Pop Culturette Flashback: When Naomi Campbell Lost Her Temper and Cell Phone on Her Assistant
By Alexus Mosley
Photo Credit/Getty Images
Call dropped? No. This was just a supermodel having a meltdown.
Before modern cancel culture, there was a flip phone flying through a Manhattan apartment, thrown by one of the most photographed women in the world. In 2006, Naomi Campbell lost her patience and her phone, and it landed squarely on her assistant’s head.
The incident unfolded in Campbell’s New York apartment during what was reportedly a heated argument over a missing pair of jeans. According to court records, Campbell struck her assistant, Ana Scolavino, with a mobile phone, causing a cut that required stitches. The moment quickly moved from private blow-up to public scandal, landing the supermodel in criminal court rather than on a runway.
Campbell was arrested and later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault. In court, she acknowledged her temper and issued an apology, telling the judge, “I have taken responsibility for my actions. I am not proud of what I did.” The sentence was swift but symbolic: five days of community service, anger management classes, and a mandate to stay out of trouble. Photographs of Campbell arriving to serve her sentence in designer outfits, heels, and sunglasses became nearly as iconic as the scandal itself.
At the time, the phone-throwing incident cemented Campbell’s reputation as fashion’s most volatile diva, a label she had already been flirting with for years. Yet it also became one of the earliest examples of celebrity accountability in the pre-social media era, when bad behavior still had real-world consequences and viral moments lived on tabloids rather than timelines.
Nearly two decades later, the image remains frozen in pop culture memory. A supermodel, a flip phone, and a reminder that even fashion royalty isn’t immune to the law when tempers and cell phones fly.