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After almost two years away from the limelight and grieving for her friend Heath Ledger, New York-based Perth supermodel Gemma Ward plans to be back on the catwalk next year.

Ward also intends to go to university and is taking Shakespearian acting classes.

She denied international media reports that she had given up her successful modelling career.

“I have not ‘quit modelling’ and my fans back home can expect to see me back at work modelling and acting in the new year,” she said in an email to The West Australian.

Her mother Claire Ward revealed that her daughter plans to stay in the US to pursue her acting career and is considering doing a three-year course at the prestigious Yale University.

Mrs Ward said the former Nedlands schoolgirl was working towards achieving a long-held ambition to be an actress.

“She’s 22 years old and has worked incredibly hard,” Mrs Ward said. “She’s had a very difficult few years personally and now she’s having a really lovely time doing things she wants to do and enjoying being young.

“She’s been doing some great drama theatre courses and is considering doing a three-year course in Yale which is a great possibility. She’s making one step at a time.”

Discovered by a model scout in Perth at 14, Ward had a meteoric rise in the tough world of modelling and catwalks.

Her wide-eyed look and doll-like features captured the attention of leading fashion houses and she has done global runway shows for Gucci, Prada, Chanel and Versace.

She has appeared on 24 Vogue covers and was the youngest model to feature on the cover of US Vogue at the age of 16.

Many would understand how Ledger’s sudden death in January 2008 could have prompted Ward to reassess her direction and resurrect the acting ambition she had before she started modelling.

Ward’s acting aspirations received a boost last year with the success of her first major feature film, The Black Balloon – in which she played the girlfriend of a boy caring for his autistic brother – starring Toni Collette.

Mrs Ward said her daughter had visited Rio de Janeiro to see Brazil’s shanty towns, or favelas.

“She was very interested to see what’s behind the glossy facade of Brazil and looking at the slums, with a view to doing something there in the future,” she said.

Along with her father Gary, the model has visited Malawi with The Hunger Project, an Australian charity which raises funds to build facilities there.

Mrs Ward said her daughter recognised that she was very lucky to have made her money from modelling and now wanted to spend time developing herself.

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Candids > Arriving in NYC

Australian actress and model Gemma Ward showed off a much healthier frame as arrived in New York City today (November 9).

The infamously skinny star has obviously put on an extra few healthy pounds and looked great as she showed off her new curves once ditching her tights.

Gemma proved to be no diva as she unassumingly took care of her own luggage and transportation and seemed to embrace happily the low key lifestyle!

Meanwhile, Gemma Ward has reportedly quit the modelling industry after a series of media reports ridiculing her for gaining weight.

The Sunday Telegraph reports that the 22-year-old’s agent says his client does not intend to return to modelling.

Miss Ward’s modelling agency in New York, Viviens, announced that the Australian had no immediate plans to return to the industry. “Gemma hasn’t committed to returning to modelling at any time soon”, a spokeman says, adding Gemma had the agency’s full support.

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Australian supermodel Gemma Ward has quit the industry after a series of media reports ridiculing her for gaining weight, reported The Sunday Telegraph.

According to the report Ward, who celebrated her 22nd birthday last week, has revealed via her agent that she does not intend to return to modelling.

Ward has not been much in the lime-light since the death of Australian actor Heath Ledger, whom she dated briefly.

She was photographed last week in New York wearing a print jacket, shorts and biker boots and looking more like a healthy young woman and less like an emaciated wraith. Ward had previously been criticised for being too thin in the early part of her career.

The photos were posted by international fashion blogger Bryan Boy and received an number of vicious comments on her new size and shape.

Ward’s modelling agency in New York, Viviens, announced that the Australian had no immediate plans to return to the industry. ‘Gemma hasn’t committed to returning to modelling at any time soon’, a spokeman said, adding Ward had the agency’s full support.

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Australia’s top model export, Gemma Ward has quit the profession following attacks on her new shape. Pictures of Ward, 22, who went into seclusion following the death of her friend Heath Ledger, emerged last week. She was in New York attending a friend’s birthday party when she was snapped on the street. The pictures show a tall, healthy-looking woman wearing a leopard-skin coat and short skirt. She has since been attacked by fashion bloggers as being “too fat.”

Writes blogger Bryan Boy, who posted the recent photos on his website, “I think it’s very sad that Gemma gave up on modelling.” ”She’s a very beautiful woman and I think she could make a name for herself in the plus-size niche.”

News Limited reported today that Ward has revealed through her agent that she has no plans to return to her career which saw her soar to the heights of success — modelling for Prada, Versace, Chanel and Vogue.

