil in the final.
In June 2006 she starred in the English independent movie Perfect Woman, produced by
Olympus Productions Limited.
She is currently in South Africa as producer for a run of the hit off-Broadway musical
Debbie Does Dallas at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre from January 16 to February 18, 2007.
Charity work
Bourret is active as an ambassador for the Prince's Trust, a chairman for
ChildLine, and is a committee member of Jewish Blind and Disabled, Action on
Addiction and Breast Cancer Awareness.
Personal life
In August 2006 Caprice, defended by Nick Freeman,
was banned from driving for one year and ordered to pay £2,500 costs when she was found guilty of drunk-driving. It also emerged
that she had the previous year deceived her lawyers with a forged letter reported to be written by Nancy Davies. She fooled them
into using it to obtain money illegally for her from a newspaper who had said her future mother in law called her a golddigger.
Caprice repaid the money and avoided facing a criminal charge.[citation needed]
On February 20, 2007 The Sun newspaper reported that Caprice had been admitted to the London rehabilitation clinic,
The Priory, to seek help for depression. The report alleged that Caprice is undergoing
addiction therapy.[5] However, Caprice's agent, Jonathan
Lipman, has dismissed the allegations as untrue. He insisted that Caprice is "very happy", and added that she was holidaying with
her boyfriend.[6]
Quote
On her work with Wonderbra: "It was good because it helped me get where I'm at today, but then people stereotype and say we
don't want to use her because she's known as the 'Wonderbra girl'." [citation needed]
Footnotes
External links
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