ten? years ago some one complained about old geezer oliver stone making the moves on an underage model; and how all underage models know better than to complain because they fear being black-listed.

Posted by: sakara at June 30, 2008 11:02 AM

It's sad. Not that she was pretty, not that she had a "bright future", but because this is what happens when a society that is bent on consumption starts to consume people at the expensive of humanity. I'm a native New Yorker living in Russia and I can see the changes in the society here. Most of it for the better, but some of it is ugly, because it's following the path of the West. The aspirations of this young girl could never be fulfilled by the empty promises made to her. Too young to deal with the ugly side of our consumption. We (America) chewed her up and spat her out. No one should envy this lifestyle. If you do, you'll lose your soul.

Posted by: Pavel at June 30, 2008 11:51 AM

Why is everyone so quick to rule this as a suicide? No one saw her jump; they just saw her body fall. My theory is that because she had seen a movie with her ex-boyfriend, her current boyfriend got in a fight with her, killed her, and then ripped the material off the balcony and threw her body off the building to make it look like a suicide (which would explain why no one heard a scream). Or maybe he didn't even kill her before he pushed her off. Or possibly her ex-boyfriend killed her.

I think her blog writings were the typical kind of writings from a 20 year old finding her place in life. Nothing suicidal in them.

Looks like murder to me. Maybe people are so quick to view it as a suicide because they like to think that someone so successful and beautiful was more unhappy than they are.

Posted by: Cristina at June 30, 2008 12:34 PM

Is it really necessary for you to point out she was not a "supermodel" but just a regular "model". I believe that your worthless opinion is completely demeaning to anyone who cares about this person and her family. You should be removed as a journalist for your lack of taste and tact.

Posted by: nycres at June 30, 2008 12:39 PM

Suicide? Probably not. Most people committing suicide leave a note -women almost always. Cops know it. It's murder or accident.

Posted by: Duke DeLuca at June 30, 2008 12:53 PM

CANNIBALS- some of the postings in response to Ruslanas death are despicable. two words for people that make a joke out of someone dying, compassion and empathy. the sarcasm is indicative of a very sick society.

Posted by: robert at June 30, 2008 1:05 PM

Suicide? I doubt it.

Posted by: Ssssss at June 30, 2008 1:32 PM

Who cares if she was a supermodel or not???? I was familiar with her work, as were a lot of people. It doesn't change anything. The paragraph you wasted using her death as a means to decry the overuse of the word supermodel is pointless.

Posted by: me at June 30, 2008 2:52 PM

The law of gravity in New York is no different (I hope) from anywhere in the world:
http://img206.imageshack.us/my.php?image=whyqv5.jpg

Ruslana Korshunova did not commit suicide.

Posted by: Whynow at June 30, 2008 3:04 PM

poor poor pitiful model. she better not have messede up that sidewalk.

Posted by: moss at June 30, 2008 3:51 PM

I was there. heard and saw the whole thing

Posted by: at June 30, 2008 4:42 PM

OMG she to was a supermodel, if u didnt know who she was then u definitely dont know much about the fashion world!!!! She was one of the biggest models, and that so makes her a supermodel!!!!

Posted by: at June 30, 2008 5:09 PM

She was probably into prescription drugs or illegal drugs and alcohol based on the writings she posted it seems to me like she had already been on a little bit of a downward spiral. And as for the men she was around they may have not been very responsible, keeping an eye on her, or taking very good care of. It seems like she had been struggling with love. Eerie. My love goes out to her.

Posted by: lisa at June 30, 2008 6:06 PM

She was probably into prescription drugs or illegal drugs and alcohol based on the writings she posted it seems to me like she had already been on a little bit of a downward spiral. And as for the men she was around they may have not been very responsible, keeping an eye on her, or taking very good care of. It seems like she had been struggling with love. Eerie. My love goes out to her.

Posted by: lisa at June 30, 2008 6:07 PM

"Supermodel" is a relative term these days, no? At the very least, I'll bet to her friends and family she was a super model and then some. Show a little dignity and respect for the poor girl and her loved ones.

