Donahue got her start in 1978 when her then-boyfriend, who also was a part-time model, suggested she enter a model search contest. She beat out 200 contestants to win a contract with
Mademoiselle magazine for ten covers. When photographer
Patrick Demarchelier learned that Donahue didn't have an agent, he notified
John Casablancas at
Elite Model Management, who sent a representative to the studio, and she was quickly signed. Donahue was one of the top fashion models of the 1980s and worked alongside some of the other top international models of the 1980s, including
Kim Alexis,
Iman,
Kelly Emberg,
Carol Alt,
Gia Carangi,
Janice Dickinson and
Paulina Porizkova. Donahue appeared in magazines including
American,
French,
Italian, and
British Vogue, as well as
Italian Bazaar,
Mademoiselle,
Self,
Redbook,
Glamour,
The New York Times and
More. Donahue was the face for
Helena Rubenstein's beauty campaign in the UK and
Virginia Slims in the USA. Donahue often did the Paris collections for American
Vogue along with Gia Carangi,
Joan Severance and
Kelly Le Brock. She also did some runway work in her early career for
Calvin Klein,
Ralph Lauren,
Donna Karan and
Perry Ellis in New York and
Hong Kong. Donahue also appeared in catalogs for
Lord and Taylor,
Neiman Marcus and
Bloomingdale's. She has worked with numerous photographers, including Demarchelier,
Richard Avedon,
Steven Meisel,
Francesco Scavullo,
Irving Penn, Steve Landis,
Arthur Elgort and
Denis Piel.
Star Capital and mismanagement scandal In 1995, Casablancas blamed Donahue for recommending David Weil to her as an experienced money manager. Casablancas claimed that the recommendation from Donahue was so good that he never investigated Weil further, nor did he search into the background of his business partner, Peter Bucchieri. Weil and Bucchieri operated a firm, Star Capital, within Elite's offices and managed financial portfolios for many of the models. They were subsequently accused of mismanaging the funds. On September 21, 1997, Bucchieri, pleaded guilty to conspiring with Weil to sell fictitious Colorado real estate investments to the models. Bucchieri was sentenced to 33 months in prison. It was subsequently discovered that they had transferred many of the funds to their own bank accounts and used them to pay personal bills and make purchases, including a new Porsche. Donahue accepted no blame for the incident and claims that she also lost a considerable amount of money to Bucchieri and Weil. == Filmography ==