Last week, a tempest in a G-string exploded when GQ Spain unveiled their December issue: Along with a photo of model Irina Shayk, Real Madrid hunk Cristiano Ronaldo's main squeeze, the cover read: “The Most Beautiful Creature in the World … Would you like to see Ronaldo’s girlfriend naked?”
The problem: Shayk’s representation in Spain, Elite Barcelona, says the model did not in fact pose nude. On the agency’s blog, managing director Gael Marie wrote that Shayk was “a victim of Photoshop” and only appears naked because the magazine—in violation of her contract—electronically removed her clothes in three photos. “These kinds of cover lines are not only false and defamatory towards the person and image of Irina Shayk,” Marie wrote, “they can affect the career and future of Irina Shayk.”
Hmmm. The same Shayk that, at the beginning of a video filmed for Sports Illustrated in 2009, trills, “I’m naked on the beach!” and then rolls around in nothing but body paint?
Of note, Shayk is now the worldwide ambassador for Italian lingerie brand Intimissimi—a fact Marie mentions—and it was probably their sweet nothings that were turned into, well, just nothing in the alleged GQ photoshopping.
When reached, an employee Elite Barcelona said the agency was no longer commenting on the matter. Neither Condé Nast (parent company of GQ Spain) or Intimissimi has responded to a request for comment.