This article portrays one of the minor "irritants" of media -- you'll write anything, however despicable, for a little coverage and attention.

Posted by: at June 30, 2008 6:19 PM

Size 4? Are you kidding? She was size 0 at the most, probably size 0, though. Her waist size was 61 cm according to all info online about herbvg. I wear size 4 and mine is 69 cm. In inches: over 3 inches more. And, yes, she was a supermodel.

Posted by: Alex at June 30, 2008 6:22 PM

Suicide? I doubt it.
Ruslana Korshunova did not commit suicide.
Looks like murder to me.

Posted by: EMA at June 30, 2008 6:57 PM

What were Ruslana's last words..?

Izz thiz the vay back inzide apartment?

Posted by: at June 30, 2008 6:58 PM

Ok i think its rude that this person writing this article seemed to denote her. Whatever her model status she still was a young girl who died... respect please....
oh and I would love to know what everyone thinks this is sucide also. I think it seems alittle strange...

Posted by: april at June 30, 2008 7:04 PM

How the fuck are you going to take a young girls suicide & make it into a debate of whether she was a supermodel or not ?!!!?!

karma comes around, one day youll be slaughtered by an mentally unstable model.

Posted by: kel$$$$ at June 30, 2008 7:49 PM

You're kidding, right? A twenty year old woman plunged to her death and you're annoyed people are calling her a supermodel?

Wow.

I find the biggest "irritant" is how inhumane our society has become in print.

Posted by: In Shock at June 30, 2008 7:52 PM

rrr you serious , the poor girl kills herself and all you worry about ..is to correct the term supermodel..this is one of the reasons she is dead ..if you people pay attention and care more and ask questions ..you would prevent this from happening ..i help many people in past that were suicidal ..by not knowin but by observing and asking caring questions..
also if more people started believing in God more and putting God as your first love ..not some loser boyfriend or ex..than i guarantee you she be alive right now..
why do you think all these people in the fashion/film industry are killing themselves them hav no God in the center of their life..
i am so sad bout this ..

my prayers to her family

francesco
writer/producer/actor
treschic films

Posted by: francesco at June 30, 2008 8:04 PM

Village Voice, I am ashamed you allowed this writer to 1) even discuss the merits of being named a 'super model' in a post about a young woman's death and 2) write an article that did not deliver on its promise to reveal the "dark side of the modeling world," something that is worth a serious looking-into. For shame.

Posted by: at June 30, 2008 8:10 PM

The fact that anyone would actually base an article on the irritation factor of whether an apparent suicide victim was really a supermodel or just a non-supermodel is so beyond ridiculous, that I hope that you don't actually get paid for this pathetic excuse at journalism. I hope this is simply the case of any idiot with a keyboard and a modem can "publish" any nonsense that pops into their wee little brain. You know what's irritating?... people like you.

Posted by: Rob at June 30, 2008 8:54 PM

A human being is dead and you are debating her supermodel/model status? You validate the sleaze of journalism-you pathetic soul. I pity you.

Posted by: Joanna Pera at July 1, 2008 12:55 AM

My dream to fly is a from a song "Rise Up" Some of the poetry, they say she wrote is really song lyrics.
.. maybe that was a clue..she wanted to jump or maybe she loved the song..

We will never know.. I hope they investigate this case closer.