She also diversified into acting, starring in the Australian filmThe Black Balloon.

She was linked to fellow Aussie star Heath Ledger at the end of 2007, just prior to his January 2008 death after an accidental overdose.

The only photos of her that have appeared in the public domain since Ledger’s death were paparazzi shots of her at a beach.

Spotted: Gemma Ward on Bedford Avenue. Wearing floral print leggings and a short moto jacket.
1:33 PM Oct 24th

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Model Gemma Ward and Jay Lyons from The City were supposed to be among the — ahem — celebrity D.J.’s at the Doe Fund’s charity event last night. However, neither showed. A source reveals Jay canceled minutes before the event because he had discovered the night before that Whitney Port and Olivia Palermo would be there shooting scenes for The City. Indeed, both Olivia and Whitney showed up, the latter filming with a “tanned replacement Jay.”

But what happened to Gemma? She had arranged to appear at the event personally, without the help of an agent or manager. It’s unclear why she didn’t show, but if we find out we’ll let you know. Maybe she was just shy about her D.J. skills?

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Despite the fact that she was spotted in New York the night before taking in an Animal Collective concert with her brother and some friends, Gemma Ward failed to appear for her DJ gig at the Doe Fund’s charity event last night.  The weird part: She had personally arranged to appear at the event, without the help of an agent or manager, and it’s unclear why she didn’t show.

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Jimmy Jack’s new zombie rockumentary project is set to entice model Gemma Ward back to the big screen and showcase the talents of a Perth band.

The Perth-based filmmaker, who wrote the AFI award winning 2007 film The Black Balloon which starred Toni Collette and Ward, is also hoping to secure former child star Macaulay Culkin to play a lead.

Jack finished the Zombie: Sex, Brains and Rock n’ Roll script on Friday – most of which he wrote while a writer-in-residence at city bar Tiger Tiger – and is now beginning the process of securing talent for the new project which he will film in some of his favourite Perth haunts.

Hear an excerpt from the script here

The mockumentary, about a rock band made of zombies who have to struggle not to eat their groupies, is a big departure for Jack from the emotional drama of The Black Balloon. And this time around Jack will also direct.

He has a Perth band in mind to play the zombie musicians, but has not yet approached the group.

“I will be casting a Perth band as the zombie band because I want it to have that authenticity, make it really seem like a documentary,” Jack says.

“I don’t think actors could convincingly play a band, and have maybe a couple of months before we start filming learning an instrument. Or pick up the little intricacies that I think a band could bring to it.”

Jack will soon fly to New York to talk to Culkin about the role of documentary-maker. It is Culkin’s comedic performances that have caught Jack’s eye. He’d like Culkin to play the quirky documentarian who inserts himself into his own films.

“He’s still got that comic timing that made him so good as a kid in Home Alone,” Jack says.

“That was such a good performance.”

Ward would bring her ethereal beauty to the part of the front-man zombie’s love interest.

“Her name is Tambourine Girl and she’s the love interest for the front man zombie,” Jack says.”The love story is kind of interesting, he’ll be all kind of romantic, saying things like she’s making him feel alive again.”

Jack admits that many zombie films are terribly made.

“I actually don’t like most zombie movies, they’re really badly done,” he says.

But this will be no ordinary supernatural flick.

“I will be directing this film, and it will be a much smaller budget than Black Balloon,” Jack says.

“I’ll shoot it here, in the places where I hang out like Amplifier Bar, Tiger Tiger and Leederville. It will be made like a documentary about a Perth band.”

The key to a successful shoot will be not attracting too much attention.

“If we are shooting here I want the crew to be so small that we don’t cause any commotion, can shoot people in the background, and at their gigs,” he says.

“I’m hoping, and I have the feeling that if I make all the decisions to keep it as natural as possible, the cast wont feel like they’re in a film.”

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There was a Gemma Ward sighting late last month at Penn Station – evidence the doll faced supermodel is actually in town and potentially ready and able to work. And work she will next week, behind the DJ booth at Doe Fund’s Embrace the Blue, Celebrity DJ Series night next week.

It’s not the first time Gemma’s spun the vinyl in front of a big crowd. She was the MisShapes guest DJ at a V magazine party in November 2005 where she reportedly looked very much at home behind the turntable dressed in a bleach-stained hoodie, tight jeans and boots spinning Killer’s and Scissor Sister’s tracks.

She reportedly had no nerves that night but the noise was loud and the crowd adoring.

Will it be the same when she joins the likes of Christian Siriano, Byrdie Bell, Richie Rich, Olivia Palermo, and Q-Tip at The Doe Fund? Buy your tickets now to find out.