Naomi Campbell has continued to work as a supermodel despite being 39, but even though she’s been able to defy fashion industry norms, she says black and other models of color are having a tough time in the recession.

“This year, we have gone back all the way that we had advanced,” she told The Telegraph last week. “I don’t see any black woman, or of any other race, in big advertising campaigns.”

Naomi said Italian Vogue’s Black Issue last summer “made some noise,” but didn’t actually cause any changes in how often minority models are booked. “People, in the panic of the recession, don’t dare to put a girl of colour in their campaign, full stop,” she added. “Nor of any other race. It’s a shame. It’s very sad.”

Naomi has been in the fashion biz for a loooong time, so she’s seen a lot, but is she just talking out of no where with this attack? I mean, black, Hispanic, and Asian models have always taken a back seat to white models, so what’s so different during the recession?

While her accusations are nothing new, they do actually hold weight, especially in this economic climate.

Blonde-haired, blue-eyed models are having a renaissance now as advertisers abandon quirky models that have dominated the runways in recent years. Advertisers are now searching for wholesome-looking blondes who will reassure consumers, instead of shock them.

“In a recession clients won’t stick out their necks, they know what sells and they want to hire models with wide-ranging appeal. When every penny counts, they’re much more likely to opt for the formula that sells the best,” said Carol White, founder of Premier Model Management, to the Times Online.

Also, only one magazine, i-D, chose to put women of color on the cover of its September issue. We won’t be able to tell for sure whether minority models are truly being abandoned by the fashion industry until New York Fashion Week. We’ll be watching and we hope to see these following models of color — and more — strutting on the catwalks.

Daniela de Jesus

Arlenis Sosa

Chanel Iman

The animation directors of Pixar studios have won the Venice Film Festival’s lifetime achievement award - the first team to be given the honour.

Chief creative officer John Lasseter and its other directors are behind hits including Finding Nemo and Toy Story.

Pixar has made 10 films, four of which have won best animation Oscars.

Earlier, Lasseter said he hoped more animations would be put forward for the best picture Oscar now that 10 films will be eligible for the shortlist.

‘Backroom operation’

Lasseter, 52, who directed 1995’s Toy Story - the first fully computer-animated feature film - told reporters: “The extension of the number of nominees for best picture opens up opportunities for very popular films and other films including animation.”

He added that 1991 Disney film Beauty and the Beast was the only full-length animation to date to be nominated for best picture.

The Venice Golden Lion lifetime achievement award was presented to Lasseter and his team by Star Wars creator George Lucas.

Pixar began life as the computer graphics division of his company Lucasfilm. It became Pixar when Lucas sold it to Apple founder Steve Jobs for $10m (£6.97m) in 1986.

“I think anybody else when they sell a company and the company goes on to be very successful, they would feel like they missed out,” Lasseter said.

“George Lucas is so proud of us and we are so thankful to him - he is a true visionary.”

Lucas, meanwhile, praised “my little backroom operation that started in 1979″.

Lasseter’s team includes Ratatouille director Brad Bird, Monsters Inc director Pete Docter, Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich and Wall-E director Andrew Stanton.

In 2006, Disney bought Pixar with Lasseter made chief creative officer of both animation studios.

Pixar’s latest animation Up, which launched this year’s Cannes Film Festival, is due for UK release on 9 October.

Richard Thompson says the focus of his career is his live work. Top 40 hits are “kind of meaningless,” he said.

Richard Thompson has had three boxed sets devoted to his music. He’s been the subject of a tribute album. He’s constantly ranked among rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest guitarists and finest songwriters by both the music press and fellow musicians.

Richard Thompson says the focus of his career is his live work. Top 40 hits are “kind of meaningless,” he said.

For all that, the man’s highest-charting U.S. album (1996’s “You? Me? Us?”) peaked at No. 97 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart, and the number of Top 40 singles he’s had stands at exactly zero.

What does a legend have to do to get noticed by the mainstream?

Thompson, 60, brushes aside such hopes of breakout success. His focus is on live performance, he says in a phone interview.

“I think the focus of what I do is really live work,” he said. “And I think if you persist in that, then slowly but surely, through word of mouth, the word gets out. And I continue to grow as a live performer.”

Still, for those who want a Thompson primer before seeing him live — he’ll be touring with Loudon Wainwright in the fall — there’s that third boxed set, “Walking on a Wire: 1968-2009″ (Shout! Factory), which came out recently. The four-disc set compiles some of his best work with his old band Fairport Convention, his ex-wife Linda, and as a solo artist.

The amiable Thompson took some time to talk about putting together the new box, remaining outside the fray and what he thinks of “Rock Band.” The following is an edited version of the interview.

Brazil has entered into negotiations with France to buy 36 fighter jets, the two countries have announced.

In exchange for the $4bn tender, France would buy about a dozen military cargo planes, they said in a joint statement.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is in Brazil to attend Independence Day celebrations, but a formal decision on the deal is not expected this week.

France is competing with the United States and Sweden to supply Brazil’s air force with 36 new modern warplanes.

Ahead of Mr Sarkozy’s visit, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signalled that France’s Rafale jet, built by Dassault, was favourite.

The Rafale had an “exceptional comparative advantage” because of France’s guarantee to share all military technology with Brazil as part of the deal, he told the AFP news agency.

Talks with France over the deal were at a “very advanced stage”, he told other media outlets.

If it goes ahead, this will be the first time France has sold the Rafale overseas.

Brazilian officials are expected to announce the winner of the bid in October, AFP reports.

Presidents Sarkozy and Lula were expected to sign on Monday an already-agreed $10bn (£6bn; 7bn euros) deal for Brazil to buy five French submarines and 50 military transport helicopters.

