She is the highest paid model in the world (just ahead of that other model-maker, Heidi Klum), a mother, an entrepreneur, an Angel, an actress (she was in The Devil Wears Prada and Taxi – remember?), a controversial advocate of breastfeeding, lingerie designer and now Gisele Bundchen is turning her star power to a model search to find South America’s next top models.

She returned to her native Brazil to launch the programme - called Top CUFA (Central Única das Favelas, or Central Union of Slums) - which will see contestants from the 27 South American states compete for the prize as well as a year-long modelling contract, a year’s worth of Pantene (a brand for which Bundchen is a spokesperson), and the crown that the glamazon herself won at her first carnival in Rio.

The initiative aims to boost the self esteem of ‘the slum-dwellers’, according to the Daily Mail. An issue that Gisele is familiar with – she was famously rejected by 42 agencies in London. ‘'I was finally taken on on the 43rd try,’ she recalled. Adding, ‘I feel privileged to be the sponsor of this project’.