Posted by: sad girl at July 1, 2008 12:56 AM

having known ruslana personally as well as her ex boyfriend, i am compelled to comment on the subject. 1. stop assuming that her career has anything to do with why she died. suicide occurs amongst every single occupation. please do not try and turn this into a soap opera. 2. stop judging her for her looks, which she had nothing to do with, and instead judge her for the person she was. obviously the press has nothing to say about this, because that sort of thing is completely boring to anyone that doesn't know her and will not attract media attention. 3. she was not on any sort of prescription medication. she was not a fuck up, not a lindsey lohan, not a cokehead retard. 4. further, the press deemed her a supermodel because it sounds more racey. the fact that she was a model at all was the only reason this has gotten so much attention; people commit suicide every day. there's nothing glamorous about it. in truth, suicide is the ultimate selfish act. it doesn't matter what she looked like when she was alive. just imagine being her mother and being asked to identify her dead body. try and look at this as sequence of human events, respect human relationships and imagine these people as though they were your friends, and stop assuming that the title of a model automatically makes her and her family some sort of robotic and insensitive unit. these are PEOPLE. the fact that she was glorified for her looks is not her fault but societies. the fact that she committed suicide is something personal. end of drama.

Posted by: friend at July 1, 2008 5:39 AM

I agree with "friend".

Posted by: Ella at July 1, 2008 3:00 PM

Heather Muse your such a bitch, the women is dead and you are debating on whether she was model or supermodel, fuck you. How dare some people make fun of this tragedy. This isn't a tragedy because she was a SUPERMODEL(take that heather), it is a tragedy because it takes a really depressed person to commit suicide, to believe there is no other way. There must of been signs that she was depressed but no one took notice. Every suicide is preventable, and no matter the person it is always a tragedy. To all the people post rude comments on here on youtube or any other post about Ruslana, shame on you, I hope one day I will get to return the favor to you.

Posted by: John at July 1, 2008 5:41 PM

I'm a mom that is here because I worry. I am up late tonight keeping an eye on my 20 year old daughter. She feels worthless tonight, and watching her hurt is killing me. She flunked a major test for a job, that she has worked so hard to get, and broke up with the boy she has gone with for the past 5 years. She wants so much out of life and feels like she is not good enough.

My GOD if you saw this girl, she is beautiful. Friends of hers would be amazed that she feels the way she does tonight.

If only I could take the pain away and make her smile again. I can't even imagine what Ruslana's mother and family are going thru. It has to be HELL. It's 5:08 am it will be light soon. My daughter cried herself to sleep. I know people will think I am strange, but I held her in my arms like she was my little baby again. I hope that when morning comes, my daughter will understand that it's not the end of the world. Her father and I love her no matter what she does in life.

For those of you that have made nasty comments about Ruslana, you have never held a hurt child. Yes, I know that my daughter is an adult, but to me she will always be my child. Tonight I wondered if Ruslana was trying to reach for that pot of gold at the end of her rainbow. Did she feel like my daughter does? It's the end of the world?

Posted by: A Mom at July 2, 2008 5:45 AM

I think itr is a very sad day when a persons death is used for useless conversation. This person is dead lets respect her...

Posted by: Ale at July 2, 2008 11:20 AM

I agree with her friend. Her sucide is something personal. What makes me sick is the press giving a detailed story on how she jumped, where she landed, what her body looked like, what she was wearing, how her mother, on a visit to her daughter's apartment looked up to see where her daughter jumped from. This young woman deserves privacy. It's horrible they described the death scene.
What about her family having to read that. Will it make them feel better to know the details? I doubt it and it is time the press stopped reporting on other people's sorrow to make money. If we stop reading it, they will stop writing it.

Posted by: Dee at July 3, 2008 2:52 AM

to the people crying murder - do you honestly think the NYPD don't know how to look for signs of foul play?

Whether she fell or jumped no one will ever know. Every possible scenario has holes...

Girls that age, with no serious history of depression, rarely choose such extreme methods of suicide. A bottle of pills or a razor is usually the chosen method.

If she just slipped and fell, why did she cut the netting first? Maybe she was in the midst of doing something stupid like hanging a bird feeder, while standing on the railing, but even then, if she just fell why did fall off to the right, and not straight down.

If she was murdered, how did they get past the doorman? why wasn't anything seen on surveillance tapes (which I'm sure they would have checked).

Honestly, we'll never know, so let the family move on. The media has been disgusting about the whole thing. The only people who knew who she was were people who followed fashion - the media didn't care before, so why torture her family by going through every gruesome detail? If they'd presented some analysis, aside from: "fashion industry bad", it wouldn't have been so shameful, but they didn't.

