August 3, 2007 - 9:46AM
http://www.theage.com.au/news/fashion/gorbachev-does-vuitton/2007/08/03/1185648098576.html
Move over Scarlett Johansson - Mikhail Gorbachev is the new face of Louis Vuitton.
The former Soviet leader is to appear in an ad campaign for the French luxury label, along with tennis stars Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi and veteran French actress Catherine Deneuve, the division of the LVMH group, Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, said in a statement today.
Shot by photographer Annie Liebovitz, the ads focus on travel - a "core value" for the company which started in 1854 as a trunk-maker, the statement said.
Gorbachev is featured in a car, a Vuitton bag at his side and the Berlin Wall in the background.
Graf and her husband Agassi are shown snuggling in a hotel room bed.
A vampy Deneuve sits perched on a Vuitton suitcase in a foggy train station - or is it a movie set?
The campaign - which is to run alongside more traditional fashion ads that in past seasons have featured American screen siren Johansson - is to hit magazines in September, the statement said.
AP