Posted: 31.03.2008 at 04.15
There's a swirl of agents and casting directors buzzing about a very dire rumor. Some have accused Prada's longtime casting director, Russell Marsh, of accepting bribes from IMG and Women to put their girls front and center in Prada and Miu Miu's casting. According to the rumor, Miuccia's team had no knowledge of the bribes, and according to Style.com, the evidence that IMG and Women girls are usually on Prada's opening and closing moments (and of course their Sasha Pivovarova campaigns) is quite solid. Although we've always believed that those two agencies, collectively, have the best stash of girls anyway. It's also true that Meghan Sutherland had a Prada moment last year, but you may have noticed she was missing this season from the runways...
Furthermore, there's an email going around, purportedly from Russell Marsh to his contacts, saying he needs to "go away for a while." But we remember when the faux Olivia Palermo email got out last year, so we know how easy it is to forge an email address.
So why is this rumor going around and around?
Either it's true, or a very vicious agency feels violated because their best girls got nixed from the Prada runway or campaign, and they decided to take matters into their own hands.