Posted by: rc at July 5, 2008 2:39 PM

She didn't kill herself, she was murdered. Those who did it will have to live with what they did. She is in peace, they are not and will never be.

Posted by: darlenemiserez at July 6, 2008 7:32 AM

Ruslana was a beautiful young supermodel who had everything going for her.It is sad in the year 2008 that we still have people that feel no way out.Perhaps the demands of her career,relationships or loneliness drove her to suicide or maybe it was murder.I'm sure the NYPD deals with these cases ever single day of the year.It is also sad that we have so many hateful people in this world that have to write such horrible things about someone that has passed on.

Posted by: Theresa at July 8, 2008 3:56 PM

If this were an article about, for example, the high turnover of 'it' models, or whatever, then I would applaud your focus on the distinction between supermodel and regular model, as it is true that there are only a handful of models that can rightly be called supermodels, and while most people don't really understand or care about that, it actually is important in the fashion industry.

HOWEVER, to actually open an article about the death of a person - who, by the way, just happened to be a model - with a statement as ridiculous as "actually she wasn't a supermodel, just a random beauty" is totally beyond belief. The Ugly Side of the Fashion Indsutry is in fact people like you; it's things like this that cause the fashion industry, to be regarded as superficial and shallow, placing more important on labels and status and elitism, than on people and emotion and beauty. It would be like saying "Miss Korshunova was wearing Dior at the time of her death" "OMG ACTUALLY NO, she was wearing Gucci, thank-you-very-much!"

I assume from the fact you are dwelling on such a matter that you consider yourself to be interested in fashion, and I know that fashion is a very catty industry, but why is there such a need to insist upon this girl's inferior status in comparison with the great supermodels in such tragic circumstances? Why spit on your doorstep? You should be mournful that a part of the fashion industry, of which you are also a part by being interested in it, has been lost, no matter how insignificant you believe her role to have been. Here, how does this make you feel? If YOU died, and the media were to report the death of a 'fashion journalist', I wouldn't start kicking up a fuss and saying "Puh-lease, this person was not a fashion journalist, they were barely a journalist". I would mourn the fact that a fellow writer, someone creative, someone also interested in fashion as I am, had died.

You have totally overlooked the point and frankly I pity you. I really do. And not only have you disgraced and demeaned the fashion and journalism industries, you have disgraced and demeaned yourself. In pointing out the errors of tabloid journalists - who, let's face it, are renowned for exagerrating and who obviously, like most people, do not understand the intricacies of fashion hierarchy - you have made yourself look like a fool. A good journalist would have risen above the ignorance of others and written something which would honour the life of this young woman.

I suggest you take a refresher course in something called tact.

Posted by: Annie at July 21, 2008 11:12 AM

Greetn's,

I agree with 'friend'.

But I also think that there were important lessons in life posted throughout this thread - which would not have been possible if someone had not posted that stupid rant about whether this young woman was a super-model or not.

Let's face it, people concerned about such things are fairly oblivious to those things that are really important in life.

Nevertheless, I don't think it's a good idea to censor such people. I think everyone should be allowed to post or say whatever they want - and the rest of us take a good look at it.
Evaluate what is meant and return comment.
That's how people learn.

Our society is so messed up because most people in it are so messed up, friends.

The sooner we start to increase our compassion and respect for one another; and make the effort to help each other - starting with those closest; the sooner our society will get better.

I am sorry for the loss of this one young person.

At twenty years old - she had a huge untapped potential that likely hardly anyone around her understood she had.

The whole thing is a tragedy.
(sigh), the world is full of it.

Posted by: William at August 25, 2008 12:26 PM

Finally who cares if she was a supermodel or not?the fame didn't stop some others from a lot of stupid things...I really feel sorry for this girl,she is my age and every girl at her age having what she had,would be more than excited..but there are always so mane hidden detaliles of the stories...RIP

Posted by: blondie at September 23, 2008 9:09 PM