In an interview with Brazil’s O Globo newspaper on Sunday, Mr Sarkozy said: “The relationship between Brazil and France is not one of supplier and client, but of partners.

“We want to act together because we share the same values and a same vision on the big international goals.”

Jobless for nearly a year, Michael Rivers was about to walk out of his house a few weeks ago to catch the bus for another daylong employment hunt when a radio announcement stopped him.

“This is Ludacris, and I’m giving away 20 free cars. …”

The famous rapper was pulling an Oprah in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.

The rapper announced that if listeners were able to pay the taxes, registration, tags and insurance, they should go to his nonprofit Ludacris Foundation Web site and write 300 words about why they deserved new wheels.

“And make it good,” Luda warned.

Four thousand people took him up on his challenge, and in a few days, more than 2,000 essays poured into the Nissan South dealership in Morrow, Georgia, that had teamed with the rapper on the used-car giveaway.

Rivers’ essay was among them.

“I didn’t even wait; I just continued out that door to the community center, sat at a computer and let all my emotions come out,” he said.

Rivers described riding the city bus with his 14-year-old daughter to make sure she arrived safely at school and how he recently celebrated the small victory of getting his 17-year-old autistic son, who can’t tolerate crowds, to stand calmly for a few moments outside the bus stop. He doesn’t live near a grocery store so he has to bring home the food he can carry on the bus.

Rivers was laid off from his job as a court clerk in the summer of 2008, and making job interviews on time isn’t easy when the bus is often late.

But on Sunday afternoon, Rivers was giddy, slightly bouncing as he spoke. He stood shoulder to shoulder among the 20 winners and their friends and families waiting to see their cars.

“I don’t care what it is,” Rivers said. “I’m grateful for any car with four wheels because it beats two heels.”

Winners received 30 days of free gas, which will be a big help to Joya Montgomery, a 26-year-old single parent of a 4-year-old, 8-year-old and 3-month-old.

She has been waking before 5 a.m. and walking to the bus stop, while it’s dark, with her children to begin a long journey to her job and to drop them off at school or a friend’s home.

“It was scary at times,” she said. “You don’t even know who’s out there. I was always looking over my shoulder.

“I just can’t believe I won. I’m real happy.”

In the parking lot, the crowd was dancing. But the bass of Ludacris‘ latest single blasting from the dealership’s loudspeakers was secondary inspiration for one Atlanta grandmother. Fifty-one-year-old Vermelle Jackson was so excited to have a 2005 Mercury Sable to drive around grandchildren, nieces and nephews that she swiveled her hips around and dipped it shockingly low to the ground.

“Lord Jesus. … He brought this car to me, baby!” she shouted, arms raised. “This is God’s work!”

Actually, the giveaway idea came from Chris White, the jovial, hand-shaking manager of Nissan South. “I knew someone who knew someone who knew Luda and, you know, we just made it happen,” White said.

The concept seemed like a winner for everyone. Like many dealerships, Nissan South has not yet been reimbursed for the money it spent upfront during the federal government’s Cash for Clunkers program that allowed customers to trade in older cars for $3,500 or $4,500 credit.

When the popular program ended August 24, the car dealer didn’t want to turn away customers who kept streaming in, expecting to get the same discounts.

So Nissan South continued giving customers identical low rates and taking their used cars. The Cash for Clunkers program and the continued discounts totaled nearly $800,000 in the hole for the dealership, said owner Scott Smith.

“We’re grateful for the Clunkers program because it really helped business, but it’s a lot of money to be without,” he said.

At the end of the year, the cars given away under the Luda program, which were not technically acquired during the Clunkers program, may be eligible as charity tax write-offs.

“We like to think of it as not being about the write-offs,” White said. “It’s more like we had a chance to do something positive in the community that is going through a really hard time right now.”

White helped place a few radio spots and within two days, more than 2,000 essays had been sent in. That number quickly shot to close to 4,000.

Ludacris and his mother, Roberta Shields, who directs his foundation and helped give away the cars Sunday, and the rapper’s foundation staff of about a dozen helped read the essays. To validate the stories they found most compelling, they made phone calls and interviewed people who knew the finalists.

“We ended up calling a homeless shelter to reach one gentleman whose cell phone had gone out, and he was recharging it,” Shields said. “We didn’t know if we’d get ahold of him, but we finally did. All he wanted was a car to help him go out for job interviews.”

Ludacris was particularly moved by the story of a Sudanese refugee who has experienced every hardship imaginable, the least of which was a broken-down car. The two sat down Sunday and had a long talk.

“That’s one of those stories that really had me like, man, I thought I had faced some adversities in life,” the rapper said in a quiet moment away from the crowd. “But I’ve not faced adversities at all compared to what he’s been through. I cannot imagine going through what he’s gone through and still be that strong.”

Mading Duor, who escaped civil war and was providing for his four children on a school maintenance worker’s salary, was crossing a street in Decatur, Georgia, when a driver ignored a crosswalk and hit and killed his 4-year-old son.

Karen McCrea, who attends church with Duor, wrote the winning essay.

“I don’t expect anyone to understand [what I have been through], but I know that people come to me with a good heart now,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it when she called me to tell me. I said, ‘You are kidding! It cannot be!’ ”

Neither McCrea, from Atlanta’s affluent Buckhead area, nor Duor, neatly dressed in a shirt buttoned to the collar, seemed like Ludacris’ demographic. They nodded their heads to his music anyway, smiling.

“Oh, I know his music, I know it, yes,” Duor said. “I will play it [in my