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The man dubbed Mr. Happy Snappy by the press in his hometown of London was looking up the length of Rodeo Drive and it was making him, well, happy. Flapping from poles up and down the street were flags imprinted with photographs of some of fashion photographer Mario Testino's favorite things: pretty, pretty girls.
There were Kate Moss and Cameron Diaz. Up the street a bit, Madonna. All gorgeous, fun and fab. Madonna made him famous outside the fashion world when she asked him to photograph her for a Versace couture campaign in the mid-'90s. The bubbly Diaz would be among those to celebrate him at the 2005 Rodeo Drive Walk of Style event, where Testino and his late colleague, Herb Ritts, were honored Sunday with sidewalk plaques. As for Moss, the waif turned mom was simply his favorite model.
"The girls that I liked when I was young were like her," said Testino, 50, reminiscing a few days before the event. "They were cool, happening, good looking, girls in control." Testino, who grew up in Peru and prides himself on his impeccable South American manners, clearly loves his girls, and it certainly hasn't hurt his career that they love him back. Indeed, asked whether he prefers the curvy Kate to the once bony Kate, he demonstrated one of his secrets to success in a highly competitive field.
"I love her any which way," he said. "Even if she were to get fat, I'm sure I would think, 'Isn't fat great?' " Now, you know that one of the reigning photographers of the fashion and celebrity worlds, the guy who...