There’s nothing angelic about the guys who go model shopping at the annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, where hunting season for lingerie-clad lovelies hits its peak. Among the men on the make for Victoria’s models such as Candice Swanepoel (left) are Adam Levine (top right, with model and former flame Anne Vyalitsyna at the 2011 show in New York) and Justin Bieber (bottom right).Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images; REUTERS/Lucas Jackson; We Dem Boyz / Splash News
When fashion photographer Nigel Barker gets a certain coveted invitation every fall, his phone blows up with randy requests from pals jockeying to scoop up his plus-one.
“Whenever I get invited to a Victoria’s Secret show . . . my male friends all [pop] up out of nowhere wanting to come to the show,” says Barker, the suave snapper who starred alongside former Victoria’s Secret Angel Tyra Banks on “America’s Next Top Model.”
“And they’re very pleased with themselves if they get picked to come.”
The annual underwear extravaganza — which Barker likens to a “sporting event” — airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. on CBS.
It features a gang of gorgeous models known as Angels parading down a runway wearing nothing but bejeweled bras and skimpy skivvies — the Holy Grail of invites for straight men looking to land a babe.
“It’s high-energy, and it’s almost like a football-stadium scenario. It’s not like a regular fashion show,” explains Barker. “There are like 30 rows of seats going high to
the ceiling. It’s like a Greek amphitheater.”
Only here, the sport is model hunting. And the players include rock stars, Hollywood leading men, monied executives and men lucky enough to work with the brand in some capacity.
“Guys absolutely go to the show and afterparty thinking they are going to score with a model,” says a nightlife source who attends the show every year when it is held in New York and spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Guys are looking at each other, smiling and thinking about the possibilities.”
On Nov. 30, English actor Ed Westwick, who played WASP-y lothario Chuck Bass on “Gossip Girl,” took to Twitter to publicly beg Victoria’s Secret for an invite.
Show producer Ed Razek happily obliged, and Westwick has been posting pictures of himself — including one with a trio of Angels — ever since last week’s show, which was held in London’s Earls Court Exhibition Centre.
Not everyone is as lucky: “Every year, Vince Offer, the ShamWow! guy, wants to go,” says one modeling-world snitch of the slick infomercial king. “[Victoria’s Secret] always says no, but he did get into the afterparty about five years ago.”
Another show insider, who declined to be named for professional reasons, says he’s been offered bribes of thousands of dollars from deep-pocketed men desperate to get past the pearly gates: “It got to the point where serious money was offered,” he says.
But tickets aren’t for sale. Rather, seats are given to influencers and friends of the brand.
At the top of the guest list is perennial modelizer Adam Levine, 35, who last year sat front row and blew kisses to Angel Behati Prinsloo, whom he married in July. In 2011, while performing onstage, he smooched model Anne V, whom he was dating at the time.
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Left: Levine with Angel hottie Behati Prinsloo, whom he married in July. Right: Prinsloo walks the runway at the 2014 show in London.Photo: Marion Curtis/Starpix; Karwai Tang/WireImage
In 2012, Justin Bieber, then 18, reportedly flirted and partied late into the night with Miranda Kerr, who was then married to Orlando Bloom. It’s still a sore point: Bloom and Bieber came to blows this summer in Ibiza over the incident.
The Canadian pop star also sparked romance rumors when he was photographed with Hungarian model Barbara Palvin at the 2012 show and later attended a Broadway show with the beauty. (Both women denied any hanky-panky.)
And then there’s Angel addict Leonardo DiCaprio, 40, who was spied ogling Karlie Kloss at a 2011 Victoria’s Secret afterparty at the Dream Downtown and has been romantically linked to VS models Toni Garrn, Erin Heatherton and Gisele Bündchen.
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Leonardo DiCaprio (center) has been linked to models Erin Heatherton (left) and Toni Garrn (right), among others.Photo: Andres Otero/Everett Collection; Steve Granitz/WireImage; Bryan Bedder/Getty Images
“The afterparty is where the real action is,” explains the nightlife source. “All of the Angels are there, the booze is flowing, and the room has been carefully curated. You have to imagine that the women know these men are all there for a reason, whether they’re connected to the brand, are a celebrity, or it’s a case of pay-to-play. It’s definitely not amateur hour.”
The company likes to foster these tabloid-ready matchups, according to one former Victoria’s Secret model, who wrote a tell-all book about her experience of walking in the show after winning a contest in 2009.
In her 2013 memoir “I’m No Angel,” Kylie Bisutti alleges that the company’s bigwigs tried to hook her up with an unnamed boldfacer she met during an afterparty at an unnamed downtown nightclub, even though she was married.
“Apparently one of the celebrities at the afterparty thought I was his type,” writes Bisutti. “And this exec wanted to know if it was okay for him to pass along my phone number so we could ‘get together.’
“I had heard that the owners encouraged the Angels to date celebrities because of the extra publicity it provided . . . but since I was happily married, I assumed they realized I was off the market.”
After the book was published, Victoria’s Secret claimed Bisutti made “numerous fabrications and misstatements.”
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After checking out the ladies on the catwalk (left) in 2012, Justin Bieber reportedly spent time with Miranda Kerr. In her 2013 memoir “I’m No Angel,” former Victoria’s Secret model Kylie Bisutti (right, at the 2009 show in New York) claims that “the owners encouraged the Angels to date celebrities because of the extra publicity it provided.”Photo: Carlo Allegri / Reuters; Scott Gries/PictureGroup/AP
“We invite media and VIPs, as well as brand and fashion-show partners and vendors. There is no male-to-female ratio involved,” says a representative for Victoria’s Secret, who declined to elaborate on the company’s invitation process.
Robert Tuchman, founder of Goviva, which organizes exclusive experiences for monied clients, says he receives a lot of requests for tickets to the Victoria’s Secret show.
“It’s probably one of the most sought-after celebrity fashion events to try and gain access to,” he says. “Most of the requests are from middle-aged men in corporate America who are willing to pretty much pay anything to gain access to their events.
“There is no doubt they have built a brand experience that people want to be part of. The fact that they have kept it private has only added to the allure of the event.”
But a fat bank account won’t always get you into the land of milk and honey, says Steve Edo, CEO of Pure Entertainment Group, a Toronto-based experiential company.
“You can’t buy tickets,” says Edo, who will only put in a request if a client fits a certain profile. “It’s about what you do and who you are. It’s not just about money.”
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