Do You Remember: When Claudia Schiffer Dated David Copperfield and a French Tabloid Claimed It Was Fake

The magician, the supermodel, and the lawsuit.

There are upsides and downsides to an increased awareness of the gossip machine. The discourse has gotten deeper and audiences (or at least those who are largely consuming celebrity news online) seem more aware than ever of how the system actually works. That can have a positive impact, like when the public roundly rejects sexist narratives (see the Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas split and ensuing media coverage that tried to paint her as a bad mother.) Other times, however, it can be hijacked for further jackassery. Every tinhatter who claims their favourite internet boyfriend has been forced into a relationship with his spouse is quick to invoke names like Rock Hudson as justification for their conspiracies. The historical truth of lavender marriages and PR relationships becomes the battering ram with which the usual suspects bludgeon reality into their preferred mould. It’s gotten to feverish that it feels like practically every famous coupling gets accused of being exclusively for clout now.

That kind of scepticism is far less common from the media, which has worked for decades to maintain that symbiotic relationship with the fame complex. You would never see, for example, People Magazine claiming that Timothee Chalamet and Kylie Jenner are only together for publicity (no, I don’t believe this, it’s just an example.) To make that kind of claim, you’d need to have an airtight justification and the receipts to back it up. In 1997, one of the biggest tabloids in France thought they had the smoking gun, but a supermodel and her magician boyfriend thought otherwise.

(You can see why they called her the ‘90s Brigitte Bardot.)

There aren’t many people who can be described as “superstar magicians” but David Copperfield is one of them. Born David Seth Kotkin, the performer became a household name and multi-millionaire in a way that was simply unheard of for his profession. While people like Siegfried and Roy and Penn and Teller made their names with magic and Vegas shows, Copperfield was a TV headliner on top of that. He's won 21 Emmys with an array of primetime specials where he did things like make the Statue of Liberty disappear. Forbes magazine reported that Copperfield earned $55 million in 2003, making him the 10th highest paid celebrity in the world by their figures. He was also known to be a notorious pr*ck, but we’ll get to that later.