The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel

Now in trade paperback for the first time, No Lifeguard on Duty is the ultimate memoir of sex, drugs, rock & roll, and redemption from modeling icon Janice Dickinson. From her supermodel glory days with Gia Carangi and Christie Brinkley to nights with Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, and Sylvester Stallone; from a dizzying drug and alcohol habit to three failed marriages; from cavorting around the globe to struggling to make it in Los Angeles as a working mom on America’s Next Top Model and The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, Janice tells all.

Book Description

She wasn't just a model. She was a supermodel.

In the 1970s—before her star turns on the The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency and America's Next Top Model—Janice Dickinson was the lush-lipped, long-stemmed, dark-eyed brunette who became the icon for a new breed of beauty. She was voracious in everything—from her affairs both passionate and casual to her endless partying and a drug habit that dogged her through twenty years and three husbands. Her glory days were spent working with Gia Carangi, Christie Brinkley, Valentino, and Versace, and her nights with the likes of Warren Beatty, Mick Jagger, and Sylvester Stallone. No Lifeguard on Duty is her story—an electrifying roller-coaster ride of fast times through three decades of fashion, fame, drugs, sex, and excess.

Critical Praise for No Lifeguard on Duty

“Gisele, Naomi, Kate—none of you would be where you are now without Janice Dickinson. . . the pioneering princess of high fashion.”

—New York Post

“Wild . . . surely raising eyebrows—and blood pressure—from Milano to Mullholland Drive. . . . her deft recollections ring tellingly true.”

— Elle

“Dickinson…set off a revolution. She was the first of modeling’s bad girls, and she did nothing to hide it.”

—Michael Gross, author of Model

“She’s a brilliant model, the best ever, I think. She will be talked about for as long as modeling exists.”

— —Tara Shannon, Model

“Engaging . . . vivid . . . illuminating. . . . [Janice] survives it all--cushioned by her beauty, her rage, and most of all her sense of humor.”

—W Magazine

“I started this book at midnight and finished at 6 A.M. (she ruined my day!). But she’s High Speed Janice, spirit triumphant.”

— —Lauren Hutton

“The ultimate insider’s look at the big business of beauty. . . . Janice’s story is unvarnished and raw, with all the energy and humor that has been her lifelong trademark.”

—Cheryl Tiegs

“I love Janice. She is crazy, unbearable, flamboyant, excessive--but she is true. There must be a reason she’s been able to survive all her excesses: some kind of guardian angel who was moved by her difficult trials, her profound generosity, her truthful speech, and her lack of arrogance.”

—Jean-Jacques Naudet

“A roller-coaster ride through the world of modeling. . . . Dickinson comes across as a triumphant survivor. . . . Her willingness to recognize her own flaws makes it easy to relate to her positive message and should inspire readers.”

— —Publishers Weekly

“No other catwalker has had such a yeasty life, nor been willing to speak of it so jovially and graphically. Janice . . . speaks with the candor of Cher, the bite of Joan Rivers and the sexual bonhomie of Mae West.”

—Liz Smith, New York Post

“Dickinson has managed to take what life has offered and work it . . . what keeps the book from becoming too tawdry is Dickinson’s sense of humor.”

—Women's Wear Daily

“One rollercoaster of a read…Dickinson gossips like a pro…but her tough-girl-survives-against-the-odds attitude manages to make the dirt she dishes shamefully savory. B+”

—Entertainment Weekly

“Janice Dickinson is a funny and fluid narrator . . . what makes [her book] interesting is her scathing inventory of everyone’s desperate behavior, including her own. . . . She’s like all forces of nature--you take them on their own terms. ”

—New York Observer

“Entirely real . . it is the honesty with which it is written that may drive you from beginning to end in a single sitting.”

—The Independent