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- NEW YORK (Reuters)
- Her employers call her the perfect fashion model, the perfect employee:
Webbie Tookay is never late, never too tired to work and has no personal
life to interfere with her job.
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- Not surprisingly, Webbie Tookay is not real.
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- Elite Models, the worldwide agency that launched the
careers of ``supermodels'' Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and Naomi
Campbell, now has Webbie Tookay, a computer-generated animated mannequin
that can show up anywhere, any time.
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- The centrepiece of a new division of Elite called Illusion
2K -- Virtual Models and Actress Management, she is available to pose for
advertisements or fashion shows on the World Wide Web, in print or in films.
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- ``She is never too tired to work and she is available
all the time. She can be in many places at the same time so we don't have
a problem scheduling her,'' Luciana Abreu, a partner in Illusion 2K, a
Sao Paulo, Brazil, company that teamed up with Elite, told Reuters.
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- ``Also, she does not have a personal life that interferes
with her work and she doesn't age and she doesn't gain weight,'' Abreu
said in an interview at Elite's offices in New York.
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- Could all of this perfection crumble if the so-called
Y2K millennium bug strikes Webbie Tookay when the year 2000 turns? Her
designers say no because she is also Y2K compliant.
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- The millennium bug arises because many older computers
use only the last two digits of a year to record dates. Unless corrected,
such systems could treat 2000 as 1900, generating errors or system crashes
on Jan. 1.
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- 'VIRTUAL MODEL' SUPPORTS ENVIRONMENT, BIRTH CONTROL
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- Created by Swedish designer Steven Stahlberg, the virtual
model has ``perfect measurements,'' Abreu said. ``It was decided to give
her the major tendencies of today's models. She is not that skinny. And
she has well-defined breasts, well-defined hips,'' Abreu said.
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- She is a combination of a voluptuous European blonde,
a Latina and an Asian woman. And Webbie Tookay not only looks good but
has her own opinions about things. She would never wear fur, for example.
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- ``We are very proud of her personality and her character,''
Abreu said. ``She has environmental concerns, she is for birth control
and besides she looks very pretty.''
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- The Illusion 2K company was formed in July and its first
``Webbie Planet'' Web site www.illusion2k.com integrates video, text and
photos carrying general information, modelling services and entertainment.
Other ``virtual top models'' from the Illusion 2K stable, including male
models, will join Webbie Tookay in the coming year.
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- WHERE WWW DOES NOT STAND FOR WORLD WIDE WEB
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- This is one site where WWW does not stand for World Wide
Web. Instead, it is the acronym for What We Wear, a virtual store with
the virtual top model demonstrating her exclusive products found only on
the Internet.
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- The company said it wants to attract people in the 14-to-25
age group to a site featuring leading clothing manufacturers and the consumers'
own preferences, behaviour, activities and measurements.
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- Three other sections of Webbie Planet, all hosted by
Webbie Tookay, are the digital magazine Webbie News, theatre, movie and
other leisure activities on Webbie Fun and Webbie Cine News, designed to
be shown in three-minutes segments in movie theatres.
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- ``We want to develop a relationship. Visitors to the
Web site will become Webbie's friends and they will give her information.
We're going to create a community who are Webbie's friends,'' Abreu said.
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- Asked whether the ``perfect'' Webbie Tookay would be
too much competition for real-life models and threaten their jobs, she
said: ``We and Elite don't think that's going to happen. Actually, she's
just another choice. She's something new, a new application of technology,
but for sure there are things that only a real model will be able to do.''
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