Elite's 2000 Interactive Calendar is the Millennium Gift to the Media

New York (PROTEXT) - Beautyjungle.com and PhoneFree.com aregiving the media a taste of the future in its millennium gift, aninteractive computer desktop calendar from Elite Models Inc. The calendar, which can be downloaded for free fromhttp://www.elitecalendar.com, enables journalists to organizeevents and tasks as well as access breaking information from theexclusive PRN Press Room directly from their desktop. An Elitemodel graces the calendar each day, with the user able to selectthe gender of the model from a database of 35,000 pictures(female and male models). The calendar, which contains links tobeauty tips and other resources, is active today and available inEnglish, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese. The agenda isbased on the Internet's universal time -- the beat time conceivedby Swatch, and a revolutionary communications system,elitephonefree, which transforms the PC into a virtual telephonewhere users can link to PCs at no cost or from a PC to atelephone at extremely affordable rates. "We wanted to give consumers and journalists something thatthey could use to make their routine easier," said Lars Kry,Beautyjungle.com's Vice President of marketing. "This calendarallows them to see what's on their schedule as soon as they turnon their computer and check on breaking news from the PRN PressRoom." More than 15,500 journalists now use the PRN Press Room,http://www.prnmedia.com , to access news releases, photos,conference calls on the web, video news releases, video and audioevents. The fully searchable web site has a three-year archive ofreleases, hot topics, news releases sorted by beat area and otherfeatures to make newsgathering easier for journalists. Elite created the calendar as part of its new Internetbusiness division, Elite 3K, http://www.elite3k.com , and as adigital version of its famous traditional calendars. Founded inParis in 1971, the company is the world's largest and mostprestigious network of modeling agencies. Elite Group representsabout 500 models on five continents including such stars as LindaEvangelista, Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer. Eliterepresents all models created by Illusion2k Virtual Models andActresses Management, http://www.elite-illusion2k.com , a companythat brings models into the digital realm. "We are launching a new concept of beauty for the nextmillennium," said John Casablancas, chairman of the board ofElite Models. "Virtual Top Models created by highly regardeddigital representative designers will participate in virtualfashion shows, photo sessions for fashion and varietiesmagazines, publicity films, TV programs, short and long featurefilms, electronic games and Internet projects." The calendar's first model in the year 2000 will be WebbieTookay, Illusion2k's first virtual model. Tookay was created bySwedish designer Steven Stahlberg and customized for Illusion2kwith aesthetic parameters defined by Casablancas. A new web site,Webbie Planet, will feature the model in an Internet magazine,entertainment directory, an array of contests and a varietyprogram next year. PR Newswire is the world leader in the electronic delivery ofinformation directly from companies, institutions and agenciesthrough its cutting-edge wire, fax, satellite, e-mail andInternet network. Forty-five years after founding the industry,it has 35 bureaus worldwide, an exclusive partnership with CanadaNewsWire and a vast international affiliate system. PR Newswireprovides a broad complement of services for public relations andinvestor relations professionals to reach the media, financialcommunity and consumers. Beautyjungle.com is the most comprehensive women's e-commercesite for beauty and personal care products on the Web. Craftedfrom the ground up with customer needs and real-life shoppingpatterns in mind, Beautyjungle.com will also be taking the leadas a dynamic Web-enabling partner and trailblazer in the beautybusiness. Beautyjungle.com is the only authorized beautydestination to have both department store and drugstore productlines available on the same site. With more than 150 brandssigned and in excess of 6,000 SKUs on hand, Beautyjungle.comoffers a depth and breadth of product lines unavailable on anyother site in this market. The Chicago-based company has builtits own 72,000-square foot back-end distribution operation asjust one element of its commitment to outstanding customer care.This strong focus on an unparalleled distribution and fulfillmentcapability gives Beautyjungle.com a true competitive edge and aunique opportunity to serve both consumers and the beauty tradeas no other competitor can. "Our goal is to provide a shopping experience second to none,"said Ed LaHood, Chairman and CEO of beautyjungle.com . "Ourtarget market is over 50 million consumers who are time-starvedand need a place that will embrace all of their beauty needs." Phonefree PhoneFree(SM) is a breakthrough "Internet Telephony"application that lets you exploit the full communicationpotential of the Internet - from person-to- person voiceconversations to live video conferencing. PhoneFree(SM) is surprisingly simple to use. To make orreceive calls, all you need is a multimedia PC with a microphoneand speakers, or better still, a high-quality headset. You cansearch a name in its online White Pages or you can create yourown private Active PhoneBook(SM). Calling is easy. Just click thename of the person you want to reach and PhoneFree(SM) does therest. If your call is accepted, you just start talking. If theperson is offline, you can leave a voice message. PhoneFree(SM) allows you to make and receive unlimited voicecalls over the Internet for FREE. After installation, you willhave a free look at the extra features contained in PhoneFree(SM)Gold. Even if you choose not to upgrade to the Gold version, youmay continue to use PhoneFree(SM) freely. PhoneFree(SM) voice mail retrieval system uses your Webbrowser's native ability to play compressed sound files. Thismeans anyone with a multimedia PC, whether a Mac, PC or Unixmachine, and a White Page listing can retrieve and play theirvoice mail. A browser is required to display the PhoneFree(SM)White Pages and administration screens. PhoneFree(SM) is fullyintegrated with Netscape and MS Internet Explorer as a "plugin"module. PhoneFree(SM) and the Active PhoneBook(SM) can alsofunction completely independently of your browser. ots OriginalText Service: Elite Models, Inc. Internet:http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Ricardo Bellino of Elite 3k,bellino@elite3k.com Company News On-Call:http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/141457.html or fax, (USA) 800-758-5804, ext. 141457 Web site: http://www.prnmedia.com Website: http://www.elite-illusion2k.com Web site:http://www.elite3k.com Web site: http://elitecalendar.com

Subscribers please note that material bearing the slug"PROTEXT" is not part of CTK's news service and is not to bepublished under the "CTK" slug. Protext is a commercial serviceproviding distribution of press releases from clients, who areidentified in the text of Protext reports and who bear fullresponsibility for their contents.

PROTEXT