Naomi Campbell celebrates birthday in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM — Countless mortal men dream that the celestial Naomi Campbell will drop by one day for a providential surprise visit. But certain prerogatives are reserved only for the gods, who, we can safely assume, are smiling widely today.

Campbell has spent the past 24 hours touring holy sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, thus covering two of the three monotheistic bases on the day of her 42nd birthday.

Campbell's private jet landed at Ben Gurion airport late last night, following which the supermodel, accompanied by her long-term boyfriend Vladislav Doronin, a Russian real estate mogul, and a retinue of 15 friends, headed directly to Jerusalem and Judaism's most sacred site, the Western Wall.

By early Tuesday morning, Campbell and Doronin were seen visiting the Church of the Nativity in neighboring Bethlehem.

The news spread like wildfire here. In Jerusalem, the belle dined at the rooftop Montefiori restaurant overlooking the Old City walls. In Bethlehem, she lunched on "traditional" rice and lamb at the Casa Nova Hotel.

But it was a snapshot of the London-born beauty wearing a small white sundress outside the church that provoked rumors she may have married Doronin in a secret ceremony in one of the two holy cities, thus sparking a day-long Israeli and Palestinian blogospere frenzy, sadly culminating in the confirmation, on Chanel Ten's prime time news hour, that the color of her dress was nothing more than a "a reflection of seasonal fashion."
 

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