Constance Jablonski (FilmMagic)
A sexy Victoria’s Secret catwalker faces a $3.3 million lawsuit after bolting her longtime modeling agency for a rival company.
Marilyn Model Management filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court yesterday, accusing competitor DNA Model Management of poaching top talent Constance Jablonski last month.
The French-born model — who is the face of Estée Lauder — began her career with Marilyn in 2008 and had signed an exclusive contract through September 2014, according to the lawsuit.
SEE: MORE OF THE MODEL THE TWO AGENCIES ARE FIGHTING OVER
The top-earning Jablonski raked in a hefty $1.8 million a year, with a cut of 10 percent to 20 percent going to her agency, the suit says.
Jablonski, 21, posed in high-end couture for fashion houses like Givenchy, Burberry, Dior and Thakoon, and was one of the youngest models “to ever sign a multi-million-dollar cosmetics contract” with Estée Lauder.
Marilyn takes credit for skyrocketing Jablonski to the front of a Top 50 Models list and for tripling her earnings from 2009 to 2012.
But Jablonski’s attorney, Bennett Krasner, accused her former agency of improper advice and counsel.
“At the beginning of her career, she loved working with Marilyn,” Krasner said. “Unfortunately, all of the people she worked with closely have left. She loves her new agency. It’s very supportive.”
Krasner said Marilyn Model Management breached several provisions of its agreement with Jablonski, including failure on several occasions to collect on jobs the model completed.
He said the agency did not use its best efforts to book engagements for Jablonski.
Krasner said the two sides were trying to resolve the dispute amicably before Marilyn Model Management launched the lawsuit.
Union Square-based Marilyn faults its uptown competitor for damaging its “squeaky clean” reputation, and says that future models are hesitant to sign after Jablonski’s exit.
Marilyn wants to prevent Jablonski, one of its top two models, from working with the other agency.
Jablonski — who is so popular that she has two Vogue covers next month — made her catwalk debut in September 2008 at the fashion weeks in New York, Milan and Paris.
She seems to be content to let her lawyer handle the back-and-forth.
While the two agencies were battling it out, the French beauty took to Twitter to offer her perspective on the Big Apple.
“In NYC, you are always looking for a job, a boyfriend or an apartment,” she tweeted.
Additional reporting by Leonard Greene